I’m clearly still in the stage of being surprised and delighted and it has nothing to do with the fact that I’ve “sold” 3 books. Three days after receiving my inventory of books, I orchestrated a spontaneous small and rare neighborhood celebration with champagne. My neighbors had no idea I had written a book, yet I gave them each one and we shared a friendly two hours catching up on our activities.
My 80 year old neighbor Dennis called me the next morning. He said: Martha I got into your book, at which frankly I expected to just glance. An hour and a half later, I’m still glued to it. It really caused me to think about my life and how lucky I am to have lived as a mechanical engineer as a career and as a carpenter and wood carver in retirement. I’ve always done what I loved and I’ve met so many who were bored and didn’t know what to do with themselves.
Okay I admit it. He made my day. For someone who was “called” to write the book, who never made a business plan or a marketing plan, and was never quite sure who my target market was, I’m allowing myself to be delighted. It may be weeks before I stop being delighted! I think it says something about calling…when you are doing what you need to do, what is right for you to do, you are less concerned with orchestrating a specific result, and more open to being curious about and delighted with the ripples that others share with you.
I invite everyone to do more of what they must…and be open to surprise and delight and learning from whatever comes.