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Serendipity And Synchronicity

star-520441__180This particular stretch of my life has been amazing so far. Little acts of bravery seem to lead to other slightly bigger acts that connect me to incredible people and opportunities. I started following a wonderful woman on Facebook named Jennifer Pastiloff, who is a yoga teacher and writer that facilitates manifestation workshops and retreats all over the world. This summer she posted an essay contest on Facebook to win a scholarship to one of her yoga and writing retreats. 70 other writers and I submitted our essays. I was one of the fortunate among six writers to win a scholarship! I will be attending her New Year’s Ojai Manifestation Retreat December 30th-January 1st. When Jennifer posted the announcement of my essay, I was embraced by a community of writers, a few who promptly sent me Facebook friend requests which I accepted.

Two months ago, Jennifer mentioned she was proud to have an essay included in a book coming out called ‘Shades of Blue’. It was a small mention so I thought it was cool and made a note to keep an eye out for the release. It turns out the book contained essays from 34 writers and was edited by Amy Ferris. Amy was one of the women who had “friended me” on Facebook and as the book launch got closer she started posting a lot more about it. It contained personal essays on depression, suicide, mental illness and feeling blue. I have some very personal experiences with the subject so I pre-ordered it from Amazon and read it in 3 days. Amy asked everyone to please help “blow up” Facebook with posts about the book on the day it was to launch. Since it launched on a Tuesday, I promised I would review Shades of Blue as my Tuesday blog (something I’d never done) and put a link on how to purchase the book http://buildyourownbrave.com/2015/09/29/shades-of-blue-writers-on-depression-suicide-and-feeling-blue-edited-by-amy-ferris/ . Amy loved my review/blog post so much that she re-posted the link to her page! It led to two of the essay writers commenting on my blog and another one also re-posting my blog to another page. That lead to more Facebook friend requests, one, in particular, from a writer in the book, Beth Bornstein Dunnington. Beth lives in Hawaii, puts on plays and writers workshops.

Lately, I’ve been focusing a great deal of my energy and time trying to figure out how I can afford to become a Life Coach. Not just afford it financially, but what certification program to get into and to narrow down what kind of Life Coach I will be. Well, a path and a plan has presented itself due to tremendous help and suggestions from my yoga teacher and another spiritual soul sister at work. That has given me a huge sense relief. But then I had a vague, nagging sense that I’d been neglecting my development as a writer. After all, I did decide I would be a Life Coach and a writer, so what was I doing with my writing besides my blog?

Cue the serendipity and synchronicity of this past weekend. I took my laptop so I could blog on the road. I also used it to keep up with Facebook. The Hawaiian writer/editor, Beth Bornstein Dunnington, posted she was hosting a Big Island Writer’s Workshop in Van Nuys CA on January 22, 2016 because two other workshops she was hosting at the same venue on January 23rd & 24th had filled up so quickly. I saw this post at about 2 a.m. Saturday morning after I’d just finished posting my blog. I was excited and scared, then dismissive of signing up for it. I’d never attended a writers workshop and it sounded intimidating. I went to bed and got a few hours of sleep. I woke up later Saturday morning to Beth actually tagging me in the post for the workshop asking me to sign up because she would love to work with me! Holy crap on a cracker, right? I went back and forth with her a little about my trepidation. Another writer came into the conversation to encourage me and I signed up. Wow. That was Saturday morning.

Sunday morning I woke up and saw some notifications on my phone so I went on Facebook and saw that someone who’s page I followed was doing a Periscope broadcast with a special guest. I knew the special guest had to be another woman I follow and had some interaction with on Facebook so I clicked on the link. Becky Vollmer of You Are Not Stuck and Scott Stabile were doing a live broadcast! They had done a workshop together called Get Unstuck and Just Love this past Saturday in St. Louis and they were talking about how wonderful it was. Periscope is interactive with the audience able to type into the presenters, so Becky and Scott were also responding to some of the live posts from viewers. I asked them in all capital letters to please bring their workshop to Southern California next year. Becky pointed at the screen and said “Look what Tammi typed, come to California” and Scott looked down, smiled and said “It will be early next year”. WHOA, now I  have another event/workshop to look forward to.

Lastly, The Los Angeles book launch of Shades of Blue is November 19th and 11 of the 34 writers including Jen Pastiloff, Beth Bornstein Dunnington, and Amy Ferris will be reading excerpts of their essays! There will be musicians performing and it is co-sponsored by organizations committed to shedding much-needed light and attention on depression, suicide, and mental illness. I bought a ticket the day they were available. I will be sitting front row, seat 6. I am also hoping to meet each of the three amazing women who have reached back to me when I’ve reached out to them. They have each assured me, we will meet. hands-1022028__180

I’m so damn grateful to God for where my life is headed and for the people he continues to place on my path.

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