So much has happened in my life personally and professionally since the spring issue came out in March. These spring months: March, April and May, really have shown mi what “growth” and “blooming” truly mean.
Professionally I took a leap and signed a year lease on a rental studio/office space. The vision is clear, the dream is big, the excitement is ebb and flow, and the fear is monumental, but I truly feel it is the next step in my professional growth, and so rather than talk myself out of it, I took a leap, a “naked leap into the ice pool” I call it!
These past few months, I also attended a weekend-long business intensive that was exactly what it says… intense. We delved into every aspect of my business, who my actual clients are, and not only what I bring to the table, but what my weaknesses are. It was enlightening and empowering and I feel ready to take on the world (at 60 years old). I have a magazine social every quarter where local subscribers can come network and meet new people while getting their current issues. I held it at my new (though not quite ready at that time) place. The turnout was great, and the love and support was wonderful.
I had also received a phone call in that a subscriber in Ohio had received my 200 page, six year commemorative issue as a Christmas gift, and was hosting a ladies’ group in her senior living neighborhood. She was not only sharing the content of the magazine on a weekly basis, but had found something within its pages that she wanted to cop and give to all of her members (25 tips for happy living). It warmed my heart to know that this “passion project”- this labor of love, this small publication, is making a big impact across the country in the lives of others.
On a personal note, throughout all of that, in the middle of March, I buried my father. I spoke to him just days before his sudden death, and had seen him and spent a wonderful time with him last July for my birthday. As Father’s Day approaches, I am still emotional about the whole thing.
But this issue is about summertime, sunshine, hanging with friends, family, vacations, and travel. Oh, I am so excited we can travel again. I have even dedicated this as a special travel issue with pages for traveling with pets, on a budget, and even stay-at-home vacations. Where shall we go? If the pandemic has taught us nothing, it has taught us how precious is the time we have with those we love, that life is short and to be embraced, lived fully and with eyes wide open.
It is my hope that you will travel someplace, even if just to your back yard or to a nearby park for a picnic. Turn off the television, the phone, play in the dirt, play board games, make lemonade and homemade ice cream and truly savor the moments, and inhale the magic each day holds.
stay fabulous, stay you,
“mi”