When she spoke at the end of a talk in the Irish Immigration Centre in Philadelphia last week, my sister Una McDaid, stressed to those in attendance that just a few years ago they would never have managed to get me to stand in front of them and talk as I just had.
She was right.
Reading from my book at the Irish Immigration Centre in Philadelphia last week.
I was in Philadelphia for a few weeks having been invited over for their first ever Darkness into Light walk for Pieta House where I read a poem at the opening ceremony.
Two nights later as part of their Darkness into Light events, guests came to the Immigration Centre to hear the story of my book Dance in the Rain and heard me explain that – even though I feel I have come a long way over the past few years, I had still been hesitant about crossing the Atlantic to tell my story.
Despite the fact that my book had been launched in Donegal and that I have got a tremendous reaction from people who have bought and read it, when it was first mentioned to me about coming to Philadelphia to talk, I wasn’t so sure.
But the more I thought about it, I realised that it’s important to tell the positive stories too. That it shouldn’t always be about the darkness, that people needed to see there is light too.
Honestly, the last thing I had ever imagined was that I’d have published a book, never mind that I’d be standing in Philadelphia talking about it.
I said there, what I have said all along – that I was lucky. I somehow managed to see the direction I was heading and turned that around. The writing helped, but it was only part of it.
The friendship and support that I had, the encouragement I got to continue with the 365 challenge and then to go try things well beyond my comfort zone, made me feel like I had something of value to give
It was a truly humbling experience to stand among hundreds of people and read a poem that I had written especially for their Darkness into Light walk, but it was equally humbling to think that any of them would even be remotely interested enough to come along two nights later to hear the story behind the book.
When they did. When people came to talk to me afterwards and said that some of what I had talked about had resonated with them, I was never more glad that I had once again pushed away self-doubt and had made the decision to tell my story.
It had rained on the morning of the walk.
By Philadelphia standards in May, it had rained a lot, but I told everyone that was not necessarily a bad thing.
Reminded them that, if I could do it, then they could also change their mind set, overcome new challenges, dream new dreams, achieve new goals and maybe even learn to dance in the rain!
liamportermedia 