Whatever happens, don't judge it

I really thought I had everything set for EnlightenUp to launch last year and I could NOT have been more wrong. I had it in my head that it was going to be polished and planned and well thought-out with a content plan and everything. A blog about sharing things I have learned over the years as a counselor and manager. I even had a bloody visual theme laid out. I spent lots of years doing marketing and “PR PR, dahling” (points if you know the reference) for startup companies and it made me get too focused on cultivating an audience and making the content fit who I thought you were.

Then two things happened. First, my creative writing group handed me my head when I read some of the new material to them. They wanted to know who wrote it because they were used to hearing me at our monthly meetings, writing in the moment from different angles and POVs. I had polished everything until it was a bright dull and they gently but firmly told me so. They stopped me in my tracks and I adore them for that.

Secondly, my father died. Yeah. Ten weeks ago now. I knew I would eventually write about his decline, but I didn’t want to start my bright and shiny new blog with “my dad is dying.” Even though it’s what I needed to write about and what so many people were actually *asking* me to write about. I’ve been a grief counselor for almost 20 years now and it turns out losing a parent made me a babe in the woods. Amateur hour. The only part I remember about helping people navigate loss for all these years (that I can actually put into action for myself) is, “whatever happens, do not judge it.”  

So here I am, taking off all the polish, abandoning the content plan, writing with tears running down my face and putting it all out there. Writing in the moment, for the moment.

Welcome to Enlighten Up.

La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona