One of the questions that I keep getting asked is: “how did you make it happen?”

The book. As a mama of little boys. In graduate school. In the midst of a career change.

All of it.

And I’ve been thinking a lot about that; about what actually went into the process of dreaming something, and then dreaming it real, gradually and with persistence, despite the fact that nearly everything in my life suggested that making a book was a ludicrous idea. I mean really, who sets about the dream of making a book with a infant in tow, and a career up in the air?

That’s something I was asked at least a dozen times when I started out, and I lived daily with the fact that the whole thing might fail.

Still I showed up: willing to fail, and willing, also, to ask for help.

More than anything, that is what I hope readers will get from A Field Guide To Now.

 
I hope they’ll read it both as proof, and as a reference manual for achieving extraordinary creativity under ordinary circumstances.

Because really, truly, the biggest things begin with the smallest of creative acts.

 
…And both making the book, and the book itself are about the practice of showing up.

Showing up daily with intention.

Showing up with notebook in hand.

Showing up with eyes wide open.

Showing up even when you don’t feel like it.

Showing up even when all you accomplish somedays is simply the act of showing up.

 
What will you show up for today?