Oh, and it's my sister's birthday

Today is my Rosie Anniversary. A year ago today (GBFF extraordinaire) Mattie and I attended Rosie’s book signing in Framingham, MA where we not only met our childhood hero but also where, upon hearing that we would be at Cyndi Lauper’s True Color concert that night in Boston (a show which Rosie played the drums in), Rosie invited us onto her tour bus after the show. I throw that all in a single sentence but a larger day I have never lived.

It’s a story I haven’t told, a story I’ve held closely---a joy that felt too sacred to reveal. But this blog is a start in living from a place other than fear (fear of showing my writing, fear of speaking my truth). So while I want to push past the fear in this case, the actual telling of the story needs a little work. (I can’t work it up like that and then deliver some crappity crap, you know?)

But I can say this:

How often can you really say a dream came true? May 31 will forever be my anniversary for dreaming. A day to check in and make sure I’m still in touch with my heart’s truest desire. May 31 is Live Your Dream Day in my world. I wanted to invite you (all nine of you) to celebrate with me.

An excerpt of an interview in Rosie O’Donnell’s "Celebrity Detox" (and the page I chose to have her sign):

“Barbra is my best self. My ideal. Part of a spiritual practice may be to develop and ideal, which is not necessarily the same as idolizing. Idolization can be blind, but it can also be an expression of your highest hopes for yourself, and a reminder of what you need to strive for. After Barbra’s tour was finished, I flew back to Nyack on the plane. And I was crying. Why was I crying? I was exhausted---doing The View, being a wife and mother, all at the same time. I was moved, emotionally. I kept thinking of her seeing my things, my life, the real Roseann O’Donnell, and the world felt less lonely. I used to love hide-and-seek as a kid. The thrill of finding a secret niche while someone counted to ten, waiting, crouched really low down. I was so good at that game. I developed a strategy of hiding in plain sight, and it was amazing how hard it was for someone to find you when you were right in their line of vision. And I remembered how odd it was for someone to look straight past you, to literally not register you. It’s the same creepy feeling I get when I go into a restroom and use the automated sensor-driven soap dispensers. Sometimes, for me, those dispensers don’t work. It’s like I’m not there. And then I am. The soap spurts out. Or the person suddenly realizes there’s another person in their path, and you are caught. You are got. On the plane, flying back, that’s what I felt. I felt sensed. I felt seen. I felt that this, perhaps, was what I needed to do for those who come to me---simply seem them. Simply say, ‘I found you in your hiding place. You can come out now. Game’s over.’ And maybe they will. I will hold out my hand and do the best I can.”

An excerpt from my conversation with Rosie O’Donnell on her tour bus after the show: (It should be noted that at this point we had already hugged, chatted and I told her that we would someday be working on a project together---we will---so the physical contact wasn’t totally inappropriate.)

“Rosie O’Donnell,” I say. “I have to look you in the eye and tell you something.”

She looks up from where she is signing my blue Rosie.com Peace t-shirt with black Sharpie. My hands rise and settle on her shoulders as we stand there, inches apart, eye-to-eye.

“Okay…” she says.

I go on for a bit, telling her about the little girl she affected, about what it was like to see a strong, funny woman telling it like it was. My hands are still on her shoulders.

“You made me believe in things I never thought I could. You made me hope for dreams beyond what I thought possible.”

She stares back at my tear-filled eyes.

“Let me tell you something,” she says. “What you see is a mirror. You are looking at a mirror of what is already inside you. It’s in you. I’ve seen enough people, I’ve met enough people to know that what you see in others and what you strive for is already inside you. It’s a reflection. This is a reflection of what you already possess.”

It still leaves me breathless.

Happy Live Your Dream Day everyone!