Yup.

Crazy, I know.

I go off the grid for two solid weeks of basking in all the beauty that is the Greek isles while vibing high with some seriously woo-woo goodness and what happens? I get to do one of my very favorite things: connect with a client who is ready to charge through to the next tier.

What are the odds that an actor I’ve not seen since July of 2015 — an actor who still has coaching credits in the bank with me, BTW (since they never expire) — would not only be on the exact same cruise ship as me at the exact same time, but would plop herself down on the lounge chair next to mine in the solarium on a glorious sea day as we navigated from Rhodes to Valletta?

No, she didn’t see me, seek me out, and come by to say hello after I’d had a post-yoga dip in the hot tub. She actually soared onto the chair to have a tickle and giggle fest with the woman lounging to my right.

I had convinced myself that I knew this actor when I first saw her on the ship more than a week ago. I’d seen her, heard her talking with others, passed her here and there, even spotted her in the auditorium for the Abraham-Hicks talks that brought us both here. But I could not place her.

And if you know me, you know that is RARE. I have a crazy good show bible in my brain. I remember everyone (and everything about them). But while I was certain I knew this glowing orb of brilliance, I could not place her. I definitely could not match her to the young woman who sat in my home office more than three years ago struggling through her acting career.

Because her energy was totally different. And guess what! She didn’t recognize me — not because I lost 60 pounds last year — because my energy is totally different too. (And I’ve heard this a lot recently. This mind-body healing work that is totally expanding my every experience in richer ways than I ever imagined possible is actually showing in some sort of glow I’m carrying around with me on the daily.)

So here we are on this cruise ship, two very different women from the ones who sat together long ago to slog through type and targeting and tools… and when I finally release trying to figure out who she is (because seriously, it was making me crazy and I was NOT going to be able to place her), she stopped her convo with the woman to my right and said, “Holy shit! Bonnie Gillespie!”

Now, it’s no accident that the SECOND I let go of trying to figure out who she was, she saw me for the first time. And of course, as soon as we started talking, it all came back. But it was also so different. Like we were talking about a foreign language intensive we were engaged in during a semester abroad or something.

Because today, we were meeting up on a totally different tier from where we left off with one another.

After a bit of catching up, Liza mentioned having wanted to reach out to me after we had masterminded and coached so long ago, but feeling so different about her career that the Self-Management for Actors tools weren’t really calling to her anymore. “Well… do I have news for you…” I said. And I proceeded to tell her all about the evolution of Get in Gear for the Next Tier (and next up, Expansive Capacity).

As we compared notes on where we both are in our creative journeys, we were not at all surprised to be connecting again at this moment.

So, like any good career coach with an eidetic memory (that apparently needs recalibrating when there’s been SO MUCH change since seeing someone), I offered to coach her right there on the ship. Not right that moment, but later. We would sit together and do an intention-setting, a visualization, a mini-meditation that she will be able to call back into focus whenever she’s trying to decide if an opportunity she is facing is leading her to the life she was born to live as a storyteller.

And when the time came for us to do that whole new style of coaching together, we watched the sun set from deck 12 somewhere in the middle of the Mediterranean and commented on how effin’ fancy we were at that moment. 😉 By being incredibly real, authentic, unafraid of our woo-woo, and vibing high from all the purposeful work we were doing, we were fancy in all the not-at-all traditionally fancy ways.

It was awesome. It was aligned. And of course, it was to be today’s BonBlast. 😉

Because every day, we are presented with opportunities to connect with people who are going to give us some really juicy information about who we are as storytellers. Every day, we are granted the chance to showcase how we’re healing Hollywood and the world through our art. Every day, our contribution to this planet through our creative expression is intersecting with someone else’s in a way we may or may not notice as meaningful.

Psst! It’s all meaningful. 😉

As I am back on the grid but not back in LA ’til mid-November, I’m thrilled to share with y’all that connecting with people who “yes, and…” our work is what makes our work so much fun.

I’d like to invite you to take a look around mindfully — without the clutter of the noise we tend to surround ourselves with every day — to discover what messages of confirmation you may be getting that you’re on the right path.

Here I was totally disconnected from my “real life” so I could have this fulfilling vacation packed with self-discovery and overflowing with the chance to go deeply within to round out my mind-body healing work out here in the middle of nowhere and I get confirmation that the direction we’re taking things is right on point. Right on time. And exactly right for the most inspired creative souls out there who always knew there was something more we needed to be focusing on.

If you’d like a peek at what I spent some of the past two weeks energetically readying for public consumption, head over here to my blog and feast your eyes on what we’re calling Expansive Capacity.

If it’s photos from my vaycay you’re hungry for, I’ll eventually be sharing them at Instagram while I continue my trip from Barcelona to Berlin and then on to London.

And if you’re planning to work with me in either Berlin or London, I’ve got details on how we can make that happen at my EVENTS calendar and of course the class pages of “Shop SMFA.” I am so excited to jam with you beautiful people as I continue this journey to places we’ve never before dreamed we could take our work together!

Ah… as I close this off, it’s time to head to the last formal night of the cruise and I freakin’ love that I just spent an hour connecting on a whole new level with a brilliant creative who’s changing the world with her art. While on a boat. In the Mediterranean. Under shooting stars after a day filled with rainbows and dolphins.

On that… as I sat by the window at lunch today, I reflected back on my Alaskan cruise with Abraham-Hicks more than two years ago and how I was in a similar seat when I saw a pod of dolphins leap next to the ship right after I had thought about how cool it would be to see such a thing. I laughed to myself because of course, it would be odd to see the exact same thing happen while I’m in a nearly identical seat on a totally different ship in another ocean, right? But hey, here I am aligned AF… so who knows!

You guessed it. Within ten minutes of that thought, I heard a chorus of “Ooooh!” from the other diners in the onboard restaurant and turned to see a family of leaping dolphins, with the baby doing its best to follow what it saw the adults doing alongside our boat.

“Well what do you know?!?” I said to myself. “We really can manifest anything we want when we’re not putting anything in our way.” “Anything” of course is usually doubts. Old beliefs. Fear.

How lovely to have a chance to really leave those behind a bit more. I hope you’ll take a moment today to do the same.

Sending love from abroad,

Bonnie Gillespie is living her dreams by helping others figure out how to live theirs. Wanna work with Bon? Start here. Thanks!