Epiphany in the bathtub

No the Three Kings didn't come visit me in the tub. I'm talking about the other definition of the word - according to Webster "a sudden grasp of reality...usually striking and simple".

This happened way back before 1998, because I recall it was in my rose pink tub at our first house in Creston. That was my thinking refuge. The bathtub began to be my refuge when I gave birth to my first child. The tub was a place I could "get away" from everything - nursing bras, pads, a crying baby, the phone. It was all for me. I could think there.

This was about the year we moved to the new house. Paul must have been spending lots of time outside!
 

And just like thoughts that come to me when I'm driving, bathtub thoughts often come out of the blue. It's like they've been percolating in my subconscious, arriving fully formed from the depths of my gooey inner cortex. I told my friend Mary Faber about my epiphany in the tub - she said she was glad I didn't drown.

My inspiration was that I should start a desktop publishing business. Wordsmith Communications didn't happen until we got all situated in our new house out by Lake McKinley, and the kids were around 12 and 9 years old. But my business did become a reality - and actually made money! The cash was very helpful when it came to raising two kids. Athletic shoes for every sport don't pay for themselves...Paul was very supportive of my efforts. (and loved the income)

Newsletters were my forte. I helped our Catholic school with the Foundation newsletter a few times a year. Next I snagged a good gig from an offshoot of an ISU Extension program CHIPS (Cowherd Improvement Program). The beef experts would write articles and I would format them into a newsletter and apply labels and sort for mailing. Amy and Jud helped me.

The other newsletter I worked on was for the Iowa Society of Solid Waste Operations. As I got more involved with the trash world, I joined that organization and naturally slid into that job - great extra $! I kept it up until I took the job with the Department of Natural Resources. By then, I was emailing the newsletters - not mailing them. And newsletters were beginning to be an out-of-date method of communicating to stakeholders. They were looking for a more "quick hitter" article, not long pieces.

I wonder what's incubating inside my brain right now? Or yours. On behalf of my brain, my mouth (fingers, really) would like to say listen to your inner epiphanies. They're in there! Or that voice inside you that tells you a decision you made is wrong...listen to that too. You're smarter than you think - if you listen.