In 2025, I embarked upon a year-long inner work journey with my fantastic Gene Keys guide, Hayley Curtis, and alongside an amazing group of women. It was called DEVOTED and it was intense! I mean, it was really intense deep work that took up a huge amount of time and energy.

And that was kind of scary, for a woman whose life was already pretty busy (full-time job; doing the inner work; running my small bookbinding business; learning new bookbinding techniques on an Art of Bookbinding course; not to mention having a family and a home and all the wonderful, hectic, busy stuff that goes along with all that everyday human existence!).

So, how did I make time for all of these things I had going on?

Leaning into the Dream Arc

Well, one of things I did was to lean into the Dream Arc. The Dream Arc is a “rich and highly unique journey designed to expand your creativity, unlock your intuitive wisdom and connect you to the deep ancestral power of the earth and her creatures.” It is a sister journey to the Gene Keys journey, one which is entirely intuitive and doesn’t actually require you to study, or even know anything about, the Gene Keys!

When we first embarked upon DEVOTED with Hayley, she chose some Dream Arc creatures to accompany us on the journey, to support us in our inner work. One of these was the Vision creature associated with the Siddhi of Gene Key 35, the Siddhi of Boundlessness. It is the Quetzal which is really the most beautiful bird and so perfect for this Siddhi of Boundlessness. Oh, and isn’t “Boundlessness” just the most wonderful word?!!

“The Quetzal opens up a deep ability to travel to inner worlds and bring a sense of boundless freedom from time, out into their waking life.

Like a seed we are each gifted at birth, this mysterious essence requires gentle cultivation in order to reveal its true splendour within our lives.”

Dream Arc

Spending Time with the Quetzal

I spent some time (no pun intended) contemplating the Quetzal, for I had quite literally felt my relationship to time changing since we had begun DEVOTED.

I was creating more time in my life for this inner work by weaving it through my every waking moment. Not in a totally obsessive way, but in a gentle way.

I was bringing the inner work, and my contemplations, into my daily life.

I was changing the way I breathed.

I was changing the way I moved.

I was changing the way I contemplated the Gene Keys and all that they were revealing to me.

And these were all conscious choices.

And whereas in the past I would have worried that I wouldn’t be able to fit all this extra work and contemplation and deep diving, into my life, I found that it was simply not a concern any more. I was simply doing it.

And yes, there were things I cut back on doing, but this opening up of time had actually had nothing to do with stopping doing other things, and everything to do with creating gaps, creating space.

Releasing Myself from the Fear of Running Out of Time

When I visualise my inner world, it is vast; it is made up of layer upon layer of luscious landscape … mountains and forests and rivers and trees and flowers … and ME!

Me, right in the centre of this vast paradise, where everything exists, everything good, everything natural and wild and free. And that ME totally embodies the Quetzal’s sense of boundless freedom from time.

I used to be so scared of time running out before I’d done all that I want to do in my life. That fear is just the fear of death in different clothes. But when I fear running out of time, then I am disconnected from the here and now. I don’t claim to fully understand what Quetzal’s greater meaning is in the Dream Arc, but for me, Quetzal’s wings are what I ride upon as I dive into my inner realms.

Every day, as I contemplate my Gene Keys, I think of Hayley’s words to us as we embarked on our DEVOTED journey … you have the rest of your life to do this work, but you are also called to start right away in the inner planes.

I have the rest of my life and its boundless freedom from time.

And I have RIGHT NOW.

I am everyWHEN.

I am here now, writing this, and inside me is the wild free child I once was; and there is also the seed of the woman I am becoming.

When all of time is wrapped around me … today, yesterday, tomorrow … I don’t need to rush. I don’t need to panic about it running out.

I can just gently sigh into each moment, and I realise that I am healing every moment by doing this work now.