julia fehrenbacher
Poet. Teacher. Life Coach.
Hi,
I'm Julia
I am a poet, an author, a life coach, a teacher, a regular practicer of yoga, and a sometimes-painter. I am most at home by the ocean and in the forests of the Pacific Northwest, and with pen and paintbrush in hand. I am also a wife to a great guy, a mom to two beautiful, hard-to-figure-out teenage girls. Our family would not be complete without our very smart & sensitive Border Collie/Australian shepherd mix dog, Lucky, and our wild, weird (and sometimes gentle & sweet) cat, Watson (who just happens to be Lucky's bff).
I grew up a "military brat," born in Germany, and then moving from place to place most of my childhood. As a child and young woman, I had a deep aching to feel rooted in a place, a longing to be connected to people and purpose. After college, I continued the moving trend, living in four different states in four years - always seeking a feeling of home. At age 27, I set foot in Oregon for the first time and knew I had found home. The moss covered trees, the wild beauty of the Oregon coast and forests, even the smell in the air - all of it whispered welcome home. After living here for the last 24 years, my roots are deep in the soil of this place.
Though I felt I had found home in my beloved Oregon, I continued the search for meaning and purpose, aching for a sense of roots that went deeper than place. I now see that this was an ache to cease searching outside myself and return to my own knowing heart. Over the last few decades, I have been whittling away at old, un-serving thoughts and stories, doing my very best to love and accept myself so that I can show up in the world awake and in love, rather than half-asleep. The more I am able to love and nourish myself, the more the nourished, well-loved part of me is able to show up for my writing/creating. And for people. And life. It is my intention and desire to be as present, as here as possible (which is very much an on-going, lifelong challenge). This being here is a constant practice, a practice that begins, and begins again, in each and every moment. And it is everything. Everything real and true is here - never there, never yesterday, never tomorrow. This is something I forget, and sometimes remember, every single day.
I am also noticing that the better I get at loving and being true to me, the more this trueness wants/needs/can't help but speak and share. The words I write, the coaching I do, the classes I create and facilitate, are coming from the truest place I know.
One thing I know with certainty is that this world needs more people who are moving through life from a place of love and kindness and connection, being who they truly are, not who they think they should be. Despite my constant forgetting, I am committed to being a woman who lives mindfully awake, rather than half-asleep. And, it's worth repeating - it is very much a moment-by-moment process.
Whether through my writing, my classes, or my one-on-one coaching, I now know with certainty that it is my greatest passion and purpose to support others in dissolving the barriers they have built within themselves, and back toward their truest, most awake and alive heart-centered home.
"Julia brings a beauty and an acceptance that is utterly heartwarming, tender, and kind of like the comfiest couch you could ever imagine."
- Elloa Phoenix Barbour
