When the Vision Breaks: How Losing Everything Led Me Back to the Earth (and Myself)
There is a moment when you realize the dream you have been chasing is no longer sustainable. Not because it was wrong. But because it was not yet ready. Or maybe you were not yet ready.
This is the story of how losing everything led me back to the earth. And back to myself.
The Leap
From 2021 to 2023, I made the kind of decisions that terrify most people.
I quit my job of seven years. I got rid of 80% of my belongings. I moved across the country with no formal job lined up. Just my retreat business that I had been nurturing for over six years at that point.
It felt wild. It felt aligned. It felt like I was finally saying yes to the vision I had been holding for so long.
I believed in what I was building. I believed in gathering women in nature. I believed in the transformative power of slowing down, of reconnecting, of remembering who we are when we strip away the noise.
And for a while, it worked.
Astrology & Past Life Healing Retreat 2021- Sedona
When It All Fell Apart
Towards the end of 2023, my business took a big hit financially.
I found myself thousands of dollars in debt. The retreats I had poured my heart into were not filling the way they used to. The income I needed to sustain my life was not coming in. And I could no longer keep up with my own wild visionary plans.
It was humbling. It was heartbreaking. It was one of the hardest seasons of my life.
I had to learn how to let go of my own crazy dreams. I had to step back into a reality I had tried so hard to escape. Even when every part of me was so determined to make it happen.
Sometimes the vision breaks. Not because you failed. But because there is something deeper waiting for you on the other side.
Astrology & Past Life Healing Retreat 2021 - Oregon
The Unexpected Detour
In 2024, I took a break.
I got a job working with at risk youth. And I was pregnant.
Every day, I showed up to work with teenage boys who had come from all over the country. Boys who had been in the trenches of substance abuse. Boys who had seen more trauma than most adults will ever know. Many of them were struggling with fentanyl. Many of them felt like they had no place in this world.
I sat with them. I mentored them. I witnessed their depletion of hope up close.
It was heavy work. But it cracked something open in me.
Hiking with At Risk Teen Boys in the woods of the PNW
The Realization
After two years of working with those boys and birthing my own son, something became crystal clear.
One of the most important values I hold is getting kids outside.
Seeing how disconnected the younger generations are from nature pulled at something deep in my chest. These kids did not know how to be still. They did not know how to regulate without a screen or a substance. They had never felt the quiet power of sitting beneath a tree or watching a fire burn down to embers.
And I realized this disconnection was not just happening with at risk youth. It was happening everywhere. In our homes. In our families. In the way we raise our children.
We have forgotten that the earth is our greatest teacher. Our greatest healer. Our greatest regulator.
The Pivot
So I created Wild Nest.
Wild Nest is a safe space for mamas and their babies or children to return to nature. Even if just for a weekend.
It is not about being an expert camper. It is not about having all the gear or knowing all the skills. It is about remembering that we belong outside. That our children belong outside. That something shifts when we let the land hold us.
If you have been feeling the pull to bring your little ones into nature but you do not know where to start, this is for you.
You can join us March 6th through 9th in Texas. We are filling up.
Wild Nest Washington 2025
Your support of Wild Nest also helps to fund a Nature School project we have been quietly creating behind the scenes for almost two years now. It is one of those dreams that feels too big to talk about. But it is growing. Slowly. Rooted.
The Full Circle
Here is what I did not expect.
After ten years of my own wild soulful missions of bringing people together. After trying so many different models. After failing and rebuilding and failing again.
Somewhere along the way, I realized this was not just about retreats. It was not just about nature. It was not even just about motherhood.
It was about how women hold vision for their lives. For their families. For the future they are quietly building.
It was about learning how to lead and create and sustain something meaningful without abandoning yourself in the process.
That clarity hit me like a wave.
My first hike in Sedona 2019
HER Vision
So I created HER Vision.
HER Vision is a six month mentorship for the visionary woman who wants to lead, create, and build sustainably. It is for the founder who is tired of squeezing her big soulful ideas into business boxes that were never meant for her.
We use your HER Vision Chart as a leadership and capacity roadmap. We align your business growth with your authentic self and your nervous system thresholds. We move through monthly themes, one on one sessions, and deep integration work.
And we gather in person for a Sedona Immersion to anchor all of it into the land.
This is not about hustling harder. It is about building a business that feels as good as it looks. One that honors your rhythms, your season, and your humanity.
An Invitation
If you are reading this and something is stirring in you, I want you to know that the broken vision is not the end of your story.
Sometimes the dream has to die so something truer can be born.
Sometimes you have to lose everything to find out what actually matters.
Sometimes the detour is the path.
I do not know where you are in your journey right now. Maybe you are in the middle of the breaking. Maybe you are on the other side, trying to figure out what comes next. Maybe you are holding a vision that feels too big and too tender to speak out loud.
Wherever you are, you are not alone.
The earth is still here. Your body is still here. Your vision is still here, even if it looks different than you thought it would.
I would love to walk this next chapter with you.
With love,
Andrea
