TOUGH MOTHER GAIL “Move To Your Own Beat”

My parents always said life should read like a novel…no one wants to read the same one chapter…make it interesting! Interesting it has been indeed! I was raised to take risks, to step up, be bold, and have integrity and a strong work ethic. They also taught me that life is not WHAT you do but who ARE. And while I thought I got the full memo and set off like a rocket to make life interesting, I realized I might have missed the bigger point…to also live the simple details and breadth of it.

I can’t remember a time when creativity and movement wasn’t a part of my being. I’ve always been dancing, moving and creating something.  I was moving and dancing so fast, chasing something that I could never really define. I literally danced myself into DANCE, then to Choreography and Multimedia Performance Art. Then into music, working with some of the most successful artists and companies in the industry. And when the tide of the Music industry changed, I moved into Project Managing Large International Special Events for Broadcast Television. My absolute favorite being the Beijing Summer Olympics! On paper my life looked great. But I was exhausted and I couldn’t figure out how to get off the ride. Deep down, I felt if I just kept moving, dancing- I could outrun life. I really didn’t believe I was built for the “Tough” stuff of life. I was wrong.

When “Tough Life” caught me, it came like a Tsunami. Specifically, it came in the form of a ruptured brain aneurysm that required full-on brain surgery.  I had to have “a craniotomy” and a long hospital stay in the Neurological ICU at New York Presbyterian Hospital. Then - “Tough Life” continued to come at me – this time with 37 uterine tumors displacing my insides, challenging the very essence of my own femininity and womanhood. It required another surgery and hard choices. But “Tough Life” wasn’t finished. As it does, it then took one of my best friends – and not long after, it dealt me the biggest blow and took my Father, who was a continent in my world. No words can EVER express the depth of that loss, from which neither my family nor I will ever recover. Next it took my grandmother and five months later, my Aunt – so amidst my dancing, moving and trying to heal, three of the five major pillars of my life were gone in the span of a year.  “Tough Life” came to play – and PLAY HARD. “Tough Life” came to highlight that you can’t run or sit it out or dance it away. It will come and find you. But it also came to show me that at each moment when I thought I could never get up, I always did.  I don’t know how, but I did.

Here’s the key – I surprised myself. With each and every hit, I kept getting up and showing up. “Tough Life” came and showed me that I’m one “Tough Muther!” It’s not about being big and bad…it’s about getting up, showing up and not hiding. It’s not always pretty or flashy, but it’s essential, necessary and it gave me a more authentic life.

If you’re reading this, look in the mirror! Chances are you’re “One Tough Muther” too…you’re awake, in the game and showing up for life and I have no doubt you’re going to surprise yourself too.

See you on the Air…It’s about to get Real!

Gi

Photo credit: Teresa Pyskaty