10 years

9/14/24

10 years ago this weekend we came to Pensacola to heal. It seems to be a place people come to do that.

Healing can be walks on a moonlit beach, family meals, watching your kids grow, aching, caring for your body and soul, hard sessions with a therapist, trying to lead again, saying "I love you," leaping towards a dream, saying "I'm changing," or the passing, gentle "Thank you" to sprawling Live Oaks, lying on an operating table, crying with friends... Healing is a direction. My direction went from mountains to sea.

What I didn't know is that the weekend we moved here was Hildegard's Feast, because she was only in a distant orbit for me at the time. And that within 8 years, her celebration would be directly linked to my healing and the healing of many.

I literally "followed a star" to come here. I saw this image of Venus over Pensacola Beach and felt my heart pull us here. We had to remove ourselves from the place of pain. Turns out that the same weekend that I moved here was also a huge moment in the sky for the planet Venus, the planet which had drawn me here.

The first week, I saw eight pelicans fly over and I heard in my spirit something about 8 years. I thought maybe we would only stay here 8 years and that was so hard to imagine at the time - so long - leaving behind everything I've called home.

8 years later, though, The Order of Saint Hildegard was born, and the deepest wound became a fount of blessing.

This coming week is her feast week, and these full circle revelations will be in my heart.

Dan Haefner Photography