Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Go Out On A Limb...

The situation that we are all living in today should spark in us the understanding that possessions, stature and wealth are fleeting. After all of that has been peeled or stripped away, what’s left are the roots, the base, YOU!

Who are you? I’m sure you’ve asked yourself that question many times, we all have. But who actually listens for the answer? It’s a question that gets tossed around like the latest trend, having no real significance unless you truly pay attention. Some of us think that if we go down on bended knee, ask the question, then God will miraculously reveal to us the meaning of our lives. Hey, if it happens for you that way, more power to ya! But I have found that it takes immersing me into different experiences to discover who I am. Yes, I ask the questions, ‘Who is Candace?’, ‘What does she like/dislike?’, ‘What is she good at?’ The proverbial, ‘Why am I here?’ But I don’t sit on my doorstep waiting on FedEx to deliver my box of answers. I’ve learned that answers take discovery and discovery is born from experience. Now, I won’t lie to you, this can be the scary part but everything is not going to be a piece of cake ladies. Remember, it’s that same cake that’s adding the inches to your hips, clogging the arteries, and literally stopping you in your tracks. It’s gonna be a little scary sometimes, you may have to break a sweat, and there might be dark, creepy crawlies around. This is when we have to put on our big girl panties and deal with what comes because that’s when the magic happens.

I’ll share a little story with you (you’re gonna get a lot of these if you’re reading my blog and I want you to share yours so please leave comments).

I’ve been in the health & fitness field for a long time now. When I was living in Atlanta, a friend of mine was starting a magazine and asked if I would write a fitness article for her first publication. At the time, all I’d ever written were the dreaded English Lit papers but in support of my friend, and thinking ‘How hard can 500 words be’, I said yes. Ok, so harder than I thought but a total eye opener. I had no desires to be a writer, I wrote the papers in high school and college because I had to, not because I had a love for it. But that one article for my friend turned into three for her publication. A publisher, John Bunch, saw those articles and said to me, ‘These are good and if you can write for someone else like this, then you can write for yourself’. This led to the production of a monthly health & fitness newsletter. I’ll be honest, I still did not embrace the fact that I was discovering a wonderful gift; I didn’t know that I was. I simply wrote what I knew which is a very surface way of seeing things. Then one day, I received an email from a woman who told me my words and stories brought tears to her eyes. Not sad tears, but life changing tears and she wanted me to meet her daughter to give her some encouragement in order to make it through her approaching scoliosis surgery. (By now, you all know my back story). Her email cracked open the portal that I needed to travel through in order to understand my place in this world. She showed me that I had the power to make a positive difference in people’s lives. I received numerous emails and had countless conversations with women telling me how my words sparked something in them to make a change for the better. Being a catalyst is an amazing feeling. I keep a folder of these emails and go through when I need some juice. Eventually, I began writing press releases and various letters for others, which turned into me moving to California because I wrote a treatment for a television show.


Packing up and moving 3000 miles away from family, friends, everything I’ve ever known, brought out the creepy crawlies. But just before I left I received a wonderful gift, a book entitled ‘She’ by Kobi Yamada. It’s a beautiful publication filled with inspiration, fun, color and my absolute favorite page has this statement…

She went out on a limb, had it break off behind her, and discovered she could fly. Celebrate her FAITH.

If you’ve been told you’re good at something, if you think you’re good at something, explore it! Ask questions about it. Go buy a book about it. Don’t have the funds, libraries are still free. Or, just go to Borders or Barnes & Noble, read the book there and put it back on the shelf. If someone is in the same section as you that probably means you have some of the same interests. Go out on a limb, say hello, ask a few questions. Remember, answers come from discovery, discovery comes from experiences. It’s time to adopt the motto, ‘What could it hurt?’

1 comment:

  1. Hey Cuzzo!
    I'm going out on a limb myself here lately. These words of inspiration were definately needed today. I can always use words of inspiration!
    I'm 31 years old, married with 2, no 3 kids now. My step son moved in with us today! I have a desire to act and sing for God and am doing everything I can to do it on a professional level. Some days that means I don't get to see my kids until I come home at night after their bedtime. I kiss their cheeks and whisper a prayer knowing it is all worth it.
    I want to teach my kids that if they have a dream, they need to pursue it, no matter how long it takes. I don't think God would give me the vision if He wasn't going to give me the tools to make it happen!
    Keep writing. I'll keep reading. :0
    Kima Charysse

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