I was changed overhearing one of my 18 and Under Free kids at yoga, attending New Mexico School for the Arts in performance say, ‘When I’m older–I want to do what Emily’s doing.’ It struck me… I’m so used to striving, I forgot about arriving. That moment validated I’m there. I’m already living the dream.

Why do we hurry so? Or think that because it doesn’t look a certain way, we have more success to bear? Because most of us–are rocking it, being consistent and loving and actively free. Thank God, I leapt to Manhattan instead of teaching English back home. I got schooled in the way of soul, graduating from real world, and creative rights of passage. And of course it took a kid to remind me.

To get it through my thick Halloween skull that I’m here; I’m whole, and letting go. That this turning late thirties has become me, and I’m going to rest more and thank myself now. Take days off and not worry of getting ahead, go on writer’s retreats, teach on the weekends or not teach on the weekends; because we’re already living examples of our dreams in action. Just–keep–living it.

Bless,