Follow Your Bliss

"I’ve learned to follow my heart.  And if my heart’s not in it, you won’t see my body there.  If my heart’s not in it, I get my hands out of it, period. " Andrea deMichaelis

"God gives me only happiness.  He has given my function to me.  Therefore my function must be happiness."  A Course in Miracles

For several years now, I've dreamed of being a Snowbird.  I've dreamed of hitting the road in the summertime, heading up to Maine for July and August, heading over to northern California to escape the worst of the sweltering September heat, and then coming home to Florida in time for the performance season to get under full swing.   Along the way, I dream of taking the long way home so I can meet up with friends I've met at The Attitude of Gratitude Project.



In my dream, I'm blissfully happy.

Of course, that dream requires that I be free to travel; it means giving up a steady job with a regular paycheck and relying on my own ingenuity  to make ends meet.  It requires that I become very comfortable with a high degree of uncertainty.  It requires taking a risk.

Did you ever see the movie Transformers?  There's that one scene where the car shows up to save the young hero and his girl.  The thought of getting into that driverless car is terrifying to the girl, because she knows they will be completely at the mercy of whatever happens.  It's clear that this is the point on the hero's journey where you either accept the call to adventure, or you wimp out.  The boy says to her:  "Fifty years from now, when you're looking back at your life, don't you want to be able to say you had the guts to get in the car?"

I know I do.  As Helen Keller said, "Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.  Security does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it.  Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than exposure."

For years I've been attempting to avoid financial danger by selling the best hours of my day for a steady paycheck, doing other people's busy work.  Meanwhile, the real work that my heart is calling out for me to do continues to go undone.

I'm ready to get into the car now.  Let the adventure begin!