Once there was a young girl who lived her life as two “half-people”. One half of the girl lived to take care of other people and make them happy. She was very "good" and as her grandmother described it: “compliant”. The other half of the girl was wilder- independent, provocative, spontaneous…

I had a laundry list of symptoms, as long as my sad, weak arm. My hair was falling out in clumps. I couldn’t sleep for more than 5 hours at a time without nightmares. I kept injuring myself doing the simplest things- walking or bending over. Almost every food gave me a bad reaction, so my diet was ridiculously limited.

And... somewhere, hidden in there, was limitless possibility.

Back when I was in full-on mom mode, full on codependent. Full on devoted to everyone around me, except barely even present for myself. I gave probably 150% more than I actually had in me. I don’t even know where the surplus came from, but I gave and gave and gave until I was basically a sad little pile of dust- physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually.

So the flight attendant stood there and waited a few moments. Then she said it again, in her friendly but very firm voice: “This is really important. You have to put yours on first. Promise?” The mom sort of straightened up and reflected for a second and then said yes.

I was a high school freshman when I first heard the Gipsy Kings. From the first listen, I felt an incredible aliveness coursing through my body. I went out that day and bought the CD. This was one of maybe five or ten CD’s that I owned at the time, so I listened to it a lot.