July 1st, 2010
Dear Gingerheart Reader: Please share my blog! 
A new project begins – and you are invited to participate. I seek people who are willing to share their stories for a new non-fiction book. Perhaps the best way to introduce its subject is to tell you about a dream I had when I was a young woman. It was one of those classic falling dreams. In this particular case I was falling off a cliff, one I knew well from my childhood summers on British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast. I was terrified as I hurtled toward the beach below but when I hit the rocks…well, I simply bounced upward as though I’d landed on a trampoline.
And that is about as perfect a metaphor as I can imagine for this new non-fiction project. If you know someone – if you are someone – who has experienced an abrupt end to an old life path, I want to hear from you. Many times a single crisis cascades into several; for instance a loss of health can become the loss of financial resources, home, job and relationships. Please send me a brief paragraph about how you coped with a crisis that turned your life into a blank slate. Sure, I want to understand both your old life and the crisis that ended it but my focus is on how you started over.
How did you cope when everything you knew about your life came to an abrupt halt? Who are you when all those old supports are stripped away? There you were on a path and a fine path it was, too. Just a moment ago you were walking along in that old identity you knew so well and then – through no fault of your own or something that was entirely your fault or somewhere in between – the path disappeared and over the cliff you went. As you lay on the rocks nothing makes sense.
Do any of the following feelings and experiences sound familiar?
You feel scattered, numb, paralyzed. You want to claw your way back up the cliff and go back to the way things used to be. You want to move a million miles away where no one knows you. You numb yourself with diversions. You might even slam yourself back onto the rocks a few times to keep feeling something, anything.
Or you try to accept where you are and begin anew. This is the beginning of turning those rocks into a resilient springboard toward your new life, one that underway, whether you know it or not. Some of your first steps might be wrong-headed. In fact, where first steps are concerned, often the conclusion is: This is not for me.
You try new directions that surprise you, delight you and even display a new side of you.
You fail and in the failure feel a glimmer of new possibility.
With each surprising detour and brilliant failure you may find yourself bouncing toward a new path, a path of magnificent reinvention. I use the word magnificent to signify noble, extraordinarily fine and exceptionally beautiful. In other words, authentic.
If you have a story to tell please send an e-mail to susan@gingerheart.com with Bounce off the Rocks in the subject line. In a few words answer the following questions:
1. What did your Old Path look like? E.g., “I was married with twelve kids and lived on a farm.”
2. What did The Fall off the Path look like? E.g., “After the last child left home my partner died and I got sick and lost the farm.”
3. Did you make any False Starts? E.g., “I became a raging jelly bean addict.”
4. Did you have any Brilliant Failures? E.g., “For awhile I was a lounge singer. I was a terrible singer but I met some wonderful people and learned that I …..”
5. Did you take any Surprising Detours? E.g., “I found a great neighbourhood in the city. It turns out I love the city life. Then I ….”
6. These days I am… Well, go ahead, fill in the blank!
You may be at the beginning of this process or anywhere along the continuum. If you are willing to be fearlessly honest and honestly self-aware I want to hear from you. Thank you for joining me on this journey. Your privacy will be respected.