…and immediately leave because it's too crowded and noisy. They prefer more intimate settings like the pages of an onchain writing site.

I wrote on those topics during a motivating writing challenge on T2. Here are a few snippets of my stories.

Reflections on Reaching the Life of My Dreams

As I approach a milestone birthday, one question has come out of hiding to torment me: will all my hopes, goals, and work manifest into the dream life I’ve always imagined?

It’s a question I’ve always known the answer to, without giving it much thought. And lately, as the years roll by, the question has gone from a whisper to a taunt, emboldened by my fear and doubt. The question became so persistent that it forced me to face it squarely and give it an answer I fully believed.

I had always believed the answer to be yes. That one day, I would create the life of my dreams.

Early in my adult life, I started setting goals. I was out on my own, making meaningful decisions, and embracing full responsibility for my life and what would become of it.

Self-help articles, books, podcasts, and videos all pointed to a basic tenet of success - goal-setting. So, always a student of life, I developed S.M.A.R.T. goals that informed as much of my daily tasks as I could handle. Over the years, I’ve accomplished goals, adjusted them to fit emerging needs, saw goals morph into something new or fade until I hardly recognized them as mine.

What remained constant were the goals themselves. Those constant beacons of what should be, and what could be with the right efforts.

Unfortunately, what had always felt like a friend, had started to feel like a foe as uncertainty around achieving a dream life grew.

Have you ever wondered: am I still going in the right direction? Read on to see what I decided…

When the Universe Whispers: Finding Eloise and Rediscovering Myself

The moment I sat down to write, Eloise - my five-month-old kitty - jumped onto the couch beside me, demanding attention. I knew the hour I’d planned for myself belonged to her. As she nudged me into acquiescence, I marveled that I had a cat at all.

But the universe also has a way of nudging, and I’m learning to pay attention.

The Day the Universe Whispered

The day started on a high note. I walked outdoors just as my brother pulled into the driveway, his car packed with family, except one space - backseat, driver’s side - beside my smiling niece. I slid in, buckled up and we were off to the farmer’s market.

A late riser, I often arrive just in time to rush through my favorite vendors before they pack up: the flavored oils couple, olive loaf gurus, and mushroom hippie. That day, with my brother’s family tagging along, we added new stops, lingering at stands that caught their attention before the kids pulled us toward the playground.

As the kids played, my brother mentioned they were heading to the animal shelter to adopt a cat. “That sounds like fun,” I replied. Within an hour, we were walking into the shelter.

The Universe has a magical way of directing us to what we need, no? See what happens next…

Ugly Little Pies and the Meaning of Family

Within a thirty minutes’ drive, I can reach the doorstep of over a dozen family members. This number quadruples if I count those who married into our tribe. As a result, my social calendar is full of events - birthday parties, baby showers, sporting events, graduations. We even schedule vacations around our “busy months” - those with the most birthdays, anniversaries and holidays.

Our family events are productions to coordinate, feed and entertain dozens of people.

That’s why I applauded my sister - a newlywed with a new home - for hosting Thanksgiving this year. Ever the hostess, her clever invitations requested that each person bring a dish and set the schedule including dinner, dessert and a movie.

Inspired by a recent meal, I decided to contribute holiday beverages and a dessert. It was a welcome change of pace. I no longer wanted to make my crowd-pleasing meatballs after going meatless and it was a chance to try a vegan apple pie recipe to accommodate my aunt’s dairy allergy.

I purchased ingredients a couple days in advance - including a new one for me, vegan butter - with confidence that prepping the night before and baking in the morning would leave plenty of time for the 2 p.m. dinner.

In hindsight, I was too confident in an untested recipe with unfamiliar ingredients and should have heeded my partner’s advice to bake a test pie.

Can you guess what happens? Keep reading to see if you’re right…

***

Check out T2 - a cool, Web3 platform to promote writers and connect people around shared interests.

My comrades in writing during the challenge were @ehcarpenter, @papa, @joylius, @dirthippy, @danielmcglynn. They have great articles on T2. Give them a read!