Let's face it, today we all stand in 2022 a totally different person. If we didn't want to grow as a person, it didn't matter. The universe had its own mind made up and it was a collective decision that we were going to be challenged beyond belief for what lay in the years ahead.

Destiny has a funny way of revealing the fragility of our aim for perfection. One of the things that 2020-2021 taught me was that I needed to be better about going with the flow. When it came to criticism, I was the worst offender towards myself. And although I didn't come out unscathed, baby, I made it. And I learned. I learned that sometimes to make it out of tight spots, I have to remember to bend. And that bending doesn't change my identity of who I am on the inside.

You know the phrase turning lemons into lemonade? Well mine feels like some boujee, wildcrafted lavender lemonade at this point. The past couple years, I definitely stopped and smelled the roses more. Slowing down (even if by force) made me realize that I just need to stop being so hard on myself. Crazy that time in isolation does that your mind. What they called 'isolation' had to have been one of the greatest reflection periods of my life. With that came the harsh reality that I had to throw away some expectations if I was going to make it through. And believe me, I have gone through some real shit. Some hard shit these past couple years.

I got married January 9, 2020. Or more specifically, I eloped. My new husband and I had ideas of an intimate wedding celebration in our backyard. We even started redoing our backyard, investing lots of grunt labor and sweat equity into landscaping efforts. Then 2020 blew up like mad. Like REALLY blew up. Our so-called wedding was rescheduled and then rescheduled again and then we kinda eventually gave up on trying to plan it once we put all our money into a new business (I'll get to that later). We thought once "the dust settled" we would be able to put together a wedding. But then family connections dissolved making it even weirder to navigate. To this day, I have a wedding dress (a gorgeous one, at that) in my closet just begging me to be sashayed in. In addition to this heartbreak, we had a ridiculous number of pets pass away. Between the pets and the wedding plans foiling, grief set in. And as if being newlyweds wasn't hard enough in 2020, in 2021 my husband and I started a new business, a micro-farm, that guzzled our energy and time-- oh and did I mention that this was all while still working a full-time job? Sometimes I think I'm crazy! It challenged us as a couple in ways I never could have imagined. Can you say, hello communication?

And yet, I'm here. I'm alive. I'm back with a vengeance and on a mission! I've got some dreams to work on but they're beyond me now. It means that I'm ready to pour into you. My new website means so much to me because it represents the increased capacity in which I have to serve and support you. I'm launching Set Her Soul on Fire Coaching! An experience where I blend sisterhood with goal-setting, dream-chasing abandon. Only beautiful things can come from this kind of space. This will be a place of belonging alongside an amazing tribe of women who will uplift and support you along your life's journey. A place of no judgment and only immeasurable love you can tap into.

A collection of stories highlighting amazing women doing some real badass sh*t!

This new brand of Lil Miss Mason Jar will also be home to a collection of stories that I tell, highlighting amazing women doing some real badass shit. I'm talking about real women flexing their genius. Confidence-boosting babes living their dream are my ultimate hype women. So please come back to our site regularly for inspiration you can use to light up your life.

xo, Shannon