Centerline
At Soul Force Strategies, we believe the most powerful life is one lived in alignment—with your values, your purpose, and your deeper self. Centerline is where strategic insight meets soulful reflection. Here, you'll find thoughtful articles, personal reflections, and practical tools to help you lead with clarity, live with intention, and grow from the inside out. Whether you’re navigating change, refining your identity, or reaching for your next level, Centerline is your space to recalibrate, realign, and rise.
The Speech I Didn't Know I Was Ready to Give
I didn't plan to cry during my son's wedding speech. I'd practiced, prepared, even made a 12-foot scroll that unrolled dramatically down the aisle for laughs. But when I looked at my son and his bride, and at my husband after 32 years of hard-won marriage, I realized something: I was standing there as someone I didn't used to be. The words that came out—about vulnerability as courage, about trust as sacred responsibility—those weren't things the old version of me could have said. Not out loud. Not with confidence. This is Part 1 of a 7-part series on what it really takes to love well and be fully known.
Living the Both/And: Where Being and Becoming Finally Become One
We're conditioned to think in binaries: Stability OR growth. Being OR becoming. Roots OR wings. Pick one. Commit. Stay there. But life doesn't work that way. You need both. Not sequentially, but simultaneously. At the same time. In the same breath. This is Soul Force—where being and becoming finally become one. Not the elimination of tension, but the integration of paradox.
What You Keep, What You Release
I'm standing at the back of the church, watching my youngest son and his bride walk out into their new life together, and I feel two things at once: A sweet, aching release—the caregiving relationship I've treasured for so long is shifting. And an unexpected surge of freedom—Now, more than ever before, it's time to follow my own dreams.
In just a few weeks, my husband retires from the military after three decades. We don't know yet if we're staying or moving—that depends on what opportunities emerge. But I'm not just asking where we're going. I'm asking who I'm becoming—and what I need to carry with me into whatever comes next.
Here's what I'm learning: Some things we carry aren't actually part of us. They're scaffolding—temporary supports we needed to build something, but not the thing itself. The problem is, we hold onto them so long they start to feel essential. And then when circumstances change, we can't tell the difference between losing scaffolding and losing ourselves.
The art of knowing what to carry forward and what to leave behind—that's the work of authentic growth.
The Growth Trap: When the Pursuit of Becoming Becomes Exhausting Performance
In my last blog, I wrote about how protocols saved me. And that’s true. But here’s what I’m learning—the hard way, in real time: The same discipline that grounds you can also trap you when you forget to ask if you’re pursuing the right kind of growth. Not all movement is progress. Not all optimization is healthy. Sometimes the pursuit of growth becomes its own form of imprisonment.
The Space Between Who You Were and Who You’re Becoming
There’s something sacred about the final days of a year—not because January 1st holds magical power, but because we grant it power. We decide this moment is worth pausing for, worth asking ourselves the hard questions we’ve been too busy to ask all year. This is your invitation to reflect on who you’ve become in 2025—and intentionally design who you’ll become in 2026.
Home for the Holidays (Wherever That Is)
The holidays have a way of highlighting what we don't have—the farmhouse we never inherited, the family that doesn't look like the movies, the "home" that isn't a fixed point on any map. But what if Christmas was never about perfect circumstances? What if we've been carrying it with us all along?
Building on Shifting Ground: When the Mice Turn Out to Be Raccoons
After 20 moves, I've learned something essential: You cannot build lasting stability on anything external. Houses have mice. Or raccoons. Jobs end. Roles shift. Plans change. If your stability depends on things staying the same, you're building on sand. So what do you do when literally nothing external is stable? You build internal anchors. The kind that move with you.
The Stability Paradox: When Staying is Risk and Growth is Safety
For years, I had a perfectly reasonable excuse for not dreaming too big: "I can't because we'll have to move." "I can't because the kids need me." And some of that was true. But I was also using those real constraints as cover for fear. Staying felt safe. Dreaming felt dangerous. But here's the paradox I didn't see: staying small was the riskiest thing I could have done. Because while I was "safely" avoiding risk, resentment was building. Then came India—terrifying with four kids, but the most stable choice I could make for my soul.
Roots and Wings: Building a Portable Identity
Three weeks ago, I unpacked my life for the twentieth time. But I wasn't starting over—because I've learned to build an identity that travels. This isn't about choosing between roots and wings. It's about cultivating practices, values, and truths that anchor you anywhere, while keeping the courage to spread your wings in new territory. Here's how to build a portable identity that's both deeply grounded and completely free.
The Tension We All Live: Introduction to the Stability-Growth Paradox
At a recent workshop, two successful businessmen said they struggled to set goals because they were satisfied with their lives—they felt like they'd "arrived." Part of me thought, good for them. But another part wondered: Is that contentment or complacency? This tension between stability and growth lives in all of us. What if we don't have to choose? What if the most powerful life is one that honors both?
Antifragile: The Journey That Changed How I See Everything
Every one of us lives the Hero’s Journey—not once, but over and over again.
For years, my family’s motto was “we can do hard things,” but it wasn’t until I began my Heroic path that I learned how those hard things could actually shape me. This is the story of how Antifragility became my word, my work, and the way I’ve learned to love the journey rather than fear it.
When Life Hands You the Entire Stress Scale at Once
Stress has a way of showing up like a shark fin breaking the surface—sudden, overwhelming, and impossible to ignore. After 20 moves, a deployment, endless transitions, unexpected challenges, and a nervous system that used to live in overdrive, I finally learned how to meet stress differently. In this blog, I share how Heroic tools transformed my identity, my resilience, and my response to the chaos of real life. If you’ve ever felt swallowed by stress, this one’s for you.
Rat Problems, Mice Problems, and Everything In Between
The past several weeks have been a whirlwind of unexpected chaos—an unplanned move, a freezing first night in our new rental thanks to unconnected gas, the discovery of what I thought were roof rats, a broken dishwasher just in time for Thanksgiving, and even a spectacular fall that left me with a purple goose egg on my forehead. But in the middle of all of it, a simple comment from my son shifted everything: “That’s a mice problem.”
What began as a joke became a powerful reminder that so much of what feels overwhelming is really just about perspective. Most of our challenges aren’t rats at all—they’re mice, manageable and temporary, especially when we choose to meet life with grace, humor, and hope.
When A House Becomes A Chapter
Standing in the empty rooms of our recently vacated home, I felt the weight of both the beautiful memories and the hard moments we lived there. With the help of my adult daughters—who traveled in to support us—we packed up this chapter and stepped into a new, older home already full of its own challenges. But when I pause, reflect, and choose gratitude, I’m reminded that everything is temporary, and better days are always ahead.
Living Authentically: Confidence as Congruence
Confidence isn’t about perfection — it’s about congruence. The final post in the Authentic by Design series explores what happens when your inner world and outer life finally align — when confidence becomes peace, and authenticity becomes freedom.
The Courage to Stand Apart
Authenticity often costs comfort, but it’s the only path to real confidence. This post explores the courage it takes to stand apart — to choose integrity over approval and alignment over acceptance.
Beautifully Broken: Strength in the Cracks
We all carry cracks — the heartbreaks, failures, and losses that shape who we are. This post explores how to find beauty in the broken, inspired by the Japanese art of Kintsugi: becoming more radiant because of the break, not despite it.
Confidence Without Comparison
We lose confidence when we measure our worth against others’ highlight reels. This post explores how to release comparison — both on social media and in life — and find confidence through lived experience, alignment, and gratitude for your own design.
Designed Differently: The Power of Authentic Alignment
You were never meant to blend in. You were designed differently — intentionally, intricately, on purpose. Real confidence begins when you stop performing and start aligning; when who you are, what you value, and how you live finally match. This is where peace replaces striving — and authenticity becomes your quiet power.
Be Ye Doers of the Word
It’s not enough to know the truth—we have to live it.
When Jesus said, “Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only,” He invited us to stop watching others’ growth and start doing our own work. This is the heart of discipleship—and the difference between being a librarian of goodness and a warrior of light.
