The Dragon Slayer's Guide to Life

Understanding the True Nature of Giving

We'll call him Spike.

He was big, tattooed and pierced, on lots of narcotics and, oh yeah, without a job.

I was on the team to try to help him turn his life around in 5 weeks. (Did I ever mention my former career was challenging?!)

Spike had a pregnant wife. Very pregnant. They had no car and no way to get one.

My sister was just about to have a vehicle repossessed when she and her husband split and neither could afford the SUV individually.

"Hey, your car is getting old, why don't you buy mine?" Honestly, my car was 10 years old but was running like a champ and I was not eager to take over payments for a vehicle I didn't need, but my husband convinced me that we should help my sister. Next thing you know, I have a car I don't need and then there is Spike, really working hard to turn his life around.

"Hey, Spike, do you have a dollar?"

"Um. Yeah. Why?"

"Want to buy my car?"

Give Them Permission To Not Understand You or Sin Boldy, Young Woman!

Tell me the truth, you just go there for the skinny dipping, don't you?

As a matter of fact, that's exactly right. My uncle asked me this when I stopped off to stay with them in Michigan before heading out to Camp Ronora to present at the WomenSpirit Conference. My uncle is a farmer and pretty conservative. Back in an earlier day I would have tried to conceal this side of me and would have felt bad about being singled out as an odd duck. Now hearing that some members of my family thought I was...you know, meditating...when I had me eyes closed during the eulogy at my cousin's funeral, or when my uncle told me he put the ceiling fan on to help the energy from the Universe get to me so that I could fill up on that and save him the $10 he was going to spend on me at dinner, it just makes me laugh.