Simply Authentic...Your Soul Voice is Calling. Identify Your Word and Turn it Around

Identify Your Word and Turn it Around Ta-da! Free video tip #2, with the same title as this post. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bK0rVsBGJ0 The title of my first Toastmasters speech was “A Farm, a Few Cats, a Bunch of Classes and a Cookbook.” I wasn’t thinking about this tip at the time I wrote the speech, or the speech at the time I wrote the tip (in fact, I wrote the five tips weeks before I even joined the awesome WE Toasted club.) Yet it strikes me now the themes segue nicely together. Watch the video and post a comment on my blog if any (likely negative) childhood labels, which may actually be some of your greatest authentic gifts, come to mind. As you can see in the video, I have two very clear ones. “Kitty,” which Mom tells me was my first word, is not one of them! I have had a love affair with furry kids my entire life. (My cat even tweets for me!) Every time I looked into working with animals for my livelihood, however, something told me that wasn’t the right path. I love to cook – always have since first learning the basics from my mother, a terrific cook, in the kitchen of our South Dakota farm house. Yet I had no desire to go to culinary school to become a chef, or to start my own cooking show. I wrote my first skits at the age of nine and directed and acted in them on the playground during recess with my fellow fourth grade classmates. I was cast in my first show (an operetta called Sunny of Sunnyside – I played Harriet, a very lively orphan, and had a line or two) in fifth grade and was in more musical groups, plays and musicals than I can list here throughout my school years. Yet moving to LA or NY after college to develop a career as an actress never felt like a great idea to me. Since the first Wishweavers Workshop in 2000, I’ve known a big part of my purpose in this world is to write, speak, and facilitate workshops and classes designed to help people connect with the inspiration, other people, and resources they need to move forward with their innermost desires and dreams. I have done this through a myriad of avenues over the last 15 years – sometimes as part of my work or business, other times informally or though newsletters or blog posts I wrote in the evening after my day job. The thing is…I truly knew, as a young girl, what makes my heart sing. And now it’s all come back into my life, full circle. I may not want to be a veterinarian, a vet assistant, or have a pet grooming business. But I can be of service to the furry kids in other ways – by being an awesome pet mom (currently to Lady Jane the cat) and donating my time and money to animal service organizations I believe in. I’ve walked dogs and cleaned cat cages with the Humane Society, and always have a pet adoption organization in mind to donate money to. In fact, guess who will benefit from the proceeds of sales from my cookbook (one way to express my culinary creativity)? Salem Friends of Felines, where I adopted Lady Jane. I may not want ACTRESS to be the primary job title on my resume, but I can still take on paid or volunteer acting gigs (Portland is an actor-friendly city)…and I don’t recall ever being more excited about anything than I am my first Authentic Performance: Fundamentals of Acting 1 class coming up this summer! Mark your calendar for Saturday mornings June 6 – August 1 with a one week break July 4. 333 2nd Street, Lake Oswego, OR 97034. DISCOUNTED price for the eight week term: $125. So, what is it for you? What is a word you can identify and turn around? What did your nine year old self know that wants to come back into your life again in a big way? I can’t wait to hear what you uncover! Authentically Yours, Laura