a psychic redhead saved my soul

 
On the 31st of October (Halloween in fact!) four years ago, a psychic redhead named Dots McGuire handed me a parcel and said "Open it.  Your magical life awaits."

Let me take you back……….
…to an ordinary, everyday, average kind of day.  At lunchtime I punched cappuccino on the coffee-to-go vending machine and grabbed a cellophane sandwich from the chill cabinet in a busy city newsagent.  I played a couple of games on my smartphone while I made my lunch disappear.


Later…..
….as I drove through evening traffic, I felt the familiar pinching of my jeans about my waist and wondered if I'd anything more comfortable in the fresh laundry basket to climb into when I got home.

And that reminded me.  
I'd better get a bottle of Rioja and spend the evening with the ironing.  I comforted myself that a glass or two of wine and a few episodes of ‘The Good Wife’ would see me through the hours of being a good wife. 

It was as I stopped at traffic lights that the funny little psychic redheaded nurse made her re-appearance.  
 
Dots McGuire was back!   
Oh how I adored this character I had dreamed up for the 'musical' I'd been writing for..... how long?   I didn't write everyday.  Or even every weekend.  It was months sometimes before I'd take out the pages of my script for 'Come Back To Stay' and allowed the characters play themselves onto the pages.  I'd tell myself that I’d
finish it One Day when .......  
I'll write it once I ..............  
I'll just finish this first,  then I can ............  
Now it dawned on me with a shock that it had been five years since the quirky Dots first muscled her way into a starring role in my story.

Always it was 'One Day' wasn't it?  
Boy was that day going to be a very full day indeed.  But in the meantime we say  -
"I'll bide my time.  I'll just fall in / pass through / put in the hours like everyone else and get on with my life.  Not a unique life, just an average one -  following the lead and playing it safe."  
In truth I was tired, all-out in fact and the well worn path through the comfort zone was soooo easy.  I'd let every day drift by, each just like the one before it and the one following it.

And that's when Dots McGuire came back!  Flashing her fiery red hair and yelling "When are you going to get out of your dozy head and start living your life?"  


Now you might think this strange, but my response to her - was to respond to her.  
These characters in my musical script were my joy.  
Within the words they spoke were my words.  
Their voice was my voice, my vision and my story.   
And now here was my Dots McGuire asking me when I was going to start living my life!

I thought I'd pacify her.  Maybe Christmastime I'll have a few days…
"That's not going to happen miss so-called writer" she snapped.
​I did mention she's psychic didn't I?
Jesus,  I thought.  I'm never going to do this am I? I'm going to spend my whole life saying (sarcastic voice here) “I'm writing a musical about a supernatural episode that brings together the eurovision song contest and a star of the Irish showband scene.  And 'one day' I'm going to finish it!"  
But the truth is, it was more likely that I'd depart this world with a few sad pages of handwritten script of a beautiful idea, filled with mad, wonderful characters that never broke loose from those pages.  Now Dots McGuire, the orphaned, redheaded, psychic nurse will never get to save the day.

It was then that she handed me the parcel of magic.  
"I predict something" she said. "I predict that at the end of the next thirty days you will have discovered how to find the 'One Day' in everyday." 


Something shifted.  Aligned.  And settled home on its axis.  As though the bodies of the idea in my head, the truth in my gut and the longing in my heart found their groove and slotted sweetly together . Suddenly, somehow, my ONE DAY had arrived.

And so, I did go home and I did stop off on the way to pick up a bottle of Rioja.  And in fact, I did do the ironing.  But instead of watching 'The Good Wife', I had a notebook and pen beside me and I made notes as all the delicious 'one day things' I promised myself I'd do, came to mind.     For the gift inside the parcel that Dots McGuire had handed me was a gift of 30 days - the whole of November in fact,  to step off the well worn track and to take one day at a time.
I gifted myself these precious days (for indeed we all know, don't we, that Dots speaks for me). 
To..........

• see what I could achieve
• find out what really made me happy
• discover small everyday pleasures without rushing past them
• rest and reboot
• move with grace and breathe big lungfuls of air and take care of my body
• declutter, sort out and brush away the cobwebs (know what I mean?)
• savor food and find my own taste
• to write and to play and to make and read and draw
• to hone the soulcraft of self nurture

I also popped the cork onto the Rioja and decided to leave it there for the month to give my body a complete rest so that I could support its healing and nourishment more fully.

And guess what?
November was lush and mellow and blissful.  
And by December 1st I felt flamin' freakin' gloriously fabulous! 
So I packaged it up and wrapped it beautifully and renamed this gift  November Bliss - 30 days of tenderness.


That halloween night was the beginning of the discovery of my own super-natural, magical life.  I learned in the days that followed that each and every day had the potential to be the best day of my life.  Now my 30 day programme (titled  November Bliss - 30 days of soulful self nurture) is part of my Wise & Ageless Goddess guide to Living Magically and is available for everyone who wants to slow down and spend time on self care and tenderness.  It can be done alone – or register to join the group November Bliss with Trina Keane  here  and we’ll bliss buddy together for a truly sweet November 2019 experience.  (Some may choose to make it a NoVino November© although it’s not mandatory).   Along with finding magic, I managed to change some tired old habits and even shed a half stone last year!


Oh and, I finished the musical!   Where is it now?  It's with the gods but I wouldn't worry about it. 
​Dots McGuire knows a magic spell or two..................