At this very moment, it is dawn.
The brilliant colors in the sky have come to life again. Another day begins as I set out to elucidate a tale of awe, inspiration and gratitude. It’s not unlike a good Chicken Soup for the Soul story that started with a simple idea. This is the story of loss, birth, love, labor and hope. We will discover that not all happy endings are planned. Oftentimes, destiny will color our world with just enough light to make us believe in happy accidents.
New author, Kim Weiss, has been a publicist in the book industry for many years and had been penning a book about relationships subtitled Conjuring Up Love Later in Life. She worked under the tutelage of a New York agent, studied writing techniques, and attended writers´ workshops and retreats. She was passionate about helping others find love. Kim also worked full time, took care of her aging mother; visiting her each and every day at lunchtime, traveling from her busy and demanding world to the quiet solitude of a woman in the winter of her life.
Kim was the daughter we all desire:
loving, caring and entertaining. She would share stories with her mom, pictures of her life and songs that she wrote and played on her guitar. Kim was engaged in the proverbial juggle of caring for an aging parent, working a full time job, writing a book, and looking for her own special someone to love. One day, the book idea went thud! Kim knew to let it go. Then, her mom took a turn for the worse and died. It was a difficult time for Kim, yet she honored the grieving process. She never picked the relationship book up again but she did manifest love in her life. She told me, “The book wasn’t a literary success, it was a personal success.” Even though she had that good thing happen and attracted her dream man, she put the pen down and lost a bit of her confidence. Yet, she kept doing what she did best by writing songs, playing music, singing and on a whim, as day would break or evening would fall, Kim would capture the beauty of the sunrise or sunset from her 14th story penthouse balcony in Boynton Beach, Florida. It was merely a lark that her newfound boyfriend would go on Facebook, where Kim was posting her spectacular photos, and write Haiku to express the inspiration he received from her images.
The rest of this story is a fairy-tale, personally and professionally. The love story has turned from a budding relationship to a true flowering. Kim and John are the product of an intention to conjure up love later in life and although no announcements have yet been made, I predict wedding bells will ring soon at a beachside destination during sunrise or sunset.
Facebook and the viral world of the Internet is very powerful. It is also a good feedback system and moniker for potential success.
Each day Kim’s Facebook friends would be greeted by another spectacular image of the blazing colors that burst forth from the horizon. More and more, she was encouraged to share her photos with a wider audience. Being in the book publishing industry, it was, in hindsight, a no brainer. Destiny truly took Kim’s morning and evening labor of love, her beautiful sunrise and sunset photos, and turned them into an awesome idea that has manifested as a great gift book, Sunrise, Sunset 52 Weeks of Awe and Gratitude published by HCI in Deerfield Beach, Florida, the original Chicken Soup for the Soul Series publishers.
In 1993 with a simple idea - that people could help each other by sharing stories about their lives - Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen compiled the best 101 stories they’d been told in a book. They called it Chicken Soup for the Soul because they wanted it to soothe and provide comfort, just like their grandmothers’ cooking. They took the book to New York, hoping to sell it to one of the big publishers, but every single one turned them down. The project appeared to have stalled until they met Peter Vegso, the owner of a small health and wellness publisher in Florida named HCI. Peter read some of the stories and loved them, so he decided to give the book a chance, becoming Chicken Soup for the Soul’s founding publisher. Never, in Jack and Mark’s wildest dreams, had they imagined what the book would become. Chicken Soup for the Soul turned into one of the most popular and loved books ever published, selling 11 million copies around the world.
In a similar genre, each photograph in SUNRISE, SUNSET is accompanied by a reflective passage - an affirmation, poem, inspirational quote - from some of the best known and loved inspirational leaders of our time including John Bradshaw , Candace Bushnell, Jack Canfield, Marci Shimoff, Don Miguel Ruiz, Jr., Roger Kamenetz, Arielle Ford and many more. The book serves as a perennial source of inspiration for all readers.
“Even though I have worked with authors for 21 years,” Kim Weiss reflected in our interview, “I have a brand new empathy for the book process. I recognize how personal it is and how much of your soul you are baring when you release a book. I have to remind myself to keep a healthy detachment from the process since the nature of marketing anything is that you can never do enough and there is always more. I have to strike a healthy balance on a regular basis from my book. When I refer to detachment, it means to let the universe do its thing and not feel like I am going to cause everything to happen. Detachment means to let things cook. I have put all the ingredients in the pot, in both my book and my relationship. Now it’s time to trust the balance in the universe to move the process along.”
Each of us is asked periodically to keep the flame of faith stoked and to recognize that happy accidents are a blend of what we desire and what is meant to be. Whether in our personal lives, or professional lives let this month be a colorful month of beauty, love, awe and gratitude, and a reminder that dreams do come true.
Director of Communications Author of Sunrise, Sunset: 52 Weeks of Awe & Gratitude www.sunrisesunsetbook.com
HEALTH COMMUNICATIONS, INC | US JOURNAL TRAINING, INC | COUNSELOR MAGAZINE | The Life Issues Family 3201 SW 15th Street, Deerfield Beach, Florida 33442 T: 954.360.0909 x 212 | F: 954.360.0034 | kimw@hcibooks.com |www.hcibooks.com