Say it Sister...
Lucy and Karen, two 40-somethings, are always chatting about life, and all that it has to throw at them, and now want to share their raw, honest conversations with you. Their journey of self-discovery and healing is something many of us can relate to. We all possess a unique power within us, but life’s trials often knock us off course. They have the tools, the courage to speak up and simply say it as it is, so you might feel seen, and understood and gain practical tools and techniques for self-discovery and personal growth during the changes we experience.
Say it Sister...
Grace Olson . Animal Healing: When Trauma Transforms into Your Life's Calling
Rising through challenge and transforming life's hardest moments into portals for growth, healing and deeper purpose is the foundation of personal development and authentic living.
• Grace Olson, therapist, author and animal lover shares her journey from birth trauma to healing through horses
• PTSD and postnatal depression led Grace to discover the healing power of animals
• A horse brought Grace and her daughter together, teaching her love manifests in different ways beyond feelings
• Breaking free from expectations and family pressures helped Grace find her authentic path
• Working with terminal illness patients taught Grace she "cannot heal anybody" but can help people transition peacefully
• Animals have unique abilities to regulate our nervous systems and provide unconditional healing presence
• Creating a therapy farm where people with terminal illnesses can receive free treatment is Grace's ultimate vision
Follow your own path, not the one the world has told you to walk. Trust the process and know that healing isn't always linear.
Hello and welcome to the Say it Sister podcast.
Speaker 2:I'm Lucy and I'm Karen, and we're thrilled to have you here. Our paths crossed years ago on a shared journey of self-discovery, and what we found was an unshakable bond and a mutual desire to help others heal and live their very best lives.
Speaker 1:For years, we've had open, honest and courageous conversations, discussions that challenged us, lifted us and sometimes even brought us to tears. We want to share those conversations with you. We believe that by letting you into our world, you might find the courage to use your voice and say what really needs to be said in your own life.
Speaker 2:Whether you're a woman seeking empowerment, a self-improvement enthusiast or someone who craves thought-provoking dialogue, join us, as we promise to bring you real, unfiltered conversations that encourage self-reflection and growth.
Speaker 1:So join us as we explore, question and grow together. It's time to say Say it, sister. Hey, sisters, welcome back to Say it, sister, the space where we get real, we get raw, we rise together. Today's episode is all about rising through challenge and how life's hardest moments can be portals for growth and healing and deeper purpose. We have a wonderful guest, one who reminds us all that life is a journey and that we all face critical moments in our lives pain, illness, grief and that it's these critical moments in our lives pain, illness, grief and that it's these critical moments that give us choice about how we deal with those challenges and they can be used for good, to inspire, to help others and to heal. So we are excited to welcome a truly special guest, grace Olsen. Grace is the writer of best-selling books the Yard, the Farm, merlin Finds His Magic and Galahad Finds His Voice. She created a world where animals and humans heal together and where storytelling plays a big role in that. Hi, karen, good morning.
Speaker 2:Well, what can I say about Grace? Grace is a dear friend of mine, somebody who walks the talk when it comes to healing. Can I say about Grace? Grace is a dear friend of mine, somebody who walks the talk when it comes to healing.
Speaker 2:She's like she's got a little black book of wisdom and connections and she just opens this book up and she's like have you spoke to Brian? Have you spoke to such a buddy? She has this like beautiful, um energy and she's a therapist, an author, an animal lover, based in Leeds. She's literally my neighbor and you may have seen her on Channel 5's the Yorkshire Vet where she's always on there with her therapy sheep and her horses.
Speaker 2:And on a more personal note, I met Grace at Women's Gathering many, many years ago now and we had this like connection and then we worked together. She became one of my clients. We did this beautiful journey together and then, a little bit later on, I needed her support after my sexual assault, so Grace was the masseuse. She really sort of helped me connect back into my body and she's just always been there, like you've always just been around me somehow, grace. I don't know how that really works, but it's always just like I see you. We then we've started reconnecting recently, doing meditations in your fields with your animals around, and I just want to say thank you for being the most beautiful soul. You're always open and vibrant. So welcome to the space for Say it, sister.
Speaker 3:Thank you, what lovely things that you've both said. That's very kind. I'm very humbled and very excited to be here humbled and very excited to be here.
Speaker 1:Oh well, yeah, welcome. And as I was learning a little bit about you, it reminded me of one of my dear friends, jude Jennison, who I met way back in my coach training, and she actually works with horses. Her company is called Leaders by Nature, and I had some of the most profound, um enlightening experiences, I think, when she was guiding me or should I say the horses were guiding me, and uh, and so I can't wait to hear more about the work that you do. Um, and, from what I understand, your story is full of moments of where pain became purpose, and I understand that you had postnatal depression and that became a real turning point in your life. So then the animals became part of your healing work. So just tell us a little bit about your story.
Speaker 3:Well, I suppose it began years ago when I started doing massage and I was really lucky that I accidentally learned a particular form of massage which helps people with cancer. It's called lymphatic drainage. So my life began to be filled with people who were terminally ill. And then it was years after that, I mean about 20 odd years later, that I ended up being really excited Yay, I'm having a baby. It was awesome. And then the reality of the birth was so hideous I mean I'm laughing, but I wasn't laughing. Then it ended up as a emergency cesarean and the anaesthetic wore off halfway through and they all ignored me. So it was during the sewing up process that I could feel everything and they ignored me and it was like being in a horror film. I think I laugh automatically. It's just like my. You know it wasn't funny, but I do laugh about it. I don't know why.
Speaker 3:Anyway, so, as you can imagine, I had PTSD and postnatal depression and just being a mother was extremely difficult. I wasn't capable of feeling love for her, but I was very capable of doing everything practical, thank goodness. And then I realized after a few years I just thought I needed something. I tried loads of conventional therapy and luckily my GP. He was amazing, he did homeopathy and acupuncture so he was suggesting that I tried alternative things. I mean, what an awesome bloke. And it did help, but it didn't help enough.
Speaker 3:And then I accidentally met this really extreme show jumper. She was extreme because she'd ride really difficult horses and she was forever having accidents. So that I knew her because she came to me for massage and just that whole chat about horses reminded me that when I was little my favorite place to be was during my riding lessons and being with the ponies. And so she said to me you do realize there's a riding school literally five minutes from here and I had no idea, even though I'd driven past it probably every day for years. So I went back to riding and throughout my time having my riding lessons, and then this amazing experience with horses in Wales.
Speaker 3:Horses healed me like nothing else could, and one horse in particular. She brought me and my daughter together because I was looking after her for somebody else and she was ill. Looking after her for somebody else and she was ill. So I had to go and do therapy stuff for her and normal like vet treatments for her every day and I had to take my daughter with and my daughter loved her, and so this horse brought me and my daughter together and and it enabled us to connect. And then she really wanted to ride and love grew. Even though actually love was always there, I just couldn't see it because it had been expressed in a very practical way, whereas I've always thought love is a feeling. But actually love is more than just a feeling, it's a whole range of things, but thanks to the horses, they healed me massively. Oh, what a beautiful story.
Speaker 2:I'm just listening to you and I almost want you to just keep talking because I'm like sitting back and you know, on this journey with you and you know, I know how big this journey has been for you and and the person that you are today as well, and the work that you're doing today, it just feels like it's one huge cycle and circle, you know, of your life and you know I can only just say that, as a woman who had PTSD when I was pregnant and then a traumatic birth, I know I can totally. Your journey is your journey, but I can. The empathy in my heart is so huge because it's you have to get into the practicalities, because you've got a baby that needs you and you're also trying to take care of yourself whilst recovering and not knowing who you are anymore. So I feel that in my heart and it's making me feel extremely emotional because I'm like I think I don't know many women who've talked about feeling, you know, being stitched back up again. I've never heard that before. That is totally unique.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I do know a lot of women who are coming out of birth with PTSD and then, you know, trying to recover from traumatic births and then having children to you know and babies to take care of, and it's really tough when we don't talk about it enough. So I want to say thank you so much for bringing this onto the table, because I'm having this conversation a lot at the moment and that shows us that we have a huge problem with the system and the way that women are treated in hospitals during such a huge moment in our lives. So thank you for sharing that.
Speaker 3:Well, if I can help others, then I'm happy yeah, and it's powerful, isn't it?
Speaker 2:because we often forget that those painful chapters, like there's a part of us that wants to just sort of bury the chapter or like rip the chapter out of the book and throw it away because it's painful and we're human and we're here to survive and we don't really want to go into the pain because it feels like counter intuitive in some ways, and yet it's the only way for us to heal and to do the work and actually to find out what was underneath it in the first place.
Speaker 2:Like you know, I don't want to get into like good, bad and all of that, but you know, when we have these experiences and we do the work and we do the healing and something, there's something else there and it starts to open up in a different way and it opens up, open up in a different way and it opens up us up in a different way and, like you said, that idea of I want, if I can help somebody else, then that's what I'm here to do, and I hear that in your story. Um, what's it like? The painful, the pain point, and then the healing and then the, the purpose that comes through in your work.
Speaker 3:Sorry, I missed Say that again.
Speaker 2:The idea of this, like the pain, the healing, and then the purpose that comes through. What's your take on that?
Speaker 3:So I feel that pain is definitely, sadly, a necessary thing to make us grow. If you look at, for example, a tree or a plant, we cut them back, don't we cut them? And then they grow, and I feel that it's similar for us. You have a shitty, awful experience and you've got a choice you can either crash or you can grow. And it is an odd one, isn't it? Because we'd all like to learn in a really nice, pleasant environment. But for a lot of us, it does take going into a world of pain to come out as a stronger person with something that you can offer others and hopefully help them avoid as much hideous pain that you've been through yourself.
Speaker 1:But that's how I look at it, like cutting back a rose, yeah, I've got a story to share about how animals healed me or helped me get through a painful experience. And after my divorce, one of the first gifts I gave to myself was my dog. Dog and I'd. I'd always wanted a dog, but my ex-husband wasn't an animal fan and so it was like me reclaiming, you know, my choice, my new life. I'm gonna get this dog and she was my whole world, she was my family's whole world and, uh, and I'd also just embarked on a new relationship with a guy, um, and we had Phoebe for six years and actually we had the entirety of this new relationship, which was actually pretty toxic.
Speaker 1:It was horrendous and it was my 40th year and we'd broken up in the March but it had taken about six months to really separate and do that proper uncoupling and through that period I went through all the emotions but I didn't cry. I tried to cry. I was watching sad movies and listening to sad songs, but I was dealing with it. It wouldn't come out and anyway, tragically, in the November, my dog died and was hit by a car and it was devastating and I think I let every single emotion out because of that and and yeah, I really processed everything all my pain came out and then, as a result of that, I was like, okay, we can now move house, we can do a proper fresh start, because you know I don't have any pets, etc. So it then started a whole new life path for me, where we're in our forever home, we're so happy.
Speaker 1:And then two years ago no, three years ago after Covid, I was really going in on myself and I was like I need a dog. And I got my first rescue and she taught me patience and tolerance and how to love completely unconditionally again and get me outside. And when I always look back and I think, okay, phoebe, my first dog was with me for a specific reason and she went for a specific reason, and now I've got these new ones. Only when I was healed, I was ready. Um, so yeah, like you say, the pain has to come, um, it has to travel through you and sometimes you know the, the animals are our therapy. So I just wanted to share that with you and I share something as well.
Speaker 2:It's coming up for me. Um, so I had a dog when I was seven and this, this is definitely a trauma point for me. We had a dog and I had it for one week and then my mum was scared of the dog. So it was a really bad communication piece that happened and so they decided to take the dog back. So they took the dog back and they told me that the dog had died when I was seven.
Speaker 2:So basically, it comes up a lot and I think about it a lot and you know we're now looking at, you know, the idea of getting a dog for my daughter because her nervous system would be really great if she had a dog there, because I realize that at the age of seven she's nearly seven that there's something that happens inside us that we need. Like our nervous systems are very jangled, actually, and anything that we can have around, such as an animal that's going to help regulate, you know, outside of the mother's energy or the father's energy, is going to be really, really helpful for that child, because they're becoming more independent and they're needing to sort of like stretch out and grow a little bit so you know, that was a really, really, really traumatic experience for me and I've never had an animal since that point.
Speaker 2:So this idea of us getting a dog we were trying to find the right dogs because I'm nervous it has to be right and this dog is not going anywhere, it's staying with us. So for me, I'm I'm quite, I'm being a little bit neurotic about the choice, um, but that's because of my experience in my background, you know. So animals are so important for us and I think when we're surrounded by animals, we do heal and we do um, even if that's just feeling calmer. You know, I think that's where I go to with this one to heal, though, when you calm.
Speaker 3:If you're not calm, you can't heal.
Speaker 3:It's not possible yeah, tell us more about that, tell us more about your learnings, because you've been doing this work now for quite a while so with the on the physical level, if and I learned this really from horses you can't teach a horse that's nervous, so it was vital I had to learn calmness so that my horse would be calm.
Speaker 3:Um, a lot of people you'll see them forcing horses to do this and that, and they have to keep forcing them because they cannot remember what they've been taught when they're stressed and on a, and it's so obvious really, isn't it that on a physical level, if you're stressed, um, well, physiologically, your immune system actually does not work as effectively because the nerves they've done like filming. When you're relaxed and happy, the nerves move close to the lymph system and trigger it and stimulate it. So it works really powerfully. When you're stressed or feeling sad or thinking negatively, the nerves move away, so your immune system is is compromised, it's not getting that stimulation. So if you're calm, you will begin to heal with whatever physical, mental or whatever thing you've got. You're more likely to heal if you are calm beautiful.
Speaker 2:Thank you for that. You know it's also the thing that you know. There's another woman that I know that has been on the show, jane. She talks about how maths you know children learning maths if there's trauma, you can't learn maths because you don't need it. It's not a vital skill, it's not something that you know. Communication reading yes, we can still do that, but when it comes to something such as, you know, a maths issue, it can't't go in because we don't need it to survive. And I think we're talking about the same thing here. You know it's like the the actual importance of a calm nervous system. Wherever we get that from whether it's inside us, whether it's from a person or whether it's from an animal how vital that is for us in life and when. Again, it's not something that we talk about every day, is it? But it should be yes definitely.
Speaker 1:I just want to add, karen, that I am a firm believer after meeting so many dogs everyone in my um circuit has got um dogs and I'm a firm believer that the right dog will find you and they will come at the right time with the right energy, with the like right lessons. It's a bit like when you have a baby that the baby almost chooses you, so, um. So don't overanalyze this. I'd say I'd like stay curious, but this isn't a brain thing, this is a heart thing all the way. So, um, but, yeah, love this conversation and something that I was really.
Speaker 1:I'm really fascinated by people, but particularly women, who choose a different, almost like unconventional life path, and I think it's because I've been doing a lot of work around the good girl programming about how girls should be in the life that they should lead and the careers that they should have, etc. Have, etc. Um, and there's something really potent there about actually following your own path, whether that's, um, right, from a young age you knew what you wanted or when life challenges come and it forces you to go in a different direction, um, so, yeah, this creative, passionate, soul-led life that you lead. I just wondered whether you felt like you had to break free of any expectations, or whether it's just something inbuilt that you're always going to live a different kind of life.
Speaker 3:I did have to get rid of loads of expectations that I think I put on myself more than anything. So, for example, my sister. She went to Oxford University and she is now a senior paediatrician in America and her husband is one of the um. He's a lawyer but he's a partner, so high flyers. So when I was younger, people would all like our relatives. They'd say, oh, you're going to follow in your sister's footsteps and there was always this expectation that I would also be like her.
Speaker 3:But I had no idea what I wanted to do and and I so I was the family rebel and just people always laughed at me and just thought, oh, she's just going to be a loser and she's never going to get anywhere. But a lot of people said, oh, you'll never make a success of your life. And I fell into doing massage because I didn't have a clue. I mean, I used to wake up in the night stressing, thinking what am I going to do with my life? And I was working in a pub because I didn't know what I was doing. And then it was an auntie who said to me why don't you learn massage? And I don't know what made me think, okay, but I did.
Speaker 3:And then a few people said, well, you'll never be able to make proper money out of being a massage therapist. And I had a choice then I could have either gone, oh yeah, but whatever it was made me angry and I thought I'm going to show you. So I worked really hard and built up my business and I had so many knockbacks because it was back in the day when there was no like internet to find, you know, to communicate with places, to try to get work, I had to literally go through the yellow pages. Do you remember the yellow face? I remember.
Speaker 3:I've done that too, but I'm with you and I was ringing around companies saying, um, do you need somebody to come and do on-site massage? And so many people were rude and they'd put the phone down and I just I made myself think, if somebody was rude to me, then I had to phone three more places. And so I powered on and I ended up being able to afford to buy my own house, while all those people that slagged me off couldn't afford it, and and so, while there is a part of me that is very lovely and therapeutic, there's also a part of me that just really rises to a challenge and I just think, right, I'm actually going to be better than you. So I think I'm two very different people in one body, but I think that that's helped me, because I had to show them actually you can bugger off, I can be more successful than you can ever imagine and it's fighting for what you believe in.
Speaker 2:I think that's the thing, because the alternative is actually so bleak. You know what I mean. If you hadn't have done that, where would you have gone? You might have got like a conformist job. What a shame that would have been, because all those animals and all those people that you've helped over this period of time wouldn't have ever had. You may have helped them in different ways, because I feel like if we're here to help people, we find our ways. You know whether it's a nice conversation or, you know, helping someone out with something. However, you've got a very, very clear path and I feel like your path is still unfolding and I'm watching you in the world doing your thing and going. That's totally grace. Like this is you authentic? You doing your thing? Um, humble as anything, down to earth, grounded. Yet I know that if I want the truth or if I want you know, I could speak to you and you just. You just tell me as it was, and I really respect that because there's no faffing around do you know what?
Speaker 1:there's a quite a few. There's like a thread that goes through quite a few of our guests. I mean, with James, he was saying that actually all he ever wanted to do was be a farmer and he went down a path and that enabled him then to take that shift. And then we had Nicole who came on, who all she ever wanted to do was be in sport and play women's football and it wasn't available to her, so she went and found her own route. And there's definitely this thread about the most interesting people that actually they didn't ever know what they wanted to do and they figured it out through the journey and it's probably the stories and the learnings and the lessons that they've learned along the way that do make them the most amazing. Interesting, I don't know. Friends. Dinner party guests. Party guests.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I think Nicole was saying you know, if you can't see it, then you need to go out and create it, and that's you know. Really leading into that next point, what role do you think creativity, or even like a connection to something bigger than yourself, played in the process of where you are today?
Speaker 3:That's a good question. I've always been aware that there's something greater than what we're aware of, and I've always felt that everybody is capable of accessing it to help you be what you're meant to be. I've always believed each person is here for a reason. Person is here for a reason, so, um, and it can be small and or it could be massive it, but each it's as relevant as each other.
Speaker 3:And I think I've always been creative, because I always used to like writing poems and I was in a band for a while and I wrote the lyrics, so there was always that writingy thing. But I think, because I had a mortgage and I was really busy doing my massage, which I loved, that all took a backseat and it was COVID really. And actually my sessions with you really released a lot of blockages to help me write that book, helped me write that book because I was thinking, oh, you know, we have doubts, don't you? Millions of doubts with writing or any artistic endeavor, but then so your work really helped to release a lot. And then Covid happened and I didn't have anything else to do. So I thought, well, why not?
Speaker 2:yeah, I remember you talking about writing and books and it was just always there as a thread, you know. And, yeah, getting the manuscripts out and then you know all of that and it's just, it's such a huge process, isn't it? And now you've got so many books. I mean, every time I see you I'm like, oh my god, she's got another book coming out.
Speaker 1:I can't believe it. You enjoy it. The writing process, because I hated it. I love it.
Speaker 3:I'm very envious. It's my happiest thing that I do. I just yeah, and I'm so lucky that things fell into place to enable me to do it. You know, financially I was able to do it and I had the time to be able to do it and the support to was able to do it, and I had the time to be able to do it and the support to be able to do it. And then the universe managed to magically find me the best literally the best editors in the UK. And then this brilliant self-publishing company, because I got rejected by every agent that I submitted to. That was depressing, but so I self-published and that costs a lot of money and if we didn't have, if we hadn't inherited some money, I wouldn't have been able to do it. Well, I would. I suppose I'd have had to have done it on Amazon, but it's very limiting if you publish on Amazon, but it's doable. But yeah, it was just magic made it happen.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And it's that theme that we're working with today, isn't it Of like the tragedies that happen?
Speaker 3:And they are tragedies and we're not going to whitewash them and be like, oh, you can have this tragedy and then go out there and write some books about it.
Speaker 2:It doesn't work like that, does it? You know, there's a really big journey in the middle where you're like, oh my God, I'm on my arse here and I do want to write books, but, blimey, like I need to take care of myself. And then then, as you're kind of, as the Phoenix is rising, you know it's coming out of the ashes and from the fire, and then this beautiful bird appears, but it's really painful to get to that process. And then you're out in the world and you know things are unfolding and I just hear that coming through so strongly with you today. You know, and it's such an important message for the people listening, because it's like, when you're in the middle of a tragedy and a trauma, you're like this is it. I'm never going to come out the other end. That was certainly my story.
Speaker 2:And then, bit by bit, brick by brick, step by step, therapist by therapist, in my case, don't buy anything, whatever it is, you come out of it and you create something beautiful, and I think that's what women do so well, we do.
Speaker 3:We really do and we are so strong Men need to realise actually we're the strongest.
Speaker 2:Yeah, tell us more about that, because I know there's something good coming up here.
Speaker 3:Well, I just feel we're in this terrible patriarchal society and they're using their muscle, aren't they? Whereas our strength comes from the fact that we can go through hideous shit and come out as even more powerful. We can cope with so much pain that they can't cope with and we actually genuinely care and we are more desiring of peace and really it's vital that this world becomes matriarchal again so that everybody can have a nice time totally, and I just want to say say it, sister, because that's uh.
Speaker 1:Everything that karen and I are here to do is to, um, really empower women, just to know how awesome and incredible they are and how they're them showing up matters, their voice matters. However they do it, we matter, um, and we can't stand in the sidelines anymore because, well, the current system isn't working, so let's try something new.
Speaker 1:Yes, absolutely now I want to talk a little bit because I think part of my sole purpose is around women. It took me a long time to admit it and there's a reason why I am a mother of two girls who are out there in the world doing amazing stuff. But it took me a long way to get there. But I'm absolutely certain now, without a doubt, that my role in this world is around raising the matriarchy, the matrilineal lines, bringing this woman's wisdom out into the world. But I think, if I'm right, you, working with terminal illness, you've named that as your soul's purpose. Can you speak to that a little?
Speaker 3:um, so that's actually. There's going to be a bit that's going to come out in my next book, because I now know exactly why death is so important to me. But I don't want to ruin my next book, but I'll tell you afterwards. So death has been a big thing in my life right from the start of my life and but more massively, I saw grandparents dying very badly from cancer and that really bothered me, it affected me deeply, and then I fell into doing lymphatic drainage, massage, which I think the universe. I mean, how do you accidentally learn? I went, I did normal anatomy, physiology and massage and then I went on to do aromatherapy and the woman that was teaching aromatherapy said, right, we're going to learn lymph drainage now. Um, and I'd never even heard of it. Everybody found it extremely boring because it's it's a route, it's very much you're following a process, but I, I loved it and um, so that it was that that brought me more people who had cancer, because post-operatively, years ago, when they removed all the lymph, when you have breast cancer, there'd be all these women with great, big, massive, swollen arms that would need lymph drainage. So my life became filled with people who were dying well, not necessarily dying. You know quite a lot of people that have breast cancer and that's, that's their only cancer they'll ever experience. But, um, I really for a while my whole thing was I felt obliged to help these people get better, and when they died I felt I'd let them down and their family down, and it was this massive burden.
Speaker 3:And then it was this wonderful woman who came to me. She had cancer. What an amazing lady she was. She taught me I cannot heal anybody, but what I can do is help you pass from this world to the next with a smile on your face, and it was just brilliant. She died smiling and she taught me how to do it. She taught me how to help her. She taught me how to listen. She taught me how to stop trying to make her better, and in doing that we raised her vibration so that she realized this body it's literally like a jumper. You're going to take that jumper off, put another one on or not, if you raise yourself high enough to not have to reincarnate. And so that really made me realise that's the important thing Because, as she pointed out, whether she gets better from cancer or not, she's gonna die anyway. We're all going to die. You can't avoid it and it's never spoken about in england. It's all very stiff of a lip and we're still very victorian about it all.
Speaker 2:Yes, don't talk about dying it's such a big taboo, isn't it? Death and illness is a taboo on so many different levels. If somebody is very seriously ill, you know, people don't really know what to do with it. We, we're like not taught these skills of like you know, in so many ways, like the birth life, rebirth area, you know that's every single day. We're going through an element of that. Whether we, you know what I mean, doesn't matter how many years you've got ahead of you. We're constantly reincarnating in our current um guys, you know, in our current day life, and it's almost like nothing gets talked about and it's like a mystery in a way. It's like this mysterious thing that. But yeah, we're all going through it and I find it bizarre that we can't have these open, unfiltered conversations, even just like you're saying, just holding space for it, because we don't have to fix it.
Speaker 2:I have this like obsession with not fixing. This is where I've got to in my life where I'm like I don't want to be the fixer. I don't want to be, I don't want to take responsibility for everything. I almost just like, if I can problem solve I love a bit of problem solving, but I'm not here to do that. I'm here to hold space I'm here to be with, and that takes energy but it's also quite liberating Because you realize that you know we all need each other and there were people in my life and there are people in my life that do that for me. And to be heard by somebody and to be, you know, metaphorically it might be held, you might not be holding someone, but you're holding space, the greatest gift that you can give to someone, and I can imagine that this situation, you know, know, end of life. You don't want someone trying to make it better for you because they can't. You want someone to just be there with you, hold your hand yes, and so that it's not scary.
Speaker 3:So my purpose is to help people not be afraid of the inevitable, and some people do have miraculous healings because they let go of the fight, they let go of the I've got to get better and then the cancer just sort of disappears and it's like, oh, I'm all right, but they're prepared for when they get older and they do die. So, yeah, bizarrely, I love it. But as I don't think it's as bleak as it sounds, it's a really special thing. When you're with people that are dying, they're in another realm. It's the most magical, incredible experience and actually also, completely just to do a sidestep, I'm currently learning astrology and when I look at my chart where my Venus and Mercury they're in Scorpio, and Scorpio is all about going into the absolute depths the blackness, and so actually on my chart, that is my purpose.
Speaker 3:It's right there. Wow, it's like you were born to do.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's incredible, isn't it? I mean Catalina Scorpio and so she, she's absolutely that she goes into the depth and the blackness, and I'm always like, hello, can we just talk about something else? It's gonna be a bit more positive about that. Um, yeah, so you saying that sort of raises that in me, like and I know she can't help it her intensity is how she is and she's always going to be like that and you know, I have to look, I'm learning to be with her intensity, you know, and her fire it's like she's water but she's fire, um, and all of that. And you're also getting to do that, you know, in a different way, aren't you, in terms of just honoring that part of you that is so vital yes, after all the years of being sort of smirked at by family members and oh, you're the alternative hippy dippy person.
Speaker 3:Um, yeah, now I'm thinking actually, this is it and I'm just as vital as my pediatrician sister. Yeah, and do you know?
Speaker 1:what I mean. I hate to do this because we've just got into the really juicy bit, but, um, I'm really conscious of, you know, our commitment to our listeners. That is going to be around half an hour, so what I'd really like to just ask you as a final question is about the therapy farm and your dream, your inspiration.
Speaker 3:Just tell us a little bit about that so my dream is that I want to be able to provide my service as a service for free for people that can't afford it, because a lot of people who have been diagnosed with terminal illness they're not well enough to work and they actually can't afford it, but they need to have this extra support to help them with their medical go work alongside medical treatments.
Speaker 3:I'm not against chemo or anything. It's a whole package of things that can help people, but my stuff is not available, sadly, on the nhs. So my dream is that I want my books to be my income, so that I can do this work for free, and I'd like to miraculously manifest millions of pounds so that I can afford to buy my own land, because I currently rent it and it is lovely and wonderful, but there's always that thought at the back of your mind I don't own it. If I owned it, I'd be able to do so much more because I wouldn't have to ask permission. Can I do this? Can I do that? So if I could own my own land and have my therapy center for people who need it, that's that would be me dying happy yeah.
Speaker 2:So if there's anyone out there listening that can connect Grace in to a way to make this happen, please get in touch, is what I want to say, because your work is so vital and by telling your story, people get to learn about you and at the same time, you know what a wonderful gift back to society and to you know, to our region and to our world. You know that people can come and have free treatment. We know the way things are going. Often these days we're having to go and pay for things because we can't get in, so to have that as an alternative is so vital and so important thank you I wanted to say thank you for being here, thank you for reminding us that the path to healing is rarely straight and it spirals in its soul.
Speaker 2:it's tears of magic and it has meaning. It's about the sisterhood. It's about being held by others when we can't hold ourselves. So to all of you listening, trust the process, rise from where you are and follow your own path, not the one the world has told you you need to walk. So until next time, thank you for being here, grace. Thank you, lucy.
Speaker 1:It's time to say say it, sister. So thanks for listening and we can't wait to welcome you next time, until then use your voice, journal speak or sing out loud.
Speaker 2:However you do it, we hope you join us in saying it, sister, thank you.