On Saturday, I’m turning 51. At this time last year, I was hosting 2 multi-day retreats, moving out of the house I’d just moved into, getting a divorce from my husband, falling in love with a woman, sleeping in the trees, dancing around fires, and searching far and wide to collect fragments of my scattered self hidden amongst the rubble.
The year that followed was one of the most excruciating —and beautiful— of my life. I shredded the map I had drawn for myself and in its place received a murky crystal ball that’s refused to show me more than one step ahead.
But each time I’ve taken that one step off a bottomless ledge, a hot air balloon or a flying trapeze or a wild turkey vulture swoop by and give me a lift. I have been offered sanctuary for days or weeks or months in the homes of extraordinary women. I have flown to far flung cities of this country, and all over the lush green state of Virginia—from the Chesapeake Bay to the Rappahannock to where I am currently, the mighty James River.
I’ve been turned inside out, grieved, shedded, molted, lost a thousand skins. I also feel new growth—wings and a tail growing through my spine, deeper knowings and insights flooding in, a fierce new love I couldn’t have fathomed, parts of myself that would have stayed in the dark if I hadn’t decided to tear up the old map and take the plunge.
On Saturday I’m turning 51. I still don’t know where I’m going next, or what it will look like, or how it will happen— or when! But I do know when I follow the sure quiet voice of my heart, I am led somewhere better than I could have ever imagined.
Want to hang out more??
Hello friends…. I’m excited to be approaching the ancient work of my heart in an expansive beautiful new way and I would love to share this transformational work with you— in small group series, or in the budding new Writing Fire community on Skool.
If you are interested in learning more about all the juicy new pop-up classes, guest teacher workshops, community writing shares and the growing library of guided writing activation videos, join for $33/month before my birthday on July 18 or $44/month after and you can cancel anytime! I’d love to see you there!
Valley Jane
In this special in-person writing activation ceremony, enter a sacred circle to travel through body, mind, and spirit, discovering wisdom, awareness, and memory hidden below the surface of our awareness.
Sat, Aug 15, 2026, 1:00 – 5:00 PM EDT
River House in Varina, Virginia
Sliding Scale: $ 144 / $188/ $122
A 6-Week Writing Activation Series with Valley JaneBeneath the stories you tell about yourself, there is another story. Older. Truer. Waiting.
Thursdays, Aug 13 - Sep 17, 2026
10 AM - 12 Noon EST
Sliding scale: $333/ $444/ $555
Zoom
Your life is stranger, wilder, more mythic, and more meaningful than any fiction you could invent. Are you ready to write it?
A 12-Week Writing Initiation with Valley Jane of Writing Fire
Tuesdays | September 1 – November 17
11 AM- 1 PM PST / 2-4 PM EST
Not sure if this is right for you? Book a free 20-minute discovery call with Valley.
HI BRAVE WRITER!! Subscribe to my new dispatch, Letters from the Fire, to receive workshop and retreat updates, as well as a Sacred Circle Writing Oracle card and prompt in your inbox twice a month!
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