from LEAN FORWARD INTO YOUR LIFE (2007 Conari Press, Mary Anne Radmacher, author)\u00a0 \u201cKnow When To Leave\u201d<\/p>\n
It was time for me to leave. What I was leaving was so delicious in its appearance. The opportunity to be a part-time hero is reasonable appealing. I chose to be hero to myself. I chose to not disappoint myself. In so choosing, disappointed others. Such is just one consequence of knowing when to leave.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
Acting on an impulse to protect my environment, I accidentally became a national activist.\u00a0 That was not my objective.\u00a0 My objective was far more self-focused. I was thriving as a body boarder and planned to learn to surf. That the government was planning on issuing leases for oil drilling off our shore was quite disturbing. So much so that a fellow \u201cwater baby\u201d and I began an energy conservation program campaign that still thrives in my former community.\u00a0 We led what became a two state petition effort involving hundreds of people. We traveled and testified before committees and elected officials.\u00a0 A moratorium was issued.\u00a0 Ten year delay.<\/p>\n
On the heals of that success several agencies had other \u201cissues\u201d they wanted me to champion.\u00a0 They were all important. Yet, none of them were passionately important to me.\u00a0 \u201cBut you are so GOOD at this,\u201c they crooned.\u00a0 \u201cThe State needs people like you.\u201d
\nBeing wanted and needed and courted – wow, they are heady drugs!\u00a0 I knew the chunk of soul and time and health that one effort took out of me.\u00a0 My soul calls me to make a\u00a0 difference.\u00a0 And I do that through generosity, poetry, art and teaching.\u00a0 I am not a born
\nactivist.\u00a0 I fight for what I am passionate about.\u00a0 It\u2019s the passion that drives me, not the fight.<\/p>\n
I said no.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been grateful for knowing to leave those opportunities so many times. A yes would have fulfilled the
\nexpectations that others held of me.\u00a0 My NO honored my calling, my craft and my health.\u00a0 From that I learned and have often said,<\/p>\n
\u201cMy NO becomes the opportunity for someone else\u2019s YES.\u201d<\/p>\n
mary anne radmacher<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
from LEAN FORWARD INTO YOUR LIFE (2007 Conari Press, Mary Anne Radmacher, author)\u00a0 \u201cKnow When To Leave\u201d It was time for me to leave. What I was leaving was so delicious in its appearance. The opportunity to be a part-time hero is reasonable appealing. I chose to be hero to myself. I chose to not…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-joys"],"yoast_head":"\n