"You're Gonna Make It, After All!"

No two ways about it -- God is 110% amazing -- all the time!!!

He closes one door and opens all the windows, lets air in, lets sanity in, lets love in, lets me wait (fully funded) until I finally do what He created me to do all along: What I love most in all the world! WRITE! COMMUNICATE! CONNECT!

I've been straddling the fence for so long I'm saddle sore. I've been listening to the old tapes play in my head ("Making a decent living as a writer is almost impossible," "Get your head out of the clouds and your feet back on the ground," "Get a real job and stop this nonsense...") and distancing myself from them, recognizing them for what they are: the expressed fears of two parents who were rock solid practical and worried that I'd starve to death trying to do what I have loved doing since I first put words together into a sentence and made something come alive that didn't exist before I wrote it down and made it happen. They had no faith that I could compete in the realm of writers -- and win often enough to feed, clothe and shelter myself adequately.

The past few months have given me the time I needed to try things out -- Elance.com, and other types of outreach. And every day recently something new has come in that's EXACTLY what needs to happen in order for me to reach my destination on earth: full employment doing exactly what I love in all the areas where my passion lies: for Christian folks, for animals, for elders, for small businesses on small budgets that need a world-class copywriter, and can't afford one.

Recently I've done four small projects and one larger one. And today I was contacted by a fellow on the east coast who wants me to be his copywriter and write ads similar to what I did all of 2007 in my last position -- for ten dollars more an hour than I was getting! Providence!

And there's a copywriting agency that has seen press releases I wrote to tout my books and my convention appearances. The people there want me to be "on call" to write press releases for their clients as they come in (since press releases aren't their bailiwick and they want to be a full-service agency). Other people want me to write e-books on pet care. How perfect is that? I grew up with animals -- every kind available to me, from naked, unfledged birds, fallen from nests, to an African serval! Two Christian entertainers had me write press releases for them, and another live entertainment venue had me write a marketing article and will have me writing their press release and their website content soon.

And I can do all these projcts from the comfort of my own home! No gasoline costs. No commute. Just glorious writing, doing what I love!

I feel a sense of adequacy -- even extreme competency -- when I write that I feel at no other time. I've been an exemplary secretary and administrative assistant, but put those careers side-by-side to what I can produce as a writer, and there's no just comparison: I am, far and away, better as a communicator (on paper) than I ever was in any other capacity.

God gave me a passion to write as far back as second grade. That should have been one huge hint about the destiny He placed me here to pursue, wouldn't you think? Heck, it should have clinched the matter! I should have stopped trying to be a people-pleaser and dedicated myself to being a God-pleaser... to using the passion He gave me, to run with it, no holds barred, no looking back, no listening to the fears and worries of loved ones who just didn't get it.

I now realize I have been more or less "occupationally and emotionally depressed" for most of my life, living a life of quiet desperation (except when joyfully lost in a writing project), doing what was "expected" of me by the naysayers, what I had proven myself "good" at during all the years I was afraid my folks were right about my prospects as a writer. Yeah, I was "good" at that other stuff, but I'm BEST at THIS!

No more. I feel a sense of joy and expectation now as a direct result of turning myself loose ("Damn the torpodoes! Full speed ahead!") and seeing where my enthusiasm for the written word can take me.

I'm humming the Mary Tyler Moore theme and thinking every word relates to me as long as I'm "in the zone" in front of my keyboard "wordsmithing" every day -- and blogging every night.

Who can turn the world on with a smile?
Who can take a nothing day and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile?

Well, it's you, girl, and you should know it
With each glance and every little movement, you show it.

Love is all around, no need to waste it
You can never tell, why don't you taste it?
You're gonna make it after all.

You're gonna make it after all!

What a lunatic I've been all my life, listening to old tapes in my head when I should have been moving full speed ahead!

Hey, I'm a late bloomer, what can I say?

It's never too late to have a happy future!

If you have a passion you're not pursuing, and it's not harmful to anyone else and can be viewed as a blessing by other people -- STOP LISTENING TO WHY YOU CAN'T OR SHOULDN'T PURSUE IT AND PURSUE IT ANYWAY!

It'll rock your world!