One Step Straight On

As I drove the last few blocks to my house from the airport last week I looked up and noticed  that the cathedral of trees sheltering Bryant street had aged while I was in Italy.  Fecund branches, drooping with sumptuous green leaves, full of as much life as the legs of a teenage girl in shorts, had become her mother, crackling and vivid, on her way to the final beauty pageant of the year.  The season had changed.  Just like that.

The Final Beauty Pageant

And so it has for me too.

It feels like not so long ago that I wrote about the day I walked down the aisle of Whole Foods, eating pretzels from an open bag, and realized something had just changed inside of me.  Something was ending and something else was just beginning to show itself to the world.  My sense at that time was that I needed to step out of the nest a bit, to share myself, my energy, my abilities with the world beyond my doorstep.

So I did what any smart woman who came of age in the eighties and nineties would do.  I went to Bloomingdales and bought myself a blazer.  Seriously, I did.  Even that day, as I took the ten minutes between carpools to speed shop, the idea of buying a blazer felt ridiculous, outdated, and tinged with desperation.

But it was something.  It was a next step--not the perfect step, not the right step, just one step.  

There are so many times in life that we don't know what the next step is, nothing feels exactly right, confusion reigns, paralysis threatens.  The thing we do right there, in that moment, matters so much.  

First things first, we must be still and remember, we are called on to love, to heal, to create, not to be perfect.

Then we take one small step--write one sentence, make one phone call, buy a blazer...whatever we have to do to move in the direction of yes.  

Today I'm looking back at the memory of myself buying that blazer and giving that gal in the frame a high five.  I'm proud of her. She did it, she took a step "straight on" as my zen teacher would say.  I have gotten some writing done.  I've made progress on projects I care about. 

And today I am proud to announce that Kirsten Romer and I are launching our new business together.  It is called Impact Guild.

With Impact Guild, Kirsten and Cristina are on a mission to amplify wise, creative voices.  Through unique events, group experiences, and individual coaching we are holding space for new leaders and creative work to emerge and have positive impact in the world.

We will launch our collaboration on Sunday afternoon, November 2nd as we host rising star Tara Mohr, fellow blogger, CTI coach, and creative soul who you have met here on my blog before.  She has just published a new book called Playing Big: Find Your Voice, Your Mission, Your Message in which she advocates for women's voices.  Her work encourages us to listen in closely to our wisest selves in order to leap in the direction of yes, whatever yes looks like for us, for the sake of ourselves, our families, and our world.

Come join us and celebrate the beginning of Playing Big!