I got lucky!

I don't know if it's a one-time thing, or if it happens every Sunday--but I got to watch the interview with Liz Gilbert live on Oprah. com!  Every Sunday at 10:00 Central time?  Do we get to watch these Super Soul Sundays online?  (Part 2 is next Sunday morning).

It was a brilliant interview--which I'll re-cap below.  But here's the strange serendipity: Later, when the electrician was leaving, I heard her voice coming through the radio again!  I perked up my ears--isn't that Liz Gilbert again?  In fact, it was--on Ted Radio Hour, National Public Radio.

The talk today was about the hero's journey--or the heroine's--based on Joseph Campbell's model:

First, you get a call.  If it's a genuine calling, it won't leave you.  It will wake you up in the night.   It will be persistent.

Is this a call that you hear in an audible voice?

Liz believes that it comes as the question: "What have I come here to do with my life?"  We can refuse the to answer the question or we can ask it--and thereby begins the quest.  It's not the arrival that equates with success; it's pursuing the quest, just that.

There will be obstacles.
As Joseph Campbell said in writing about the hero's journey, all great heroic tales include obstacles and challenges.

It's not easy.  We can expect disapproval, hurt, self-doubt, and frustration. That is why it's called "the road of trials."

Ultimately, all the trials and challenges prepare you for the bigger battle.

"What were your trails?" Oprah asked.

"Self abuse," she said.  "I couldn't let go of my inventory of things to feel shame and guilt about."

All travelers, in all hero stories, have fear--Dorothy on her way to find the Wizard, Luke Skywalker, Moses--and yet every would-be hero knows, "If I don't change, I'm going to die."  Or "A part of me is going to die."  As we stay put and refuse change, parts of us atrophy.