New Life'n

'Scary Hope' is now on Kindle

For 99 cents. But just so you know, it will also be free on Kindle a few times in the near future. (You can only give eBooks away on Amazon in doses.)

You can read it all in 75 minutes and find courage and a kick to hug hope, face fear, and get going.

Why might Scary Hope be for you or someone you care about?

Because you're not here to live a disconnected, depressed, non-contributing, helpless, excuse-filled, humdrum life. That's hopelessness.

Because inside you is the drive to create, contribute, connect, and leave a mark. That's hope.

Because we all need stories that encourage and challenge us so that we'll acknowledge that drive within and cooperate with it. But that's scary.

If you're doubting, stuck, or hoping for you-don't-know-what, then this is for you.

Scary Hope started as "31 Days of Scary Hope" on this blog last October. The free PDF had over 1000 readers but is now disabled in order to be part of the Kindle Select program which requires exclusivity.

Click HERE to get Scary Hope on your Kindle

You can also read it on the Kindle app for your phone, PC, or Mac.

If Scary Hope is new to you, click HERE to see a summary and excerpts (that might be enough for you). You'll even find a few videos and links to stories that were not able to be in the PDF or Kindle versions. Or send a friend there if you think it will help them.

A message for artists and dreamers from a 9-year old

Caine is a 9-year old boy who created a wonderful cardboard arcade inside his dad's used auto parts store.

It's awesome, in a kid kind of way. But no one shows up to play.

One day he gets a visitor who makes a video and organizes a flashmob and Caine ends up with the greatest day of his life and a $200,000 college scholarship fund.

Even 9-year olds know what all artists and dreamers know:

You do it because you love it and you're convinced how it should be done

You do it for yourself. Caine smiles and gets joy just from the doing.

BUT -- the thing you do is done FOR others

It's a thing that exists FOR people. It's incomplete without people coming to it and using it. So it's for them, but you can't do it for them; you have to do it for yourself (yes it's weird).

The joy is the work, but it's incomplete until the people come

Caine gets joy out of creating but expects people to engage his dream. He waits for them.

At some point you need help

You need a gallery or employees or cash or an editor or a horse trainer or a stage or people who know how to do techy things. Or a guy with a video camera who shows up serendipitously.

You may not know both the WHAT to do and the HOW to get to the people. Caine knows the 'what' but doesn't know how to get the people to his 'what.'

When the people DO come, it feels normal

It doesn't feel like a "Makeover" reveal moment of melting joy. It's very satisfying--yes joyful--but NORMAL. Because this is what's supposed to happen. You didn't do it for this reason but this needs to happen for it to be complete.

Caine smiles and is happy at the crowds, but he doesn't seem shocked. He's not as surprised as you might anticipate. As if he EXPECTS people to be there because of course they'll be there. If they're not, you're not done.

At times it makes me quite melancholy that the result is always "unsaleable." Work in spite of all indifference is not easy to keep up, but what is easy isn't worth much. -- Vincent Van Gogh

I just noticed two age spots on my hands

When we were teenagers "bombing around" (that's what we called it) with our friends, my brother sometimes yelled out the car window at senior citizens, "Hey you old bag! You oughta be dead!" Then he'd laugh. He thought he was hilarious.

Today he's really a good guy. Back then, like all teens, his brain was not fully formed yet.

When you're growing up it's easy to think you're on a different road than your parents, a different road than "old people."

It's the same road

Parents and others are just farther down that same road than you. And the farther you go, the more people there are behind you; people who think they're on a different road.

Somewhere along the road you realize this.

That's when the catharsis begins. The confrontation with the brutal reality that you're not an exception. For some it's too much--you keep the look, the clothes, the hair style. Or you adopt the look, the clothes, the style of those now at the age you refuse to leave behind.

Everybody sees the comb-over but you

Best to embrace this road we're all on.

Do not despise the era and generation in which the Lord has chosen to give you influence. It's on purpose. You'll not pass this way again.