Good morning from Milano. What’s on my mind this morning is this idea of ripple effect. We have heard over and over from countless different sources that we never know the impact or influence we can have on other people. Our words of encouragement, a hug or a smile a listening ear. Our questions, our mere presence, we simply never know.

I’m thinking about this today is for a couple of reasons. One is that one of the participants on the Rocket Fuel call was sharing a story that when she really wants to find her center, she reads in the morning before she does anything. It can be something inspirational or the novel she’s reading, it doesn’t matter. She does that before she looks at her phone or turns on the television. She was sharing with us how it makes her feel so much more centered and empowered. At the time she was telling a story I didn’t think much about it, but it had stickiness for me. This morning as I was rushing to get out of the house, what I really need to do is to get quiet. I took off my blazer, got my computer out, and started listening to a beautiful lecture. That may seem like something small, but it was super helpful to me.

Another thing related to ripple effect is that I got a message from another participant. Her name is Cathia Friou. She was leaving me some feedback and she said, I didn’t write this down when we were brainstorming on the call, but something came to me and I decided, to put out an offer to lead a twice monthly Zoom group called menopause, eldercare, and adult children. oh my. It made me laugh because Cathia is a dear friend of mine. In fact we were among an incredible group of people at Nancy Aronie’s legendary Chilmark Writers Workshop on Martha’s Vineyard over two years ago.

At that time in my life, I was struggling with meaning making. I call it meaning making because I wanted to do something that felt meaningful to me and I didn’t quite know what it was. I had some ideas and I wrote a piece,  which I’m going to read to you, related to this idea of ripple effect. But before I do, I want to end by saying that both of these little pieces of ripple effect – the one that I received related to taking the time to reclaim and expand into my quiet space, and the ripple effect that our call had on Cathia – were both great reminders that I’m very happy I got out of my own way and invited people to do the circle with me. It’s also a great reminder of how important it is to make the effort to put yourself out there, and to come together with like minded people. You simply never know the ripple effect that these things will have on you and on the other people in the circle. It’s a really cool thing.

Okay, moving on to the brief piece I want to read for you. To give you some context, we were in a writing circle for a week on Martha’s Vineyard and at the end of each day, we were given a writing prompt and asked to spend a short time to just let it rip. To put on paper whatever that writing prompt evoked. The prompts were things like what I never told you is, or growing up around the dinner table in my family was, I think you get the idea. The writing prompt for this piece that I’m going to read was the hardest thing is…. and I gave it the title Ripple Effect.

The hardest thing is to fully trust that the Divine Purpose of my life will be revealed to me. It’s some kind of hurry up and wait game. I’ve been waiting and searching for this meaning-making puzzle piece my whole life. The most important, elusive one of them all. But matters of the heart are complex, aren’t they?

Here’s what I know. I know how to listen deeply. I know to trust my intuition. I know kindness matters and that the world is starving for a kindness tsunami. I  know I matter, and I know how to make others feel that they matter, too. Most importantly, I know I have a responsibility to the world. That’s what matters most to me.

In the absence of being struck by Divine lightning, an earth shattering idea that makes me shake inside, I shall start with the humility of a pebble.For it is the pebble that creates magic ripple effect. So, I suppose the hardest thing is learning how to be a good pebble.

It’s interesting to see something that I wrote so long ago and I’m really loving that this idea of ripple effect has probably been simmering on the back burner ever since I started Dear Constance.  I would like to take this moment to thank those of you who send me sweet messages who are giving me the beautiful gift of their time, and those of you who have taken the time to share episodes and helped me get Dear Constance out in the world  because what really matters most to me is to share my heart. And as you can hear, it’s not always easy.So, thank you. for allowing me to share my heart with you.

I’m going to close here. Thank you so much for the gift of your time. It means a lot. Until next time, from my heart to yours.