The StoicMom Project
The StoicMom Project
Perceiving a Higher Path -Jessie Mannisto interviews StoicMom
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Perceiving a Higher Path -Jessie Mannisto interviews StoicMom

Conversations from the Trenches
10

“Perceiving a higher path” was a term I learned from Jessie during my first ever interview for Conversations from the Trenches: Butterflies Becoming

With A Wider Lens coming up for me and Sasha’s thing this weekend, I thought it would be good to share a bit more of my story—especially for those who prefer to listen than read. This gets a bit raw at times; ya’ll know I don’t mind getting vulnerable.

At one point, I say I don’t have the same hang-ups as most people. I didn’t mean to say I don’t have hang-ups, but that even my hang-ups are heterodox. Haha! I just have different hang-ups.

I also need to correct something I said about not marrying until my 30s. One of the adventures in my 20s was a marriage that sometimes I forget about! My husband (who I met while working in wilderness therapy as described in this episode) and father to my children is who I married in my 30s. We’re celebrating our 19th anniversary next month.

Grandma (my mom) joined my son and me on our travels this summer that I reference in the conversation, after my daughter’s 18th bday—and that was such a treat and factored into the mindset shift. I talk a bit about that trip in my update to What Hurts Most.

I also mention my “other Substack” which is SM’s Essential Concepts. Additional pieces/episodes I reference in this conversation:

CwyAFTM: The Energy

Pivotal Moments

Third Dream’s a Charm?

Two pieces I wrote around her 18th birthday:

F*#k off, Hitler!

Agents of Futility

Lastly, a HUGE thank you to Jessie Mannisto, Founder and Editor-in-Chief at Third Factor Magazine!! Thank you for your insightful questions and for ensuring this got to be the episode that bears this title! You planted the seed that a higher path was possible, and I’ll be forever grateful.

There’s so much fodder in here and I can see myself extending some of the thought threads in future essays. If you have any questions that you’d like answered, please put them in the comments—or come to Sasha’s Q&A on Sunday!

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The StoicMom Project
The StoicMom Project
At this point, I have embraced this destabilizing, sometimes excruciating, sometimes wondrous experience of having a trans-IDed child as “curriculum of the soul.” Because I can’t help but imagine how different the world might be if we could all take the hardest thing in our lives and view it as this, as curriculum of the soul. Practitioners of Stoicism might say, "the obstacle is the way." These are my conversations and reflections--along the way.