Thank You

My beloved Paranormal Pals...

I had planned to share a spooky Thanksgiving blog with you this week, and had been deep-diving into the story I wanted to talk about, but I wasn't getting it right, and I have been feeling so very frustrated. I thought I'd take the day on Thanksgiving to think and regroup and come back to it, and something different happened.

I was talking to my family and recounting my year and of course catching them up on this little adventure I've been on with Spooky Sisterhood. As many of us have experienced, sometimes talking to our families about the paranormal or other "strange" interests can be challenging, if it's not something that they're into as well. I expected a little bit of confusion or raised eyebrows, but mostly folks were so excited. I have a feeling that's because I, myself, am still so excited.

I've talked before about my journey to getting here and what made me want to start this up, and I won't recount it again, but I will say that this year has kind of felt like the scene in Indiana Jones and  the Last Crusade where Indy is faced with an impossible task- to step out off of the tiny ledge on which he is ostensibly trapped, and undoubtedly plummet to his painful death in the vast canyon below. Spoiler alert- he takes that daunting step into the unknown, holding to his faith that he's making the right call, and he discovers he's actually standing on a nearly invisible bridge to the other side. 

Earlier this year, I had been unemployed for a few months due to the impending film industry strikes, and I decided to pursue some of the passion projects I'd been toying with but not really working towards. Part of that meant doing my homework and finding out more about the paranormal industry, and in particular, women in the industry. Who were they? What were they doing? How were they being received? How were they being treated? 

I expected to have to do some digging and put in a lot of effort to find what I wanted to know. What I didn't expect was to have not only overwhelming response, but overwhelming support. Nearly every email or DM or comment I received included some variation of "please let me know what I can do to be of help". At the risk of sounding like a Sunday sermon, a lot of folks OFFER to help, but very few actually INTEND to. And even fewer follow through. 

Every step of the way, since I put out my original social media post in April, people have followed through and then some. People I've known for my whole life have bonded with me over this shared interest neither of us knew we had. Strangers have become dear friends I hope will be friends for life. (And afterlife, perhaps?) What an incredible journey we have been on right?

So for this week's blog, I just want to say THANK YOU. Not just a trite "this is what I'm thankful for this year" retrospective, but a genuine, bottom of my heart, "my life is truly changed" kind of thank you. I want to thank a few people in particular, though this is by no means an exhaustive list. 

First- to my cousin Becka. Without her, this would never have taken off. She shared my first post and from there it just exploded. I'm so grateful for you. Also, when we were tweens, she taught me to curl my eyelashes like a boss.

Next- to Heidi, who has been a sounding board for all my wildest ideas and dreams and has been a cheerleader through it all. And for what it's worth, she's a great UP road trip buddy. 

Thank you to three folks you all may know- Shane Pittman, Dave Schrader, and Aaron G Thompson. These guys didn't know me from Adam, but they shared my post back in the spring and without them it would have had a quarter of the reach. What they did was so kind and impactful and I'm forever grateful.

And last but certainly not least, thank you to Kerri, who has jumped in to help at a moment's notice on more than one occasion, without question or complaint, and who, by the way, is a killer podcast producer and preemptively screens tv and movies to give me trigger warnings since I'm a chicken.

Without these wonderful people, without YOU, we wouldn't have a growing community of paranormal pals. I celebrate YOU this Thanksgiving, and I can't wait to show you in the months ahead all that the Secret Society of the Spooky Sisterhood has to offer. 

Happy Thanksgiving pals... and don't forget to K.I.S.S.- Keep it Spooky, Sis!

xo

Melanie