Meet Bridget And The Big Question

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Welcome back to Healthy Mind, Healthy Life. I'm Rasmeet and I'm so glad that you're here tonight. My guest is Bridget Kennedy, a former warling teacher and a mother who three years ago said yes to a quiet calling she didn't see coming. And went on to write three books and a novella, including The Lost City of Incongold, which launched this past St. Patrick's Day with 75 star reviews. So tonight we are not just talking about her story. We are talking about the cost we quietly pay when we keep dismissing the callings that refuse to let us alone. Bridget, thank you so much for being here.

SPEAKER_01 0:49

Thank you for having me. It's such a pleasure.

SPEAKER_00 0:53

Yeah, thank you. So I'll start with my first question.

The Dream That Started Writing

SPEAKER_00 0:57

So before we open up the bigger conversation, I want to start with what really pulled you in. You know, you've shared that three years ago your grandmother mm-grandmother came to you in a dream and asked you to write your family's real history. So take me back to that moment. What did it really feel like the morning after that dream? And you know, when the practical part of you was probably already lining up every reason to say no.

SPEAKER_01 1:28

Well, it happened when I was deep asleep around 2 a.m. that morning. And she came to me so vividly that it didn't, it didn't seem like a dream, it felt like a conversation that you would have with, you know, a loved one that's really pressing something upon you. And and when she asked me to write the family story, I I felt deep in my soul the reason why she asked me to do that. It felt connected to me, that answer so much. And I did not go back to sleep. In fact, I woke up right then and there. I put a pot of coffee on and I started writing. And to like you mentioned before, I'm I'm a violinist, I'm a mother, I've never written uh a novel before in my life. And I didn't let that stop me because at that moment I wasn't setting off to write a novel, I was writing the story that I have been told over family tables every holiday and special occasion, and putting that down onto ink and paper. Um, and and really really remembering and and feeling in those moments the feeling when like a grandmother or aunt or an uncle or my mother was telling me those stories.

SPEAKER_00 3:10

Okay.

What A Calling Really Sounds Like

SPEAKER_00 3:11

So, Bridget, I want to start with something I think a lot of people are wrong at. So when we hear the word calling, we picture something dramatic, like a burning bush moment, you know, a clear sign. But from your experience, what I think, and probably most people's, you know, real calling are much quieter than that and easier to dismiss. So, what's the biggest misconception people carry about how a true calling actually arrives?

SPEAKER_01 3:41

Well, I do I do believe in a higher spiritualness, uh, religion, and I've had a couple of different callings throughout my life, and those were like little quiet whispers that they were just quick. And if I wasn't calm in my mind at that moment, I probably would have missed them. They were just a few words, no explanation, just a directive. And it felt very different than how my grandmother came to me when she came to me. That was like really, she she woke me up from a deep sleep and she was right there, right there in front of me, like she was before she died with those conversations, and it was so startling um and so raw and real. Um, I knew that I couldn't be the one to tell my grandmother, Catalina Kennedy, no. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_00 4:54

And you know, why do you think it's so easy for capable, intelligent, and you know, busy people to keep talking themselves out of the very thing that won't let them go?

SPEAKER_01 5:05

Oh, we have a million reasons to say no to those little dreams or those little callings. Um life, life is so big and it's so busy, and we have so many responsibilities that sometimes we can't say yes to ourselves because we feel like we have to say yes to everything outside of ourselves. And and there's also that that uh quiet confidence or that guilt that when we say yes to ourselves, we have to say no to something else. Um, and I think that's very resonant in a lot of people today.

SPEAKER_00 5:49

Right, and that really lands because you know, if we keep waiting for that one dramatic confirm confirmation, we miss the quito signs that have been waiting for us for years. So, moving on to the next question. Let's

Imposter Syndrome And Starting At 50

SPEAKER_00 6:04

say um let's stay with that for a moment. When someone keeps dismissing a quiet calling for years, it isn't just inconvenience. There's something deeper going underneath, you know, from your own journey, uh Bridget, and from what you've seen in others. What tends to live beneath that or you know, constant and what is it really protecting?

SPEAKER_01 6:27

Oh my goodness, I know this so very well because I had it bad. I call it imposter syndrome, where I was trained as a musician. I went to university to study music, not writing. And I could have easily told my grandmother, no, I'm not gonna write this, I'm not a writer, and and and dismiss it and just tell myself I don't have the credentials, I don't have the experience to write something down like this, to develop a story. And that imposture syndrome, that's so strong these days. And what I had to do is I had to write learn to write through it. Yes, I had imposter syndrome every single day that kept telling me I have no business becoming a writer, especially at my age. I'm I'm turning 50 next month. And to start a whole new career at this later stage of life, um, some some people say might say, I have no business doing that. Um, but that imposter syndrome, I just I learned how to write through it.

SPEAKER_00 7:51

That's so honest because uh we often think that we are just being practical, but we are only carrying a story that was handed to us long before we had a say in it. So I want to bring uh this to everyday

The Quiet Cost Of Saying No

SPEAKER_00 8:05

now. So, what's the actual cost of our mental and emotional well-being when we keep dismissing the calling? Not in a big way, but just in the quiet day-to-day way, it lives inside a person who knows that they are not doing what they came here to do.

SPEAKER_01 8:22

Yeah, I I think it if for me, it it would have been in the form of uh like a hole, a hole, a missing piece, like um an empty void in my soul, a wandering, always nagging at my the back corners of my mind, what if? And and this hole that I speak of is a hole that my family has felt ever since my great-grandfather um disappeared on his last expedition into the Amazon. And that unknowing void, what happened to him, what he saw or experienced in the Amazon, we don't know. We don't know the reason behind what kept him from us um all these years. And that has formed a huge question in our family. And that whole, if I did not answer that calling, would have also consumed me. And so what I'm so happy that my story has brought some healing to my family, closure on on what happened to my great-grandfather. And and with answering that calling for me, it it also has healed that question of of what I was meant to do. So it kind of brought all the ends together for my family and for myself.

SPEAKER_00 10:05

Right. And now, Bridget, that you've experienced this feeling. What does it actually feel like in the body and in the mind when someone finally says yes?

Saying Yes In Real Life

SPEAKER_00 10:16

Not in that grand moment, but in the ordinary weeks that follow.

SPEAKER_01 10:21

Well, it wasn't a question of saying yes. You know, at that time life is busy. I I had to make time to write and to write the story down, and then I it kind of developed. Um, so it went from just writing the stories that I have been told throughout my childhood, writing it down, and I did that with a specific purpose in mind because I am a mother. My daughter is in her teenage years, and I felt it was time for her to learn her roots, her history, where her traditions and and her life has come from, from immigrants of Ireland and Peru, and and to know her family. And so for me, it was like a gift for my daughter, so that she can have the stories of her history and really know the traditions of her family.

SPEAKER_00 11:30

Yeah, that's beautiful, Bridget, because it's not really about producing the book or the painting or the business. It's about finally being in the honest conversation with yourself, with a part of yourself you've been ignoring. And uh, moving on to the next question, you walked this road in real time from the volume teacher to a mom to a published author who traveled to Ireland and stood on the streets, her characters worked. So I want to ask you directly for someone listening tonight who's been postponing their own thing for years, what's a simple, doable starting place you'd offer them? Not a something five-year plan, but something they can do this week.

Start Before You Feel Ready

SPEAKER_01 12:13

So I would say start before you're ready. Because there's always that excuse of I don't have enough education or credentials or I'm not ready to invest that much time in my life yet. There's always those, and you know, those are all just lies, right? Convenient lies that you could tell yourself just to keep going, to get to the next day, um, to survive to the next day in this busy, crazy world. And I would say that start before you're ready. And every time you hear those whispers in your mind or that gut pulling you to that calling, take that first step right then and there. Because nobody is an expert when they begin. That's what the journey is all about. That's where you get into that messy, nitty, gritty part of your passion and what that calling is really about. And you have no idea what that journey might take you on. Um, and so I would say just start it. Just start with that very first step and and see where it will lead you. Because if you're gonna start it when you're finally ready, that that point of your life, that moment may never come. So I say say yes. Say yes to yourself, choose yourself and fulfill that dream, that calling.

SPEAKER_00 13:55

Yes, right. And how do you help people tell the difference between a real calling that's worth saying yes to, and something like just an impulse to escape the life they already have?

SPEAKER_01 14:09

I'm I'm

Calling Or Escape And Finding Joy

SPEAKER_01 14:10

kind of experiencing both right now because I did have that calling from my from my grandmother, and I did write down my family stories for my daughter. But once I did that, I I felt I realized I was the happiest when I was writing. Because I don't know if you ever read a book that you're like, oh, I hoped that character would have done this, or I hoped that storyline would have taken this turn. Well, when you're writing, you had that opportunity to have your favorite characters do whatever you would like, or make that storyline turn in the dirt in the direction that you hope for. And I felt so much joy staying in my world, surrounded with the characters that I have been writing. And that's what happened and and it generated the novella series, book two, book three, because yes, my grandmother asked me to do a specific job, but it ended up turning into a joy that I have would have never found for myself. If I just thought, oh, I'm just gonna become a writer someday.

SPEAKER_00 15:37

Okay.

Staying The Course Through Doubt

SPEAKER_00 15:38

And here's uh where I think a lot of people fall off. They have a moment of clarity, they start, they feel hopeful, and then the doubt returns, the practical voices, the comparison, the who do I think I am voice, and how do you help people stay with the work when they when the real excitement fades away and the road gets long?

SPEAKER_01 16:03

I'm experiencing that right now. Um, you know, after you you wrote your book and you you feel satisfied with what you have accomplished so far, I had a decision. I could either put my manuscript into a drawer so one day my grandchildren will find it later, or I could try to share it with the world, which is uh a journey that uh is is extremely hard and extremely long. The world of publishing and marketing and social media. It is not what I was trained to do, but every day I learn something new, I learn something more, and it takes me a little bit further. Um, in fact, daily, hourly, it shocks me on how I like, okay, I was in this one position, you know, last week or yesterday or an hour ago. And then all of these things kind of came together, and now I'm in a so much stronger position to continue on with this journey. Um, so I think when you're looking at the task ahead of you, it could look like um a giant mountain. But if you just take that one step and then the next step, before you know it, you're halfway there, three quarters the way there. And and you can say, okay, I'm doing it. I'm doing it slowly, and I'm doing it bit by bit on my time, but I'm doing it.

SPEAKER_00 17:44

And that's such a reframe saying yes to your calling isn't a single break moment. It it's a quite ongoing willingness to keep returning to it even after you've drifted.

It’s Not Too Late And Where To Find Her

SPEAKER_00 17:55

So, Bridget, before we close, I want to leave one question hanging in the air for the listeners tonight who have been postponing their own thing for far too long, who's quietly afraid it might already been too late. So, what would you want them to hear right now?

SPEAKER_01 18:14

As long as you have breath in your lungs and you have a passion burning in your soul, do it. Do it. It's never too late to start, to start something that truly brings you joy.

SPEAKER_00 18:31

Right. And the callings that refuse to leave you alone aren't waiting for the right moment. They are waiting for you. So, Bridget, this has been such a moving, grounded conversation for the listeners who want to keep walking to your work. Where's the best place for them to find you?

SPEAKER_01 18:49

Yes, so um, the listeners can find my book, Lost, The Lost City of Ink and Gold, on Amazon. It's on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited. They can find it on the shelves or online at Barnes Nobles. Um they can go to my personal website, bridgetkennedybooks.com, and and and explore the world of of the Inc and the Irish. And I do have a wonderful audiobook uh that's available there. And since I am a professional musician, I did write my own soundtrack and theme music. So I'm very proud of my audiobook for it for Lost. And the most important spot that I want to share with people is something that they don't even have to buy or purchase, but it's my new YouTube channel. And it's called Bridget Kennedy Books, but I'm doing a series called An Author's Dream, where I read aloud every chapter of my book, and I give the viewers uh a direct access, a VIP to the behind the scenes of every line that I wrote, why I wrote them. I even bring in my own family history, all of the treasure hunting history, the pictures of their marriage, pictures of their wedding day, um, and explain to them why, you know, what was real, what was um now kind of made up with the Irish mythology or the Inc and legends and real explain through the book. So it's uh it's an all-access pass to the author of the story, and I just want to share that with the world.

SPEAKER_00 20:46

Okay, thank you so much for spending this time with us on Healthy Mind, Healthy Life. If something in Bridget's story stirred something in you tonight, the quiet thing you've been carrying for too long, don't rush to figure out the whole path. You just have to be honest with yourself, and that's it still there. The yes can come later. The honesty has to come first. I'll see you next time. Until then, take care of your mind, take care of your heart, and remember the thing that keeps coming back to you is doing so for a reason.