The Real Secret

Image Copyright Enoch Bolles

"When negotiating, you have to be a pirate AND a diplomat"

Over the past five years I have worked tirelessly to create a presence online, on-air and in print. It’s been an incredible amount of work and blood, sweat and plenty of tears. It’s been triumph and it’s been tragedy and it’s been a wild, wild ride. Five years ago I was a woman who had exhausted her options, sitting in my kitchen at a tiny table between my refrigerator and my stove, fully believing in my talents, tenacity and vision and sending out signals into the galaxy via my computer.

"Hello, hello, hello is there anybody in there?" Pink Floyd

Had ANYONE told me that I’d be an author, consultant and a design expert ten years ago, I’d have guffawed heartily. I had other plans. I was going to be an actress. In the theater and on film. But like all of the best laid plans of mice and men, real life has a funny way of intervening.

It took a long, long year for me to reinvent myself, but I created something tangible and it was unfolding beautifully. Then suddenly after five years of unfolding ...inexplicably...everything came to a full stop. You literally could have heard a pin drop in my studio.

We were all there, something about the economy...she says with her tongue planted firmly in her porcelain cheek...

I was casting my line all over the place and not even getting a nibble. I was trying to figure out how to reinvent myself, yet again. Then without a warning notice it all went into hyper speed. If only I could create pockets of time and take those slower periods and add them into these crazy times so it evened out. Alas and alack, I’ve neither been able to defy the laws of physics nor bend the time-space continuum to suit my needs.

If you figure it out, let me know.

So it’s looking like I’ve got my work cut out for me for the next few months and I’m hoping I can manage to juggle all of the balls without dropping any or many. It’s almost summertime and my kid really wants to spend her summer with me rather than at Camp Snoopy...so there’s that. That’s important. She’s a big part of why I do what I do. She’s the best thing I’ve ever done. Sometimes I have to remind myself of that when I start feeling self important or special or I neglect to connect because “I’m busy doing something important.” It’s very easy to forget that what we do does not define us. How we love and are loved in return is the full measure of our existence.

The rest is just the stuff we do to mark time.

Well...and if we’re smart...the rest is what we do to pay it forward, to love and celebrate ourselves, to explore our passions and to bring that joy we’ve sown back into the love we give to others.

Now there’s the rub.

I’m balancing the things that matter with the things that pay the mortgage and trying to find some semblance of normal in this reality and these dreams I’m spinning with the straw. Is it turning gold or merely turning?

That remains to be seen.

Here's the real secret. It's not enough to dream big dreams. Dream big dreams and then get up each and every day and take the small steps towards them. Even when you feel like nothing is working, keep taking steps. It's when you think that nothing is working, that those seeds you planted are beginning to quietly sprout beneath the surface.

1. Do what you love.

2. Do something for which you have a true proclivity.

3. Be willing to do the hard work to make it real.

I can’t quite resist a resounding “WOO HOO!”

Yeah, I said it and I meant it...but I’m not ever taking myself or reality seriously...and if I start to do so please feel free to shower me with raspberries...and not the tasty kind.

“Human folly does not impede the turning of the stars.” Tom Robbins

xoxo,
Madge