why Fargo?

A week from tomorrow, I'll get on a couple of planes and head to Fargo, North Dakota for Misfit 2014.

People keep asking me, Wait, What's this thing you're doing? Why Fargo, again? 

Well, for a reunion with people I've never actually met...

It's a little hard to explain only because it feels ENORMOUS to me, the drive to go there, to be there, the WHY of it. I wanted to go last year, but I was still shackled and couldn't get away. This year? Cue the happy-dance.

Ever since I first watched this interview with Melissa and AJ Leon on Jonathan Field's Good Life Project -- and I don't even remember how I landed there to begin with -- I've been a bit in love with them.

OK, honestly, I've been head-over-heels.

That "discovery" must have been back in 2012, when I was bored out of my mind in a job that was way too small and stupid, the job that turned out to be my second-to-last one ever (though I didn't know it), and when I was beginning, without realizing it, to devise my exit. I was strugglng with feeling super-constricted by what I had to do to make a living, and yet bursting with ideas that I was getting up at 4:30 in the morning to pursue before the drag of the job sucked the heart of the day away.

And then I watched that interview and was hooked.

I felt like I'd found kindred spirits, people making a bold, real life of beauty and courage. Every single thing the Misfit crew do and make, they do with such tremendous attention to every detail. With love. To quote one of my favorite posts on AJ's blog, The Pursuit of Everything, they butter all the way to the edges.

And boy, did I need that.

Their words, their adventures, their art became the soundtrack of my own liberation.

Two years later, here I am, self-employed and happier than I have ever been in my entire life, standing tall (well, still 5-feet tall) in the center of my own life, with suddenly everything I ever wanted. And super-aware of the work that it took to get to this place, and all the inspiration and encouragement I drew from sources near and far.

So yeah, going to Fargo to spend a weekend in the company of Melissa and AJ and several dozen other weirdos? I can't wait.

I'll be flying with a loaded Kindle and a super-grateful heart, I tell you that much.

Ready to play and make and be inspired, as is usually the case with this crew. But this time, in person.

Why Fargo? Because I can.

It feels so good to be free, really free, to be happy, really happy. If you're stuck in something that you don't love, find something you do and just pay attention to it, read it, eat it with your eyes. Stay with it long enough, this thing you love, and you too may one day find yourself embarking on the adventure that was previously just a dream.

Fargo. It is a dream made real. Can't wait.

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