We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Charlotte Maya. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Charlotte below.
Charlotte, we’ve been so fortunate to work with so many incredible folks and one common thread we have seen is that those who have built amazing lives for themselves are also often the folks who are most generous. Where do you think your generosity comes from?
Gratitude. When I start with a mindset of gratitude, this feeds a sense of abundance, and generosity is the natural outcome.
I have also been the beneficiary of incredible generosity. When my husband Sam died by suicide in 2007, I was overwhelmed by the number of people who offered help to my sons and me in ways I couldn’t have imagined. A woman whose name I did not know showed up at my front door with a hot meal one evening because she knew how hard it was to work, parent, and put dinner together, especially while grieving. A person (or group of people, I still don’t know) choreographed “Twelve Days of Christmas” deep in the gloom of the first holiday season after Sam’s death, bringing us hot chocolate, gingerbread, and hope. I wrote an essay about this experience which was published in the New York Times Modern Love column in December, 2022, which keeps that generosity rippling out into the world.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I’m passionate about writing and sharing stories. Good writing matters. Stories matter. Relationships matter. Experience matters. Compassion matters, maybe more than anything else.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Listening to others, trusting myself, and dedication to the task at hand. I believe that everyone has something to teach us, and listening is the key to learning. It can sometimes be harder to trust ourselves, especially our younger selves, and yet staying in tune with what our minds, hearts, and bodies are saying is essential to our own integrity. And then there’s the work. It takes what it takes to get the work done, and sticking with the process can be tough. Just keep at it, even in small increments, and you will reach the goal. And the next. And the one after that.
Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?
My favorite book about writing is Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. I re-read it every so often and refer to it frequently. Get started. Start small. Keep writing. When that inner critic (I used to call her my inner perfectionist control freak, but I’ve befriended her in recent years, so now I call her Madeleine); anyway, when Madeleine speaks up, I thank her for coming and let her know I have an assignment for her later — much later, in the editing stage — so if she could take a nap over there, we can chat later. This helps me get my writing done. That, and the belief that our stories matter. As Anne Lamott writes, “Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They depend and widen and expand our sense of life; they feed the soul.”
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.charlotte-maya.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/charlottemayawriter/
- Other: Sushi Tuesdays: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Family Resilience https://www.charlotte-maya.com/sushi-tuesdays-charlottemaya-author
Image Credits
Photo credit: Karen Ray
