ABOUT
Hi! My name is Barbara Dickinson. Not “Barb;” not “Babs;” not “Beanie;” just Barbara.
There are a lot of labels I can proudly wear when I’m in the mood: daughter, mother, sister, “retired,” technologist, visionary, project manager, consultant, coach, author, blogger(!), mother of two cats and a dog, innovator, philosopher, philanthropist, volunteer, doer of good deeds, strategist, connector, futurist, activator, traveler, singer, bicyclist, adviser, and Wish Maven just to name a few.
Starting this blog is a wish come true for sure. YOLO — you only live once — has hit home for me as I have now lived through most of my 60s. If I don’t start doing what I want to do now… well, I may never have another opportunity.
After a long and satisfying career in a federal agency, I found myself “retired” and fortunate enough to recreate my professional life my way. I am happiest when I can share my ideas to the benefit of others and there are now more than a million ways to do this. Lucky me! That also means periods of chaos when I have a hard time figuring out what to do next. However, I have read many books and listened to many sages on the subject of prioritizing, sorting, sifting, choosing, deciding, regrouping, and moving forward. The best of those is the book Focusing by the late Dr. Eugene T. Gendlin. Because of that book, and my subsequent deep dive into Focusing as a life-altering methodology, a whole new existence has opened up to me, vaster and way more fulfilling than anything I ever lived before.
It is through Focusing that I learned how to bring magic into my world. I always believed in magic, but I never knew how to activate it in my everyday routine. I met people along the way in the Focusing community who helped me set my feet on that path and I have never turned back. All that learning crystallized in what I now call my “wish practice,” through which I discover my heart’s desires, formulate wishes, turn over my willfulness and control addiction to the “Universe,” and watch my wishes come true with nearly blinding regularity. I have had over 100 wishes “granted” per year since I started this practice about five years ago. I am now a co-author of a little book on wishing (soon to be a bigger book), a co-author of a blog on wishing, I give workshops on “How to Make Your Wishes Come True” in New Jersey, and I collect stories from people whom I’ve helped to make their own wishes come true.
I’ve always wanted a place where I could share many of the thoughts and ideas that come to me, stick with me a little while, and seem like they might be helpful to other people. Now, I have the perfect platform in order to do so. There will be all kinds of ideas in this blog, starting with recent revelations, comments on customer service, “try it out” recommendations, stories about my pets, my “Dickinson’s Rules”, adventure stories, and some real “out of the box” thinking.
But enough about me! On with the blog!