Picking up directly from last week’s post, had I not experienced a couple of episodes of feeling crappy the month prior, the appointment with my doctor and the blood test that led to being admitted to hospital wouldn’t have happened. In that scenario, it is very likely I wouldn’t be alive today to write my story.
"Heart Failure."
As I came to learn, these two words are an umbrella term for many different ailments that impact the heart’s ability to function properly. Now, these words are just as much part of my identity as others that make me, me.
Hearing those words for the first time took place early in the day on September 8, 2023, after a night in the emergency room.
Once upon a time in the autumn of 2005, I was in Toronto presenting at my first conference and decided that while I was out East a weekend trip to New York City was in order. A new musical had recently opened on Broadway that told the story of the friendship between Glinda The Good Witch and the Wicked Witch of the West, and I was so excited to see it I could have melted.
In last week’s blog story, I wrote about a post-pandemic world full of people who have, are, or may be considering completely rewriting their narrative. I’d also commented that while this rewrite begins with the setting of intention, the next step turns to action. And so, let’s go down this rabbit hole together.
In any version of storytelling, whether fictional or in real life, we each come upon the proverbial fork in the road, and not just once, but at many different times. On one side of this crossroads is what Joseph Campbell describes in his work as our ordinary life. It’s the life we’ve known inclusive of our past, the lessons we’ve learned, and all the chapters that bring us to that moment.