In the Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien's sprawling narrative about Middle Earth and it's peoples as they struggle against the dark forces of Mordor, there's a scene that sums up well how to think about What We Were and the journey we're undertaking together.
The safety of Middle Earth ensured and the great battles now won, the hobbits return home to the Eden like Shire as hardened warriors and adventurers. But something has changed. The innocence of common life, the smallness of that world-view doesn't feel right anymore. There's a uneasiness that settles on Frodo in particular who elects at the end to travel with Gandalf and the Elves to the lands beyond the sea. A new place. One that isn't broken by the memories of the what it took to come home.
In Frodo's words:
"There is no real going back. Though I may come to the Shire, it will not seem the same; for I shall not be the same. I am wounded with knife, sting, and tooth, and a long burden."
A heavy and stark example to be sure. But it drives home the point here. We often return to ideas different people. Whether it's the changes since high school or the effect a year of isolation has had on our body and our soul, time has a strange effect on the lenses we carry.
We understand that here.
So as we began to build a place to help people bring health and wellness to their lives, we designed it to be visited not once but many times. For time will change the meaning of the material and the methods. If a program, plan, outline or derivative doesn't take into account this very human experience, it's set itself up for failure.
At What We Were, we don't believe in failure. We believe in honoring the journey that got you this far. We believe there's a strange magic in one soul sharing to another a piece of their story. Because we have a theory in all this we put to the test on a daily basis: if we could just tell someone our story, maybe we wouldn't have to shoulder all of it any more. Maybe we could leave it there, at the telling place, and travel on. Perhaps a bit lighter.
A soul travels farther when they're light and fit. Lightness comes from finding a place to belong and people who believe in you. Fitness comes from challenging and nourishing our soul carrier. The two work hand in hand.
As we move through our evolutions and perhaps return to a previous one as the seasons direct us, you'll feel the familiarity spawn new ideas about how to adjust your habits and daily comings and goings. This is the magic of What We Were, we just believe in not neglecting what we were but instead inviting that experience to help guide us towards better levels of health.
See it now?