Welcome! I’m happy you are here. I’m not entirely sure what this blog is about. I often have the inspiration to start something without a lot of detail about what comes next. Kinda like life. For me, anyhow.

I’d like this to be a space for sharing practical information about the journey of life in the physical realm.  As my dear friend, Mary, likes to say, “When we tell each other our stories, we help each other heal.” And, we know we are not alone in our experience. I’m also fascinated with exploring the mystery that surrounds and creates life. What’s it all about anyway? I once heard these words from a teacher, “Remember you are a spiritual being having a physical experience.” My life tends to exist first in the mystery, in my imaginings and inspirations, and then it becomes manifest in physical reality, like the creation of this site.

So, I think I’ll start with a blog, organized by various topics, and attach items of interest along the way. Everything on this site is not copyrighted and is freely offered. From my perspective, it doesn’t belong to me, it comes through me. We’ll see how it goes. I invite you to join the conversation. Let’s see what happens…

Where I am right now: I’m 51 years old and recovering from a replacement of my right hip after being diagnosed with hip dysplasia—a congenital birth defect. At some point after the drugs wore off, I received a clear message to get online and share about my experience and that’s how all this started. I was inspired and helped by the blogs of others who courageously shared their own experiences. So, I’ll start with Hip Adventures and see where it goes from there.

My Life

I thought you might like to know a little more about me and my life experiences. I was the daughter of rancher/farmers. I raised sheep, worked cattle and trained horses. I worked in the garden and in the house. I was my mother’s daughter and my father’s son, since I was the only child.

I was also a nerd who got good grades. In college, I earned a business degree, studying computer information systems, finance, accounting, and management principles. Then I worked for the University helping professors, staff and students use computers and the Internet, when it very first began. I said then it would change the world. I thought it would connect us in ways we had never imagined. I guess this website is one of its manifestations…

Then I decided to change course entirely and went to graduate school to become a counselor. I worked on a suicide hotline, a psych ward, at Hospice, for a rural mental health center, and created my own psychotherapy practice. Eventually, I became a life coach.

Along the way, I did many other things to make a living and explore my interests. I took people up into the high mountain wilderness of Colorado on horseback for sightseeing and hunting trips, co-owned a health club, fixed and flipped real estate, owned or worked in storage facilities, invested in the market, wrote and published essays and stories, belly danced, and taught yoga and Tai Chi.

I struggled with romantic relationships from my teen years until my late 40’s. I made many close and amazing friends, who are still with me to this day. I left the place of my birth and upbringing and my small family, then returned 20 years later to be with them in their later years. When I came back, I rediscovered a man I used to work with at the University, and finally found out what it is like to have a healthy romantic partnership. It’s the longest I’ve ever known a man before kissing him–24 years! I guess there is something to be said for taking time to get to know someone before diving in… I also reconnected with many of the friends I had known 20 years ago and today, I must say, we have closer and deeper relationships than we had then. Probably, because I’m actually capable of that now!  I have come to believe that it is our love for, and connections with, one another that matter most.

These days I’m also deeply fascinated by the Mystery of life—what is this all about anyway? What are we really doing here in these human lives? What is consciousness? I am fascinated by the inner world. As a long-time meditator, I wonder who is it that watches my “monkey mind” do the crazy things it does and then brings it back to the breath? Who reminds me: This too shall pass. Keep breathing, stay in the moment, nothing happens by accident? One thing I’m sure of is that this Presence is bigger than the ego personality I call Rhonda Ashurst, who seriously lacks this perspective!

Recently, I’ve had the experience of disappearing into an ocean of Awareness where I experience deep peace and contented happiness. It is underneath the waves of my day-to-day consciousness, at the center of my being. (I still laugh about finding it there, under the floor boards, as it were. Who would have ever considered looking within?) To be in this space, I must let go of myself, of my mind, of all I think I am. It is very challenging to describe, but I want to try.