About Toni

Called to Companionship

A white woman with short auburn hair, wearing a floral dress and silver jewelry, grins broadly up from her seat on the stone edge of a flowerbed filled with Texas Bluebonnets in peak bloom.
Toni Gatlin during springtime at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, Texas. Photo by my dear friend Sharon who always brings me joy.
You will show me the path of life: in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand there are pleasures for evermore. ~ Psalm 16:11

This verse of Scripture was deeply impressed upon my heart as a teenager as something that I knew would be key to my calling. I thought I understood what it represented for me at the time, but it turned out that it would take over thirty years of hard-won life experience for it to truly come to fruition.

One consistent theme I've noticed on my life pilgrimage is that everything becomes exponentially more difficult in isolation.

Being a human can be hard, and doing life alone is even harder.

The very good news is that no one needs to be alone on their path.

Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up the other; but woe to one who is alone and falls and does not have another to help. Again, if two lie together, they keep warm; but how can one keep warm alone? And though one might prevail against another, two will withstand one. A threefold cord is not quickly broken. ~ Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

After traveling many paths of my own (some easy and smooth, some dead ends, some that I thought might keep me lost and stumbling forever), I've learned a bit about how to companion others on their pilgrimages.

This calling to companionship manifests uniquely in various contexts, based on my life experience and training; explore how I can help here and some regular events I host here.

I can't magic away the struggles of this human life, but I can stand in solidarity with you in the midst of them.

Don't make your path more difficult than it needs to be: there's no special award for doing life on Hard Mode!

We're all pilgrims going somewhere. Let's go together.

MISSION

Eliminate the overwhelm of isolation by companioning individuals and groups on the unique pilgrimage of their spiritual and organizational growth.

VISION

An authentic community where no one feels alone on their path.
There is no map for this, beloved. I've brought the lantern, I've brought time.
No Map poem and illustration by Lori Hetteen

CREDENTIALS

I received my spiritual direction training through Kairos University's Listening People to Life program.

I was trained by Susan Piver to offer instruction in the ancient method of mindfulness awareness (shamatha-vipashyana) meditation.

I learned to better support nonprofit organizations and leaders as I earned the Certificate in Nonprofit Leadership and Management through Nonprofit Austin at Austin Community College as well as the Certified Nonprofit Professional (CNP) credential granted by the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance.

I completed my Bachelor's Degree in Marketing (at age 47!) through Western Governors University. In addition to this academic training, I can offer the benefit of my practical experience as a serial entrepreneur who has owned and run several small businesses where I was responsible for every aspect from ideation to execution to product fulfillment.

This site is © Path of Life Services LLC. Nothing on this site may be used for training artificial intelligence (AI) or Large Language Models (LLMs). Unless otherwise attributed, Toni Gatlin is the sole author of all text on this site; no generative AI tools have been nor ever will knowingly be used on this site or in any related email publication.