I have been quiet these past 3 months.

I haven't known what to say about what's happening in our country.

Then, last Tuesday, the wildfires in Los Angeles broke, ravaging cities and turning lives upside down. 1000's of homes and businesses burned to the ground. Livelihoods and memories of lifetimes stripped away. Precious human beings and animals lost their lives.

The heartache and shock are beyond words.

I've been walking around in a daze much of the time.

Numb. Scared. Disassociated. Crying. Feeling Powerless.

I am 140 miles away from these fires, now living in Palm Desert. Growing up in LA, these once beautiful neighborhoods feel like home.

Some dear friends and clients lost everything!

Others homes are inhabitable because of the deadly toxins.

My heart is breaking for everyone impacted by these horrendous fires.

So many people. So much trauma. Unfathomable loss.

Thank you to all the firefighters and first responders

who are working tirelessly to contain the fires.

Because this hits so close to home,

I am aware that everyone is our family. Everyone.

I've always felt this on some level, but it's as clear as day now.

We are here to take care of each other.

We are our brothers and our sisters keeper.

There is nothing more important than this reality.

Sadly, in addition to the overwhelming loss, grief and shock so many are experiencing, we are witnessing senseless finger-pointing and the blaming of others related to these unprecedented wildfires that were fueled by 100 mph winds, and the effects of climate change.

This is compounded by an incoming President who has done nothing

to bring about any sense of hope, support or unity. In fact, he is doing the exact opposite, spreading vicious lies and stoking fear, division and chaos.

He is making threats to withhold funding for fire victims and our beloved California in our deepest time of need.

Witnessing his cruelty and abuse of power feels like the darkest hour I have ever experienced in my lifetime, and I know so many of you are feeling this too.

God, help us all.

I've been at a loss on what to share with you since the election knowing this is the kind of person 22% of our country voted into the highest office of our land. Then these devastating wildfires exploded, and shook us to our core.



Sitting here feeling hopeless, I prayed for guidance.

I was reminded of this quote from Mr. Roger's:

"When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news,

my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers.

You will always find people who are helping.'"

Thankfully, I surround myself with helpers.

I could share countless stories of friends who are helping,

even ones who lost their homes and are on the front lines volunteering.

Below are videos of incredible people making a difference all over Los Angeles. This heart, these beautiful souls, these acts of caring, compassion and kindness are what it's all about! This is who we are!

I was blessed to be born and raised in the City of Angels.

I don't know if I ever appreciated how fortunate I am,

and how profoundly true this is until now.

What a blessing each and every one of you are. May our hearts open to embrace one another.

May kindness and mercy lead the way. May we help whenever we can.

May we See the Light.

Be the Light.

I love you!

Teri Jo

I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know:

the only ones among you who will be really happy are

those who have sought and found how to serve. 

~Albert Schweitzer

Acts of Kindness in California

California Volunteers Unite to help Fire Victims

The City of Angels is Alive in Love

Caitlin & John Stamos Helping in Altadena

People who are incarcerated helping

Chef Jose Andres of World Central Kitchen & Jennifer Garner

Saving the Animals 

Whether this is the first day of the Apocalypse

or the first day of the Golden Age, the work remains the same…

to love each other and ease as much suffering as possible.

~Ram Dass (paraphrased) 

Thank God for our Governor, Gavin Newsom

Despair is a claustrophobic feeling. It's the emotion that says,

"Nothing will ever change." It's different than anger or sadness or grief.

Despair is twinged with hopelessness.

People who subscribe to power-over leadership often weaponize

despair. They count on people giving up on themselves, their work, and each other. I get it. I'm looking at people I know with suspicion. I'm questioning the value of my work. I'm wondering if courage, kindness, and caring for each other simply don't matter anymore. I'm desperate for someone to blame because blame is an effective way to discharge pain

and it gives us a sense of counterfeit control.

The research shows that hope is a powerful antidote to despair.

What's interesting, however, is that hope is not an emotion (C. R. Snyder). Hope is a cognitive-behavioral process. It's about having a goal, a pathway to achieve that goal, and a sense of agency or "I can do this."

Right now, the thing that is helping the most is micro-dosing hope. I have no access to big hope right now, however, I am asking myself how I can support the people around me. The people on my team, in my community. How can I make sure that, in the maelstrom of my emotions, I stay committed to courage, kindness, and caring for others regardless of the choices made by others? Doing the smallest next right thing is hard AF, but sometimes it's all we've got.

~Brene Brown 

In our darkest moments, we don’t need solutions or advice. What we yearn for is simply human connection—a quiet presence, a gentle touch. These small gestures are the anchors that hold us steady when life feels like too much.

~Ernest Hemingway

The ORGANIZED Corner

Get your important Documents in order! I created something called a Grab & Go Zip File that I put together for myself and my clients.

It's a file that can be grabbed quickly that contains all essential documents: Health Care Directive, Will, Deeds, Titles, Passwords, Copies of Bank Accounts and Credit Cards, Passwords, Passport, Marriage Certificate, etc.

TIP: If you're a homeowner, make sure to put your assets and properties into a Trust so your family doesn't have to go through the nightmare of Probate.

If you need support setting this Death File up, let's talk.

Email me here to book your free Virtual Consultation.

Whatever happens, stay alive. Don't die before you're dead.

Don't lose yourself, don't lose hope, don't lose direction.

Stay alive, with yourself, with every cell of your body,

with every fiber of your skin. 

Stay alive, learn, study, think, read, build, invent,

create, speak, write, dream, design.

Stay alive, stay alive inside you, stay alive also outside, fill yourself with colors of the world, fill yourself with peace, fill yourself with hope.

Stay alive with joy. 

There is only one thing you should not waste in life, and that's life itself.

~Virginia Woolf

Inspirational Soul: President Jimmy Carter 1924-2024

What a beautiful, heart-centered soul and civil servant this man was!

James Earl Carter Jr. was an American politician and humanitarian who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party, Carter served as the governor of Georgia from 1971 to 1975. He was a champion for human rights, civil rights and social welfare his entire life. I personally can't think of him without crying. He was a kind, caring, compassionate man with integrity, someone who took action daily to make the world a better place for all. He won the Noble Peace Prize in 2002 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1999 among many other humanitarian awards. The list is long of his many accomplishments as noted here. The video below is from his grandson at his memorial last week and is deeply moving.

RIP President Carter

Thank you being an example of a real man, and a true Christian.

YOUTUBE: Jimmy Carter's Grandson (12 minutes)

A strong nation, like a strong person, can afford to be gentle, firm, thoughtful, and restrained. It can afford to extend a helping hand to others.

It is a weak nation, like a weak person, that must behave

with bluster and boasting and rashness and other signs of insecurity.

~Jimmy Carter

Got clutter? Paper piles? An overflowing inbox? Not enough time?

Call me at 310-907-6846 to book your free consultation

terijowheeler.com

Truth and love have been smacked down, so many more times in history before today. Truth, because it’s often inconvenient, and love because it is vulnerable. 

But truth is like gravity, and carbon, and the sun behind an eclipse: it’s still there. And love stays alive if you tend it like a flame. If you feel crushed by unkindness today, it’s a time for grieving, reaching out to loved ones, noticing one bright color somewhere in the day. Remembering what there is to love. Starting with the immediate, the place and people we can tend ourselves, and make safe.

We can’t save everything all at once, but it’s still worth saving something.

Because there are so many of us to do it. 

And we are all still here today, exactly as we were yesterday.

Like gravity, and carbon, and the sun behind an eclipse.

~Barbara Kingslover

Movie Rec: 'It Ends with Us'

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.

~Martin Luther King Jr.

Need Home, Project, Paper or Digital Organizing?

Book your free Consultation today

We can love our brothers and sisters right now. We can love our neighbors as we love ourselves. We can love our enemies. I encourage you to take that to heart, without exception. We all can be more in and of the spirit of who we are. We can be more about loving and caring for one another in the way the Lord loves us. As we choose to love regardless, we can then say in truth, in joy, and with conviction, 'Yes. I am my brother's keeper.’

~John Morton

Song 4 You: 'Great Mother' by Haevn

You only have to have two loves in your life: for God,

and for the person in front of you at any particular time.

~Jimmy Carter