It was a dark and stormy night... so I moved to Hawaii in 2014 where the sun shines a lot and warm rain often brings a triple rainbow. My sister moved to the Big Island in 1989; for 30 years I visited the island and lived there for 3- to 6-month intervals. Then in July 2014, she bought her first house on Craigslist. She asked, why don’t you just cut bait in NY and move here with me? Whaaat? Leave my sweet little ranch style house with a yard full of berries, garlic, and veggies? Life was great in NY; I owned my home where I saw therapeutic massage clients and hung with my friends. I was living a dream I had imagined years before.
Perhaps I remember Oprah saying, “get a bigger dream.”
My house sold in three days on Craigslist which created a glaring green GO light. During the next six weeks, I sold everything. During the arduous process of sorting and selling, I frequently asked if this was a wise decision remembering the mistakes of the past.
AND, I remembered two lessons from LifeResults;
Life at 99% is a bitch and at 100% is a cinch. If I sat in doubt, nothing would get done. Yet, knowing I was at 100% IN motivated me forward.
One of the tools we teach in LifeResults is around Courage -- and this was all taking a lot of COURAGE! Feel the fear and walk through it. My flight reservation had been made to prove to my sister that I was really moving. She thought about all the friends and family I was leaving behind and doubted my fortitude to follow through.
A woman needs a car and that showed up on Facebook when a friend mentioned she needed to sell hers. With proper wheels underneath me, I cleared the pile of green waste the neighbors created when cutting down 20 trees - a lot of work, needed to be done, so I did it. .
Job? Oh yeah, a job! When a friend needed six weeks off to visit family, I agreed to fill in as office manager for the local attorney who became a client and friend. Simultaneously, I studied diligently to pass the massage therapist test in Hawaii. During those six weeks, I was recruited as a massage therapist at a holistic addiction treatment center. When the center’s owner saw the extent of personal growth and private practice experience on my resume, she asked if I would join the therapy team. Sure, why not?
First day on the job I was to shadow my program director/boss, JF. But JF was really busy and said I should interview the client myself and write my notes in bullet form because English is his second language. I asked what I should do? And he said just do whatever it is you do.
So … I did. As luck would have it, my first client Norm had just flown in from Oahu that day and was still pretty inebriated. Thanks, Norm, for being the gentle soul and the perfect first practice subject.
Norm was my “first love”. Over these last five years, I’ve fallen in love with a few hundred gentle souls struggling with addictive substances, habits, and behaviors. I listen, we cry and we laugh as they share untold stories. I’ve been called an a-hole, a bitch, and an angel.
For five years, every day, I’ve entered that house knowing I’m winging it, and trusting my heart and courage will carry me through… so far, so good!
I enter that place prepared to teach THIS thing and end up teaching THAT thing.
Neither JF nor his wife, Joyce has ever attended my class or one-on-one sessions. JF is an MKP (Mankind Project) brother and Joyce is WW (Woman WIthin), sister. I suppose that creates an element of trust.
This is my story of COURAGE and I’m still winging it!
Submitted by Sherri Longyear, LifeResults board member