Finding & Freeing our Apple Tree Life Purpose.
It was a desperate question, written in fear—”What must I do?”
I was expecting my inner wisdom to give me an action plan, a typical to-do list. But something entirely unexpected happened. Everything I’m grateful for today, I owe to the insights that I found that day.
Ready to coach myself, I gazed at the four words. A simple question that I’m sure you’ve asked many times.
“What must I do?” meant, “What must I do to be strong for my two baby daughters?” And “What must I do to secure income to save my home from being repossessed?”
Questions are like buckets that we can send into our inner Wisdom Well. Weak questions are like broken buckets.
Over 20 years ago, my desperate question, “What must I do?” was a cry for inner guidance.
Megan, my second baby, was born with life-threatening health challenges—her first surgery was at 14 hours old. She’d endured over a dozen emergency procedures that year.
Adding to the heartbreak, our small graphic design business had collapsed; we were drowning in debt, and working past midnight wasn’t helping. My small training business was contributing, but there were just too few hours in a week—I hadn’t yet figured out how to crack the code of doing work I loved to earn a real income.
So, I did the only thing I knew, which had helped me since my childhood; I combined what some have called meditation, intuition, and coaching to go to my inner “Wisdom Well” for help.
I closed my eyes, tuning in, focusing deeper, like sending a bucket to find the water. I’ve spent my life failing often and learning how to tell wisdom apart from the surface torture-chamber mind.
“What must I do?” I repeated.
Translated felt-wisdom replied, “You’re asking the wrong question!”
The wrong question? “What’s the right question?” I asked.
“Rather ask, ‘Who am I?'”
“Who am I?” I repeated, puzzled. How was this supposed to help me pay the bills? Or look after my babies?
Wisdom offered, “If you were an apple tree and you didn’t know you were an apple tree, how would you know what to do?” This landed hard. I felt the power of this clear seeing opening my heart, mind, and body.
I admitted, “If I were an apple tree and didn’t know, I might try to make oranges.” Tears streamed. “I don’t know who I am—I don’t know my apple tree.”
Have you found your apple tree?
By sending my bucket into my wisdom well for more clarity, I saw that my nature was to communicate subtle seeing, to share this first with my heart, mind, and body, and then naturally with others. This felt like love moving. It was as simple as an apple tree being an apple tree.
Is it time to step up and step into your purposeful apple tree to free your being?
Every day after that, I went to my Wisdom Well; this helped me grow my apple tree, freeing it from the prison of fear, shame, and resistance.
Your Apple Tree knows what to do in every moment, in every area of life. My true Apple Tree self knew how to be a stronger mother, be equal to suffering, and grow my coaching business. Everything in nature grows to give and gives to grow.
When we free our Apple Tree, its growth contributes to life in the most natural, beautiful way. We make the difference we were born to make by being all we were born to be.
After finding and freeing my Apple Tree—everything changed.
A steady stream of clients flowed into my life. My Wisdom Well and Apple Tree helped me heal crippling shyness, so that soon I found myself teaching 60-120 students each week, speaking from stages worldwide, and securing my first book deal.
Eventually, InnerLifeSkills, my internationally accredited Master Coach School, was born from this inspiration.
I guide guides. If your apple tree is a natural coach, leader, or facilitator, I built InnerLifeSkills to help you make a difference and make a living. Today, these Apple Tree Purpose tools, among 80+ other InnerLifeSkills coaching processes, are used in over 60 countries.
May my story and the tools harvested from digging my Wisdom Well serve you and those you serve.
