Spiritual Awakening After Trauma

Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of The Divorced Woman’s Guide podcast.

How are you doing today?
I am Wendy Sterling
your host and your divorced woman’s guide
to what I am calling choosing you
and today’s episode
is actually going to speak to
a recent experience that I had.

As many of you know who follow me on Instagram
and Facebook I was in Hawaii specifically Maui on my annual family vacation the week of August 5th which happens to be my birthday.

And yes we were in Maui when the devastating fires broke out in Lahaina and I have a very personal story that I wanted to share with you guys today because it was an experience that further awakened my soul and my spirit.

And interestingly brought my kids and my partner and his son closer together um it could have been an experience that tore us apart
and it didn’t it had the opposite effect so
I wanna share with you guys what had happened and sort of what uh what it was that I went through.

When I was there so my family and I uh as I said it was my birthday and the night of my birthday we were in Lahaina having dinner at Lahana Fish Company.

I actually have some pictures um off of the just the the railing there cause our seat was right on the water overlooking the ocean and we had the beautiful dinner and such a wonderful time and walked around Lahaina afterwards and um enjoyed the beautiful scenery.

And walked through all of the amazing businesses that are there and then went back to our hotel in Kanopali and went to bed and woke up to the power being out and my partner Jeff and I decided that we should just use the day to go somewhere else on the island where there was power and kind of make it an adventure with um our three boys.

So that is what we did. And little did we know when we left that Tuesday morning on August 8th uh which was also the Lion’s Gate manifesting day um that we were not gonna go back to our resort for the rest of our vacation.

And so when we left that morning um we went to the other side of the island and we went into Paiya which is one of my favorite little channels and while we were there um you know we were trying to kind of figure out like when we were gonna drive back and you know I in the meantime I had gotten a text message from our hotel
letting us know that the winds were getting worse
they were probably gonna pick up at around so our goal was to get back into Kanepali before then so we were driving back on the road.

It’s about a minute drive from where we were to get back to our resort in Kanepali and on our way back we were coming through Lahania and we saw that uh there were power lines starting to be down.

And we noticed that there was a fire burning up at the top of the hill and we heard the sirens and you know you just assume that people are on it and gonna put out the fire.

So we’re driving down and trying to get down to the main street which is you know very close to Front Street which as many of you know burn down and and so we were trying to get down there but the power lines were down.

So we were trying to weave our way through Lahaina to try to get back to our resort but there’s not a lot of roads that get you through there and so what we ended up having to do was we had to wind our way back through the neighborhood of Lahaina and what’s being called Lahaina Luna.

And while we were weaving our way back through all of a sudden we noticed that the smoke was getting bigger it was getting darker which meant that more buildings were burning. So we were trying to navigate our way through as quickly as possible because at the same time locals were kinda running around standing outside wondering what was going on.

No sirens no warnings no text messages nothing was coming through and I had a gut instinct that we just needed to get the heck out of there that things were not looking good.

So we wove our way back up and through the town of Lahaina got ourselves back to like this main bypass road and literally while we were driving on this road we drove through such thick smoke. That all of a sudden we saw the embers transfer and fly to the other side of the freeway which are the flames that wound up moving themselves back down um and burned all the way down to the ocean.

We were just all in complete and utter disbelief. I remember that I just kept
praying that you know that everybody would be safe and that you know it was gonna be okay and that the firefighters were gonna come.

Meanwhile we decided to drive uh back towards the airport which is in Kahalui and to kind of wait it out there and see what was going on.

Needless to say um we had no idea how quickly the fire was burning and just what was gonna happen within hours of that point.

So after going into Kahalui we parked ourselves at interestingly there’s a coffee bean there and a market and so we just got the kids some snacks and some drinks and we were just kind of waiting it out to see when we assumed we were gonna get to go back.

And um decided to drive and check out the road again and it was backed up so we turned around and decided to just go grab dinner and that we would try again later.

Well needless to say that night we ended up sleeping in our car on the side of the road. And we were on a road where we could even see the fires on um Hollyokala which is the town of Kula we could see that whole side of the mountain engulfed in flames.

We didn’t really know what to do so we figured you know we’re on the road there’s hundreds of cars around us everybody’s parked we’re just gonna sleep in our car tonight which is what we did and I was so activated in the car I actually barely slept an hour.

I was you know Mama bear I was on Titan alert. I wanted to make sure my boys were okay I was constantly checking on my phone um you know the one blessing of being in our car is that we had power. We were able to charge our phones  we were smart and got gas so we wouldn’t be in shortage of that if God forbid you know we needed to spend more time in the car driving somewhere else.

You know I just remember that night that I was just continuously just praying and just you know wanting us to be safe and it was one of those moments where I really felt like um like I had a role in grounding um those of us that were safe and secure um and really grounding in you know what is important in life right. What is important is your health and your safety I understand losing your home and losing so many different things is devastating and at the end of the day you know we had no idea there was gonna be so much loss of life.

You know so many people still unaccounted for and at the end of the day it really woke me up to what is important. You know we had packed all this stuff was still sitting in our hotel room didn’t have access to it you know we ended up wearing the same clothes for almost three days straight.

I was in that mode of trusting that the universe was going to tell us what it was that we were supposed to do each and every day.

I journaled I was talking to the universe to God to spirit to my angel you know my angels and my spirit guides asking for support.

Every single day other than that first night we spent in the car like we were very very fortunate.

We’re able to find literally the last  Airbnbs one was in Yalaya one was in Kihae and being able to at least put ourselves somewhere safe and to make sure that everybody was okay.

You know because of where we were we could go to target and we got some extra swimsuits we got some you know toiletries to be able to bathe ourselves at these Airbnbs.

We were able to feed ourselves and go to the grocery store and you know it just it was it could have been so much worse for us you know.

This type of experience could have torn my family apart it could have torn Jeff and I apart um you know his son and my kids could have gotten into massive fights but everybody was honestly they were feeding off of of us.

Right of me and Jeff of
of how it was that we were acting and we were very calm and we were very much instilling in them that it was gonna be okay that we were safe and that we were healthy and we had electricity and we had gas and we had food and it was gonna be okay.

You know thank god but there’s all these other people that are suffering and so you know again practicing gratitude and was then it wasn’t like we were enjoying the rest of our quote unquote vacation at these Airbnb’s I mean there definitely every second of the day we were being reminded of what was happening on the other side of the island.

There was this moment where you know the kids started kind of panicking a little bit about like oh my god you know my stuff like my computer I needed for school and my son had brought his trumpet on our trip and he’s like my trumpet and I just looked at them and I said you know what guys we will get our stuff back it is going to be okay.

I know by tomorrow we’re gonna get our stuff back we will have it it’s gonna be okay like we’re gonna be okay and I just kept manifesting that we were gonna get our stuff and everything was gonna be okay.

Lo and behold I got a text message from our hotel and this was not a mass message this was me texting directly to somebody at the front desk because again I had manifested that relationship unknowingly when we got there and I was told that they were opening up shuttle buses from the airport to go back into West Maui to get IDS so that people could fly home and the person kind of did a little winky wink and was like ‘but if you left with your luggage no one would know any different’.

So I immediately activated Jeff and I was like we’re going like let’s go and while they were only allowing one member per family Jeff and I are not married legally and his family and my family were staying there and happened to be in the same room so we both went.
We also had so much stuff that there was no way that we were gonna be able to um one of us was gonna be able to carry everything out and you know we took the shuttle back.

I took a ton of video um I shared it on my Instagram you can check it out at Divorce Rehab with Wendy my reels are on there like exactly what we drove through and it was heartbreaking um so heartbreaking I have so many memories of um spending time in Lahaina and interacting with the locals and it just it is heartbreaking.

It was so incredibly surreal to be a part of it and you know just really feeling so much great gratitude and you know just it really grounds you it really makes you think about what is truly important.

You know loss is hard um transitioning through loss is really hard and going through and witnessing this type of natural disaster has just been one other level of awakening that I honestly had no idea what’s gonna happen while we were there and um thankfully Jeff and I were able to pack up our stuff and to get out um we got the last bus out of West Maui they weren’t allowing people in the next day.

Again universe angels spirit guides prayers all being answered and trusting that everything was gonna be okay for us and knowing that we were being divinely guided really supported us and we were able to get our stuff out and um get everything back to our kids.

You know we had to leave them at the Airbnb and with it’s also mines down we really didn’t have a ton of communication with them while we were in West Maui at our resort packing stuff up so we just kept saying like if we don’t come back it’s because there’s no more buses.

You know we’ll touch base with you guys as soon as we get cell service and you know talking to them and making sure that they were gonna be safe and you know again every moment in my heart I knew and I trusted that we were being divinely guided. I knew that we were gonna be okay I knew that our boys were gonna be okay and we were and we were able to get all of our stuff out we were able to go back to the Airbnb and the boys were hugely relieved that they got their stuff back but more importantly they were relieved that you know that me and Jeff were alive and well. That we made it out of there and that as a family that we were okay and
what I’m hoping you know this is gonna be a series of podcasts and I’m gonna be actually talking about because this has been such an incredibly impactful experience in my life.

I’m gonna share a little bit more about some of the spiritual experiences that I also had over the course of those couple of days after the fires and really just how much it makes you think about what is important you know when we were packing for this trip it was like this outfit that, outfit this shoes, how many swimsuits am I bringing, how many cover UPS, and it’s like who the hell cares you know at the end of the day like talk about perspective.

Talk about just waking yourself up to what’s really important and who’s looking who cares and you know I am so incredibly grateful that I have the tools in my toolkit to be able to see the positive. There was so much fear going on um you know those of you who reached out thank you so much for caring so much as you did and you know we we didn’t give in to the fear and we stayed in the light we stayed in the positivity we stayed in possibility I trusted in my relationship to the divine and to the universe that you know everything was gonna work out the way that it was intended and at the end of the day we were healthy we were fine our flights were on time. I think that the way that I wanna wrap this episode is really just you know inviting you guys to remember when there’s so much chaos going on around that all it takes is a moment to just pause and just breathe and remember what it is that is truly most important in this life, is it being angry,  is it getting revenge is it, being buying into the chaos is it, joining you know the negativity, it’s not let those people be and you know be that source of light be that source of inspiration. Because other people are feeding off of you they’re watching you and especially those close to you like your kids are especially sensitive to the energy and the vibrations that you are putting out in those moments so let this be a reminder to each and every one of you guys.

I hope that you gained some wisdom from my story and got some perspective and some insight into what it was that we experienced and like I said I will be coming to you guys with more podcast episodes about this particular experience because it definitely was a massive awakening for me.

It has been I feel like I’ve been in the year of Wendy’s awakening um and I’m gonna share more details around that with you all I am sending you guys so much love light and joy as always don’t forget to hit subscribe leave me a star review please so that more people get to have access to the amazing wisdom that I share in my podcast and also with the guests that I bring on and follow me on social media at Divorce Rehab with Wendy follow me on Facebook I’m on TikTok I’m on Pinterest I’m on LinkedIn you name it I’m there um hope you guys have a beautiful rest of your day . Sending you love light and joy as always mwah.