How I Became
a Real Life Mermaid
cue the REinvention files
I didn’t always live in a house with giant sea life murals or spend my days swimming with sea turtles, running snorkeling trips, teaching people to scuba dive and writing about adventure and reinvention. It just sort of worked out this way, perfect! ❤️ Once upon a time, I was stuck - trapped in a cycle of doing what I was supposed to do, drowning in obligations and expectations. I built a restaurant from the ground up,poured a decade of my life into it, only to have it leave me depleted in every way a human being can be depleted. Physically. Emotionally. Financially. Soul-deep exhaustion that made me question everything. So I did something radical. I booked a five-day solo scuba trip to clear my head. To breathe again. To figure out what came next. But instead of just taking a break… I stayed. That trip didn’t just give me clarity, it launched an entirely new life. A life built around the ocean, adventure, healing, and REwriting the rules.
Who Are You, Now?
Just Ruthie. Mermaid at heart, writer by nature, adventurer by choice. A devoted partner to my sweetheart pirate of a boyfriend, Captain Scotty. A mother to three. A grandmother to five. A hardcore therapy advocate and a lifelong spiritual seeker. I’ve been a stockbroker, an investment banker, a mortgage banker, a wellness coach and a commercial real estate appraiser. Oops, I forgot: newspaper publisher, 2x advanced cancer primary caregiver, restaurateur (twice), and fund development officer for a homeless ministry. (Totally ADHD, right?) I mean... it's not like I haven't tried. 😂 Like, a lot & hard. I’ve been married… more than my fair share. 🙄 And I’ve lived through enough plot twists to make anyone question the meaning of life, to question my life in every way every angle I can find. And then came the heart attacks. Three of them. Not in a dramatic, TV-movie way. In a quiet, humbling, clarity-slicing-through-your-soul troponin kind of way. It was a real wake-up call. A moment where everything that didn’t matter fell away, and everything that did rose to the surface. The phrase “serious as a heart attack” brought new meaning. And somehow, those heart attacks were a tremendous blessing. Because it cracked open parts of me I didn’t even know needed healing. And I don’t just mean my clogged up arteries and irregular heart rhythm failure. After about 9 months of overwhelming fear and frustration, I began my GLP-1 journey. (cue angels singing). Over the next 16 months, I lost 80 pounds. But, surprise! That’s not the part that changed me the most. What changed me was what GLP1’s revealed: That food had been how I coped. That my cravings were covering something deeper. That when emotional eating stops... the emotions don’t. The medicine didn’t just make me eat less. It made me face more. The quiet it gave me? It wasn’t just in my stomach. It was in my mind. And in that quiet, I finally started to see my ADHD clearly. My patterns. My pivots. My deep, sensitive, wildly creative self. And for the first time, I stopped trying to "fix" who I thought I as supposed to be and started learning to love who I am. That's Spicy Living. I found my answers in the ocean, and in nature. In the slow mornings. In the hard conversations. In the endless journaling and in the radical act of rebuilding myself again and again, AND AGAIN. I finally get it. I am NOT broken or too much or not enough or any of that. I am exactly who I am supposed to be. My journey is to become the happiest, healthiest and most loving version of myself. And, that’s what I want for you too. Just so you know: I actually do all the things I write about. This isn’t theory. This is my real, salty, sacred life. And if you're in the middle of your own plot twist? You're not alone. And you are not late. You're right on time.
What is Spicy Living?
It’s a movement. A shift in mindset. An unlearning of shame, perfectionism, and people-pleasing. It’s the opposite of a midlife crisis. Think midlife REawakening. Spicy Living is a REinvention of self-love, purpose, magic, and joy. Here in our community of Spicy Living, we begin to feel relief from expectations. And in shedding a life full of box checking, we can become so alive again. We feel joy, not because everything is perfect, but because we’ve opened our eyes all the way, finally. We are in the middle of our "one" life, and damn it, we want something more than beige walls and unmet needs. ❤️ Joy. Adventure. Connection. FUN. Community. Compassion. 🔥 We want some Spicy Living🔥 Now, for the first time in a long time, we can start to believe we’re worth the journey to REdiscover our life, our selves and each other. We open our minds to REexamining our lives and our stories... our hurts and our victories. And with love and deep compassion, we begin to share our truths. But, this time, through a lens of kindness and deeper understanding. For many of us, the kids are grown. The career isn’t as fulfilling or it's overwhelming. The relationship might feel like a roommate situation, or it’s already ended. Our role of who we are in midlife has changed, like it or not. Now, finally, there’s space to ask: What do I want now? This is your RE era. REconnecting with your hopes and dreams. REclaiming wonder. REbuilding a life that fits who you are now, not who you were expected to be. Spicy Living isn’t about “fixing” yourself. You were never broken, love. It’s about showing up in the beautiful, chaotic messy middle of it all and choosing to live bigger, bolder, and more true. With laughter. With courage. With a salty little grin. And with a community. (Hi!!! That’s us.) Through my writing, retreats, underwater adventures, and personal growth tools, I focus on helping us REignite what’s been buried under decades of obligations and expectations. We rise. not because we were broken, but because we are ready. 🔥Welcome to Spicy Living. Life is not a dress rehearsal. It’s showtime, friends. Let’s do this.
Mission
At Spicy Living, our mission is to ignite bold midlife REinvention through humor, truth-telling, and unapologetic self-discovery.
We create spaces, on the page, online, and in real life. where we can unlearn shame, REclaim joy, and rise from the wreckage of burnout, betrayal, or even just playing small.
Whether it’s through a snorkeling trip, a spicy blog post, a healing retreat, or a wearable reminder that you are not too much, everything we do is about turning AFGOs (Another F***ing Growth Opportunity) into lasting transformation, peace and freedom.
We believe reinvention has no age limit. That healing doesn’t have to be beige. And that joy is a REvolution.
Vision
We envision a world where midlife isn’t a crisis, it’s a catalyst. Where women are not erased by aging, invisibility, or expectations, but awakened by it.
Where healing doesn’t mean hiding, and growth does NOT require perfection.
Spicy Living exists to challenge the beige narratives, to turn pain into power, and to help women see themselves, not as who they thought they were supposed to be, but who they are becoming; a woman at peace, free, wise and oh so strong.
We imagine a future where our own joy is our compass, community is our anchor, and each & every woman knows that her voice still matters, And that voice is so damn powerful that it might just shake the whole damn reef.
