The cost is significant. A lot of energy and effort gets wasted trying to be someone or something else we’re not. Angst builds up a lot from not meeting someone else’s expectations or being overly concerned about how someone sees or thinks of us. Frustration simmers when you feel like you’re not being heard or seen. But there’s a simple solution: just do you.

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It was a solitary musical moment that would be forever etched in my mind. What it became was a life-changing event of epic proportions.

August 16, 1984. Thirty years ago. It was an early 15th birthday present - a show at the National Arts Center in Ottawa featuring none other than Stevie Ray Vaughan.

The first notes fired out from the worn-down Fender Strat that night can still be heard echoing in the back of my mind. My jaw dropped and I sat there mesmerized. I remember the moment like it was yesterday.

Stevie Ray spoke to me in a language that I understood. Direct. Heartfelt. Raw. And it changed my life.

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Imagine a class of 1st-grade students left unattended in a room with crayons, markers, sketchbooks, finger paints - and a healthy dose of their creativity. When left to their own devices, there would be a whirlwind of activity as they explore their world in a non-linear fashion. There are no rules to using crayons nor expectations for an artistic genius in the making. In the midst of this tsunami of activity, they were building the foundation for life-long learning. But then, something dramatic happened.

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I'd originally just planned it as a quick trip to west Texas. It was going to be just a few days to get away, to breath, to simply find some peace and quiet in a what had become a rather emotionally challenging world over the past couple of months.

Little did I know it would become something far greater. Serendipity.

Please allow me to introduce what I am now calling Write Now! 2014. Here's the story - and the results from the adventure that it proved to be.

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