Tonya J. Long: 0:00

Hello everyone and welcome to NorCal Narratives, broadcasting on KPCR 92.9. Pirate Cat Radio, your space to meet the people and the ideas shaping our community and beyond. I'm Tonya Long and today we have a very special guest whose story and work speak directly to the heart of what it means to live fully and love deeply. So Megan Lambert is an author, she's a coach, she's a speaker and she is the creator of the Los Gatos Mama's Circle. That happens this Thursday evening five o'clock in Los Gatos. We'll talk a lot more about that. Can't wait to roll up our sleeves and dig in with Megan. She's the author of the best-selling book Eros, the Journey Home. Also, she has a pretty deep podcast called Eros Mama. So a lot of her focus is on motherhood love and we're going to dig into that definition of Eros and her being a passionate advocate for creating spaces where women, and especially mamas, can explore their stories. So, Megan, welcome to the show. It is such a pleasure to have you here.

Megan Lambert: 1:15

Thank you. It is such a pleasure to be here. Thank you for inviting me.

Tonya J. Long: 1:19

I'm thrilled. You have a background. You've lived multiple lives and you're not an older adult, you, but you were a consultant, and then you were then completely different. You were a retreat leader in Bali. I've mentioned your best-selling author. Now you have two children under the age of five, if I recall. So what was the? Thread that connected all those resets for you.

Megan Lambert: 1:48

Yeah, it's interesting. I think sometimes, when I'm in the moment, I'm just following the pulse of aliveness or desire and I'm like I don't know what. The thread is right.

Tonya J. Long: 1:57

It's just, it can seem random but then when I look back I'm like oh, it's there right, and so for me, a couple of threads have emerged.

Megan Lambert: 2:06

One is relationship. I've always been fascinated by the study of relationship and connection and what brings people together and how do we stay together. I joke, my parents were divorced when I was little and it's part trauma, part curiosity, but I studied that in in university. In all of my personal life I was studying relationship men, women, dynamics, masculine, feminine and at the same time I've been curious about this threat of leadership. So what kind of models of leadership do we need as the world is rapidly changing? I love it and those were my two tracks in college. Didn't know how to make a living on the relationship one, so I went for the leadership one, became a leadership consultant to Fortune 500 companies and worked with teams and leaders, and they were part of the big questions I wanted to ask. It's like why are you here?

Tonya J. Long: 3:09

Amazing.

Megan Lambert: 3:10

How do we come together, what's the world that we want to build together and what's each of our unique roles in building that world? And I found the companies I was working with. They didn't necessarily want to go there. They wanted to figure out strategy and profitability, and so I left the corporate world, started my own life coaching business and then moved to Bali because that's the hub of eat, pray, love, personal transformation, deep dives, reset.

Megan Lambert: 3:36

Yeah. Then I lived in Bali for seven years, met my husband. He was also doing masculine, masculine feminine work, leading yoga teacher trainings, and then we started working together as well, doing women's retreats, men's retreat, couples retreat. That's such, all of that yeah, keep going yeah.

Megan Lambert: 3:56

So I would say we did a real deep dive in bali on personal transformation and then for me, I'm at another reset coming back. We're coming back to cal, santa Cruz, and a lot of my curiosity is like how do you take the inner transformation and create outer change in the systems and structures?

Tonya J. Long: 4:13

we live in.

Megan Lambert: 4:14

And particularly around the climate crisis. That's the emerging part of me that's coming through.

Tonya J. Long: 4:20

I hear you, I hear you, I hear you. What a big to go from consulting with these corporate environments to jump to Bali to do the work that you did there. What was the point where you knew that you had to make the shift? Was there a catalyst for that?

Megan Lambert: 4:38

Yeah, I think so much of my personal growth journey has been like tuning in really deeply to my body and my intuition and noticing where is the pulse of aliveness Like, where is the desire? I call it Eros, but it's that the life?

Megan Lambert: 4:53

force moving through and I believe that is our sacred guidance. So at the time I was living just north of San Francisco. I had quit my consulting job, I was living on a retreat when we're helping with corporate training, still in a different way, and it just I felt like itchy in my skin, Like maybe you've had that feeling like a snake that's about to like shed and everything to feel quite right. I felt itchy so I sat and I meditated every morning and I said all right, God spirit universe intuition, where are you calling me?

Megan Lambert: 5:27

And every time I did that, I saw an image of Bali in my mind.

Tonya J. Long: 5:31

I've never been to Bali. I was going to ask if you'd ever been. I don't know anyone that lives in.

Megan Lambert: 5:34

Bali. So no, no, I just saw what I imagined Bali looked like and I got goosebumps and I got tears in my eyes and I felt the full body chills of wow, there's something really deep here and really true, and so I trust it, even when it doesn't make sense. I trust it, and that's so. Much of my work is helping women trust the impulse, even when it doesn't make logical sense.

Tonya J. Long: 5:56

Yeah, I love that you felt the call and you listened to the call and you listen to the call and a lot of us, I think, that have more years on our calendars hear lots of calls and don't heed them. We don't follow our intuition. Why do you think women, and maybe especially mothers, why do they struggle to trust their intuition and even their desires? Why do they struggle to trust their intuition and even their desires.

Megan Lambert: 6:27

That's a good question. I think there's a number of layers. One is cultural conditioning. You think about from the time when little girls were taught to do what your parents said follow the rules, follow authority over listening to what is naturally our desire that's rising Stand in line, Don't run on the playground, even if you want to. And so it starts from this young age of listen to others do what you should do, what's?

Megan Lambert: 6:56

expected rather than what you want to do. And then, as we get older, there's just layers and layers, and I think, especially for mothers, there's an extra layer of be selfless, be generous. Now you have these children. You need to devote yourself wholly to this child. And so I think desire always feels selfish for women. Right, doing something for yourself, I think, for women across the board, will feel selfish. But for mothers, I think there's this extra layer Don't abandon your kids, they need you.

Megan Lambert: 7:22

So I think moms in particular struggle with a lot of guilt.

Tonya J. Long: 7:24

And in those conversations, absolutely Don't abandon your kids. They need you. So I think moms in particular struggle with a lot of guilt. In those conversations, absolutely, and guilt Guilt is a good word.

Megan Lambert: 7:31

Yeah, Guilt, I think is that moment when your desire runs contrary to your conditioning.

Tonya J. Long: 7:38

Oh, say that again. Guilt is the moment when your desire runs contrary to your conditioning, that's powerful, your conditioning yeah, it really is, because what I see with many women that I'm in community with is that guilt of the expectations put on them compared to what is pulling them. And they face tough choices and often the intuition has to get more and more fervent. What is pulling them has to be unignorable. Is that a word I think I just made it up?

Megan Lambert: 8:19

Yeah, no, I love that Unignorable Now. I think that's one other aspect about why it's hard for women to follow their intuition. It's because a lot of women are disconnected from their bodies. Yes, so when you're in your mind is making pros, cons this sheds expectations You're there, huh, that's not the language of intuition, right You're up here.

Megan Lambert: 8:43

Your intuition is down here. You can't see me, but I'm touching my body and it's in your gut, it's in your heart, it's in your pelvis and if you're disconnected from your body, it's hard to hear that quiet. And it is quiet, quieter voice of your intuition.

Tonya J. Long: 8:58

I don't have children, but I might have to come Thursday night just to understand. I'd love to see you Thursday night, just to understand. I love to see you Thursday night Getting in touch with your intuition and learning to hear that voice, allowing yourself to know that's a calling. I think it's something that, at least for me, I've had to be in practice about because it wasn't natural, because there were always the list in my head and the competing responsibilities for time, and I think for us to learn to hear those calls and follow our intuition is powerful, for us to live our best lives.

Megan Lambert: 9:38

I think it's the path to living life that feels most like yourself.

Tonya J. Long: 9:41

It's interesting to me. You wrote a book that's been a bestseller, Eros oh shoot, I've got to hear my Eros the Journey Home, the Journey.

Tonya J. Long: 9:49

Home. But you wrote that before children and in fact, as I recall, you published it a month before your first child was born. So talk about a passion and a calling right was born. So talk about a passion and a calling right To have done that at a time when many women who were a month before their first child are just trying to get the crib together, right, and you published a book, your first book. What drove you to publish the book at such a close time as so many other priorities were happening in your life? What made the book compelling to do then?

Megan Lambert: 10:34

Yeah, I will say, I never made a crib, I don't even. We barely had a nursery. That's awesome yeah, newborn babies. They need so little.

Megan Lambert: 10:45

But I think what drove me to it is I could feel my life was at a precipice. Oh yeah, Like I. In a month I was going to birth this baby, I was going to become a mom. Everything that I knew was about to change and at the same time, I had all this learning and wisdom and experience from my maiden years that I wanted to have a chance to document, to share, to kind of capsulate that thing, and that felt really important and I knew that, okay, I'm going to learn so much more through the journey into motherhood, but there is there's important wisdom so far that I want to capture.

Tonya J. Long: 11:20

If I can say it my way, you valued what you had done and the things you had learned, and you knew that having a child would shift your priorities yet again. Right, and you were compelled to get all that beautiful information out of your head and out of your heart and into something shareable with others. So that is beautiful. And I also knew thank you.

Megan Lambert: 11:47

I also knew the book was based on a group program I had been running that I was going to go offline and dive into motherhood for a while.

Tonya J. Long: 11:55

And so I wanted my teaching to still be able to impact and help women, even while I wouldn't be directly teaching for a little while, yeah, even while I wouldn't be directly teaching for a little while, yeah, you've used the term eros both with your book and with your podcast and, I suspect, in a lot of your trainings that you've constructed and delivered, and I think that your sense of that word is deeper. It's not just about eroticism or romantic love that I just have this intuition of my own that you see it as something much more deep about the self. But can you help share with us, for other people who may have that limited definition that I might have had coming into this conversation, what does Eros mean for you as it relates to your practice, that others might get a more expanded definition?

Megan Lambert: 12:49

Yeah, great question, I know. And people often hear eros and think okay, so the erotic, so sexuality, what's the big deal? Right, sexuality? And I think it's because we look at sexuality like it's a cherry on top, kind of a side dish. Yes To the main course of life.

Tonya J. Long: 13:05

It is lunchtime, so we're thinking about food.

Megan Lambert: 13:08

Right.

Tonya J. Long: 13:09

I'm a little hungry.

Megan Lambert: 13:11

The erotic is the side dish to this main course, but the way I see it is, actually we're born from the erotic right. That is the fundamental life force moving through us yes.

Megan Lambert: 13:35

Is to connect, to create, to birth new realities or humans or creation. Yes, us that guides us, that is deeply rooted in the body and in our sensations and in our pleasure, but is so much bigger than just a thing on the side. Right, yeah, I think it's feminine wisdom, I call it the feminine soul in a lot of places, like I think the feminine embodied soul, creative life force, might be my expanded definition of eros, and like it's one of those things that's hard to put words on, but you know when it's there.

Megan Lambert: 14:10

Yes, you can just see a woman if she's like really connected to her eros, like she's lit up in, like her faith gloves. And her life has this kind of magical quality for someone that's not connected If they're shut down or they're doing what they should, or they're disconnected from their family A muted, gray and white tone to our reality. So eros is the thing that brings the color.

Tonya J. Long: 14:32

I love it. Now you talk about feminine energy, but something that I think is interesting and lovely you are very pro-husband. You are very pro-husband. You've said remarkable things about him online, and so many men that I speak with are, frankly, a little intimidated by the thoughts of the feminine divine, by conversations that they think women are going off into a coffee shop together to talk about feminine energy and they're like, oh, it's overpowering, it's a little intimidating for them. Yet your public persona is very much about the power of you and your husband together, and then it it's beautiful to see that modeled for others.

Megan Lambert: 15:20

so you speak about the balance between masculine and feminine energy.

Tonya J. Long: 15:26

What role does that energy play in relationships, and especially intimate relationships? As kids come in, as children come into the picture, to interrupt that space and I shouldn't say interrupt, but I don't have children, so I see it as you know interrupt, interrupt can be a right word Okay thank you, I thought that's probably not positive, but it's a disruption.

Megan Lambert: 15:50

Our children are born from the erotic, but can also really interrupt it. Yes, absolutely so that's it, I think, zooming out, like if you look at nature, you need the masculine, the feminine aspect of a flower to make a fruit to me.

Tonya J. Long: 16:05

Okay, it's great example. Yes, yeah, right now.

Megan Lambert: 16:09

Oh, the flower and just her feminine aspect is so powerful. It's without either of us or neither. We can't move forward and create, and I think that's true inside of ourselves, like I think we all have masculine, feminine energy inside of us regardless of our gender or a gender, but then you can also have it between people like I think the way my husband and I teach this to couples is like masculine, feminine energy is a spectrum on a scale of a piano, right, you can have like very feminine note, very masculine note and to be a whole, healthy human, you got to be able to play the whole spectrum, right.

Megan Lambert: 16:45

If you want to be a great pianist, you want to use every I love it, right. But then when you come into intimate union, if you want the moment to feel erotic, it really helps. If one person's playing one end of the keyboard and the other's playing the other, right, you've got the polarity of someone in the more masculine energy, someone's more feminine. And it doesn't mean woman has to be feminine, men has to be masculine. You can switch. But it really does help if you are in very different energies because opposites are just yes, yeah, yeah, very different energies because opposites are just yeah, yeah. So my husband and I teach polarity because this is actually skill.

Megan Lambert: 17:22

It's an energetic skill to be agile and move between masculine and feminine, so that you can feel that spark of chemistry when you want to. And it's not a thing that just for a lot of people, chemistry just happens to them. Right you feel it the first date, you feel it when you fall in love, but then a couple of years go down and you're like, oh, who are you? Yeah, but it can be a skill that you two can cultivate.

Tonya J. Long: 17:53

I can't wait to meet your husband, I'm sure, and to see the two of you. Is he part of the session on Thursday or? No, he'll be with the kids. Maybe we'll stop by and say hi, it's your time.

Megan Lambert: 18:06

But he's on babysitting duty while I'm doing mom and circle, I think there's something powerful about those two energies working well together.

Tonya J. Long: 18:13

And you're right, when you were talking visually, I was seeing a piano duet with two people playing both. There are some amazing history moments where two people have gotten so much music out of one instrument, and so I'm really, I'm really seeing what you're talking about in terms of the way you have framed things with him, because I think, I think it does take work and skill to your point to understand how to blend both elements into both of your lives yeah, absolutely, and I for me.

Megan Lambert: 18:51

It's funny, sam Proz, and I think there's so many gifts of men that we have neglected and I think a lot of men feel that they do right there's been a real right, a lot. Of criticism of men because we haven't had balanced masculine covenant. I've been very toxic, masculinity dominated, and I think a lot of men feel personally criticized. But there's so much beauty in men. I love men, the generosity of their heart that they want to serve that they are.

Megan Lambert: 19:22

They're so practical in the way that their minds think they're so strong. Yeah, and a lot of my love of men actually has come from Alison Armstrong. You haven't read any of her work. It changed my life completely.

Tonya J. Long: 19:34

Tell me more. What's her thesis that she operates from?

Megan Lambert: 19:39

She started researching men oh, I think 40 years ago and she thought oh, men are pretty simple, this won't take me long, yeah, and I could see the simple thing In some ways that we talk about when women have private coffee.

Tonya J. Long: 19:52

men are very simple. Some of their needs are very clear, simple.

Megan Lambert: 20:00

That's true, but she found. But she's still researching, 40 years later, and she's realizing that, wow, there's a lot to men and a lot of beauty and gifts that we haven't been able to see and, as women, we haven't been able to nurture and like I think, our job as women is to really reflect, to reflect our own genius. But when it comes to partnership, it's like you know to look at our partner and be like I really see what's brilliant about you and I appreciate it and I love it and I appreciate that she's done the research on it.

Tonya J. Long: 20:32

I'm an author, you're an author, and I think what we give to people is a gift of thought. Everyone can't think everything, and when we research, like Allison has, and we present ideas and concepts, it helps other people grow. So it really is something that you give back into the world to help them see things differently. And she's committed to that work and that's pretty remarkable, and so have you. So, yeah, yeah, absolutely so. The work that you're doing. You've been doing these retreats in Bali. You've written a book, you've got a podcast with tons of episodes, a lot of great content, and you coach people. But right now you're working toward a free workshop in Los Gatos on Thursday night called the Mama Circle. It sounds like so much fun. What inspired you to pull that together? It's clear where you are in life. You've got two children, a beautiful marriage. That together. It's clear where you are in life. You've got two children, a beautiful marriage.

Megan Lambert: 21:43

But what do you hope women will walk away with by coming to join you on Thursday night? Good question. Yeah, I did a mama circle a couple weeks ago and I got this message from a woman In Bali or in Santa Cruz? No, in Santa Cruz. Very good, I'm also doing them in Santa Cruz.

Tonya J. Long: 21:55

I was not aware you had already done one, so that's cool. Great, yeah, I have a few on.

Megan Lambert: 22:01

There's one tomorrow actually in Santa Cruz and one next week. But she said I feel so much lighter. She said I came in feeling 10. Of course I'm kind of burdened by the weight of motherhood and the responsibility and I left and she shared really beautifully and opened up about her story. I feel so much lighter and more connected to the community and I am so looking forward to seeing these women again.

Megan Lambert: 22:23

And I just thought, yeah, that is why I've created these, because I think all women have so many beautiful stories inside of them that need to be witnessed and seen, and they need connection and community. I don't know a single mama that feels like her community bucket is totally full.

Megan Lambert: 22:44

I feel like there's so many of us that are like, yeah, I'd love more community, I'd love more connection, and so that's why I started these circles is because I want women to feel seen, witnessed, honored, celebrated in their stories, all those things and to connect with other women, and I want it too. I'm new to the area and I can't wait to get to know more mamas here and more women.

Tonya J. Long: 23:07

I think one of the things this goes back to our discussion on the word eros. I think it might be a little intimidating for some people, simply because they don't know what's going to happen. They don't really know. So if you were saying, come visit with me, come join my tribe, what is this circle? What can someone who drops in on thursday expect?

Megan Lambert: 23:32

great question. You can expect a warm, welcoming environment is that I have friendly people. Yeah, great food. We're gonna have some snacks as well on thursday, and the way I structure it is we check in, we say, how are you feeling, right? And then each woman has three minutes to share and I time that, and so you can share about highs, lows, struggles, whatever. No advice, there's plenty of advice out there. There's not a space for that, it's just a space to be seen and supported. And then after that I open up for micro-coaching. So if there's one mama that really has a thought she wants some coaching around, I'll work with her for about 10 minutes and then the other women can jump in and add any reflections or celebrate anything beautiful that they saw in that woman's share, and that's totally voluntary. Yeah, of course, nobody has to be coached, but it is so powerful because what the women will see is like their story is reflected in her story. Yeah, and there's so many overlaps and parallels, so I love that little deep dive.

Megan Lambert: 24:36

And then we close up and we talk about what we got from the circle and what we're moving into the week with the power in that circle is everyone feeling seen? For me.

Tonya J. Long: 24:48

what I see and what you've described is, you know, when we stand as these pillars of strength alone, it's easy to believe that you're the only one who is managing these things. But being in that kind of circle, such an appropriate name, you're able to see that other people are wrestling with the same life issues, the same chaos, the same desires to build more and not feeling so alone when you see it in other people is powerful.

Megan Lambert: 25:32

That would share. Yeah, I think about a redwood circle. Oh right, those trees grow in a circle and you think of it's individual trees, right, yeah, they're not under the ground, they're all connected. They're holding each other up and sharing nutrients, and I think that's the analogy for this moment circle right Under the ground. All connected, sharing nutrients. I love it, cathedral tree example.

Tonya J. Long: 25:54

They are amazing, they are. I sat in one and meditated about six or seven months ago a couple hours north of Bodega Bay, and it was just a remarkable. All my friends were off climbing the mountain. I was like I'm fine, I'm here when y'all come halfway back down, pick me up on this. It was a fire road that I found the tree on, but that tree is a beautiful metaphor. It's a real physical thing that occurs in nature when sequoias burn out and then they drop their cones and then they build they, basically they grow up in a circle and at some point they get damaged by fire or whatever. I think that's typically what creates the trees falling in place like they do and creating this crown that you can sit in. I climbed like 12 feet up and it was beautiful. Yeah, but talking about how they are one organism and women not women, sorry, wrong way they are one organism. They are all connected at the foundations, the herd. It's a powerful thing for people to recognize.

Megan Lambert: 27:00

Right, I love it Right. I think a lot of people can sometimes feel like a solitary tree out there trying to raise their family or do their business. But to come back to feeling that underground connection between us, I think it's life changing.

Tonya J. Long: 27:15

I imagine that, whether it's your private coaching or your group-based leadership that you do, I imagine that you've had some remarkable experiences where people have had major either aha moments or moving responses. So I'm curious what are some of the things that people tend to come away with after they've spent time with you and others?

Megan Lambert: 27:45

Yeah, that's a great question. I think one of my favorite things and see, my job's not here to give advice, of course.

Tonya J. Long: 27:51

Right, you're a true coach because you know that. Yeah.

Megan Lambert: 27:55

Thank you. Sometimes I like giving advice, but my deeper role is to help women remember themselves. Oh, to help women remember themselves.

Tonya J. Long: 28:04

I've interrupted you, but that's really important to help women remember themselves.

Megan Lambert: 28:09

That's beautiful, keep going right and to remember their own wisdom and I had a coaching session the other day and she's a mama and she's worn out. She had her first baby and she just had felt so dry and disconnected from her sensuality and I guided her through some different exercises to get connected and she said I feel like for the first time since having this baby a year and a half ago, I've remembered who I was before mother, like I feel like that kind of sexy, carefree, maiden side of me that I really thought had been lost. She hadn't been lost. She had been waiting for your invitation Right and for the right container to emerge. That's just one example, but that's what I love helping women reconnect in is like lost parts of themselves and let's bring it on home so that you have access to all these pieces of you 100% Beautiful.

Tonya J. Long: 29:02

I love it. I'm sure there are people who will hear this on KPCR 92.9, los Gatos. I'm sure there are people that will hear this and wish they could go on Thursday night but can't make it. So if there are people out there who want to start that journey, do you have? We just said you didn't give advice, but do you have any advice?

Tonya J. Long: 29:26

that's just the word I have on what is a practice that they could start now in their lives to enrich where they want to go, and then find your next mama circle to join that is such a good question and a big one because it's so individual it is it is, it's.

Megan Lambert: 29:48

I would definitely say, pick out my book too, because you can look at, I have arrows the journey home or arrows moment. But if you're looking at arrows the journey home, I would say, just open the book and skim through the chapters and look at which one is really speaking to me right am I feeling emotionally stuck. Okay, here's a practice. Do I want to reconnect with my desire? Here's a practice. Do I want to reconnect with my partner? Here's a practice.

Tonya J. Long: 30:10

So I would have them look at the book and then almost read it like this menu where they can choose their own practice off the menu that's great advice, and I'm gonna say this you're not trying to sell your book because people like you and me I'm just doing this for everybody else people that write books that aren't like Brene Brown we admire Brene Brown, but you and I aren't Brene Brown. What we wrote is a gift to others to, as we talked about earlier, get those thoughts that you've developed and curated through experience onto paper. So, yeah, I've had people say, oh, you're trying to sell your book and it's no, not really. I've never made a, I've not made a profit on my book.

Megan Lambert: 30:55

It's not a big money maker.

Tonya J. Long: 30:56

No, not at all, but it is a calling card for what's important to us, what matters to us in leadership and in life, and it's us sharing with the world something really material. So I think it's great that your example of if I can't get to Thursday night, what could I do to get started. There's a whole repository of ideas and suggestions in your book. So, for $21.99 or whatever, I don't remember from, I looked and it's on Amazon and we'll put it in the show notes, both of them. But it's a really great way to have something tangible, physical. That's what I love about books that people can go to and say I choose, and I like the way you said it's a menu, I'll choose this with that, and that. Those are the things that are important to me now, absolutely.

Megan Lambert: 31:48

I don't know whoever's listening. This what you're really needing or wanting, or crazy but there's a whole menu of meditation and movement exercises things to try and things that I know from the comments on your both your book and your podcast.

Tonya J. Long: 32:03

People get personally attached to the things that you share and they've complemented that wisdom and what that wisdom has done in their lives, so you have remarkable feedback on what you've offered to the world.

Megan Lambert: 32:19

Thank you.

Tonya J. Long: 32:19

So I think it'll be remarkable for people to have something like that. That's a tool for them to use.

Megan Lambert: 32:26

I hope if you spell it. When I publish a book, it's like sending out this love letter to the world. I hope it gets in the hands of the women who would benefit.

Tonya J. Long: 32:34

It has, and you know that already right From the reviews. So I love it. So, for the women who are able to come on Thursday night, I'll just say, because I've got it written here Thursday night in Los Gatos, from 5 to 6.30 at Le Tellier, and that's at 59 North Santa Cruz in Suite B, you can RSVP. If there's still space, you can RSVP to Shirley Julian. Shirley Julian, that's Shirley S-H-I-R-L-E-YJulian J-U-L-I-A-N at LatelierLosGatoscom and we will put this in the show notes. That's L-A-T-E-L-I-E-R. Losgatos, l-o-s-g-a-t-o-scom, and if you RSVP by email to'm, there's. I don't think it's filled yet, but I'm assuming. So I'm assuming, aren't you? Surely that event on thursday what, what's your big hope happens on thursday night with the women who are able to join you for conversation.

Megan Lambert: 33:49

I hope that we first of all have a lot of fun, a lot of laughter, a lot of joy I feel like that's going to happen, I've been said so and that your heart cracks open, that you leave feeling a little more connected to your heart, a little more connected to your sensuality, your body and trust in yourself. Yeah, and maybe with a few new friends.

Tonya J. Long: 34:14

That's beautiful, all of it. I'm letting it sink in because I might just have to show up as the only woman there without a child.

Megan Lambert: 34:22

You know what I would love for you to show up because also I'm sure you're mothering all kinds of things this podcast, your book, your community. You are also a mother.

Tonya J. Long: 34:34

I am blessed, I get cards and I get flowers every and I get calls and texts every Mother's Day, and so I, from different people, and I have some people that are really close in my life and that they see that in me and how I hold community with others, and I think it's an important distinction there are more and more women who are electing to not have children, who or just haven't been in a position where it made sense to have children. But I think that maternal aspect has a lot of different, that spectrum that you mentioned. I think that spectrum is really important for all of us, absolutely, we have ways to contribute.

Megan Lambert: 35:23

Huge ways to contribute and mother different aspects of the world. Yeah.

Tonya J. Long: 35:28

And I guess this is a rant for me. We'll see if it goes into the final what's left but uh, I think that people limit themselves and they shouldn't. They limit themselves by definitions. Oh, I don't have children, I'm not a mother, and you stepped immediately into oh, but you do mother some things that I see. I think people shouldn't adhere so stringently to common definitions when they feel something calling them Right, yeah.

Tonya J. Long: 36:02

And so I appreciate that you see those things and it's just a much more inclusive world than some people. Some people choose to see like the boundaries, other people choose to see the intersections well and I would.

Megan Lambert: 36:19

I think it's. I think you have beautiful mothering energy and lots of amazing projects, and I think there's so many different ways to mother for all of us right you could be a stepmother, you could be an adoptive mother, you could be a, a favorite auntie to her friends absolutely you could have a book baby yes, and I think these are all amazing expressions of the maternal instinct of and of the divine feminine right.

Tonya J. Long: 36:45

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I love it. This has been so much fun. How do people follow you, watch you in the healthy way? What's the way that they can engage with your content? We've talked about the book. We'll put that in the show notes. How else do you think are the best ways? I didn't realize you'd done already a couple of these mama circles, so how can people watch for that and get involved?

Megan Lambert: 37:14

Probably the best way would be on my Instagram. Perfect, so it's at Megan D Lambert. Yes, m-e-g-a-n-d-l-a-m-b-e-r-t. Beautiful. That's probably the best way. That's the most current one. I also have a website if you want to do some deep dives into the archives which is just wwwmegandlambertcom Good, Beautiful and the podcast.

Tonya J. Long: 37:40

You had a lot of episodes. I think there's a lot of this. Information doesn't necessarily age. It's not information that's only relevant in real time. So I would also encourage people to take a look at some really targeted discussions you've had over the years as a way to hear more of this, more of your wisdom, your experience. So we'll put all those contact points in the show notes for this so that people can get to that for you. Good yeah, Thank you.

Megan Lambert: 38:08

Yeah, good, wonderful. Thank you so much for having me it's been such a pleasure to talk for you. Good, oh, thank you. Yeah, good, wonderful. Thank you so much for having me. It's been such a pleasure to talk to you and, yeah, I've really loved our conversation.

Tonya J. Long: 38:16

So thank you. You are remarkable and I can't wait to see you at some point. Maybe Thursday night would be nice.

Tonya J. Long: 38:21

And this has been great and this has been Megan Lambert, mama's Circle founder, author, speaker and a woman of wisdom putting wonderful things out into the world. We've been here on 92.9 FM Los Gatos for NorCal Narratives. I'm Tonya Long signing off with Megan Lambert, and we hope that today has been valuable for you as you draw wisdom and encouragement to move into your highest and best calling. Thanks everyone, Megan, thank you, thank you, thank you.