Meet Natalie: Wayfinder & Owner
Hi! I’m Natalie. I’m the initiator, the owner, the wayfinder. I hold the vision.
I grew up in a rural town of grapes and cows in Northern California called Angels Camp, not too dissimilar in character than here. My high school mascot was a bullfrog and I spent summers river rafting with my family and the school year engaging in this and that community event. I started college at Whitman in Walla Walla where I played volleyball and remember my first drive through the Gorge on a weekend away to the beach. I have a vivid memory using a payphone in the Dalles (yes this was before cellphones!) to call my coach to tell him I was going to be late for practice, I got in a bit of trouble. I ended up transferring to Humboldt State where I got a degree in Geology and later finished up with a PhD in Fluvial Geomorphology from Colorado State University. Throughout graduate school I would travel to the Gorge to go kayaking with my husband and friends and in this time period travelled and competed internationally in extreme Whitewater competition events. In 2016 when I was pregnant with my first child we bought the little house by the Logs and moved here in 2017.
By the time my second kid was on the way I was trying to balance scientific research, competitive kayaking and living in a new place with shallow roots. I was not doing to well. I felt spastic, lonely, exhausted, uncertain, confused, troubled, lost. In desperation, I hired a life coach to help me look into myself to begin the process of re-finding what makes me tick and to deconstruct unneeded and unhelpful values around work, value and wealth.
Despite outward appearances of having it all, I had gone astray and was not living my life that was in my integrity. I was sorely missing the neighborliness, community and connection that I had growing up in a small town and simply doing too much all over the place without being fully present for any of it. At the end of the year of life coaching, I put my scientific research on hold and bought 1256 Hwy 141 in 2020 after staring at the for sale sign for 8 months (I live across the street), offering them half of what they were asking and then ushered into the journey of an entrepeneur when the accepted the low offer.
I started the Missing Corner because I recognized what I needed (connection with my community) and the world situated me so that it was obvious what I had to do. I was gifted the financial means and asked to make this little operation happen by something beyond myself. When I bought the building , I promised myself that it would be a pressure less project and if I wasn’t enjoying working on it, it wasn’t worth doing. Starting a business with this attitude has certainly been a learning curve in surrender and patience. Being absolutely OKAY with growing slow. Not pushing forward. Not making stuff happen but simply holding the ideas and then being calm and patient enough to give the right nudge and spring into action at precisely the right moments. This isn’t growing a business by pushing a boulder up a hill aiming for when I reach the top. This is about growing a business so that I ENJOY THE PROCESS of growing it. It is about being okay with it not growing while I sort stuff out in my personal life, it is about setting it aside and then observing what needs to happen. Then making things happen when they need to with effortless effort. Whenever things feel sticky, I stop. It means NOT doing the things I don’t want to do or that drain me. When I find something isn’t being done that needs to be done, it usually means I don’t want to do it, so I need to find someone else who will want to do it. It means months may go by when it appears nothing happens. But that there are months where a lot of things happen.
For the first four years, I was experimenting, and figuring things out - mostly by myself, but I also had an angel in Crystal Luster who came to me and said, “you don’t know you need me, but you do.” She took on making sure the place was tidy (enough) and gently and kindly prodded me along. She stood by my side and walked with me through the uncertainties of starting something knew, and I am forever grateful for her impromptu check ins with me and for keeping the space tended. She has now moved to the Dalles and I sorely miss her uncomplicated friendship. I am also grateful for all the people who have engaged with me and were gracious with me as I made mistakes over this time period.
For the last four years, I have been on the runway, prepping the plane. At this moment, the Jet is revving its engines and about to takeoff. I’m the navigator and I finally have a pilot in Amber and a flight attendant in Carrie. Come along with us for a fantastic journey forging re-connection and new connection with our neighbors and the land in which we live.
Find out more about my mission and values, economic philosophy, and vision,
