I was sitting outside of my apartment smoking as I saw them carry furniture and lots of boxes into the apartment two doors down.

She was a below average woman with disheveled strawberry blond hair, glasses, and plump cheeks. I shyly waived, said hello and went back to my smoking meditation.

One thing smoking does for you is that it allows you to see your neighbors much more often than you would otherwise. I was born in Russia, where you go to your neighbors to borrow salt, eggs, or a chaser for your vodka. The lady’s name was Kimberly and when I ran out of cigarettes, I would bum them from her. We would talk more and more. One day when I knocked on her door, she was on the phone so she waived for me to come in.

As I crossed over the threshold, it was like I entered another world. There were books everywhere - in the bookcase, on the table, some books in freshly arrived Amazon boxes on the floor next to her desk. I saw an altar set up next to a Quan Yin tapestry on the wall, but back then I didn't know it was Quan Yin. The scent of incense was filling the air, candles burning among crystals and statues of more than thirty Goddesses all over the room. Her apartment was like a Goddess wonderland, something that I had never seen before in my life.

Kimberly was the one who taught me about Goddesses, took me to my very first Moon Circle, gave me books about spirituality. She opened up a whole new world for me. She also showed me her digital camera - it was a Canon Rebel 3Ti - the camera she used for taking photos for her food and Goddesses blogs. When I told her about how photography always fascinated me, she said, “Why don’t you get a digital camera and give it a try?”

Don’t you love it how people who give advice always make it sounds so easy?

Spend $600 on a camera and do it.

Is there a guarantee that it will all work out fine and it will be the correct decision? $600 is a lot of money after all! And how do I do it? I have never studied photography.

“You can sign up for a class at the Boca Raton Museum School of Art so they can teach you the basics.”

Oh… Well… If you put it that way it doesn’t sound that complicated anymore… I think. I have always liked it, after all. Maybe it is worth a shot?

Maybe it is worth a shot... or maybe two! who's counting anyway? Shots is what I loved doing at that time. Along with beer and wine of any color. The wine had a tendency to run out when you were having the best time and forced me to go get another bottle which ended up being too much. This was the story of my life for many years. I knew I had a drinking problem and my attempts to stop the addiction ended in me in front of the bottle sooner or later. After I realized I needed help, I went to an all-women’s AA group on April 18, 2013 and have been sober since. Oh, I also quit smoking on the following day.

Now that my evenings and weekends were not filled with the fog of inebriation, the little voice inside me was getting louder and louder. The voice that I had been ignoring since my early twenties. The voice that kept telling me to try my hand at photography. The voice that was filled with trepidation every time I would spend my last college money on a fashion magazine to look at the pictures inside. I handled each magazine with so much care as if it was sacred.

That voice that I no longer shut up with alcohol made me by the same digital camera as my neighbor Kimberly had. And to make things easier, I followed Kimberly’s advice to the tee. I signed up for Introduction to Digital Photography and Photoshop for Beginners class at a local art school. If I fail miserably, it wasn’t my idea - my neighbor made me do it.

And here I am, nine years later, calling myself Francesca Bliss, the artist, the Goddess photographer, the intuitive artist… I cannot imagine my life without photography and the women whose lives I help transform. I have followed my bliss and became Francesca Bliss :)

As I reflect on this experience of getting started I have a revelation.

Our brains love certainty. It is predictable, therefore, safe.

Starting something new means UNcertainty = scary

And because we want a guarantee of a pretty outcome with a bow on top, we decide go forego the experience altogether.

There is no bow on top and it’s NOT pretty.

It is messy, it is awkward because you have no idea what you are doing.

Sometimes it is expensive and it makes you make sacrifices.

It is also joyful, makes you meet new friends, and opens up a whole new world to you and it makes you grow, grow, GROW.

I am so thankful for Kimberly and other people on my path who have encouraged me to follow my bliss. And I feel that it is now my duty to pass the same teachings onto other people who might need a nudge to pursue their dreams. My words of wisdom are the quote by John Burroughs that I first read in Julia Cameron’s book The Artist’s Way:

“Jump and the net will appear.”

The Universe is mysterious this way, it supports you in your desires of the heart. You just need to start. There is magic in action. The magic that will take you onto the other side, the side where your dreams live. The worst thing that can happen is that you try and you don't like it. And the best thing? Well... The best thing depends on HOW MUCH you end up loving it :)

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If you want more nudging in the direction of your dreams, get this book:

the official story of how I got started in photography