What if you fly?

Betty Dalke Wathne

There is nothing more powerful or radical or stunningly beautiful than a woman who chooses to rebuild her life day after day, after day. No matter how many pieces there are to pick up, or how many mistakes she must spin into gold

Cara Alwill Leyba

I admire the women I know who are chasing their goals, dreaming their dreams, being the architects of their own lives. There is a sort of magic that illuminates an intentional life and shines onto those of us fortunate enough to know them. Some of us never get around to inventing ourselves and living our life, the one we were meant to. And some of us are re-inventing ourselves, whether by choice or necessity. It isn’t easy. It takes determination in the face of discouragement. It takes the radical strength of spinning mistakes into gold. Most of all, it takes a hope – sometimes a distant one – that we might, in fact, fly.

My friend Stephanie didn’t expect the life she found herself in. She expected to retire with her husband, and they found a beautiful home in North Carolina to enjoy. But her husband was taken by cancer. And Stephanie, who is a woman of action, decided to make friends, to live a full life training her dogs and going to a trial or two every month. One of her gifts is to express love through her marvelous cooking. She started having dinner parties. She found places for expert instruction in agility and obedience. She gathered people around with her generous heart and delicious meals and sensible optimism. She even decided to go all-in and help to get a rare breed – the Kooikerhondje – established in the U.S.

So Stephanie, day after day, with effort and focus, filled her life with dogs, friends, training, trialing, trips to the Netherlands and to Ireland, and in doing so, she enriched the lives of those around her. She doesn’t think of having dinner parties and making friends. She hosts “family dinner”, and how fortunate her extended family is to be included! She is powerful and radical and stunningly beautiful. And boy, oh boy, does she fly!

My friend Meagan is a friend not because we’ve spent time together or because I know her very well. We are friends because we both love Irish water spaniels. That’s the way it works. We are in the same clan. We are part of a tribe. I understand not all breeds inspire this kind of camaraderie amongst its admirers, but for Irish water spaniel owners, it’s a glorious fact. And part of the joy of being in a clan is celebrating the unique qualities and accomplishments of our fellow clan members. So I delight in Meagan’s gifts as a writer. Some of her writing is about her Irishers, particularly Donovan, who was related to my dogs, and became “our” dog because Meagan shared him with us. Donovan found people and brought them together. He was a true rescue dog – rescuing the humans around him over and over again. And we get to know those stories of Donovan’s magic through Meg’s stories.

Meagan also lives her dream. She puts herself into the scary places. Many of us are too frightened to put ourselves forward at all. It hurts to fail. It hurts to be rejected. It hurts to be vulnerable. But Meagan absolutely insists that she put herself forward as an actress and as a trapeze artist. It’s a labor of love and courage and a lesson in trust – the ultimate vulnerability is to trust others – and it’s absolutely vital when one is flying through the air expecting to be caught. What if you fall? What if, like Meagan, you fly?

There is freedom waiting for you