I had the sense when we purchased a booth for the expo that I would be getting something very different out of the expo than I expected. As we approached the fairground where the expo was being held that sensation got more intense. As we carried the items for our booth into the expo hall the sensation only intensified. I didn’t know what I would be getting from the expo, but I knew that it wasn’t going to be what I expected. 

After the space was all set up, I began to look around at other vendors and their set-up. I started feeling into the vibration of the experience and the collectiveness of the expo and was brought back to a memory of another expo that we had attended where I had gotten far more than I expected. I acknowledged that this was likely going to happen again. 

Less than an hour into the expo one of the other vendors approached and introduced himself. He shared his story with me and shared that he had followed me on social media.  We spoke about how nice it is to get to put a face to a social media name. I allowed the conversation to unfold as it was meant to and didn’t have an agenda for where the conversation would flow to. 

“You should write a book” he said.

I laughed and explained that I had and that it had been through the first round with the editor and that I was making edits and would be sending it back for the next round. He smiled and said that he owned a publishing company and that we should talk further. He introduced me to the editor for the publishing company and I drifted into conversation with her. I loved her energy and felt instantly connected with her. She wore a shirt that said, “Keep Writing” which felt like such a beautiful message to receive. I discussed with her where I was at with the book, but what I left out of my story was that I had felt completely blocked around the book for months. I had gotten the edit suggestion back from the editor but had not made a single one of the edits. In fact, I hadn’t even read all of her feedback, I felt that blocked. I opened the document with the feedback, read about three quarters of it and then closed the document and never opened it again. I left it, sitting in my inbox, avoiding it and not really understanding why. I knew that I was blocked around the book and also knew that I didn’t have a drive to figure out why I was so blocked. 

She offered to read a couple of chapters of the book and give me feedback for free. If I liked her feedback and she felt aligned that I could make the choice to switch over to her. I thanked her for this generous offer and told her that I would do this. Almost immediately I found myself looking for my computer. I found myself longing to have my fingers on the keyboard. I felt my heart deeply wanting to be curled up on a couch with a cup of raspberry tea and my computer working on the edits of my book.

At the end of the day when we were picking up for the night, a gentle smile crossed my face. I knew what I had gotten from the expo. Whether I went on to use their company or not was almost irrelevant. I got the drive to dive back into my book again and that was priceless.