Insight: Living the dream

By Lorraine Glowczak

“Lorraine, it has been so much fun to see where life has taken you these last few years!” is a message I received in an email recently.

I do have to say, it has been quite the adventure. It was a little over three years ago when I was writing about my new beekeeping adventure for The Windham Eagle newspaper and was assigned, on the spur of the moment, to cover an author speaking event.

“This is exactly what I want to do, and I am going to find a way to do this full time,” I said to myself when I walked out of the Raymond Village Library after interviewing the well-known Maine author and her fans.

That night it became very clear to me that I was going to live my dream and become a full-time writer.

Somedays, I have to pinch myself because – here I am - doing exactly what I had hoped for on that slightly rainy evening. I am now living my dream.

There are also days when I don’t have to pinch myself, because I have discovered that living your dream also provides moments where you feel like you ran smack dab into a Mack truck. There is a price for everything and, dang it, nothing is easy all the time. I somehow missed that portion of the lesson in “Reach for the Stars class 101”.

What I didn’t expect in becoming a full time writer is that I would also take on the role of a managing editor (which is a surprise bonus, one I thoroughly enjoy) and that role would then lead me to other roles which would lead me to roles I didn’t even know existed – thus, challenging me to step outside of my comfort zone. Additionally, there are moments I don’t know if I’m coming or going and if I’m doing everything right.

I have discovered when you fully live your dreams you also enter a territory that will often seem demanding, scary and daring. But I have been taken on many unexpected adventures and have grown so much in the process. In these three years:

* I’ve gained courage and it continues to grow.

* Despite my busyness, I oddly have more time to serve others and the community. As a result….

* It leaves little time for my own “problems” and I leave every situation better able to see things differently.

* Things that seemed impossible for me before now seem attainable.

* What once irritated me about others, no longer consumes my thoughts.

* Magic seems to happen more – people are there at the right time, a gift is given when I least expect it, and when I think my calendar is filled to the max, things miraculously open up.

So yes, I am living my dream. And although there are some struggles and a bit of chaos that come with it, I see the gift for what it is.

It is true that there is more I hope for. I want to travel more, for one. And, secondly – I have a dream that one day, not too far in the future, someone will live their own dream fully because they walked out of a small-town library, after having interviewed me – a well-known Maine author.