When I started REVEL IN IT, I was lost in the wilderness of my life. Most lives have a wilderness or two, a time when we’re thrown off course — by circumstance, or by the normal progression through the seasons of our lives. My wilderness involved a marriage that would not last, a marriage who’s trials and tribulations forced me to find my way free from the traumas of my life. These traumas had shaped and warped me, they’d left me thinking I was less than I am. My marriage did something similar — except this time I fought. I fought for the little girl I’d been, who could not defend herself, who’d believed the lies she was told about her own power and place in this world, and I found out what kind of mettle I had.
When I was in the second grade, we used to play this game called “Going On A Bear Hunt” with our teacher Mrs. Sandon. We’d sit in our little chairs, clapping up a ruckus on our thighs, as we chanted “Going On A Bear Hunt!” Inevitably, as we clomped our way through the imaginary woods on this bear hunt, we’d find ourselves at an imaginary swamp. The swamp would appear to be insurmountable, and we would shout out, with our teacher, “Oh no! A swamp!” followed by, “Can’t go over it! Can’t go under it! Can’t go around it! Have to go through it!” And then we would clomp our way through, with joy(!), until we came out on the other side. Such was the magic of childhood that the idea of stomping through a muddy, murky swamp made us bold, and filled us with laughter. I loved this game, long before I understood what it meant — that life would present obstacles, and that we could and would get through them.
REVEL IN IT was a place for me to write my way through to the other side. It was also a place to write about things I love (food, fashion), people I admire, and the visions — other peoples’ and my own — that called to me like siren songs.
My REVEL IN IT journey has come to an end. I’ve emerged from the swamp, into the most beautiful season of my life (so far). I am in love — not with my husband, now ex-husband, but with the man I was always walking towards, an old friend and true and passionate companion for this life. I am writing for film and television again — one of the great passions of my life, the other being my passion for making a better, more beautiful world in which we recognize that we are all part of the one human family, and that we must care for each other, and for this planet, our home. And I finally know my own power, and am making a place for myself in this world.
Thank you to all of you who have come on this journey with me. I leave you now with my gratitude, and with some of our greatest hits.
With Love,
Paula
A FEW OF OUR GREATEST HITS:
THE INTERCONNECTEDNESS REVOLUTION
YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT: WE ARE THE 15
MALIBU FARM COMES TO THE MALIBU PIER
TEACHING COMMITMENT: LETTING CHILDREN QUIT
ACCEPTANCE VS. FORGIVENESS & OTHER MYTHS
AMBITION & THE STORY OF YOUR LIFE
