You've heard it in Pinocchio, "When you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are, when you wish upon a star, your dreams come true." Fantasy, fairy land nonsense, right? WRONG! This morning Laura Munson, the woman who wrote the article Those Aren't Fighting Words Dear, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/02/fashion/02love.html , which sent the comments section of the column Modern Love in the New York Times into a "frenzy," reached out and contacted me via a friend of a friend of a friend. She sent me a long e-mail which eventually led to a long conversation on the phone this morning. After writing 14 unpublished novels and a number of unpublished articles over the course of 20 years, she finally got her break from this article. Her book, which is a available for pre-order, is This is Not the Story You Think it Is: An Unlikely Season of HappinessI couldn't help but feel my heart sink a little. While it's great to hear the wonderful things happening in the world to so many people, it's human nature to think, "Why hasn't that happened to me?" I also submitted to Modern Love at the advice of my editor, but got a form-letter response telling me that they could not use my article at this time.
All my life I've heard people say words like get real, get a real job, get a real life, get with the program, stop living in your dreams...society feels more comfortable with these words for some reason. Who made it this way? Why do we succumb to the status quo? Every single person we admire in this world, we admire because they lived their dreams...their dreams came true. So what the h*** are we doing? Why do give in..and give up? Why do we let it all go? Why don't we persevere? Why is it that only a few people out there really "make it" or really do have their dreams come true?
I came to realize that we all, individually, call the shots in our life. We decide, no one else does. What you believe is what you choose to believe. PERIOD.
After talking to Laura on the phone this morning, my sinking feeling left me. Laura now seemed like a beacon of light or someone clearing the path for others to live their own dreams. I realized that after years of hard labor, Laura's one-pointed focus and belief in what she was doing paid off. When we see the success of others, we often think that all they had to do to get there was tap their heals together like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz and say, "There's no place like home" and Voila, that's it! Not exactly.
My mind shifted even more after realizing that, on the phone this morning, Laura felt like someone I knew all along...someone who was a bit further down the path, but was there to assure me to keep walking; that it was worth the effort.
Lately I feel so fortunate to be connected to SOOO many people who feel this way. Just today a new author on Writers Rising, Angelguided, wrote a piece called Miracles . I couldn't help but feel how timely this was after talking to Laura this morning. I feel like a huge wave or shift is happening. The more we decide to go with our intuition, this force, the more it clears the path for others to go with it too. It's incredible! It's not the work of one person, I honestly and truly believe it is collective. How can you not help but want to get on the boat?
"I'm ALL in," as my husband says, how about you???
8 comments:
Hi Katherine, I know that feeling of 'why haven't I got the break'. I am still learning to accept that spirit knows when we are ready to accept something and that all happens as it should, when it should. By the way I wrote Miracles, but it's all good as we are all ONE, and all deserve credit :)
Good post, Kathy! I cannot begin too tell you how much I can relate to what you have written here.
My entire life, yes, from when I was very young even, I have had this feeling that I was meant for something big. Bigger than I could imagine. I still have this come to me in dreams and waking moments. It usually scares me because I am so in dread of failing.
As I have said recently, I am starting to realize it is not the failing I fear as much as the possibilty of succeeding. So strange.
I can't wait to hear where this conversation with Laura takes you. Thank you for always sharing from the heart. I appreciate you.
Could be synchronicity Kathy! The shift where things click into place. I think there's value in giving up when things are hard to have some respite. Perhaps if we stand back and just allow things to happen then we also make the space for someone or something to arrive that will change things.
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Oh goodness, Angelguided, I'll be sure to change that in my blog. I kind of do feel like we are all ONE (yet unique in our own way), so these stories are starting to blend together for me. I will change it as you surely deserve the credit.
Marla-You should not be afraid of your success as your success is everyone's. This is how I feel. I feel like something is working through me that I can't explain..I am not me, but I am??!! Make any sense?
Heather-Yes, it may very well be synchronicity. Yes, I do believe there is value in giving up, but when you are tuned in, you know when to stop and when to go and when to step back and when to go forward. I have learned so much from going "within" and training this part of myself. Now I operate completely from that place.
tell me more about what you just said: "...going within and TRAINING that part of myself...now I operate completely from that place"
Yes! I want to know about that as well-intriguing!
Heather and Marcella-It's in my book that I'm hoping to publish this year sometime. Since 1996, I have been doing meditation, sometimes joining courses of 20, 30 and 45 days of silence. I didn't realize how much that training has had an effect on me. It has trained me to operate from the inside out. From this place, I know where I need to go. If you want to check out the meditation I practice, you can find info on this site: http://www.dhamma.org. I HIGHLY recommend it!
Katherine, when people say "get real" they mean "go dead inside" which is perhaps what they did at some point long ago, not because they are foolish, only because no one gives us a manual when we're squeezed out onto the planet so we do a lot of silly things. Getting real is being true to who you are and if who you are is a writer then the hell with what anyone else thinks. Don't ever give up on that. Be real every day and don't give up on your dream because life without our dreams is like death.
Maybe you'll get a big break and maybe you won't. I hope you do. I hope everyone who writes here does. But honestly, I'd rather go the rest of my life with nothing but my hope than give up.
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