Breathless Haste

One day, Jay called and said that he was praying for me, and he didn’t want me to dismiss the idea.

That gave me the courage to email Sibyl. She emailed back to say that she would meet with me. In her email, I noticed her title: director of spiritual mentoring. I had no idea that I had gone straight to the top for this initial conversation. We had a meeting at a table in the middle of the church’s cafeteria. I shared with her a bit of my story, how I was investing in others in my neighborhood, how I was handling being a mom, as well as how stressed I felt. She listened carefully, or at least, I thought she did. I honestly thought the next step would be that she would connect me to a mentor in her network. Instead, within a week of our first meeting, she emailed to tell me that she was working on a project with her friend Sharon, and she asked if I would be interested in meeting with them.

Had she heard a word I said? I didn’t need a project. I was overwhelmed, and I had enough projects of my own.

Since Jay had sparked this relationship, he didn’t discourage me. So, despite my weariness, I decided to attend the meeting to scope it out. We met in yet another conference room. As Sibyl and Sharon described their dream, vision, and project, they told me they wanted to write a book with visual maps that would help individuals to process their life stories: past, present, future—the good and the bad. I was excited and nervous.

I couldn’t believe that I was being asked to be on the ground floor of such an amazing project.