The Magic List

One year ago, on September 27, 2014 while eating breakfast at Detour Cafe on SE Division, I pulled out the little notepad I carry in my purse and wrote at the top of the page: “In my imagination, I know what I want to do professionally. In reality, I’m unsure of how to begin, or maybe simply afraid.”

And then, I made myself write out exactly what I dreamed of and forced myself to ignore my fear and doubt. I wrote “I want” and then listed things like: to create, to write, to illustrate, (ideally, the two together). I also wrote “collaboration (I don’t know with whom or how)” and “my own business.”

I remember with those last two I kind of cringed because I had no idea how to achieve either, only that I liked the idea of both.

And yet, today, one year later, I can check off every item on my list. Some part of me must have hoped for this, or I would not have bothered to write the list in the first place. Nevertheless, I am absolutely amazed and grateful and excited to see what’s next.

For now, I’m spending the evening setting up a table in our basement for storing and packaging my books and cards, which might sound like a bland way to spend Halloween, but I’ve been looking forward to it for days! (Besides, it’s 3:30pm in Portland as I type this, dark enough outside to be 8pm, and raining so hard there’s a small river drifting down the street. I don’t know how many trick-or-treaters we’re going to get.)