It's happening.

God truly places certain people in our lives to help us reach our goals. This isn't anything new to anyone who'd find their way to this blog. As commonplace and accepted a notion as this is, it still amazes me when I reflect on specific folks. Each and every one of my friends are uniquely important to me. I don't have a wide circle. I wouldn't even call it a circle. Not even a web, really. I have very specific individuals in my life who offer unique friendships. They are people who'd only find themselves all in the same room if it was a party for me. What they have in common is a desire to grow, to stretch themselves and to become their best person at whatever the cost.

These are folks who are willing to work at themselves. Continuously!

Tonight I had a fantastic time writing. Last night I went to a session on NLP, Neuro-Linguistic Programming. It was sponsored by newest girlfriend's new boyfriend. I went with an open mind. She only mentioned it to me the day before, after joining me for a meal at a Thai restaurant after church. She was such a good sport. I wanted that place and only that place, but wasn't sure I remembered the street. She was up for the adventure. I love that about all my friends.

As we got out she mentions that she'll be going to this gathering about NLP. I'd heard about it before and was immediately intrigued. I asked if it was OK to invit myself.

I share this and the importance of the people we draw into our lives, because in that workshop, they did a goal-setting exercise that included a 24-hour objective and one for a week's time. I set as my goal to allow my fingers and intuition to create at least one new scene within twenty-four hours.

That's just been done.

The week goal is to complete--build-up the details and edit--one of the scenes I typed up on Provo, TCI. I already began that process tonight as well.

It is amazing what can be done with the support of our loved ones.

Last weekend I shared the details for the first time with my oldest friends. Each of them offered unconditional support. The night before going to my new church, my "oldest buddy" spent the night. I have to put "oldest buddy" in quotes because technically I met another buddy eight months earlier. He is literally the oldest, that's true. But I also feel like he's the oldest because we always talk about going back so many lifetimes ago. We laugh about going back so far that he remembers the time I got kicked out of the cave for bringing back a still-on-fire lightning-struck branch. I couldn't figure out why no one else thought it was the coolest discovery. That was the first lifetime he had to save me from myself and from what I make others want to do to me when I go off all excited and blinded to consequences by the bliss of adventure.

This buddy spent the night Saturday night as a quick stopover between celebrating a big event with his family and driving several hundred miles back to the home he and his wife just relocated to a few months back. Like all my buddies, his encouragement was done in a style and manner uniquely his. He challenged me to make the most of this writing opportunity.

Long blog to say a public "THANK YOU!!!!" to all of you for listening to me and encouraging me and participating with me as I embark on this adventure. It is new territory. I spent more than a year fighting fear and doubt just to get to this point where I am willing to set a 24-hour goal to write a scene...and then do it.

Last night's NLP meditation and goal-setting session helped me actually visualize having two completed chapters by September. The funny thing, though, was that as soon as I tried to visualize that, trying to meet the suggestion of "realiztic", I found a deeper part assuring me that the storyline would be completed by then. Mind you, I said storyline. The development of the scenes into a format that has a singular, consistent and narratively sophisticated tone...

The NLP group meets again next week.

Separately...I've found MY new church.
She's been telling me about this church for months. As soon as I came back from my trip, I was interested, it was on my mind. Now I know why. It's exactly the environment I need as I dive into the process of writing this book from a place of commitment and working on finding my way to my island home.

Early into the service and all the way through to the end, I felt like I belonged there. That's never happened to me, by the way. Walk into a church and feel completely and entirely at home. She goes several times a year. I may eventually do so too, but for now plan to go every week for a while. I want to get a better feel for the entire ministry. It resonates with everything about me and my spirituality and beliefs. I'm good for love at first sight. We'll see in a month if it is all that I thought. My ex-husband and I were also love at first sight.

(now that I'm really spending time writing my book, expect my posts to read more and more like the first-drafts they are more and more likely to be. And if you can't tell the difference...keep that to yourself:))