09/11/2026
What If We Already Hold the Key?🗝🚪
Have you ever heard a song at exactly the right moment in your life?
Not just a song you liked.
One that somehow put words to something happening inside you that you hadn't figured out how to say yet?
Music has been one of my Wild Teachers for as long as I can remember.
And years ago, one of those teachers was NF .
When his album Perception came out, Intro III hit something inside me.
The song plays out like a conversation with Fear—this thing that has been living inside, taking up space, convincing you that it has more power than it really does.
And the realization I carried away from that song was simple:
What if Fear doesn't actually hold the key?
What if I do?
🗝️
At that point in my life, that question was powerful.
But here's the funny thing about Wild Teachers...
Sometimes they come back.
And when they do, they don't always teach you the same lesson.
Years later, another NF song, HAPPY, made me think about the other side of that key.
Because sometimes we become so accustomed to our pain, anger, fear, grief, or survival that we actually know how to live there.
It may hurt...
but it's familiar.
And then happiness comes knocking.
Healing becomes possible.
Something new opens.
And suddenly the unknown is on the other side of the door.
I've been rewatching Once Upon a Time, and Regina's story has made me think about this even more.
Without spoiling the show for anyone who hasn't watched it, Regina is repeatedly faced with choices between holding onto the pain that has shaped her and stepping toward something different.
There are moments when happiness is right there.
Hope is right there.
Love is right there.
And she isn't ready.
Not because she doesn't want happiness.
But because accepting it would require loosening her grip on the identity and pain she already knows.
And isn't that painfully human?
Sometimes we know exactly where the door is.
Sometimes we even know we're holding the key.
We're just not ready to turn it yet.
Maybe healing isn't always one brave moment when we dramatically choose happiness and never look back.
Maybe sometimes we walk toward the door.
Turn around.
Learn another lesson.
Get lost.
Find ourselves again.
And eventually return to a door we weren't ready to open the first time.
Not because we failed.
Because we're finally ready to meet what is waiting on the other side.🚪🗝✨️
🔥 Around the Fire
So here's the question this Wild Teacher has left me sitting with:
Have you ever realized that something you desperately wanted was also something you were afraid to receive?
Love?
Happiness?
Success?
Peace?
Being seen?
A new beginning?
Maybe the question isn't only:
Do I have the key?
Maybe it's also:
Am I ready to use it?
🌿🐉🗝️🔥
Curious thoughts,
Kirston Ann
Wild Teachers | Sacred Curiosity
Stay curious. Life is always speaking.