About

Hi, I'm Barb McGavern and I am a passionate Geologist, a serious Blues/Classic -Rock Vocalist, a devoted single mom to a beautiful and creative red-headed teenage daughter, and a lifelong lover of Shetland Sheepdogs (Shelties), not all necessarily in that order.

Pebble and Pull was created by me and was born from a vision I had in the fall of 2020 while home during the pandemic. Suddenly unemployed from a great job I'd just secured a few months before, I found myself reevaluating my life, as many of us did at the time. Having gone through a divorce (of 21 years) just a few years prior, and then moving 1,800 miles across the country (Wyoming to Ohio), I felt like I was back at "square one." My life reevaluation had me questioning what the "next phase" of my journey was going to hold. I had no clue. It was quite a scary and unsure time.

As I contemplated "next steps," I found myself wanting both to express what I was feeling and to help others find their own sources of expression and inspiration, too. There needed to be a way, I thought, to have people know "this isn't all there is." and that we do not have to define our identities, our being, or our worth by our jobs, our families, our social status, or the expectations of others around us.

Then, it hit me. And what perfect timing it was. The message I received popped into my mind as clear as the full Feminine Moon on a beautiful, warm summer evening... words that would birth a company and become the foundational mantra to what Pebble and Pull represents: "Never let the pebble in your shoe keep you from the pull of your journey."

This message is universal, and I find that it's best explained through the following popular folklore:

There once was a man who was deeply compelled to push a boulder up a mountain. He seriously endeavored to do so, with great strength, making his way up the mountain... but, he ultimately failed. Why did he fail? The reason isn't what you might think. Though passionate about his grand desire, the man didn't fail because the boulder was too heavy, or too huge, or too unweildy; he failed because he became increasingly irritated and distracted by a tiny pebble that had become stuck in his shoe (some even say it was a grain of sand).

What's the moral of this folktale? And how does it relate to our company, Pebble and Pull?

Pebble and Pull is built on the belief that each of us has a "pull" (i.e., a passion, talent, dream, deep desire), but too often we allow the "pebbles" in our lives (i.e., societal pressures, fears, doubts, self-sabotage) to hold us back.

So, I created Pebble and Pull as a place where everyone (but especially women and girls) can find ideas, inspiration, focus; discussions of relatable life experiences; earth science education, career, and professional skills; and, most importantly, empowerment, support, and acceptance.

We encourage you to:

— identify the potential pebbles in your life (we all have them!),

— let us help you work toward kicking them out of your way, and then,

— move with confidence toward what calls you.

We offer five "umbrella" areas to explore. We call these five areas our elemental pulls, and they are: EARTH, AIR, BODY, UNIVERSE, and TRIBE. As a geologist, I find that EARTH is an area that pulls to me, especially. Please, explore each of the five elemental areas for yourself, and discover what calls to you! It is my mission and hope that your time here will both inspire and help you to pull forward!