My Story of Reinvention

Hi, I’m Sarah. I’m on a mission to unleash the creative power of women at midlife and beyond.

To connect us all with our Divine Feminine Essence.

I am a Dream Resuscitator, your midwife to help you bring forth that thing that wants to be born.

Change and transformation IS possible! And I’m here to prove it.

Right now I live in San Miguel de Allende, a beautiful heritage city tucked into the central highlands of Mexico. A couple of years ago, I’d never have believed it possible I could actually live here— learning a new language, enjoying private salsa dance lessons, surrounded by culture, color, new friends, ….That sort of life seemed like a faraway dream.

And yet—here I am! Living proof that anything is possible even—and especially—in the second half of life!

See, all of this Awakening to your truth stuff doesn’t have to be solemn and serious!

One of my core values is FUN… and here I created Holistic Hot Sauce with an intention of finding the joy and fun available to me and to all of us during this transition.

Four years ago, at age 50, I started this site for women like you who are struggling with menopause and the emotional angst around growing older in our youth-worshipping culture.

I spent a couple of decades of my early adulthood owning and operating Moonrise Herbs, an herb shop that doubled as a community healing center and spiritual bookstore. Then, after trying out the life of an employee for a nonprofit, it was time to start my own thing again… to once againhelp people more directly.

At the time I was riding the tidal wave of menopause, and feeling the primal power surge of energy that brought. Physically, emotionally, spiritually.

My vision for Holistic Hot Sauce was to share everything I knew, and learn more so I could help other women like me find relief. In those early days I mined my knowledge of natural remedies for menopause and wrote about them here.

Oh, I had some big ideas of how this would all work.

Little did I know what Spirit had in store for me. …

See, as I woke in the night kicking off those sweaty sheets, I kept getting the feeling something was off.

Have you ever had a niggling sensation that you’re hiding from some essential truth?

Yeah, that.

I had a good life, nothing really wrong. Except deep in my heart I knew I wasn’t being true to who I truly am. I had no idea what to this meant. I was scared to death to imagine leaving the comfortable existence I had so carefully cultivated. I’d left my troubled childhood behind, and now I had plentiful friends, a nice home, a well-meaning husband, respect in my community.

All that was about to change. The Universe was calling me to a serious life reinvention.

This wasn’t my first rodeo with finding the courage to take a big leap. While in my 40s, I’d argued mightily with the Universe when I began getting the messages it was time to leave my career as owner of a successful shop and healing center.

Arguing with the Universe

In fact I had to get hit on the head with the proverbial 2X4 to take THAT leap.

Once I did I never looked back.

A couple of months later, while hiking alone in an ancient forest, my mind yammering away with the same old, same old…I was found myself on my knees in tears. For the first time in my life I heard the voice of my guidance loud and clear! No matter how much I argued or came up with excuses, there it was.

As the tears flowed, I suddenly knew that I was to take a huge leap into the unknown.

In a few short weeks I’d packed up whatever possessions would fit in my little car and moved to another state, leaving a 22-year marriage and many deep connections.

I’d like to tell you that when I listened to the directive and took action that it was all smooth sailing after that.

But, umm no. Not exactly.

I left a tiny, though progressive, rural community in the redwoods of far Northern California where everyone knew me and moved to a large, city – Portland, Oregon – where I knew barely anyone.

I moved into a ‘daylight’ basement room, where I set up shop for my new digital business.

I spent my 51^st birthday sitting in a restaurant alone, toasting myself.

In the months that followed I went through many boxes of tissues.

Waking at 3 am feeling like I was jumping out of my skin, after dreaming of my grown daughters being little girls again, and then realizing that actually I was all alone in a strange bed with my regrets.

I got in a life-threatening car accident, emerged seemingly unscathed only to realize a month later that I had a serious whiplash. My 30-year exercise habit came to screeching halt.

As my meager savings dwindled I kept up a good face, but things weren’t looking good.

Yet, here’s what did happen:

Slowly, I began to open, soften. And I began my deep dive down what I jokingly call the ‘woo-woo rabbit hole’, opening my channels to the divine guidance that I’d been too busy and preoccupied to listen to previously.

Through synchronicity after synchronicity I met the people who were to guide me to my next step, and then the next.

Although only a few short years before I would have rolled my eyes at the term ‘life coach’, I became obsessed with becoming a life coach.

After decades of working with natural remedies, I wanted to dive underneath. To find out why these remedies just didn’t work for some people, and why even when a person had the best intentions, they just didn’t follow the healing protocol with herbs and diet.

I trained with Martha Beck over the course of eight months …. An experience that turned me inside out and back again, rewiring everything I thought I knew, and most likely saving me from utter despair.

I got my certification and started coaching women.

Instead of constantly losing myself in analysis about every little step, I began following breadcrumbs.

One of those was an opportunity to spend several months in Mexico. A chance to achieve a long-held dream of living abroad for an extended period of time.

That led to more breadcrumbs.

It was time to lighten up some more!

After four months in the central highlands of Mexico, I went back to Portland, sold most of my (now already meager) belongings and moved here to San Miguel de Allende.

Here I’m teaching workshops on thriving through transition and on manifesting the life you want. I’m meeting fascinating people every day. My brain and my presuppositions are challenged every time I walk outside.

And the adventure continues to unfold.