For anyone who’s watched someone disappear while still alive

Hi Reader,

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I remember the last time my dad visited me here in Vermont — the only time he ever saw the organic farm Dave and I have grown together over the past 16 years.

We were sitting on the couch. It was quiet in that way that makes you feel like sound itself is too heavy. He was different — softer, slower. His answers were mostly “yes” or “no.”

He reminded me of the character Chauncey Gardner in the film Being There. Kind… present… but far away behind the eyes.

I asked him a question that I didn't even fully understand as it came out of my mouth.

He paused. Then he said quietly:

And that was it.
No more words. Just that truth.

I’ve thought about that moment so many times. He was still in there. Aware. Watching us. Feeling things. He just couldn’t get out.

This week, I interviewed someone who lives right at the edge of that place — where music, movement, and ancient healing meet people who are still aware on the inside, even when words are gone.

Her name is Lynn Noble. She’s a board-certified music therapist and an internationally certified yoga therapist.

And she told me something I can’t stop thinking about:

If I had known that when my father was alive… would his favorite song have reached him?

We’re told there’s “Nothing more we can do.”
But what if that’s just what the system is structured to say — when it runs out of billable codes?

This — right here — is why I talk about what I'm now calling The Elegant Rebellion.

t’s my name for the powerful movement of women who are no longer waiting for permission from broken systems to care for themselves and the people they love.

We look to ancient wisdom, clean food, non-toxic homes, and holistic healing not as trends — but as acts of reclaiming what should have never been outsourced.

Not just eating clean or ditching toxic products.
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It’s deeper.
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It’s refusing to accept that pharmaceutical intervention is the only form of care.

It’s remembering that music, rhythm, breath, intentional movement, and ritual have been healing tools for thousands of years — long before profit-based systems replaced them.

So, here’s my invitation to you, whether you ever click through to the episode or not:

🎧 Micro Practice for Today:

Choose one song from your own life — one that carries memory, aliveness, or something sacred — and actually sit and listen to it.​
Not while doing dishes.
Not as background noise.

Just listen.​
Breathe with it.
Let it reach you.

This is how rebellion begins — not with rage, but with remembering what still has the power to move us.

If the story above stirs something in you, I hope you’ll join me for this conversation with Lynn. It's tender, fascinating, hopeful — and it reminded me that there is always more life available than we’re told.

Watch/Listen:

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And, listen here:

For all of us who refuse to go numb,

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​Amy