Overcoming – e.m.claytor

Tag: Overcoming

I Am Grateful Today for Mold

Posted on January 29, 2020January 29, 2020 by EMC

We are not made for this lifestyle America has glorified. We are made to connect with nature, to create, to serve (without sacrificing your truth and your purpose). Our system is broken. Our mindsets are clouded with false beliefs. We are trapped in a system believing it makes us good, hardworking people and denying that our souls are suffering because of it.

I’ve spent the morning outdoors. It’s chilly, overcast, and the air is a little damp with the threat of rain. I took my boots off to connect my feet with the earth (I’ve read that grounding is more important to healing than the food you eat.). I broke off a sprig of rosemary and breathed in the scent then laid it in my lap as I looked around at nature living all around me – woodpeckers, blue jays, tiny wrens, tubby robins, the bare trees swaying under the weight of squirrels scrambling. I have missed this – sitting in nature simply watching. Alone with my senses and my thoughts.

I’m so grateful for where I am. I am so happy. I am grateful that I am in a place where I can enjoy the morning at my own pace. I can think. I can create. On my own time.

Working in a demanding place, Monday – Friday, 8-4:30 (and later at times), takes away so much. I love the work I do (did?), but I’m realizing on a deeper level that I was fading quickly. Yes, I was full of mold sickness. But at a very deep level, I was unhappy in my job. I was in a place that was misaligned with who I am. Continue reading “I Am Grateful Today for Mold” →

The Mold Saga, Part 2: Out with the Mold

Posted on November 15, 2019February 5, 2020 by EMC

“We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.

The old skin has to be shed before the new one can come.

If we fix on the old, we get stuck. When we hang on to any form, we are in danger of putrefaction.

Hell is life drying up.”

Joseph Campbell

It is weird at this point to begin writing about the mold saga. There’s so much that has passed. And there’s so much that’s still ongoing. I feel strangely suspended in time.

After we found the mold, life changed overnight. Literally. We began staying with my parents and only going back to the house to pick up some things that we needed. By the first weekend, we had decided we would be moving out as soon as possible. This was certainly not something we had prepared to do. Even though I had just decided to begin applying to PhD programs, we had no expectation of moving for at least a year out.

Amazingly, Daniel had just moved his business that had been located in our house into another location. It was a little unbelievable how perfectly timed that had been.

So we got to work moving. I went to work during the week, and on the weekends, we planned to work as many hours as we could handle moving our things out. It was during that first weekend, we realized this was not going to be an easy thing to do. Continue reading “The Mold Saga, Part 2: Out with the Mold” →

Becoming the Writer: Overcoming Self-Limiting Beliefs and Moving Toward Purpose

Posted on April 8, 2019April 10, 2019 by EMC

“Whatever we plant in our subconscious mind and nourish with repetition and emotion will one day become a reality.” – Earl Nightingale

I can barely remember a time before the word “writer” was a part of my identity. I was watching Dick Van Dyke reruns on Nick at Nite when I was 6, and I realized that I wanted to be a writer – a “head writer” actually.

So, in school, when the teacher asked us the typical “What do you want to be when you grow up?” question, I responded proudly, “A Head Writer!” I’m fairly certain I was beaming. To my surprise, I was met with blank stares from both teacher and classmates.

“A what?? A head waiter?” This was obviously ridiculous – what was a head waiter anyway?

“No! A head WRITER.” Still – only blank stares.

Continue reading “Becoming the Writer: Overcoming Self-Limiting Beliefs and Moving Toward Purpose” →