It was a cry made in vain, or so it seemed as, day by day, the miners left town.

If there was gold locked in them thar hills, it seemed like that's precisely where it would remain ...

... until the miner's returned from California with hydraulic mining tools sometime in the 1850s after recounting Dr. Fleming's words to Mark Twain.

My point?

What seems like a meaningless loss on day one can wind up being just the detour you need to make in order to pick up a new tool, and possibly, inspire a famous novelist.

But let me back up for a minute!

Craaaazzzyyy

That's the word most people might use to describe the things that have happened to you in the open loop between the day you were born and ... right now.

That's even the word a lot of people might use to describe your big dream and the persistent way you keep holding it tight in the far corners of your heart, refusing, against all odds to give it up and just give in to what happened to you ...

... and what is happening to you right now.

Yeah, about that!

I know you think you ought to have this shit worked out by now and that every Tom, Dick, Harry and their dog thinks so too.

Well, everybody maybe, except me.

To be frank about it, I simply know too much to buy into rumors spread by guys named Dick.

I know about the heartbreak you feel every single time the same-old-same-old rings your doorbell right in the big middle of your big triumph. I know how it feels when the rinse and repeat cycle tries to drown you one more time.

Most importantly, I know it isn't your fault and that this cycle can seem as fixed as the North Star. I know that it can seem bigger than you and feel like it emanates from a galaxy far, far away.

And, finally, I know that you have just about had it. Sometimes you don't think you have even one more day left in you.

Nevertheless, the dream persists!

Craaaazzzyyy ...

It calls to you from around the edges of buildings. It whispers to you on the wind, flashes messages across billboards, sends you inspiring memes on social media. Just what you needed to hear too!

This dream even goes so far as to pour sweet nothings into your ear and to softly croon your name just as you are drifting off to sleep. It tortures you with could-have-beens just when you are about ready to walk away. So, here you remain, day dreaming about ways to give in to this bittersweet temptation.

And when this dream speaks, it doesn't use your given name. It knows your REAL NAME, the one that emanates from the call on your life. You know the one ...

It keeps doing enthusiastic somersaults in your midsection and spreading rumors about hope when you are supposed to be doing something else like sitting in your designated work space selling time.

And you snap angrily at this voice sometimes too, don't you?

I mean how are you supposed to do this given ...? And! And! And!

I'll give it to you. If you set it up like that, it probably won't happen.

That's because you aren't supposed to do it in opposition to the crazy things that have happened to you. You aren't even supposed to clean up all the bat-shit stuff that is happening right now for that matter.

Dreams don't come true because you clean up your mess and get Prom-Queen ready for life (all pretty and polished). Dreams come true when you stop using one little sentence that goes something like this:

If only [fill in the blank] ...

... then I will [start a business, put an ad on that dating app, lose weight ...]

Let me give it to you straight.

You don't need that sentence anymore.

If you ever did, it was only because you didn't feel prepared. You didn't know how to stop the boomerang effect of your life. You didn't feel deserving. You were busy paying the price for sins you didn't commit. Some part of you that you needed was always in hiding and couldn't be coaxed out to play. You name it, I'll knock it down.

In short, I am here to help you change every bit of that.

See that smoke over there?

It's rising up from the bonfire onto which your excuses have gone to hurl themselves.

They just can't face life without YOU.

Here's what has your "maybe-laters" ready to end it all ...

Your chariot of ascension has arrived, destination level-up (even if it might have the audacity take you down, deep, all the way INto the shadowy landscape of your own heart before you get anywhere near the rising part).

Anyhow, there's gold in them thar hills!

Trust me!

Now here's your hydraulic jack, let's go get it: