We Were Never Meant to Go It Alone

By Michelle Gallagher Escobar

From the moment we are born into the modern world, most of us are taught a very specific set of rules: self-soothe, self-improve, do it yourself, and stay strong. We are subtly told not to feel too much or take up too much space. For many of us, those instructions worked. We learned exactly how to survive in isolation. We figured out how to raise children, navigate careers, hold the weight of our households together, and just keep going. But human beings were never meant to live this way. True support is not a sign of weakness, collective kinship is not a luxury reserved only for those with extra time, and belonging is never something you should have to prove or earn. We are biologically wired to connect, not to compete.

For years, as a wife and a mother, my natural role was to hold emotional space for everyone else around me. But then one day, I found myself sitting in a circle with a group of women I had just met, in a foreign country, and something deep inside me cracked wide open. A sudden, quiet realization washed over me: This is what I have been missing. It wasn't a need for more therapy, more self-help books, or more strategic advice. It was simply the medicine of women, together, being entirely real.

Since that day, I have returned home to Hilo with a deep devotion to honoring what feels natural, soft, and right in my body. Wild Women Hawaiʻi was born out of a desire to build a sanctuary that reminds us of a simple truth: we were never meant to go it alone. Hyper-independence and deep kinship are not opposites; they can coexist, and vulnerability can actually be safe.

Our gatherings are not about finding answers. They are about being completely true to ourselves and remembering our roots through an intelligence you cannot see, but can deeply feel. Like the quiet, underground network of trees in a forest sharing water and light beneath the soil, we as women are meant to be rooted, seen, held, and nourished by the very same soil. If you have been walking your road alone for far too long and you finally feel the ache of something missing, please know that you are not broken. You are simply remembering.

Warmly,

Michelle

wildwomenhawaii.com