Friday Dip - my 'Ted Lasso' moment

Thoughts to wash over you for the weekend

Serendipity

I had a completely different Friday Dip all ready to go today (on the subject of quiet rebellion) and then I woke up this morning to see this on my Facebook memories:

It’s hard to believe that this was only a year ago, as just a couple of weeks after finishing my proposal, I had signed with my brilliant agent Edwina de Charnace at MMB Creative. The irony being that I didn’t even get as far as submitting my proposal to the agents I had originally ‘identified’ - my meeting with Edwina came about through a serendipitous chain of mutual connections that led us to each other, and the magic started to unfold.

9 months of nourishing and growing my book, now titled Breaking Waves ensued, until it was birthed earlier this year in time for the London Book Fair which I attended AS AN AUTHOR?!?! How bonkers is that? Now when people ask me what I do for a living, I actually say ‘I’m a writer’, and my nose doesn’t grow, and the world doesn’t implode, and I’ve finally allowed myself to start to...well...believe.

Ted says it best

Now if you haven’t yet entered the brilliant world of Ted Lasso -then what a treat you have in store - I mean clear the decks, that’s your weekend sorted. I won’t waffle on about the show too much, suffice it to say it centres on the character of Ted, an American football coach who finds himself coaching a UK ‘soccer’ team, with no previous experience. I’m sure you can predict the overarching ‘fish out of water’ narrative...however what was unexpected, was the extent to which this slightly goofy, lovable shaggy dog of a character inspired not just the team in the show, but us as viewers with his simple, indefatigable mantra of ‘BELIEVE’.

If you build it, they will come

It takes me back to what is one of my favourite films of all time (I’ve got a top twenty that is under much debate but we’ll come back to that another time), Field of Dreams. For me this gorgeous film from the late 80s about a farmer building a baseball field in the middle of his corn crop in response to a ‘voice’ exemplifies the notions of serendipity and belief.

Of what happens when we allow life to play out without the usual limitations we are so attuned to ascribing - of how we should behave, of what we need to do, of meeting what is expected of us. Of what can happen when we take risks and follow the dreams - even when we aren’t really sure what those dreams are. Of how uncomfortable it can be along the way, and how we will be doubted by others, and filled with self-doubt, but that extraordinary things really do start to happen when we...yep you’ve guessed it...

Believe

I remember having a moment of intense doubt about leaving my traditional career to become an author, at a ‘Moon Circle’ at the lake where I regularly swim. We were gathered to share words and feelings prior to a glorious moonlit swim, and I was wracked with self-doubt - what was I thinking?! I must be crazy?! As I swam, I met a woman I had never spoken to before, and she became my chapter 4, and it was utterly beautiful.

My book is now complete, and under submission with publishers, and book 2 is in progress. I’ve met several fabulous writers, discovered Substack, and writing now feels like my way of life. I have no idea what’s going to happen next, whether my book will be published - when or by whom, but things will happen. I am building it, and people will come. People are already coming. I think this might perhaps be what many now call ‘manifesting’ (a word which makes me slightly itchy for some reason) but I prefer to think of it as believing. Of believing in myself, in the way that things are meant to be, and in the power of connection and community in bringing about positive change.

I look forward to revisiting this in a year’s time and seeing what has unfolded.

In the meantime - do you dare to believe - in yourself, in a dream, in something that might have always felt out of your grasp?

What is it?

What does that feel like?

Where might it take you?

And if you need inspiration - drop in on Ted.

Love & lemons 🍋

Em x