ABOUT THE AUTHOR

HELLO DARLING,

We typically start with the easy, shiny stuff.  And if we’re to do that, then this is what you’d know.  I was born just before Christmas of 1977 in California. I came home in a stocking and my parents named me Rhonda Lynn.  We soon moved to Minnesota where I was a happy and driven child. I was an achiever, a people-pleaser, and I smiled all of the time.  We camped, played board games, filled up on my momma’s Filipino meals, and reveled in my dad’s ingenuity. Life was good for me and my sister in our little hometown.  And then a series of events happened…

Life-changing events came one after another. The death of my mom in a car accident, the subsequent mental breakdown of my dad, his diagnosis of bipolar depression and later Parkinson’s Disease, the death of my mother-in-law to breast cancer, the eventual outsourcing of my first job after residency, the dissolution of my marriage, two car accidents for me, the death of my father just weeks after we moved him into a nursing home, one more car accident for my beloved dog, Indi, which resulted in knock-your-socks-off vet bills, and the selling of a business venture that I spent 6 years growing while also being a wife, a mom, and a doctor.  Are you still with me? Do you feel heavy from it all? I certainly did. So, I cried a lot. I stayed quiet a lot. I said, “I’m fine” way too much and I held my feelings IN. 

And then I started to let it all OUT.  I began the long exhale so that I could make room for the nourishing inhale again.  I started to say NO to all of the stuff that weighed me down and I chose a mantra of “nothing changes if nothing changes”.  Here’s where it gets good. Here’s where I start to break free.  And I didn’t change a few things...I changed A LOT of things. I switched careers, I chopped off my hair, I got a divorce, I moved into a new home, I devoured podcasts and audiobooks, I attended personal growth conferences, I journaled, and I got my first tattoo at nearly 42.  

Everything began to shift.  

At some point, I decided to share my stories on social media as the shifting was occurring.  I found refuge and healing in writing it all out. To my delight, people responded to my written thoughts, thanked me, and asked that I continue sharing.  

So, I did. 

AIong the way, I listened to the nudges.  I gathered up the words of encouragement. And slowly my little caterpillar self, so full of doubt and fear, not realizing my full potential, and crawling my way through life, hit PAUSE.  This is when the lion stepped in and taught me to stand up for myself. To realize my worth. And to ROAR confidently. The transformation took time, and patience, and so very much external encouragement and internal love.  Slowly, I let my caterpillar parts fall away and I embraced the cocoon. I hid away for months as I digested the life I had known. And once I was finally ready, once my wings had time to develop, I emerged a lionhearted butterfly. 

Live a great story.