KelleyWilks.com

I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t find the door handle. I was not in my Celica.

A friend walked up to my car window with a strange tone.

“Kelley, something has happened to Rick.”

The truck behind me was an ambulance — no lights — and it had come for my husband. He wouldn’t walk for almost a full year.

I was a week into my third semester of graduate school. I had a museum job, Sunday night Mexican food with friends, a whole life in motion.

My world did a hard stop that night.

The ground shifted. And so did I.

What followed was years of unraveling — divorce, starting over, falling in love again, building a pottery business and community studio I poured a decade into, then closing it at its peak. Laying on the sofa for a month unable to lift myself. And at that lowest point — a breast cancer diagnosis.

Betrayal. Loss. Diagnosis. All at once.

And then — like the phoenix — I rose. This time with Vince beside me. A partner who sees me fully, hikes every trail with me real and metaphorical, and shares the same dreams for what this chapter can be. He is not my rescue. He is my fellow traveler. And that is so much better.

What I found in the wreckage was me.

Mindset isn’t a buzzword — it’s been my survival equipment. Faith in something bigger has been my anchor. And tribe? Tribe is everything. The people around you will either amplify your becoming or quietly diminish it.

I am 62 and still becoming. Optimism is not a personality trait — it’s a daily practice. And movement matters. Physically. Metaphorically. Both.

Are you feeling that too?

The third act is not winding down. It’s our most intentional chapter yet.

I built Silver Sage Rising for the woman who has lived a full, complicated, beautiful, hard life — and still feels there is more. That she is more.

I offer a free 30-minute conversation. No pitch. No agenda. Just two women talking honestly about what’s possible.

Tell me one thing you’ve been waiting to do. We’ll start right there. 👇

She told me she felt like a background character in her own life. Here's what happened next.

A few years ago I sat across from a woman in her early sixties who told me she felt like she'd missed her window. She'd spent thirty years being the reliable one — the one who kept the office running, the household humming, the calendar full for everyone else. And now, with retirement on the horizon, she felt something she hadn't expected.

Not freedom. Fear.

She was afraid that the version of herself she'd always meant to become — the one with purpose and presence and a voice that mattered — had somehow passed her by while she was busy being useful to everyone else.

I recognized that feeling. I've lived it.

"The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud."
— Coco Chanel

When my then-husband was in a serious accident in 1995 and spent nearly a year in a wheelchair, I was deep in graduate school studying ceramics. My whole world shifted. I didn't plan a spiritual journey — I was dragged into one. And out the other side of that, my art changed. My porcelain stopped being functional and started being about healing and light.

I didn't know it then, but that was my first act of thinking for myself. Aloud. Through clay.

Later came divorce. A retail pottery business I built from nothing — with a gallery, a community studio, and a fundraiser that fed the hungry for eight years. And then a breast cancer diagnosis that had the audacity to show up right when I thought I'd finally figured things out.

Each time, I had a choice. Stay small, or rise.

I believe this with everything I have. I have seen it in my own life — more times than I deserved, probably. And I have watched it unfold in the lives of women who had come to me certain they had run out of time, and left knowing their best chapter hadn't been written yet.

The third act isn't the quiet ending. It's the one where you finally stop apologizing for taking up space.

If something in this post made you sit up a little straighter — if you recognized yourself somewhere in JoAnne's story, or in mine — I'd love to talk.

Is this your moment?

I offer a free, no-pressure 30-minute conversation for women who are standing at the edge of their next chapter and wondering if someone can help them take the step. No pitch. No agenda. Just two women talking honestly about what's possible. If that sounds like something you need, reply to this post or send me a note. Tell me one thing you've been waiting to do — and we'll start there.

Silver Sage Rising
“It’s a little bit funny, this feeling inside
I’m not one of those who can easily hide
I don’t have much money, but, boy, if I did
I’d buy a big house where we both could live” — Elton John sings Bernie Taupin’s lyrics ‘Your Song’
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‘One of the greatest love songs ever written.’ Not my words but apparently John Lennon and even others. It is in my ‘Top 10 List’ which, whoever knows me knows that it has more like 100 songs, that goes for Top 10 Movies’… and the like. But i digress.

Everyone has music that sets the tone of periods of their life, a soundtrack to life. For me, for most of my life from 8 or 9 years old to well into adulthood, it was Elton’s music.

I was in first grade when my mom signed me up for piano & ballet classes. Ballet was a catastrophe. The piano wasn’t far behind but it left an impression on me. I love piano music, from classical to rock that has a strong piano.

I once staked out the Mansion at Turtle Creek in Dallas, because i wanted to get his opinion on a musical question, and had heard that was his favorite Dallas hotel.

Back to the song and the question it raises in me…. In light of Valentines’s Day having just passed, what sort of things have you done for love, for the one you love? Also how do the things from your youth that you had done differ from what you do or more recently have done in your mature relationships (how does maturation of loving relationships differ from the youthful falling in love)?

Please share one or more stories (public or even pm me). I appreciate you and thanks. I look forward to reading your stories.

Also, i have the full song lyrics on my substack linked below.
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Silver Sage Rising is a living movement of wise women reclaiming visibility, voice and fearless becoming.

“Walk in your Sovereignty. Your wisdom radiates!”
— KelleyWilks.com

https://open.substack.com/pub/silversagerising/p/silver-sage-rising-20d?r=57q32n&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Silver Sage Rising
Most people are either a dreamer or a do’er in life. Then there are the do’ers who rarely finish because they have too many dreams & start them all… dreamers masked as do’ers. Which are you? — Kelley Wilks
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I confess I’ve been the latter but you probably guessed that. But this is a newer thing in my life and i personally associate it to the good, better best principle.

See, I can do very many things good & better than most, but for the last decade, i had let fear keep me from doing & being my best.

It is the fear that i could & that would set me on a different path than my world, my family & close friends, saw me, at least from my perspective. As i traversed my first decade of menopause i willingly stayed on a limiting box and played with all the ‘toys/dreams’ that would fit in there forgetting that i hold the only key to my restraints.

Menopause is a time of extreme change in a woman’s body including chemical makeup, like teen years all over. Change can be scary & invite fear in us. Thus it also offers a huge opportunity for growth & blossoming. Reminds me of the quote of the bud staying tight till the pain of staying grows more than the pain of bursting free.

I have a whole tool-chest but finding my saboteurs and learning how to minimize them while growing my self-strength was life changing. Message me right now to learn more & become a do’er and not just a dreamer…. Because i was a dreamer masked as a do’er.
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Silver Sage Rising is a living movement of wise women reclaiming visibility, voice and fearless becoming.

“Walk in your Sovereignty. Your wisdom radiates!”
— KelleyWilks.com
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Silver Sage Rising
“You cannot use someone else’s fire. You can only use your own. And in order to do that, you must first be willing to believe that you have it.” - Audre Lorde
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Do you feel like you hit roadblocks at every turn?
Like no matter how much inner work you’ve done, something still keeps pulling you back?

Here’s the gentle truth: it may not be life blocking you—it may be the parts of you that once kept you safe - your saboteurs!

Message me “PQ” (include your email) and I’ll send you a short, insightful quiz that reveals your key saboteurs—so you can start creating your life from wisdom instead of fear.
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Silver Sage Rising is a living movement of wise women reclaiming visibility, voice and fearless becoming.

“Walk in your Sovereignty. Your wisdom radiates!”
— KelleyWilks.com
——

Silver Sage Rising
“I am thankful for my struggle, because without it, I wouldn’t have stumbled across my strength.” — Alex Elle
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I’ve often heard phrases like ‘what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’ or ‘pressure on coal creates diamonds’… but life is full of ups and downs; some people just have more of one or another or get caught in a spiral downward or even upward.

Perspective is a key to altering & changing that rhythm, sometimes almost instantly even but not always. Im not talking ‘rose colored glasses’ but saying that thinking ‘what can i learn here?’ or ‘what was a tiny positive from this?’… will often change things to less negative by offering a value or benefit for that experience. Just a thought.
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Silver Sage Rising is a living movement of wise women reclaiming visibility, voice and fearless becoming.

“Walk in your Sovereignty. Your wisdom radiates!”
— KelleyWilks.com
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Pic was Rio Frijole Trail near Cundyo, NM north of Santa Fe.

Silver Sage Rising
“I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the water to create many ripples.” — Mother Teresa
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Mother Teresa was not compelled by a need for recognition or a perfectly mapped plan.
What moved her was a simple, brave decision to answer what stirred her heart — even when it made no logical sense and offered no guarantees. She did not wait until she felt ready, young enough, funded enough, or endorsed enough. She listened to the inner nudge that said, Begin where you are. Love who is in front of you. That single choice became a stone cast into still water, sending ripples of compassion far beyond what she could ever have imagined.

One small example tells the story. When she lifted a dying man from a gutter and offered him dignity in his final hours, she changed one life — and in doing so, awakened countless others who heard the story and felt their own hearts stirred toward service. A single act created a widening circle of courage, generosity, and hope. That is the power of ripples: you never truly see how far they travel.

For women in their 50s and beyond, the Silver Sage Rising Galls, this is a sacred invitation. Your dreams are not late — they are seasoned, rooted, and wise. When you dare to act on what lights you up now, you cast your own stone into the waters of the world. Others will feel it. Others will rise because you did. Your becoming gives permission for more becoming. Let the ripple begin with you.

If you are feeling that you are sabotaging yourself and would like a tool to help you work with it and change that habit, message me for more info. I’d love to help you and have a group starting soon.
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Silver Sage Rising is a living movement of wise women reclaiming visibility, voice and fearless becoming.
- “Walk in your Sovereignty. Your wisdom radiates!” — KelleyWilks.com

The pic is a cave that an artist carved out of the sandy hillside south of Ojo Caliente, NM. I was fortunate to get to go there with a private group in 2019. Truly amazing and really creative.







Me

Silver Sage Rising
“Never ever let somebody stop you or shame you from being yourself” - Lizzo
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You are unique similar to the uniqueness of each sunset. We all have similarities like a sunset has the sun going beneath the horizon but we also have individual items that make us shine in different ways.

The sunset may or may not have clouds of varying shapes, sizes that will reflect the colors on very different vibrancy and focus. In similar fashion, you & I can put the same clothing on & it will fit, fall & look different, sometimes very different.

Find what works for you in your life (without causing harm or to others) and go with it. Wearing white after Labor day or before Memorial Day was once a ‘rule’. I like white, anytime! Don’t let baseless rules impede you; think for yourself on things like that, like “why no white?”

Then when someone attempts to stop or shame you for doing or being someway, you have been building your ‘personal muscles’ and can be you without conceding, bending or even needing yo justifying yourself. Be you; do you. Have fun and remember you are as special as each sunset!
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Silver Sage Rising is a living movement of wise women reclaiming visibility, voice and fearless becoming.
- “Walk in your Sovereignty. Your wisdom radiates!” -KelleyWilks.com