I received a phone call today from one of my partners that I’m developing a weight release product with. She had me on a call last Tuesday to share my hiking experience that I also shared here in the Trail to Change post.

There I shared the entire experience and some of my own story about overcoming a deep loathing for my body and learning to cherish and love it these past years.

It was the first time I shared any portion of my story with several strangers NOT in written form where I could censor and filter and feel safely tucked away behind the page.

Today I received my first taste of what this is all really about. Yes, it’s about my healing and what I can accomplish through embracing these new and daunting experiences and squeezing every ounce of awakening from them…

But all that paled in comparison to what graced my ears today:

“One of the women on our call phoned me today,” my partner began. “She visited the Statue of Liberty this week and as she stood at the base of the monument, she looked up at the 354 stairs and thought to herself, ‘No way, I can’t do it.’ But then she began climbing, though with each new step she didn’t think she could go on.

“She said it was the hardest thing she’d ever done in her life. But you know what Jaime?”

“What?” I asked, hoping against hope for what she would say next.

“She made it to the top, and because she thought of you and your story every step of the way.”

There Were No Words…

I can’t form words around the welling in my heart when I heard that.

Many of the women in our group are obese and struggling and came to us disempowered and disheartened. For someone who, three weeks ago, doubted whether she could record her meals every day for a month to then turn around and climb the entire Statue of Liberty…

You see, it wasn’t just any building - but THAT monument. The woman who stands for liberty for all peoples.

Several months ago Alex Mandossian shared some words of wisdom with me and a few others. He explained, “Descartes said, ‘I think, therefore I am.’ What if he wasn’t defining the essence of the entire human race, but simply his essence? I think we are verbs. We are doings, not beings. What is your verb?”

I responded that my verb was “I liberate, therefore I am.”

I don’t pretend to know how I’ll attain such a mission or even to say that I will. But it’s what drives me. And when I have the honor to serve as a catalyst or inspiration to someone, I know that all of this: the pain, the vulnerability, the terror, the delving deep to process every last shred of negativity or dis-ease…

It all becomes so worth it.