Episode Transcript
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Laura Wakefield (00:00):
I could sit for
hours and hours doing nothing
but watching the tide roll inand out and listening to the
sounds of ocean waves breakingagainst the shore.
It's the most peaceful sound inthe world, in my opinion.
(00:22):
Welcome to The Joyful icityPodcast.
I'm your host, Laura Wakefield.
Some of my earliest memoriesare of the beach.
I grew up in SouthernCalifornia, and I spent a great
deal of my young childhoodsplashing in the waves,
collecting seashells, buildingsandcastles, and pestering the
(00:43):
sand crabs and seagulls.
Those were happy times,innocent and unaware of the
troubles ahead.
I am grateful for thosecarefree beach baby days, for
the sunlight and the salt airthat wrapped itself around that
little girl, and made her smile.
The ocean became a part of methen, in a deeply spiritual way.
(01:08):
It came to representplayfulness and a time when I
lived with an unguarded heart.
It came to symbolize the purestessence of myself in a joyful
state of being, thus beginningmy lifelong love affair with the
sea.
I don't live near the beachcurrently, and I miss it.
(01:29):
Life is busy and time and moneyare often in short supply, so
vacations can be hard to comeby.
But it is only at the oceanthat I finally fully exhale,
like a primal instinct to openand relax and return to my true
nature.
The ocean draws me to it.
(01:51):
It calls me with a familiarcomforting voice that assures me
always that everything is goingto turn out okay.
At the beach, I'm not the girlworking on her tan.
I'm the one out in the water,completely immersing in the
sensory experience of it,allowing it to fill my heart and
(02:12):
soothe my soul.
There, the stresses of dailylife wash away with the tide.
My body and mind and spiritbecome aligned with nature, and
breathing feels free and easy.
The gentle breeze kisses theskin, and the sounds of the
waves crashing close to theshore are comforting.
(02:33):
Both random and consistent.
Powerful, yet calming.
Untamed, and vibrantly full oflife, but still welcoming and
peaceful too.
You may have noticed if youvisit my website that ocean
imagery is all over my pages.
(02:54):
in both words and pictures.
Because to me, the oceansymbolizes peace, joy, retreat,
and healing.
The wisdom found pondering inquiet moments on the sand.
Gifts given to me that I hopeto share with others.
To me, the ocean, in essence,is a place of love where my
(03:18):
inner child laughs and plays.
And that...
Above all is where its truemagic and beauty is found.
My family moved away from thebeach when I was about 10.
And since that time, I'veprobably said a million times
(03:39):
that the ocean is my happyplace.
And I've probably said half amillion times that I intend to
move back there someday.
Someday.
I've talked about it.
I've even gone as far aslooking up houses on Zillow and
really dreaming and planning andcreating a vision of it in my
(04:02):
mind.
I chose an area.
I've narrowed that down.
It's become a vibrant hope andwish in my mind to someday move
to the beach.
Everyone that knows me well hasalways known this, that someday
mom was going to move to thebeach.
(04:24):
But there's this little problemwith the word someday.
It isn't real.
It's not an actual calendardate.
It's not anything that you canpin down.
It doesn't have a time frame oran urgency to it.
And if you're not careful,sometimes someday can become
(04:45):
never.
It's very undefined.
And so until you start actuallytaking real steps toward any
dream or goal or thought or wishor hope or idea, someday
actually doesn't mean anything.
(05:07):
In the past few years, I've hadsome things happen in my life
that have kind of shaken me up.
Some high school classmates andsome family members have passed
away.
And really deeply reminded methat our time here on earth will
end for all of us and that wedon't know when that will be.
(05:28):
And so putting things off formany of the people that I care
about, I've watched their dreamsdie with them.
And there's a part of me deepinside that has started to
really take that to heart andrealize that I don't want that
(05:51):
to be my story.
And that if there's a place outthere that brings me so much
peace, so much inspiration, somuch joy, why shouldn't I move
there now?
I was having a conversation withsomebody a couple of months ago
and we were talking about thistopic and how sometimes you
(06:16):
need to just ask yourself thequestion, when there's something
that you've been putting on theshelf for a long time, what are
you waiting for?
Like what specifically exactlyare you waiting for?
What magical turn of events orfinancial things or what is it
that will finally get you offthe fence and get you to do that
(06:37):
thing that you've been dreamingof and talking about for a long
time?
And sometimes there's actualreasons and you can spell them
out and you can say, well, whenX, Y, Z happens, then I'm going
to do this.
And that makes sense becausethen you've got something in
your mind that's concrete.
But for me, when I asked myselfthat question a few months ago,
(06:57):
what are you waiting for?
Like you keep waiting for thistime in the future, but what is
it that's going to make itfinally time?
And you know what?
I couldn't come up with ananswer.
I didn't know.
And then I started thinking,well, what will it be like when
(07:20):
you do make it happen?
And wow, the blessings andrewards were innumerable.
Part of this move down to thebeach will involve downsizing my
house, which will simplify mylife quite a bit so that I won't
have to work so many side jobs.
And I'll have a little bit moretime to put toward more of my
(07:44):
passions in life.
So not only will I be near theocean, I'll have more time to
devote to writing and to thispodcast and to the things that
light me up and bring me joy andmaybe can offer some hope and
healing for other people aswell.
Part of moving down there is aninternal thing that for
(08:04):
various reasons, I myself havenever really chosen where I
lived.
Now, I've lived in wonderfulplaces, so I don't mean that as
a complaint because I've had awonderful life.
But there's a part of me at 55in midlife that finds that kind
of exciting that I can choosefor myself something really
major in my life like that, likewhere I'm going to live.
(08:26):
Part of it's going to befinancial.
Part of it's going to bespiritual.
Part of it's going to bephysical change.
And change can sometimes feel alittle daunting.
So when I think about actuallymaking the move, it's one thing
to fantasize about it and tothink about it.
But the actual practical partsof making the move kind of get a
(08:51):
little bit overwhelming.
You have to get your houseready to sell.
You have to sell it.
Then you have to actually moveall your stuff, sort through
everything you have, decidewhat's coming, what's not
coming.
You have to work out detailsfor your children in the new
location.
You need to get moved downthere where you don't know
(09:11):
anybody and make new friends andfind a new dentist.
And all of the details of itcan sometimes feel so huge that
it's almost easier to stay putwhere you are.
And this holds, by the way, I'mtalking about any dream or goal.
I'm using my example of movingto the beach, but these ideas
(09:31):
apply to anything that we dreamabout and talk about and put off
for someday.
That sometimes the reason wedon't move forward is just
because it seems kind of hard.
But think about that for aminute.
Is there anything that's worthdoing, that has great reward
that comes with it, that doesn'tcome with certain level of
(09:52):
challenge?
Like an Olympian would neverstand on the podium without an
awful lot of effort.
You don't get a diploma withouta lot of effort.
You don't have a successfulrelationship without a lot of
effort.
There's really nothing that wecan do in our lives that's
really worth much at all thatdoesn't have a certain price
(10:13):
that you have to pay for it.
But the idea is that the priceis worth the reward.
But there's a lot of differentfactors like that that can kind
of keep us stuck putting thingsoff for some day.
And something has been buildinginside of me, leading me toward
the beach for a long time now.
So I finally took an actionablestep and I went down there a
(10:37):
few couple months ago and Iactually narrowed it down even
further to a particular schooldistrict, which has me just in a
couple of different spots sothat when I look on line now, I
really know what houses I'mlooking at.
And all of a sudden this thingtook on a momentum.
It's funny what happens whenyou finally take a step.
You take it out of your mindand into an actual behavior, how
(11:03):
quickly things start to lineup.
If you're doing the rightthing, the universe will just,
all of a sudden, the doors juststart flying open.
But it's not going to forceyour blessings upon you.
It's going to wait until youare ready to just start walking
in faith and taking a couplelittle baby steps.
And then the next thing youknow, if you are in line with
(11:23):
the true destiny of your life,the pathway begins to unfold in
front of you rather quickly.
It's kind of amazing.
So all of a sudden, I'm activelygetting my house ready to sell.
We've been painting.
I've had the handyman here.
I've already been sort ofpre-marketing it.
(11:46):
I'm a realtor, so I'll belisting it myself.
And I have a lot of resourcesfor that.
So I'm fortunate in thatregard.
And I've found a realtor downin Florida, and this is
happening.
Within the next few months, assoon as all the ducks line up in
a row, I'm going to bedownsizing to the beach.
That thing that I've beenputting off for some day, that
(12:07):
day...
is today.
It's happening now.
And I'm in the midst of kind ofthe hard part of it right now.
But you know what I'm finding?
Is it all that anxiety that Ihad about the hard part actually
has been replaced withexcitement of what's to come.
It's not going to be easy.
I know that.
(12:27):
There's going to be some lonelytimes, some anxious times, some
stressful times, a lot of newthings, a lot of change, a lot
to adjust to, a lot to absorb.
But it feels deep down in mysoul like the right thing to do
and that I shouldn't wait tomake this happen.
So I will keep you posted on mymove down to the beach.
(12:48):
But the main purpose of thispodcast today isn't so much to
talk about my personalcircumstance, although that's
the backdrop for the message,but more just the reminder to
not put off the things thatbring us joy.
Because you never know.
You don't know how much timeyou have.
(13:10):
And even if you don't pass awayyoung, you don't know what your
health is going to do, whatyour finances are going to do,
what your relationship status isgoing to be.
The details of your life couldgo much differently than you
expect.
So all the ways that you'replanning something for some
unknown, undefined time in thefuture, it may not go like that.
(13:32):
So whenever possible, it'sbetter to take hold of our
dreams as soon as possible andmake them into realities,
because this is your life thatyou're living.
I say that a lot in my writingand in my speaking that this is
your life and we want to makesure that we're fully living it.
(13:53):
Now for you, it may not mean amove.
It may not mean something thatdramatic.
It could be something as simpleas I've always wanted to take
an art class, but I've neverfound time to do it.
Make the time, whatever ittakes, that thing you've always
dreamed of, that hope and thatwish that just won't go away.
(14:15):
I'm not talking about a passingfancy.
I'm talking about that thingthat won't let you go.
It's important.
It's a part of your story.
It's meant to be part of yourstory, but it won't be unless
you consciously write it in andmake it so.
You're the author of thatstory.
(14:39):
And we forget that sometimesand we allow life to just kind
of happen to us rather than takecontrol and make it happen the
way that we know that we want itto.
And we have to be willing topay the price of the decisions
that we make.
But the question that turnedthe tide, so to speak, for me
(15:02):
was what are you waiting for?
And if you come up with somereally solid reasons, then
factor those in and put them inyour calendar.
Still make an actionable plan.
But often you might besurprised to realize that
there's no answer to that atall.
(15:22):
All those things you think,well, I couldn't possibly, I
can't, that's too big, that'stoo whatever, that's just
excuses.
If you really, really want thisthing, What are you waiting
for?
We really can do and have and beeverything that calls to our
(15:45):
heart if we're willing to dowhat is required of us to make
that happen.
So that's my prayer foreveryone today, is to have the
courage to just start taking thesteps, even if they're small.
If your dream is that artclass, get online and research
(16:05):
local art studios.
That one step, just that onething, because I think you'll be
surprised when you do that,that you discover, oh my
goodness, there is an art studioin my town.
And oh wow, it's really notquite as expensive as I thought
it was.
And they hold it on Thursdaynights.
Maybe I actually can do that.
And the next thing you know,when you start to take the
steps, you're taking the artclass.
(16:27):
Whereas if you just sat aroundthinking about it, you could
find yourself still in thatplace in 10 years, not having
taken an art class.
And think of all the art...
and self-expression and beautythat wasn't created because you
didn't take that first step.
So I would encourage you all tojust take a step towards
(16:50):
something that's calling to yourheart, because that really is
what makes us feel alive.
And those soul passions arereally the source of some of our
greatest joy.
Have a wonderful day,everybody.
Thank you for joining me todayon The Joy fulicity podcast.
(17:12):
If you enjoyed this episode,please like and share and come
follow me on all major socialmedia sites at Joy fulicity or
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Have a great day, everybody.
And remember, dare to dream,plan to play, live to learn.