Greetings Secret Dreamers!
What is a Soul Life?
What are the Secret Dreams that get lost as we age?
How would your life be different if you were bold enough to fully commit to the vision that sparkles in your heart?
As a child my secret dream was to be a writer, like Louisa May Alcott's Jo. I clung to that dream until it became clear that I have no talent for plot development.
Still, if you don't count waitressing as a teen during summer vacations, I will say that in some fashion I have considered myself a journalist all my life -- starting with producing a newsletter in grade school that required a laborious few hours every month manually grinding the wheel of a mimeograph machine.
Yes, I'm that old (but it's not me in that photo!)
And it's not that I departed from journalism in high school. It's just that I was avoiding certain snotty kids, and took a detour through a chorale phase of life -- giving voice of a different sort to another life my soul wanted to live.
But then it was right back to journalism in college, where I learned about the 5 Ws, inverted pyramid leads, implied subjects in headlines, and proudly brandished my em ruler during long nights engaged in design and layout of The Western Graphic newspaper for Colorado Women's College.
College was interrupted for a year in South Korea where I became a volunteer reporter for the Public Affairs office of the US Air Force base in Osan and got my first assignment as a traveling photojournalist, covering some happening at the remote base at SongJongNi.
Back in the States, a senior year's experiment with broadcast journalism at University of West Florida paid off in an internship for WEAR-TV, Pensacola where I covered a hurricane and got my first helicopter ride reporting on a big Army exercise.
Soon, though, personal life took me to West Germany where I eventually got hired as a civilian Public Information Officer for the 36th Tactical Fighter Wing at Bitburg AB. I was in my soul's element with that job, interacting with international media, and writing my own stories for the base newspaper, submitting human interest pieces to US magazines, and phoning in reports for USAFE radio. A promotion and a transfer to Hill AFB, Utah put me in charge of the base newspaper.
But personal life has a way of changing a professional trajectory, and by my late-30s I'd relocated twice more, landing in Seattle, where the reasonable thing to do -- it seemed at the time -- was to complete a master's degree. Interest in topics of alternative health and psychological healing captured soulful curiosities, teaching and counseling were practical, and the mysteries of personal and organizational transformation kept percolating in my attention.
Ultimately I detoured into work as a mental health counselor, adjunct college faculty, and personal growth coach, finding ways to continue writing for the benefit of clients, students and community. I just couldn't shed the journalism gene. Along the way, some academic research refreshed my training as an interviewer / reporter, and the research done for a dissertation won an award, and turned into a couple books now sold on Amazon.
If I'd been more bold, less swept up with personal affiliations and fears, I would have liked a career for National Geographic. While I may be too old for that full time at this point, perhaps some version of travelling and interviewing and collecting inspiring stories of what others' souls yearn to share can still be accomplished.
So, the dormant aspect of freelancing is reviving itself with this Secret Dreams / Soul Life Project. I'm excited about the idea, and the prospect of meeting hundreds of new friends as this literal and literary journey unfolds.
What is a Soul Life?
What are the Secret Dreams that get lost as we age?
How would your life be different if you were bold enough to fully commit to the vision that sparkles in your heart?
These have been the questions I've pursued
in some way all my life.
As a child my secret dream was to be a writer, like Louisa May Alcott's Jo. I clung to that dream until it became clear that I have no talent for plot development.
Still, if you don't count waitressing as a teen during summer vacations, I will say that in some fashion I have considered myself a journalist all my life -- starting with producing a newsletter in grade school that required a laborious few hours every month manually grinding the wheel of a mimeograph machine.
Yes, I'm that old (but it's not me in that photo!)
And it's not that I departed from journalism in high school. It's just that I was avoiding certain snotty kids, and took a detour through a chorale phase of life -- giving voice of a different sort to another life my soul wanted to live.
But then it was right back to journalism in college, where I learned about the 5 Ws, inverted pyramid leads, implied subjects in headlines, and proudly brandished my em ruler during long nights engaged in design and layout of The Western Graphic newspaper for Colorado Women's College.
College was interrupted for a year in South Korea where I became a volunteer reporter for the Public Affairs office of the US Air Force base in Osan and got my first assignment as a traveling photojournalist, covering some happening at the remote base at SongJongNi.
Back in the States, a senior year's experiment with broadcast journalism at University of West Florida paid off in an internship for WEAR-TV, Pensacola where I covered a hurricane and got my first helicopter ride reporting on a big Army exercise.
But personal life has a way of changing a professional trajectory, and by my late-30s I'd relocated twice more, landing in Seattle, where the reasonable thing to do -- it seemed at the time -- was to complete a master's degree. Interest in topics of alternative health and psychological healing captured soulful curiosities, teaching and counseling were practical, and the mysteries of personal and organizational transformation kept percolating in my attention.
Ultimately I detoured into work as a mental health counselor, adjunct college faculty, and personal growth coach, finding ways to continue writing for the benefit of clients, students and community. I just couldn't shed the journalism gene. Along the way, some academic research refreshed my training as an interviewer / reporter, and the research done for a dissertation won an award, and turned into a couple books now sold on Amazon.
So, the dormant aspect of freelancing is reviving itself with this Secret Dreams / Soul Life Project. I'm excited about the idea, and the prospect of meeting hundreds of new friends as this literal and literary journey unfolds.
