I believe people come into our lives at times when we need them. I love public speaking. Put me in front of an audience and I’m soaring. A speaker friend told me about the National Speaker’s Association, a group of speakers who meet monthly. I started attending and loved it. All who attend are very positive and upbeat. They are willing to help each other. In November of 2014 I met Thomas Cantrell at NSA and the snowball enlarged. Thomas is a professional speaker. He’s also an editor. He was offering a few coaching sessions to the NSA members. Sounded like a great idea! I’d found another mentor! We met and started talking. It wasn’t long before we were discussing my book. He loved the idea. We began working on it. We brainstormed about where this might go. That is all yet to unfold. It’s part of my joyful jaunts. And it truly is a joy!
Not realizing how long it would take to turn the vocal conversations into the written word, I decided to hold a Book Launch presentation in January 2015. It was amazing! Fifty people filled the room, leaving standing room only. By all accounts, it was fun! It was entertaining, enlightening and inspiring. There was laughter and applause, oows and ahhs. Thomas was as happy as I was. He saw me on stage for the first time and was pleased with what he saw. I even presold copies of the book, which as of March 2016, still isn’t quite finished, although it’s getting close.
In March of 2015 the snowball gained momentum. I met Eric Callahan on one of the dreaded dating sites. We met in person when he drove through Salt Lake City on his way to a job site in Tennessee. He says it was love at first site. It took me a little longer, though not too long. We soon decided we wanted to travel this journey together. He became that special someone in my life. We were married in July 2015. This wonderful detour slowed the progress on the book. Eric is behind me all the way and is very supportive.
At our wedding reception many asked us where we would live. The best answer we could come up with was that we have three houses: the beach house, the Utah house and the job house. His work requires him to travel to the job site. I didn’t have any reason to stay home, so I started traveling with him. Thus began the joyful jaunts.
I know it has taken some time to get to the travel portion of my blog, which will start on the next post. The change I went through was a process of becoming better. I became a new person in many ways. I know I would not be doing this blog or even have started writing a book had I not made the changes I did. What a fabulous journey it is! I'm so glad to be traveling on these joyful jaunts.