I tell wonder-filled stories about hope and healing
Author: Christa Avampato
The short of it:
Writer. Health, education, and art advocate. Theater and film producer. Visual artist. Product geek. Proud alumnae of the University of Pennsylvania (BA) and the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia (MBA). Inspired by ancient wisdom & modern tech. Proliferator of goodness. Opener of doors. Friend to animals. Fan of creative work in all its wondrous forms. I use my business skills to create passion projects that build a better world. I’ve been called the happiest New Yorker, and I try hard to live up to that title every day.
The long of it:
My career has stretched across Capitol Hill, Broadway theatre, education, nonprofit fundraising, health and wellness, and Fortune 500 companies in retail, media, entertainment, technology, and financial services. I’ve been a product developer and product manager, theater manager, strategic consultant, marketer, voice over artist, , teacher, and fundraiser. I use my business and storytelling to support and sustain passion projects that build a better world. In every experience, I’ve used my sense of and respect for elegant design to develop meaningful products, services, programs, and events.
While building a business career, I also built a strong portfolio as a journalist, novelist, freelance writer, interviewer, presenter, and public speaker. My writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, PBS.org, Boston.com, Royal Media Partners publications, and The Motley Fool on a wide range of topics including business, technology, science, health, education, culture, and lifestyle. I have also been an invited speaker at SXSW, Teach for America, Avon headquarters, Games for Change, NYU, Columbia University, Hunter College, and the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America. The first book in my young adult book series, Emerson Page and Where the Light Enters, was acquired by a publisher and launched in November 2017. I’m currently working on the second book in the series.
A recovering multi-tasker, I’m equally at home in front of my Mac, on my yoga mat, walking my rescue dog, Phineas, traveling with a purpose, or practicing the high-art of people watching. I also cut up small bits of paper and put them back together as a collage artist.
My company:
I’m bringing together all of my business and creative career paths as the Founder of Double or Nothing Media:
• I craft products, programs, and projects that make a difference;
• I build the business plans that make what I craft financially sustainable;
• I tell the stories that matter about the people, places, and products that inspire me.
Follow my adventures on Twitter at https://twitter.com/christanyc and Instagram at https://instagram.com/christarosenyc.
“Write what should not be forgotten…” ~ Isabel Allende
“Write what should not be forgotten…” ~ Isabel Allende
If ever you find yourself with writer’s block, Isabel Allende offers you the only remedy you need. We will all, eventually, pass on. Writers leave a legacy, a trail of breadcrumbs open to anyone and everyone who arrives on our path. Most of the people who read our work will never meet us, will never have the chance to sit down and ask, “So how did your life go this time around?” Your writing will be what stands the test of time. Write what you want people to remember—about you, your life, and the world around you.
The world is full of possibilities. What no one tells us is that not every one of them is meant for us. The only work we ever really have to do is to find the doors that are ours to open. And no one can make that choice for you except you. Other people will try to push you down one path or another. They will try to tell you that this or that opportunity is too good to pass up. What matters is whether or not that opportunity is something you want and leads to a place you want to go.
“These are the days that must happen to you.” ~Walt Whitman
We can’t be sure of any moment’s purpose as it happens. That’s why recording and reflecting on our thoughts and experiences is such a valuable practice. Now that I’ve had a number of years to collect and review my own stories of life as it’s unfolded, I’m finding that my faith in the universe, myself, and others is growing at an unprecedented rate.
In reflection, I understand the tough times. The disappointment, anger, and sadness, even the injustice, makes sense. I can see that it had to happen that way to lead me along the path meant for me. As Whitman says, those were the days that had to happen to me. And so are these. And so are the many days to come. With that perspective, hard times are easier to navigate. It’s easier to keep breathing.
Maybe you’re going through difficult terrain now. Maybe it’s hard to see any hope, light, or change ahead. I’ve had so many days like that. Days that stretched into weeks and months and years. But now, from where I am, I’m glad I kept going through the dark. I’m glad I didn’t give up. I’m grateful that I found a way to keep looking up and reaching. And I hope you will, too.
“To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily. To not dare is to lose oneself.” ~Soren Kierkegaard
To dare, to try something that may not work, especially if it’s highly unlikely to work, is a brave and powerful act. In the best case scenario, you gain everything you’re hoping to find. In the worst case scenario, you get knocked off-balance for a bit and realize something new and exciting about yourself in the process.
Putting ourselves in the role of student, risking looking like a fool for the sake of learning, is the most daring act there is. We admit we don’t know something. We admit that we don’t know what we don’t know, and then we go on a quest – sometimes a short jaunt and sometimes a long journey – with discovery as the only goal.
Go ahead and dare yourself. Lose yourself. Allow yourself to fall into the experience and emerge from the other side. That’s always a good way to go.
Sometimes your only choice is to break the rules. I’ve spent a lot of time building a rule book for my life, and last week I felt the need to break with my own conventions to go outside the bounds and boundaries I had set. I can’t say why that impulse took over. I knew in my gut that the right thing to do was exactly the opposite of what I’d always done before.
The chance I took paid off in spades, and continues to pay off. It was a risk I’m glad I took. And I’m certain it won’t be the last. Sometimes the strongest move we can make is to let all of our vulnerability show. The reward is in the risk.
Today I’m having a B.B. King dance party. What an incredible gift he left to all of us – the ability to put all of our deepest, most soulful emotions into music that can wash over us always. Forget resting in peace. May he rest in his songs forever. And may we be lucky enough to do the same. “All I can do is wish you well.”
“The best way to do it, is to do it.” ~Amelia Earhart
I’m a planner by nature. I love nothing better than a good decision tree with many intricate branches accompanied by an extensive pro/con list and supplemented with a healthy dose of if-then statements. However, if I’m really honest with myself, 99.9% of the time I know exactly what I need to do. My head, heart, and gut operate in lock-step most of the time. The decision tree, pro/con list, and if-then statements are usually just reassurance. To do something, I need to just do it. I’ll learn from my mistakes. I’ll get up if I fall down. I’ll manage through the bumps, bruises, and disappointments. I’ll keep going.
In recent months, I’ve done a much better job of letting go. I’ve stopped second guessing myself. I’ve reminded myself, very often on an hourly basis, that I really am going to be fine no matter what. I’ve learned how to ask for and accept help and support. And perhaps the most amazing discovery is that if we bet on ourselves, really put all our faith in our abilities, the Universe comes through with a pair of aces. Every. Damn. Time. Once we decide to commit, once we really decide to go after something with everything we’ve got, the world rises up with us.
Trust—in ourselves, in others, and in the greater forces that have a hand in good fortune—is hard. The older I get, the more I realize that every once of the difficulty to cultivate it is more than worth it. And once we have trust, action naturally follows.
My friend, Inna, gave me this book for my birthday and this definition of fear really resonates with me. We can’t stop fear. It’s a natural and protective human response. We can move over, under, and through it in our pursuit of what really matters to us. Forget Everything And Rise. That sounds exactly like the kind of fear I can embrace and use.
“I know you’re tired but come, this is the way.” ~Rumi
“I know you’re tired but come, this is the way.” ~Rumi
Invention, reinvention, and creation is a difficult, messy process. Change is tiring. Transformation wears us down. I’ve remade my life so many times, in so many places, through so many career paths, that I’ve almost lost count. I create a life, and then either it’s ripped away from me or I toss it away when I realize there’s no way to make it work going forward. And yes, it is tiring. Yes, sometimes I want to give up. Yes, it’s always hard to try again.
Luckily, I just can’t help myself. I like hard work and I have a real aversion to remaining stuck. I don’t wear hopeless or helpless well. I roll up my sleeves and get down in the weeds and make, again and again and again. That tenacity, that ambition, has been my savior all my life. It’s made my life, literally and figuratively. I want what I want, and honestly, nothing else is good enough unless of course, I stumble upon something that was better than what I imagined. And that happens a lot.
Rumi puts it perfectly. Yes, we do get tired but we can’t give in or give up. We have to keep going. Our way is right in front of us, and we are the only ones who can take it. When we feel depleted, we can find strength in others. We can ask for help. We can remind ourselves that on the other side of tired, there is a whole world waiting for us, and it’s exactly what’s meant for us.
Sombrero Galaxy in infrared light (Hubble Space Telescope and Spitzer Space Telescope)
“The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.” ~W.B. Yeats
Sometimes we pray for signs—an insight, hint, or direction of what to do next when we can’t see our way out of where we are. The very thing we want—the guidance, love, and concern from the Universe—is already here. It’s everywhere. Around every corner, in every step we take.
I noticed it last week in the morning doves in Rock Creek Park. I felt it in smiles from the people in my neighborhood whom I see every day as I come and go from home. I found it in the light and the sky and the breeze. It was a quiet but still strong whisper. “Keep going. This is the way for you.”
The trail of magic is always there for us to pick up and follow. We just need to open our eyes, and heart, and ears, and let go of the many fears and doubts that keep us down. Sharpen your senses. Attune and align yourself with magic. It’s waiting for you. It’s a choice.
