In a world that treats competition as sacred, someone who parallels and promotes our same message in their work is often seen as a threat, causing us to repel, resist, and judge, or worse yet, give up, question our gift, and dissolve our belief in the value of what what we offer.
Long ago, and fueled by lessons learned through my near-death experience, I dared to let go of an indoctrinated belief in competition. Experiencing oneness, it expanded my courage to transform the norm and live from my belief in collaboration and connection. Integrity is a key ingredient, and following love as the compass leads collaboration to generate the powerful energy that opens us to the creation of a magical expansion of possibilities together.
More and more, rather than letting logic lead, I trust spirit… that ‘non-voice’ voice I hear-see-touch-taste-feel with far more than my five senses. Embracing the conversation about death has reminded me again that life is far too short not to live and love fully.
Minimizing fear and surrendering to love provides the avenue to see the meaning hidden in the madness and mess. It reveals the plus well-disguised in every minus. Surrendering and leaning into uncertainty strengthens our capacity to make friends with it, trusting there will be a positive outcome, eventually. Connecting with someone who has an amazing idea that overlays with your is the affirmation that we are one and all is well, and two heads and hearts can be better than one.
Rather than believing the myth that there are limited pieces to a pie that we all fight over, I prefer to indulge in the knowing that energy is endless and that there is more than enough abundance for everyone. We all have unique gifts to share and our own special way of sharing them.
The quality of our thoughts matters, and what we focus on expands, and so the more creative and kind-hearted people we can merge and highlight, linking hearts and focusing on good things, the more we all benefit from expanded joy and uplifted energy.
Please let this be the paradigm shift at our fingertips now!!!
What if we dared to believe that what we call reality is the illusion, and what we judge as magic, is reality?
The more I surrender to these knowings, listen deep, question the rules we were all given, and trust inner inklings, the more I am led to the next magical step, or perception, or place, or project, or person that validates that love is the answer to every question when we are courageous enough to look for meaning in the mess. The path isn’t always linear or easy but always comes with unimaginable blessings and beneficial surprises.
And so, I followed the bread crumbs that led me to artist, author and uplifter, Wendi Knox.
In Wendi’s past life within this one, she was the only female Senior Vice President/Creative Director at one of the largest advertising agencies in Los Angeles. After losing her job at 50, and muddling through that muck, this award-winning storyteller for brands like Honda and Acura was inspired to write and illustrate a book, From Muck to Magic, to change the stories we tell ourselves.
Nudged forward by a life-changing experience with hundreds of red dragonflies, Wendi’s vision took flight: to uplift and inspire others to transform their muck into magic through her book, blog, speeches, and workshops.
‘Coincidences’ led me to Wendi, who like me is an inspirational artist, speaker, and in Wendi’s words, an uplifter. I saw myself reflected in her work and had a deep sense that our energy and like-heartedness would converge for the greater good. It was exciting to find someone who ‘got it.’ It was evident through her parallel mission to help us all find magic in the muck. Since my focus is on allowing and embracing death and a teacher here to teach us about living fully and trusting that there is always meaning, even when life is messy, I knew we were destined to meet and percolate possibilities together.
Wendi has also been a regular contributor to Maria Shriver’s Sunday Paper, was featured on Rita Wilson’s “Voices of Strength” series on the Huffington Post and was most recently interviewed on NPR.
Now, I am grateful to be able to share with you my conversation with Wendi, who with enthusiasm, shares the life lessons she learned from dragonflies and her own tough moments. In her playful way, she invites us to focus on the ‘woo’ rather than the ‘woe,’ and to see the benefits of trusting that there is magic in the muck.
To learn more about Wendi and her work, visit her at: