As the year comes to a close, it’s easy to feel the quiet pressure to evaluate and plan.
Did I do enough?
Am I where I thought I’d be by now?

Unexpectedly, the answer to those questions didn’t come to me from goal-setting or reflection exercises… it came from a memory.

A journal entry I wrote while building our home in Colombia.

Reading it again reminded me of something essential: growth doesn’t happen through force. It happens through presence.

And that’s what this story is about:

It was 4 a.m. The house was quiet. Alex sleeps next to me. The kids breathing softly in bed just a few feet away. A candle flickered beside me, the scent of sage moving through our room. And from the window, the Medellín Valley stretched out beneath the night.

Sitting there, I felt a wave of gratitude for the home we’ve been shaping for years. Not a “dream house” that appeared all at once, fully finished and perfectly planned. But a space that has unfolded slowly… lovingly… almost as if it has been revealing itself to us layer by layer.

In that moment I realized:
This house is a mirror of life itself.

This home has been a conversation — between us, the land, the seasons, and our own hearts.

Each piece came together when it was time. One step led into the next.
Sometimes we thought we were behind, or that things “should look different by now” (especially when we had a plastic roof for months and on hard rainy days, water would pour straight through the middle of the house like a waterfall. 😅)

Sometimes my mind insisted on an idea, a timeline, a version of the house that lived only in my expectations. And yet, none of that was real.

Because when I look around now… when I feel the peace of this space…and when I witness the joy it holds… I can see clearly:

Things were never late.
Nothing was missing.
The way it happened was the way it needed to happen.

The space was guiding us just as much as we were building it.

And honestly…isn’t that how life works too?

THE PROCESS IS THE POINT

As I wrote in my journal that early morning:

“The process of growth, although messy at times, brings so much beauty.”

We forget this. We rush to outcomes. We believe that clarity, healing, success, or transformation should look a certain way, and happen on a timeline that makes sense to our mind. 

But the heart knows something different.

The heart knows that:

— We’re never behind.
— We’re always evolving.
— Life reveals itself step by step.
— And every step carries its own wisdom.

We’re always adjusting, refining, expanding, growing … and that movement itself is the gift.

What a beautiful thing.

This season naturally invites reflection:

What did I accomplish? Am I where I wanted to be? What do I want for the year ahead?

Yet sometimes without realizing it these questions drain our energy instead of inspiring us. They pull us into comparison, pressure, expectation.

But sitting there at 4 a.m., looking out at the valley and feeling the peace of our home, I realized something I want to offer you too: 

The process is sacred.
The unfolding is enough.
Your journey is not late.
And your dreams arrive through coherence, not pressure.

Your energy is what builds the life you want.
And nothing drains energy more than believing you’re not enough, not fast enough, or not “there” yet.

  

TRUST YOUR BECOMING

I am grateful for this house.
But even more grateful for the becoming that happened while building it.

A space that shaped us just as much as we shaped it.
And life does the same.

Whatever you are building: a house, a family, a project, a new version of yourself, may this be your reminder:

❌ You don’t need to rush.
❌ You don’t need to force.
❌ You don’t need to have it all figured out now.

✅ Stay connected to your heart.
✅ Take the step in front of you.
✅ Let life reveal itself one layer at a time.

The beauty is not only in the final creation.
It’s in the process of arriving there.

A SEED TO CARRY

The elders always remind us:
inhabit the present moment more fully.

Take care of this moment — here and now. Open yourself to gratitude. Choose a good attitude.
Let your heart guide the steps ahead.

One good present builds the next good present.

If you feel the call to walk more intentionally, to learn how to live from the heart, navigate transitions, and honor the process of becoming, this is the kind of path we walk inside The Nine Doors.

It's a space to receive guidance, deepen awareness, and walk alongside others who are also choosing to live with more coherence and intention.

The path is about remembering, not rushing. Because the power is not in the finish line.
It’s in the moment you are living right now — the one that is quietly building everything you’re praying for.

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• The Nine Doors: School of Ancestral Wisdom
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• Make Peace with Your Darkness