The One on Waiting is Hard

The One on When You Know, You Know

Awareness (and When It Changes Everything) Awareness changes things — even when you wish it wouldn’t. In this final episode of GILY (for now), Devany and Meredith reflect on what awareness asks of us — and what it costs. Listening honestly to the body reveals misalignment, grief, and the courage required to tell the truth inside soul friendship. Together, they explore how one person’s no and another person’s yes can both be true — and how love doesn’t have to collapse when a form comes to an end. This conversation traces the lived experience of awareness: how it arrives quietly, how fear and imagination rush in behind it, and how integrity sometimes asks us to let go of something meaningful with care. GILY is closing in this form, but it isn’t ending — it’s wintering. We’re deeply grateful to this community for listening, reflecting, and walking with us. Gentle note: strong language at times. Use care if little ears are nearby. Key Themes * Awareness as both gift and grief * Burnout rooted in misalignment, not effort * Soul friendship holding space for difference and authenticity * Fear and grief after truth emerges * Trusting alignment over productivity and longevity Practices & Takeaways * Notice where awareness whispers before it has to shout * Practice open-handed awareness instead of gripping * Ask whether a container nourishes or drains your essence * Let grief accompany integrity rather than signal failure Sound Bites “Awareness changes things — even when you wish it wouldn’t” “I was going to burn out because of my love for you” “When something is no longer correct, the fear is losing everything” “Longevity is not the measure of goodness” Whoop & Poop Shout-Out Christy Lowry — The Parent’s Table [https://www.instagram.com/theparentstable?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==] A heartfelt whoop for Christy Lowry and her work helping parents name and lighten invisible mental and emotional labor. The Invisible Labor Workbook A practical resource for making unseen labor visible and consciously setting some of it down. https://stan.store/TheParentsTable/p/the-invisible-labor-workbook [https://stan.store/TheParentsTable/p/the-invisible-labor-workbook] Wintering with GILY GILY is wintering. This podcast form is closing for now as we rest and listen for what’s next. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay connected through the next season and receive reflections and updates as the next creative form emerges: https://mailchi.mp/f1353bbd4117/newsletter-sign-up [https://mailchi.mp/f1353bbd4117/newsletter-sign-up] Stay Connected Devany — Illumine Within Embodied healing, Centering Circles, and 1:1 companionship Meredith — Hibernate Healing Energy work, guidance, and seasonal restoration Follow along on Instagram: @gily.pod

The One on Waiting is Hard

Change is coming — but you can’t see it yet. That foggy, restless in-between? That’s where new life takes form. In this episode, Devany and Meredith sit inside the “goo” of becoming — the uncomfortable, beautiful not-yet — and share how resisting the urge to rush their rebrand opened a third way forward. They unpack the systems that make waiting feel unbearable — capitalism, patriarchy, and the myth of productivity — and offer practices that root us back into body and trust: Centering Prayer, the inner posture “I can wait,” and the slow medicine of time itself. An invitation to stop forcing what’s still forming — and to believe that what’s growing in the dark is already on its way. Gentle note: strong language at times — use care if little ears are nearby. Bonus offering: Host Yourself — Holiday Edition Join us for four cozy lunchtime mini-retreats with teaching, somatic practice, and community care. It’s a way to host yourself with the same compassion you offer everyone else this season. Early access through joining our email list — sign up here [https://mailchi.mp/f1353bbd4117/newsletter-sign-up] via our Instagram bio. Key Themes * Waiting isn’t absence — it’s formation. * Discomfort is information, not failure. * Cultural wiring makes waiting feel unsafe — we can unwire it. * Slowness invites trust, connection, and imagination. * The “third way” emerges when we stay in relationship with tension. Practices & Takeaways * Practice the inner posture: “I can wait.” * Return to Centering Prayer or silence as an anchor of consent and release. * Notice when your body wants to rush — pause, breathe, soften. * Allow slow integration — what’s unseen is still forming. * You don’t have to earn your belonging; you can return to it. Notable Quotes “Waiting is not the absence of movement — it’s the place where new life takes form.” “It’s easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.” “Efficiency has replaced meaning — and meaning lives in the spaces we rush past.” “Your discomfort isn’t failure — it’s an invitation to listen for what’s trying to take form.” “I can wait isn’t stillness; it’s consent to life moving through me.” “Think in geological time, not capitalist time — the soul is slow.” Books & Mentors Mentioned * Capitalist Realism [https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/capitalist-realism-is-there-no-alternative_mark-fisher/1029279/?resultid=b29d2b3d-4c33-423f-ad88-03a99e9f05e5#edition=65620708&idiq=54572415] — Mark Fisher * The Dance of the Dissident Daughter [https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-dance-of-the-dissident-daughter_sue-monk-kidd/255243/?resultid=359f95a0-f4b0-45d8-9481-a00949d9cb6a#edition=3658331&idiq=9551478] — Sue Monk Kidd * Thomas Keating — Centering Prayer & the Spiritual Journey [https://www.centeringprayer.net/spiritualjourney] * Teilhard de Chardin — Ecological Time * Rumi — The Counterfeit Coin Stay Connected Devany — Illumine Within [https://www.illuminewithin.com/]: 1:1 sessions & Centering Circles Meredith — Hibernate Healing [https://sparklecirclehealing.com/]: energy work & guidance A gentle reminder: We share from lived experience and practice. This isn’t medical, mental-health, or legal advice. Use discernment, take what resonates, and leave the rest.

Bonus: Host Yourself Holiday Mini-Retreats

✨ We’re doing the holidays differently. What if you could host yourself while hosting everyone else this season. Join us on Zoom for four cozy lunch-break mini retreats — for rest, resourcing & care. No performance, just presence. Probably some laughter... We’re keeping it small and cozy —we would love you to come. * 11:30 MST/12:30 CST * 11/12, 11/19, 12/3, 12/10  💌 Join our email list for early access at www.gilypod.com at the bottom of the landing page.

The One on Rebrand

Episode 5 — The One on Rebrand Preview  What happens when the words you’ve built your world around start to break open? Devany and Meredith talk about the courage to rename, the sacred alchemy in disagreement, and how language itself can evolve and heal. What happens when the words you’ve built your world around… start to break open? In this episode of The GILY Pod, Devany and Meredith explore how language shapes love, belonging, and who we’re becoming. What began as God, I Love You has evolved into The GILY Pod — a rebrand born from listening, humility, and repair. While God has timelessly been the name for the unnameable Mystery, it’s also a word weighted with harm — used through history to justify control, exclusion, and supremacy. They share the messy beauty of disagreeing, staying in friendship, and finding a third way forward. It’s a conversation about naming harm without losing reverence and discovering that language itself can be a living, healing thing — if we’re willing to let it change. A love letter to evolution itself: a reminder that change is the path of growth and a deep longing toward what is most true. Gentle note: Strong language at times — use care if little ears are nearby. Takeaways * Language evolves — words can harm or heal depending on how we hold them. * Rebrand as repair — changing language can be an act of love. * Disagreement deepens relationship — staying in connection creates understanding. * Naming harm begins with listening. * Love is what makes transformation possible. Sound Bites “You can rebrand yourself as many times as you f*cking want.” “The most true part of God, I Love You is the I love you part.” “We hold the harm and the hope of the name God.” “One thing we really believe in..The more we love other people, the more we expand in love.” “There is a sacred alchemy in not always agreeing.” “Language is alive; it should keep evolving like we do.” Terms as We Understand Them Today Rebrand — A conscious reshaping that reflects present-tense truth and integrity. Repair — Acknowledging harm and making amends through care. Third Way — When two perspectives stay in tension, something new emerges. Language as Living — Words grow alongside us, reflecting change and awareness. Books & Writers The Prophetess — Shalon Harkin (Closing Reading) → shalonharkin.com The Universal Christ — Richard Rohr → cac.org/books/the-universal-christ The Wisdom Jesus — Cynthia Bourgeault → cynthiabourgeault.org/books Untamed — Glennon Doyle → glennondoyle.com/books/untamed The Way of Integrity — Martha Beck → marthabeck.com Teachers & Influences Thomas Keating — Centering Prayer → contemplativeoutreach.org Gurdjieff / Ouspensky — The Fourth Way → The Church of Conscious Harmony 🌱 A Gentle Reminder We share from lived story and practice. This isn’t medical, mental-health, or legal advice. Use your own discernment and seek professional support as needed. Care for yourself as you listen. Take what resonates; leave the rest. Invitations Come Home to Your Center (Illumine Within) — Devany walks with those reclaiming spirituality through the body, love, and deep listening. Join 1:1 sessions, circles, and shared practice at illuminewithin.com [https://illuminewithin.com/]. Energetic Support (Hibernate Healing) — Meredith offers energy work and spiritual guidance in Austin or online. (Rebrand in progress; sessions available now.) sparklecirclehealing.com [https://www.sparklecirclehealing.com/]

Bonus: The One on Where We Come From

Bonus — The One on Where We Come From In this bonus episode of GILY, Devany and Meredith offer a warm welcome — in the old English sense: you are a desired guest. From that same spirit of hospitality, they share their stories. Meredith moves from evangelical certainty through postpartum collapse to energy work, the Fourth Way, and a living, clear-eyed Christianity. Devany reflects on her contemplative roots, a season inside evangelicalism after grief, and how stillness, Centering Prayer, and decolonially informed somatics continue to guide her home to her own voice. Together they trace the spiral of deconstruction — funny, humbling, sometimes self-righteous — reclaim Jesus beyond punitive theology, and name their shared lens: we start where it hurts and stay for the healing — mind, body, spirit, community, and land. We hope you feel welcome in your own story, too. Gentle note: Strong language at times — use care if little ears are nearby. Takeaways * Welcome = desired guest — your story and questions belong here. * Deconstruction is a spiral — certainty can feel safe; humility keeps us awake. * The body is a teacher — pain and fatigue can guide us home. * Stillness steadies — contemplation widens compassion. * Many paths, one Source — Love runs through them all. Sound Bites “We’re done tidying our souls for anyone.” “I had been borrowing someone else’s motherhood.” “All of you is welcome here — your tears, your growls, your weird movements.” “I stopped outsourcing certainty — and started listening in.” “If you want to hear yourself, turn up the silence.” Terms as We Understand Them Today * Contemplation — A long, loving look at the real; stillness that widens perception. * Fourth Way (Gurdjieff/Ouspensky) — Awakening through the intellectual, emotional, and moving centers — monks in the world, not the monastery. * Self-Observation / Non-Identification / Self-Remembering — Noticing thoughts, loosening attachment to them, remembering essence. * Somatics — From the Greek soma (living body). A way of understanding and practicing life through the body as an intelligent, adaptive, interdependent system — shaped by family, community, culture, land, Spirit, and relationship. Modern somatic practice is deeply informed by the survival wisdom of Black, Indigenous, and other marginalized peoples who have used body-based knowing to endure, heal, and resist oppression.  Devany’s somatic journey has been shaped by Sonya Renee Taylor, Staci K. Haines, Dra. Rocío Rosales Meza, and mentor Marisa Guadalupe, with learning also supported by The Embody Lab. * Deconstruction — Unraveling belief systems and power structures; humility over certainty. We also mention Thomas Keating (Centering Prayer), the Fourth Way, Four Winds/Andean-informed teachings, Human Design, and The Trevor Project (LGBTQ+ youth crisis support). Books We Read Together (COVID Book Club) * The Universal Christ — Richard Rohr * The Wisdom Jesus — Cynthia Bourgeault * Untamed — Glennon Doyle * The Way of Integrity — Martha Beck 🌱 A Gentle Reminder We share from lived story and practice. This isn’t medical, mental-health, or legal advice. Use your own discernment and seek professional support as needed. Care for yourself as you listen. Take what resonates; leave the rest. Invitations * Come Home to Your Center (Illumine Within) — Devany’s Centering Circles offer stillness, somatic grounding, Centering Prayer, and reflective listening. Explore offerings at illuminewithin.com. Energetic Support (Hibernate Healing) — Meredith offers energy work and spiritual guidance in Austin or online. (Rebrand in progress; sessions available now.) www.sparklecirclehealing.com