Experience Everything

March 24, 2022

“I just feel that you expected things to be further along and I began to feel even more stressed about it,” she says and without a breath runs on to “because I wasn't in the same place as you were and maybe it's just bad timing because I'm sick and...”

You know how the rest goes.

I didn't want to have the conversation. I was tired. I wasn't centered. I'd pushed through a tough hour-long workout and hadn't finished eating my dinner.

I had a long week with no weekend.

Things between us had been left in “let's see” limbo ten days ago, but I pretty much knew which side we'd both fall on when we next spoke.

But I answer the phone anyway.

I push my tired, hungry ass into a conversation I wasn't looking forward to.

And I don't mean I just show up but don't invest any real emotion in something that likely had no return.

I mean I stay open. Open to possibilities. Because who knows what magic might happen when I haven't already decided on the outcome?

There's an English children's book called “The Magic Faraway Tree” that my sisters used to love me reading to them when we were kids. In it, a skeptical young city boy called Dick comes to visit his country cousins Jo, Bessie & Fannie.

Dick is sure he'll be bored senseless out in the sticks. But Jo points out the window.

-----

“Do you see that thick, dark wood over there, backing on to the lane at the bottom of the garden?” she says.

“It seems quite ordinary to me,” sneers Dick.

“Well listen, Dick – that's the Enchanted Wood!” yelps Bessie.

“You're making fun of me!” says Dick after a long stare.

“No we're not” says Fanny, “and in the middle of it is the most wonderful tree in the world!” *

-----

Back to the call.

I had already had two big wins today.

I sent a presentation to someone I'd love to work with. I've spent the last week prepping it, and if we go ahead our work could really enrich a lot of lives.

And after a year of fretting about how or IF I'd get it done, I pulled off a major business deal today. That too will change a lot of lives.

So I felt the day and I had already been very generous with each other. Surely I couldn't expect it, or myself, to deliver any more?

But no, I told myself. Show up. For yourself. For those around you. For those who read your words but don't know how to engage with you yet.

Showing up is a huge exercise in TRUST.

If you don't show up, you won't experience what could be waiting for you.

This evening, I didn't want to show up for the phone call. I was sure I already knew how it would end.

And... end that way it did.

But I got to hear her laugh one more time.

That was the unforeseeable gift of showing up to that call.

When we trust, magic can happen.

After all, Dick does follow his cousins out into the wood. The wood is enchanted, and in the middle grows the Magic Faraway Tree.

Moon-Face, Mister Watzisname and Saucepan Man live there.