The last week has been a reminder about how we take for granted certain things that really matter to us. I’ve had this ongoing tooth drama happening since last summer. Most recently the last few weeks I had severe pain in a tooth near the one I had a root canal performed on back in December. The tooth was giving me intense pain when I ate something hot, cold, drank room temperature water, and even simply breathed the outside air (it is “cold” after all relatively speaking to our body’s temperature). Needless to say this was practically nonstop. This got me to thinking about the everyday sort of things that matter to us that we tend to take for granted.

When all is working well — you don’t really think about chewing, drinking, or breathing, do you? Yet, my guess is that if either of these became painful or difficult, you’d notice right away; I know I sure did! Since every little piece of our life is simply a reflection of the bigger picture (and other parts of our lives), I’d say there are probably other things in your life that you take for granted as well (until of course they are broken or gone). Read the rest of this entry »

Last night I watched the movie “The Pursuit of Happyness” with Will Smith and his son Jaden. The movie is based on a real life story of Chris Gardner (played by Will Smith) who went from down and out to multi-millionaire. What struck me most about the story was Chris’ unflappable determination, perseverence, and upbeat attitude in what was at best dire circumstances. This guy didn’t just take lemons and make lemonade but then turned around and sold that lemonade to anyone who’d listen.

I have to admit that the story was somewhat painful to watch. Seeing this guy go from one bad moment to another as he ends up homeless while pursuing an unpaid internship at Dean Whitter brokerage firm was hard to watch. Several times I turned to Kim and said this is just painful to watch. Yet, for many people this is their daily reality. Then, just when you thought things might be looking up, life took another whack at this guy and his thoroughly bright son. Yet through it all Chris stays committed to his son and his belief in himself and a better life.

Since art truly imitates life I am always looking for some aha moment. Read the rest of this entry »

I had the pleasure of being a guest blogger over at Mombian yesterday. While I geared the article toward the lesbian Mom’s out there, all the advice holds true for each and every woman attempting to juggle multiple things in her life. Hmmm, I guess that means all of us (me included!)

Check out the article “Taking Time for YOU” over at Mombian. Here’s a little snippet to get you intrigued….

Why is taking uninterrupted time just for yourself so important? Well, you wouldn’t drive your car on “Empty” without any gas in it, would you? You wouldn’t write checks from your bank account without first making a deposit, would you? Your personal engine works the same way and it needs to be recharged in more ways than one to keep running optimally.

So, as we approach the weekend, hop on over to read the article and see how you can start filling up your own personal gas tank.

This installment of the Successful Lesbian Businesswomen’s Interview Series finds us in conversation with Tracey Stevens and Katherine Wunder of Amazing Dreams Publishing. The sheer number of pursuits these two are up to are too numerous for me to do justice to, so I’ll let them do the talking…

1) What was your inspiration to start Amazing Dreams Publishing?

Tracey Stevens: I was inspired by my mentor, Patricia Nell Warren. My work had been rejected by mainstream NYC publishers for many years. I was searching for lesbian publishers and came upon Wildcat Press. It turned out that Patricia Nell Warren owned Wildcat Press, and Patricia’s novel “The Beauty Queen” was the first gay-themed book I’d ever read when I was 15 years old. I contacted Patricia about reviewing one of my novels. I always write about issues that most other writers won’t touch, like women becoming successful after experiencing hard circumstances, such as child abuse. Patricia was not accepting outside manuscripts at that time, but she read some of my work. She suggested I write some non-fiction books about how you can be a success even though you may have gone through hard times in the past. This is how the book “How To Be A Happy Lesbian: A Coming Out Guide” was born. Patricia also encouraged me to take back the control of my own work and open my own company–the rest is herstory.

Katherine Wunder: The publishing company is all Tracey’s idea and her baby. She has done an incredible job of building the company into something to be proud of. It is more than a publishing company, it is a lesbian community resource with many facets. There are free e-cards, a coming out support group, networking groups, LGBT links, horoscopes, etc. Again, these are all Tracey’s conceptualizations of what she would have liked to have had available to her in her coming out process.

2) What is/was your background prior to starting this endeavor? Read the rest of this entry »

I’m not a huge Sci-Fi fan. I was as a kid, but outgrew it pretty early on. Yet, over the last few years I have watched all 3 of the movies in The Matrix Trilogy. While the movies tend to confuse me on some level and have far too much gunfire for my nerves, I still find myself gripped by the mystery of it all. Maybe it is just the uber-sexy Carrie Ann Moss playing Trinity that keeps me hooked, but I know there is more to it than that. This past weekend we watched The Matrix Revolutions which is the third in the series and offers perhaps the greatest words of wisdom from the entire series.

To give you some grasp of context, in the movie The Oracle (who is like the omniscient being, think the Yoda of The Matrix) predicts what Neo (”The One”, the sort of main character savior guy) must do to essentially save the world (in this case known as Zion). To make a long story short, the story ends as The Oracle predicted. At the end of the movie she is asked (and don’t you just LOVE how the omniscient one is a woman?) “Did you always know?”. And, she gave what is perhaps the best life lesson I’ve heard in a long time Read the rest of this entry »