Episode 200 is here, and I can’t think of a more fitting person to join me than my husband, Andrew. When the podcast hit 100 episodes back in 2024, Andrew came on for a conversation about marriage, parenting, personal growth, and the life we were building together. Now, 100 episodes later, we’re revisiting that conversation through the lens of everything that has changed since then: a whole new baby, a new podcast name, a much more colorful house, a lot more trees planted, and a wild amount of personal, spiritual, and identity-level evolution.
In this episode, Andrew and I talk honestly about the deconstruction journeys we have each been on over the last few years — separately, simultaneously, and eventually together. We get into Andrew’s experience being raised in a very black-and-white, fundamentalist Christian environment, the conversations that started poking holes in what he had always been taught, and what it felt like when the “house of cards” of certainty began to fall. We also talk about my own experience with religious deconstruction, spiritual awakening, reclaiming my voice, and the fear that came with letting my work become more honest, more expansive, and more fully aligned.
This conversation is also about marriage in the middle of massive identity evolution. What happens when one or both people in a relationship start questioning the beliefs, roles, rules, expectations, and “truths” they were handed? What does support look like when you don’t necessarily understand or agree with everything your partner is exploring? How do you keep choosing each other when so much is changing? Andrew shares his perspective on what it has been like to witness my Wild & Waking journey, what has shifted in our parenting, and why support doesn’t always have to mean shared belief.
We also, because obviously, wander into farming, ancestral healing, Reiki, spirituality, four-kid chaos, the way men can apparently live with everything being on fire, and the deep generational ties between land, work, family, and identity. It’s tender, funny, honest, and very us — a conversation about marriage, religious deconstruction, spiritual growth, farming, parenting, and the ongoing wild work of becoming who we really are.
In this episode, we explore:
- Celebrating 200 episodes of the podcast and what has changed since Andrew joined me for episode 100 back in 2024
- The evolution from Gather in Growth to Wild & Waking and how that shift reflects a much deeper personal and spiritual journey
- What it has looked like for both of us to go through religious deconstruction, spiritual awakening, and identity evolution at the same time, but not always together
- What it felt like for me to reclaim my voice, stop holding back, and allow my work to become more honest, bold, and fully aligned
- The fear of being misunderstood in a small town, rural community, or traditional environment when your beliefs and identity begin to evolve
- How the Wild & Waking journey mirrors the process of unraveling old conditioning, remembering who you are, reclaiming your voice, and rising into a more embodied life
- What marriage can look like when one or both partners begin to change, question, expand, and evolve
- How to talk to a partner when you’re exploring new ideas, changing old beliefs, or entering a personal growth journey they may not fully understand
- How generational patterns around farming, work, worth, time, land, and family continue to shape identity
- Andrew’s experience with ancestral healing and the surprising connections between farming, lineage, energy, and inherited beliefs
- Why growth often begins by asking: Is this belief still true for me, or was it simply handed to me?
- The messy, funny, tender reality of becoming new versions of ourselves while building a marriage, raising children, and living on the farm
- What it means to keep choosing each other through deconstruction, spiritual growth, identity shifts, and the wild work of becoming
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Resources and Links:
- Episode 100 | A Chat with My Husband Andrew: Farming, Marriage, Fatherhood, and Growth
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