Throwback Thursday: Back to School Milestone Hike: My Secret to Starting The School Year Well
Release Date: 09/01/2022
Ep 106: The Secret to Impacting Our Democracy with States Project's Melissa Walker
Mother's Quest Podcast
As I bring you this episode, we are less than two weeks from the 2024 U.S. Election. In preparation for this moment, I seized the opportunity to sit down with Melissa Walker, a children's book author turned powerful political advocate, instrumental in the founding of an organization called The States Project. Melissa’s path to The States Project was paved in the election results of 2016 which, like it did for so many of us, became a catalyst for activism. Looking for a way to get more intimately involved in our democratic process, her journey took a powerful turn when she attended a...
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Ep 105: The Evolution of Parenting Teens and Beyond with Parent Coach Casey O’Roarty
Mother's Quest Podcast
I’m excited to share this conversation with my longtime fellow podcasting friend and parenting guide, Casey O’Roarty. Casey is a positive discipline trainer, certified coach and facilitator of personal growth and development, who encourages parents to discover the purpose of our journey. Through workshops, live and online classes, individual coaching, a published book, and her Joyful Courage Podcast, Casey helps us reconnect to our own empowerment and excitement in parenting, providing us with tools and a shift of mindset that allows us to deepen relationships with ourselves and our...
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Ep 104: Calm, Compassion, Clarity: Election 2024
Mother's Quest Podcast
I’m excited to share with you this special episode featuring bite-sized messages from past podcast guests with practices to help us stay grounded, find calm, and regulate our nervous systems in these final days leading up to the 2024 U.S. election! The inspiration for it… A few weeks ago, amid some election anxiety and inspired by my friend Katie Hanus, I committed to just 10 minutes of meditation. Lying on my back, I looked up at the wind moving through a beautiful redwood tree in my backyard. As I watched, I listened to the sound of a nearby wind chime. My breath began to slow, my...
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Ep 103: Knowing Our History: Civil Rights Insights for Today’s World with Sojourn Project's Jeff Steinberg
Mother's Quest Podcast
I’m honored to share this special Father’s Day edition of the Mother’s Quest Podcast. This episode features my friend Jeff Steinberg, whose commitment to the lessons of the civil rights movement can shine a light for us now, during another pivotal time in our nation’s history. Jeff and I first crossed paths when our sons, Ryan and Journey, now 20 years old, became inseparable friends in preschool. While waiting to pick up our kids, I instantly connected with Jeff as I learned about the transformative work he was doing as Executive Director of Sojourn to the Past, also known as...
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Ep 102: Milestone Hike Revisited: A Mother Son Neurodiversity Journey
Mother's Quest Podcast
Welcome to this first episode of Season Nine of the Mother’s Quest Podcast with a returning and special guest, my own son Ryan Neale. I first sat down to record an episode with Ryan in 2017, on his 13th birthday, after we embarked on a milestone hike, using the ascent and descent at our local Sugarloaf Peak to pack up the lessons of his first 13 years of life and my first 13 years of motherhood. At that time, Ryan knew he wanted to close out his teenage years the same way he began them. So this past March, in what felt like the blink of an eye, his 20th birthday approached and Ryan...
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Ep 101: Stoking our Soul Fire for a Revolution from Home with Beth Berry
Mother's Quest Podcast
Welcome to this last conversation of 2023, with coach, teacher, small group and retreat facilitator at Revolution from Home, mother of four daughters and author of the book , Beth Berry. Beth says she has revolution in her bones. It began when she was seventeen and pumping milk in the bathroom of her high school for her now-grown eldest daughter. It has since gradually evolved into a tender, fiery conviction to reclaim motherhood from every disempowering personal and cultural story she can wrap her head and heart around. Beth has spent thousands of hours mentoring and supporting mothers...
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Ep 100: Mothering as Revolutionary Love
Mother's Quest Podcast
This September 11, 2023, I had the honor of holding space for an intimate conversation with civil rights leader, lawyer, award-winning filmmaker, educator, and best-selling author of the book The fact that we were recording on September 11th was meaningful, because the tragic event that had taken place 22 years ago shaped Valarie in profound ways and set her on a path that she never expected. Valarie became an activist after a man of the same Sikh faith, a father and family friend she called uncle, Balbir Singh Sodhi, was the first person murdered in hate violence in the aftermath of 9/11. ...
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Dear Body Revisited: And Then I Got Shingles
Mother's Quest Podcast
This month, I was planning to record a special solocast to welcome in our 100th episode of the podcast. Instead, three days before my son Jacob’s scheduled knee surgery on July 11th, I got diagnosed with shingles. I’m recovering well and so is Jacob thankfully. But it really caused me to revisit my relationship with my body. There was a need for forgiveness all the way around, a rebuilding of trust and a recommitment to myself. In case you’re not familiar, shingles is the re-emergence of the chicken pox virus, which if you’ve ever had chicken pox lives dormant in your nerves and tends...
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Ep 99: Building and Thinking Outside the Box with David Neale
Mother's Quest Podcast
I’m honored to share this special Father’s Day Episode featuring my very own father-in-law, David Neale. I started dating my husband Chris when I was only 19, so I realize David has been a source of inspiration and guidance in my life for over 30 years. How lucky I am to have had his example of leadership, impact, and joy for life to light my way for my entire adulthood! The inspiration for this episode was sparked several months ago at a big milestone birthday celebration David organized to honor his 80th year. That celebration was also the launch of a new fund he initiated...
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Ep 98: Sometimes Change Sucks "Reflections at the 5 year Anniversary of the Manifesto Challenge” With Graeme Seabrook
Mother's Quest Podcast
In 2018, I sat down for a special Mother's Day episode with Graeme Seabrook, a life coach and maternal health advocate, affectionately known by the thousands of mothers she supported as the "Mom for Moms." We hit it off immediately, delving deep into her Motherhood Bill of Rights and my E.P.I.C. life framework, and noticing that both had become manifestos for how we wanted to live our lives while raising our children. During that episode, we co-created what we called a Manifesto Challenge, inviting other mothers to create their own. And afterward, we would reconnect in some way each May,...
info_outlineThis Throwback Thursday’s minisode is inspired by the photos, posts and stories from so many of you about your children’s new beginnings at the start of this school year.
Recorded a few years ago, it outlines my secret to a powerful start that we can share with our children…an experience called a “Milestone Hike” that I’ve done in person and now virtually for many years.
In this Minisode I Talk About:
- How/when I learned about the importance of ending well to begin well at the youth development organization Alternatives in Action
- The transformative Milestone Hike Experience I had on my 40th birthday
- How I’ve used the same components of that hike to acknowledge milestones with my son Ryan (we even recorded a podcast episode about one on his 13th birthday!) including Back to School Milestone Hikes
- The ways I have taken that experience to create signature Mother’s Quest opportunities for reflection
Hope this supports you or a mother preparing for Back to School in your life!
Also, I’d love to hear from YOU: What are your Back to School Rituals that help you start the year well? Please join us in the Mother’s Quest Facebook Group to share or email me at [email protected]
Much appreciation,
Julie Neale
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Listen to my episode with Ryan that we recorded after our Milestone Hike on his 13th birthday. He has grown and changed so much since then and will be starting college in just a few weeks. I’m so glad we have this almost like a time capsule of that period in his life.
Fall 2022 Spark Your E.P.I.C. Year Virtual Hike – Two Dates!
If you’d like to go on a reflective milestone hike (virtually!) with me and others from the Mother’s Quest Community by your side, we’ve opened up registration for the Fall Spark Your E.P.I.C. Year Virtual Hike. Choose from two dates:
You can sign up here for Thursday, Sept 29th from Noon – 1:30 pm PST: https://mailchi.mp/mothersquest/septvirtualhike22
You can sign up here for Saturday, Oct 1st from 10 – 12:30 pm PSt: https://mailchi.mp/mothersquest/octvirtualhike22
Full Episode Show Notes
Check out the full show notes from the original episode here: Back to School Milestone Hike: My Secret to Starting The School Year Well
Mother’s Quest is a podcast for moms who are ready to live a truly E.P.I.C. life.
Join in for intimate conversations with a diverse group of inspiring mothers as they share how they are living an E.P.I.C. life, Engaging mindfully with their children (E), Passionately and Purposefully making a difference beyond their family (P), Investing in themselves (I), and Connecting to a strong support network (C).
Join our community of mothers to light the way and sustain you on your quest at https://www.facebook.com/groups/mothersquest/