Dear Fellow Humans,

For almost a year now I’ve been struggling to find my footing. I moved back to Naples, Florida in January 2025. People who follow From A Loving Place may have noticed I haven’t been writing or posting a lot on social media for quite some time. I went from being a stay-at-home mom, loving advocate for my children, and writing and speaking about living from a loving place to being a live-in girlfriend (after a 10 year long-distance relationship) who is trying to find a career path that fits into my world of living from a loving place and authoring books. It hasn’t been the smoothest transition.

On Friday evening November 7, 2025, I heard the news my boyfriend, Zeke’s, cousin Matthew Bailey went missing. I met Matt, Fish as Zeke called him, eleven years earlier as he loved to visit Zeke, banter, and then ride off on his bike. It was at the first family party I attended back in 2014, I realized I had known Matt’s sister, Susan for almost a decade prior. She was my neighbor and my friend when I lived in Naples back when I was married. One of her daughters used to play at the house right next door to mine.

I had no idea she was Zeke’s cousin at the time. Zeke and I had known each other since elementary school when I first moved to Naples in 1985. Susan passed last year in late October. Her birthday was November 6th. While she was alive, she had the role of being Matt’s fiercely loving advocate. Matt suffered a brain injury from a bad car accident in his twenties and as he’s aged, he’s needed more assistance. She passed the torch to her children to love and watch out for him. Their love for him shines through in such a gigantic way, you know their mom’s love has just amplified within them.

Zeke and I went down to the search site on Saturday morning to meet up with Matt Bailey’s two nieces, Susan’s two incredible daughters, Egan and Fiona. The Collier County Sheriffs Department had police officers and K-9 units searching the area. The helicopter flew over us looking for signs. They put in lots of work and hours with very little results, just some footprints that went nowhere. The area Matt went missing has a mix of lined houses, gated residential, and lots of woods, water, and marsh lands.

Egan and Fiona’s love for their uncle and family was about to change my life, and I never saw it coming. From that point in Zeke and I were in. We helped them canvass the gated communities, search woods, and I helped them get the word out on social media. They also contacted news outlet. Their uncle was GOING to be found, and they weren’t going to stop until he was, and neither was I. They created a group (click to enter the journey) on Facebook for community awareness and help.

People started caring. Prayers started flowing in, residents of the area started endlessly checking their neighborhoods, and organizations joined us to search woods and to keep his name out there. The outpouring of love and dedication to finding Matt was nothing less than awe-inspiring.

After days of no more clues, Fiona and Egan created a community search party event on Facebook. We were warned that turnout might not be what we expect, but the love showed up! Over 60 volunteers came to comb the streets and woods making sure no stone was left unturned. Within 2-hours, a family friend, Rod Nelson, found him tucked in a spot in the woods not far from where the search began.

The crazy thing was we were right there multiple times. One of the loving members of the community had stepped up and told us how Matt had been just on the other side of the wall in her community weeks earlier. He had fallen off his bike, she called 9-1-1 to help him. He had insisted there was a trail back there. We looked, but he was so tucked in from rolling down an incline that even the man that found him said he almost tripped on him before he saw him. All the search teams had been through that area prior with no luck, this was an absolute MIRACLE he was found!

I was at base camp. A truck filled with his family came by screaming, “They found him.” I couldn’t believe my ears. Even as I’m typing the words tears are pouring out to my eyes. I kept trying to call making sure I heard them right. I grabbed Matt’s mom and jumped in the car. They ended up making a loop back, and had me drop off his mom at base camp while Matt was assessed.

I left Matt’s mom in the best hands possible, and I got over to where Matt was. I can’t even begin to tell you the feeling that came over that whole community of people who have dedicated so much of their days thinking and working to find Matt. Most people don’t experience that amount of love in a lifetime. We experienced it in just minutes. The hugs had nothing but love, abundance, and peace in them.

As some of you know, I spent an entire year writing a daily blog dedicated to aligning with love, abundance, and peace. Nothing I experienced in that year compared to that moment. Nothing I’ve ever experienced can. That’s why I can’t let the experience and this love pass me by. For the first time in a long time, I’ve aligned all my energy with love, abundance, and peace again and I want to hold onto it as long as I can.

I’m so grateful to all the incredible people who were a part of helping to find Matt. Even if it was sending prayers, love, and/or positive vibes. It doesn’t matter what any other beliefs are, LOVE wins! Community wins! Connection wins! This community coming together and showing up for Matt and his family is what I’m focusing on. We did our job, we got him in the arms of his family. The rest of his journey is between him and God.

I pray that people stay connected in love. We each get the choice to align with love, abundance, and peace, or fear, lack, and separation at any moment in time. Both take work. This search for Matt changed the algorithm of my social media. That’s how powerful our choices to click on things are. I’m done clicking on things that separate us. I want to put my energy back into where I can make a difference.

When we have an opportunity to expand our hearts and we take it—we make space for more and more love to come in. I’m choosing to allow this experience to expand in my inner garden like the mightiest tree. The roots of this moment have the potential to grow into the strongest and most beautiful tree in my garden. I don’t want to miss the opportunity to nurture it.

All I can do is keep feeding the love, so I commit to writing, sharing, and speaking more until the next opportunity comes up.

With So Much Gratitude and Love,

A Better Me

Rachael Wolff, author of Letters from a Better Me and Tending Your Inner Garden

This piece is dedicated to Matt, Susan, Egan, Fiona, and last but definitely not least, Zeke!

Matthew Bailey passed on at 5:10AM on November 20, 2025. He left a legacy of community, connection, and most of all love. Let him never be forgotten. He’s free to wander!