I can’t help but think of one person again and again as my plane inches its way with miles closer and closer to the Hollywood sign.
Of course, I’m actually going to the airport first. And really the plane is headed to Los Angeles not Hollywood but my imagination has been let free and it is crawling through files of forgotten memories of old glittering Hollywood. The golden years and my old soul remembers Shirley Temple, Doris Day, Judy Garland, Fred Astaire, Frank Sinatra and all the greats. I think of the walk of stars and the Southern California beaches. I want to sit around a fire and sing praise songs with my favorite Young Teen Christian Fiction character Todd. And for him to teach me to surf, because, why not. 
I think about current Hollywood stars and make a wish that I will see some of them. Also, (and this is random) I don’t want to end up in some reality show. One where they trick some gullible southerner then pop out with cameras… Hey! It could happen! Especially if you know me and my intimate relationship with awkward.
I think about current Hollywood stars and make a wish that I will see some of them. Also, (and this is random) I don’t want to end up in some reality show. One where they trick some gullible southerner then pop out with cameras… Hey! It could happen! Especially if you know me and my intimate relationship with awkward.
We creep by Palm Springs, the pilot announces, and I eagerly peer down, curious. I felt disappointed it wasn’t a glittering oasis with literal palms- instead a brown city in the desert and I realize that I’ve made Hollywood a fictional place like Narnia. I know there is the grit awaiting me too. The real, the hard and the uncomfortable. That’s just life, but imagination is just so much more fun sometimes!
Then I think back to the one who I know. I mean, not *really* but in this social space that I live in sometimes online connections made seem realer than real life ones.
Last year I was struggling bad. Finding myself. Finding my identity and where I fit. One night in a depression I tweeted Lauren Dubinsky, who owns the Good Woman Projectfollow. From reading her site, I KNEW she would understand what I needing to talk about to someone. She spent the next HOUR direct messaging me. I didn’t feel alone anymore. She took precious time out of her life to minister into mine. I’ll always be thankful for that.
She was real in a fake world to me that day.
and she lives here, in the irony of Hollywood.
It’s amazing how just someone understanding can change the direction of your life. I have such a great core group of support and love but to hear from someone else who knew what I was feeling because they experienced it themselves was what I had been needing. I hope that some day I can be that for someone else. I challenge each of you to be real and authentic in your daily lives. That doesn’t mean to word vomit on everyone, it simply means caring. Listing. Asking. 
Happy Wednesday.
