Hey, wonderfuls!

Wanted to talk a little bit about reflections on my journey thus far. 🙏🏼🤍

It has been a year now since I decided to redesign my pathway and I'll be giving you a look into how it's gone, so far. 🤲🩵

When I started writing in 2009 and then published my first book in 2010, little did I know that my journey would lead me to heights I did not even dream about. 

Very early on into my profession as an author, I was soon enough inundated with emails from people of all walks of life (and I mean really of ALL walks of life and corners of the globe), giving their testimonies on what my written words meant to them. It was as though the world was overflowing with love for me and I felt like this little seashell in an ocean of appreciation and admiration. 🐚 My readers were people a million times more recognized and more accomplished than I am. Sometimes my hands would shake reading all of those emails! 

This was during a time when "motivational speaker" and "influencer" weren't terms that were even used at all. Today, we have multi-million-dollar motivational speakers and spiritual leaders living in mansions in Beverly Hills, peddling their pirated words on Instagram and people are actually paying them for that and making them rich. But back then, this was all unheard of.

I was just a poet who wanted to write a few books and, honestly, there was no way I could have known that people would be calling me "spiritual leader", "mentor", "inspirational writer." It all became very weird, very fast! I can tell you that. 

I really started comprehending what my work was doing, when I began receiving emails from soldiers on active duty, with their photos attached; my words written on little papers, stuffed into small steel vials for them to hang around their necks. "Your words will keep me safe" is what they wanted to let me know! 

And then there was the mother of an autistic boy, who sent me a photo of herself reading my book, All Things Dance Like Dragonflies, because, according to her, "This book calms his episodes."

Then there were the people leaving rehab with my books clutched under their arms, smothering their ribcage, close to their heart. They wanted to show me that my words healed them enough to leave rehab. 

It was a year ago when this all escalated too much for my liking; when I looked all around me and came to understand, that there were thousands of newly-risen "spiritual leaders" and "motivational speakers" referring to themselves as "chosen in this world to be the light." 

You've got to understand that it was not like that when I first began my journey. 

But when I looked around me last year, and especially when I looked at the story of Teal Swan, I decided that this path was now crowded by money-grabbing egomaniacs nothing short of cult-leaders and I knew I didn't want to have anything to do with it anymore. 

It's not what I wanted, anyway. It's people who wanted me to be any of that for them. I just wanted to write books. And write good ones. 

I am not complaining about my own experience of sharing light with other souls; of course not, and this will forever be my treasure! 💎 But what I am saying, is that, this land is no longer the land that it used to be. The geography has changed. Profit, once again, found its way in. Profit came in and leveled the jungles, planting concrete where there was once an abundance of trees.

Today, in 2023, being an author is about SEO manipulation, paying companies for followers, and hiring the best marketing teams. I'm done, I'm out, and I am SO THANKFUL that the lifetime of my journey as an author began and lived fruitful and thrived fully before all of this lunacy ensued! 

A year ago, I decided to make it very clear that I distinguish myself apart from any spiritual cult leader out there. I am here, I am the same author I was in 2009, while at the same time not being that same person (I am a different person now from who I was, as I hope everyone can say about themselves, as well!)

If people just want the newest exciting pieces of recycled words that are supposed to make them feel like winners, fed to them daily, they can go elsewhere. A lot of people will gladly do that for you while taking your money. And if people want to light their wicks at my candle, then they may quietly buy my books and sit here with me at my banqueting table. That is it, that is all. 🤲🍇🥖🧈🧀🍖🍷

I am feeling very accomplished now, being able to report to you, that I feel I am on the right track. I feel that I have been able to distance myself from what I wanted to move away from and I feel alive, more youthful than ever before, and fresher than a spring morning over a field of sunflowers. 🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌄

If you are still here today...thank you!