I loved The Map and continue to re-read it over and over. I created the life of my dreams after 31 years of working in the medical field as an RN. While I loved my patients, I grew to feel suffocated and drained by the nitty gritty of the administrative aspects of the career, not to mention the fact that my heart was increasingly burdened by the emphasis on machines and paperwork over people.

I wanted to give myself one year off to pray, to think, to seek God and to find my true path. Reading The Map and getting my daily emails and angel guidance gave me the practical helps I needed to put feet to my dreams, and to show me how to quit dreaming and start acting to follow my heart. I will be 55 this month, and I am so very grateful that I have had a year of peace, prayer and quiet to think, to dream, to map, to write and to explore my deepest heart dreams and goals.

One major miracle is that I always thought I couldn’t support my daughters and myself (and my beloved pets) without working in my profession of nursing. When I couldn’t take it another second, I tucked my dog-eared copy of The Map, my favorite Bible, a fresh new journal and three new colored pens in my worn, happy, sweet canvas bag…the one with a cheery sunshine face on it…and I decided not to get up until I came to a resolution. I went to my favorite little cheapy Mexican restaurant and sat there and cried, and laughed, and closed my eyes to dream. I made a mini-vision map (I have three large detailed ones at home) in my journal, and I took the plunge.

I chose to be pro-active and I wrote out my resignation from my hospital nursing job. I turned it in that very day. The next day, my sister called to offer me and my girls the use of their church parsonage free for six months! We packed up our things, hopped in our car and moved from South Florida to the tiny hamlet of Franklin, GA. God was so amazing to provide literally everything we needed, down to cat food and cat litter, lol, for six full months. The last week of our stay there, I was still in the process of creating my dream life, still wasn’t exactly on target for what I wanted my life to look like, but determined not to run back to my nursing career.

That week, a dear friend called to ask if we wanted to house sit for him for six months. We took a three hour drive to Gainesville in North Georgia, where we found my friend’s perfect little green cottage, complete with a fenced yard for Beau to run in when he’s outside (he is an inside doggie), and bright colored lights strung up along the covered back porch, an ideal spot for me to write my stories, dream my dreams and weave the threads of this brand new life we are creating. Last month, I went to my sister’s house, found my way to her hammock, and asked God how I can contribute to this beautiful, hurting world we live in. I am so filled with gratitude for the way He has taken care of us, even better than I could have with my full time nursing salary.

I feel He has called me to a full-time writing ministry, to offer hope, inspiration and support to those who are struggling, who feel that they, like I did, have lost their way somehow, or had their spirits darkened by the weight of the unmet promises they’ve made to themselves, the crushing disappointment of dreams yet to come true. The testimonies on your website, the pages of The Map, the way you took something so powerful and broke it down so practically that I could access and use it in my real, every day life…the way my God and my faith were able to be incorporated into your words and your wisdom…that is the gift that I received from you, and continue to receive every day in my sparkling, gorgeous, bright new world.

THANK YOU, BONI!

Donnamarie