WILLderness: Losing My Way to Find It: Surviving Deception, The Occult, & Heartbreak in the Fight for Purpose

The search for purpose is a journey full of possibilities, adventure, and excitement, but it can also lead you down a path of confusion and put you at risk of danger and deception, if not rooted in a firm understanding of yourself and your beliefs. So many voices and influences in the world are competing for our attention (especially targeting Millennials and Gen Z) to convince us that they have the way to go if we just follow their lead. Unfortunately, when you're young, it can be easy to be led astray. This is a memoir of 2 twin sisters who in the search for purpose and meaning embarked on a 750-mile Black Lives Matter march from Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Washington DC in August 2020, during the height of social unrest and the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, this story is more than just a march for justice; it's a journey of finding one's voice, identity, and community that involves the whole mind, body, soul, and spirit. While beautiful in the beginning, it quickly turned into a story of loss, confusion, and defeat. This story captures the power of deception and how the search for purpose is actually more of a fight than a journey. It documents the mistakes made, the red flags missed, and the importance of knowing who you are so that you don't become tricked into following false leadership, false promises, or false doctrine. Guarding your heart is essential to protecting yourself from being taken advantage of, deception, and heartbreak. Though hardship and heartache were part of this wilderness experience, the lessons learned can now guide others to avoid the same traps and delays as a result of poor judgment and relying on the heart alone to lead. While these sisters lost their way in the search for purpose, they were able to overcome, find hope, and discover a greater calling and will through the wilderness.