Usually there is something big coming up I can pinpoint the moment my mentality changes. It usually starts when I begin to count down the timeline. like I start operation for this “let’s get through this” instead of the “wow this is really happening”. I call it "execution mode," and it honestly a lot of the time it works…in the sense that it gets things done AND it also sometimes means I kinda noticing the things that really matter while I'm standing right in front of them, Its easy to miss the actual beauty of the work itself when I am two steps ahead of it all. I wanted August to be different. I wanted to be in it while it was happening, not just afterward, in the retelling.

I noticed myself getting in “execution mode” right before Tus Olas… Get through Tus Olas, wrap up the summer internships, then, finally, you can stop and reflect and plan and rest, or whatever it is I keep promising myself I’ll do once things calm down.

Tus Olas arrived and honestly I think the needing to shift the week of to change the day may have been one of the greatest gifts in the sense that it totally called me out of execution mode and gave me an extra day. That week of was not rushed and that was so weird and so beautiful. Usually I begin to reflect on the event while I am still in it. Tus Olas was different as well, I feel like so many times during that day I felt more present than I have ever really….like not just physically but mentally, emotionally, spiritually fully there. One reason I know this day was different is because when I think back on it I already have let go of certain details I would normally be fixated on and all I am really sure is that I am so confident and hopeful that what happened on that day needs to happen more, more opportunities, more consistency, more connection.

As it goes. August was not the reflective month I had pictured. It held far more action than I had planned or expected, and it turned out to be full of some of the most beautiful opportunities I've been part of.

Right after Tus Olas, we got to be part of a camp. This was so special because my friend Anna had shared her vision for this camp experience months earlier and getting to watch her idea become real was so incredibly beautiful. I'm so thankful she invited us into the day, we read Shellebrate, played an ocean creature game, made shell bracelets, and ended with a semi melted jello ocean shooter (minus the alcohol don't worry). Let’s be real…Sol did most of the actual work. She was the entertainment for a group of kids completely obsessed with her shark life vest, chasing her around and roping her into round after round of "dolphin training."

The following weekend, we were invited to Aleyka, a beautifullllll new wellness center in Valle, built with so much intention. We brought back our super simple reflection mirror activity, and it was incredible to watch people actually take the opportunity to slow down in their day to look and reflect and respond. There were people there from all over the world in all different walks of life…It was a special weekend to be part of.

Mid August, we wrapped up the summer internships with a celebratory dinner. Thankful we got the chance to sit together and think back through everything we had each navigated, alone and together. Getting to witness Susie and Haven, and to be witnessed by them, over these past few months, meant more than I can easily explain.

Last weekend, we joined three incredible organizations for a weekend surf mentorship. Two days that held so many little pieces joy and life. The intention was to give a group of teenage girls the space to discover the gift of surfing, to connect with one another, and ended in a conversation about what womanhood means with a sweet little menstruation workshop. A handful of local women joined in and we had sooo many great conversation about how to make spaces like this happen more regularly. Which felt wild and full circle, given exactly where my heart had been heading into summer, and even more so into August.

"This is so wonderful. Now how do we do grow with consistence and intention?"

That question has followed nearly every opportunity we've had to be with people this month.

So August didn't hold the time or space for reflection or planning that I thought it would and I am so thankful for that!!!

The next two weeks, I'll be traveling around Orange County, continuing these conversations, looking at what the rest of the year might hold, and staying open to some shifts I'm hoping to see in September, specifically around building a new board of directors.

As we move into September, I can already feel the tension of wanting a full mapped out calendar and I know for a lot of you, that calendar is already filling up with or without your consent haha. Life demands a lot, all of the time. There is always more to do, more ways to grow, more needs to fill, more, more, more..and with that seems to go hand in hand that there isn't enough.

I guess what I'm inviting myself into, and you as well, is this. When we recognize that abundance of the more, we hold the scarcity of not enough a little more carefully. That we, as a world, keep finding room for connection, for care, for one another.