The Happiest Place on Earth

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life." Steve Jobs

When Disney World in Florida opened for the first time, I was thirteen. I wanted to go there so badly, and I decided that one day I would. Fast forward forty years, and tomorrow that dream comes true. To say that I am excited doesn't even begin to cover it. My best and oldest friend in the world is meeting me there, and she is bringing her two tiaras, one for me and one for her. She says that every woman needs at least two good quality tiaras. Now you understand why she's my BFF.

This year I will turn 54, the same age my father was when he died quite suddenly. I was a teenager at the time, so my view of my father was that of a young girl. He died while he was still my hero, before I could see him and know him from the perspective of an adult viewing her parent. I do know that his relationships with my much older siblings were quite different than what I had with him years later, and not at all in a good way. He was not a happy person, and he could be cruel, although not to me. My older sister described him one time as "an exhausted person, just trying to survive." It's safe to say that he did not create the kind of life he could have had.

I won't be blogging while I'm on holiday, but I hope you have a great week. Spend some time doing what makes you happy. Put a smile on someone's face. Make some plans to look forward to. Polish your tiara. I'll tell Mickey you said hello.

Susan

Who Do You Think You Are?

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I, to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be?" Marianne Williamson

Her humor crosses the line from self-deprecating to self-loathing. She defends it by saying that it's her family's humor, and her parents emphasized humility above all things. I think her mom and dad had some very strange kind of dictionary at their house, because hating yourself is not humility. Of course, parents don't want to raise children whose heads are so big they no longer fit in the front door. No one enjoys being around a cocky, arrogant person. We want to strike a balance between a healthy self-concept and bragging.

My brother has told me I should share my writing with a local newspaper. After fellow blogger Loudmouth Birdie read my Betty Ford post from yesterday, she said the same thing. So I quickly went online and found the email address of the editor of a small community newspaper, and sent him a short email with a link to my blog. Unlike a paper envelope that can sit on your counter while you debate whether or not to drop it in the mailbox, an email is instant. I hit the "send" button, and it was out there. No turning back. It was exhiliarating, then I heard a voice inside my head that asked, "Who do you think you are?!" The audacity! The unmitigated gall! It threw me for a loop, mostly because I so rarely hear those little demeaning voices anymore. Once I got my bearings, I remembered that this is who I think I am: I am Susan and I am a writer. My Betty Ford post is some of my best work. When I was done with it, I read it another time and thought, "Oh, I am getting really good at this." Maybe that was bragging, or maybe it was the truth. Actually, that post was so good it kind of scared me. Scary in a good way, like the biggest, baddest roller coaster at the amusement park. Now I wouldn't be scared if I was just a mediocre writer, if my little blog was just a little hobby I shared with family and friends, so they could pat me on my little head and say, "That was nice."

While we are living, we might as well live large, right? Why even have a dream if it is not a huge, colorful, wonderful dream? Why even have talents if you don't use them, if you don't keep developing them until you step back and say to yourself, "Oh, I am getting really good at this."

Now I have a question for you. Who do you think you are?

Susan

One Small Step

"Have a bias toward action. Let's see something happen now. You can break that big plan into small steps and take the first step right away." Indira Gandhi

My friend's garage is so stuffed with stuff that she has no room for her car. This is especially sad because she has a two-car garage and only owns one car. She hates how her garage is. She has some physical limitations so she needs some help. I am fairly strong for a girl and am good at organizing, so on a few occasions she has enlisted my help. I think I might be crazy, because isn't the definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different result?

Here's how it goes. We decide to work on one small area of the garage. We will make three piles. Keep, donate and throw away. I stay focused on the one area, but she looks at the big picture, becomes totally overwhelmed and we quit. Now if she gave me carte blanche, I could have had the garage done long ago, but it's inappropriate for me to be doing stuff with her stuff.

I think a lot of people have dreams they would love to see come true, but making that happen seems so daunting that they never get started. What small step will you make today to start living the life you've imagined?

Susan