Once upon a time,
I discovered my life’s calling.
And then I lived happier ever after.

A mysterious writer

About twenty-five years ago, I met a very interesting, rather mysterious, and definitely quite attractive Mexican writer named Emilio Rojas.  The publishing house where I was working had bought the English language rights to his bestselling book in Mexico, and he came to our offices in the U.S. to work on the translation.

Strange things started to happen the minute Emilio entered the funky old house in which our offices were located.  The publishing house and the lives of the people who worked there were turned upside down and spun around, mine included.

A life’s calling

Emilio was the first person to call me a star polisher.  He even dedicated his story about the star polisher to me.  Although I was honored he had done so, I didn’t understand that he was telling me what my life’s calling was.  I was too distracted trying to prepare his manuscript for publication in the midst of the tornado that was rocking our offices to the core.

I eventually left publishing, but Emilio and I remained friends.  I visited him a couple of times in Mexico, and he came to visit me the first winter I moved to Maine.  On each occasion, strange things happened, my life went careening off in increasingly unusual directions, and I began to wonder if I was in the presence of a sorcerer.

I’m still not sure I wasn’t.

Life callings have a way of not being denied.  In the years that ensued, I was polishing all sorts of stars in all sorts of ways without realizing it.  I wrote business plans for people, reorganized offices for companies, coached aspiring writers, raised money for worthy causes, volunteered at a domestic violence agency, facilitated writing groups – to name a few.

My own throne

Then one day something happened.  I had just finished writing a business plan that resulted in someone being accepted into a highly competitive business incubator program.  Bruce was very grateful and, in what was meant to be a compliment, declared, “You are the power behind my throne.”

I’m not sure who was more startled – Bruce or me – when I replied, “I don’t want to be the power behind your throne.  I want to be the power behind my own throne.”

That day a seed was planted – a seed that wouldn’t germinate until several years later, when I was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of breast cancer.

Months to live

My prognosis was poor, and I thought I only had a few months to live.  It was then I realized I had been spending my whole life polishing other people’s stars but never my own.

We women are good at that. We know how to put our own passions and dreams on hold while we pour our time, talent, and light into everyone else.  We polish the stars of our partners, our children, our employers, our friends, our schools, our communities while neglecting our own stars.  We ignore our passions, forget our dreams, and allow our once brilliant light to dim.

That’s exactly what I had done.  And now I was going to die.  My passions and dreams were going to die with me.  I was leaving nothing behind – no legacy, nothing to indicate that my life had mattered.  That I had mattered.

The despair I felt was profound, heavy, all encompassing.  I dropped into a deep, dark abyss for three long days and even longer nights.  The fourth morning, the phone rang.  It was my oncologist.  My cancer was curable.  I received quite literally the reprieve of a lifetime, and today I remain cancer-free.

My dreams come true

Ever since that phone call, I have been on a quest to discover my star and learn how to polish it.  And here’s what my journey has taught me.  Emilio was right.  I’m a star polisher.  It’s my special genius.  My star shines brightest when I polish your star.  My dreams come true when I shine the light on your dreams.

Are you ready to meet your star?

• Then email me.  Right now.  Today.
  We’ll schedule a free 30-minute chat.  Absolutely no strings attached and no high-pressure sales tactics, I promise! Just the easy peasy first step of the star polishing journey to see if it’s what you’re looking for.