We know you from Tik Tok.....

And I thought nobody was looking :)

Just when you think nobody is watching….nobody is really looking at you….you walk across a packed pub as you head to the bar to hear the words ‘Living and Laughing with Lou’ is that you? And out of a daze, a daze only Lou could be in, my head rises to realise this lovely friendly face is looking in my direction and speaking to me….In my mind, the words ‘Is this girl talking to me speedily pass through my brain cells…On the outside - my mouth slowly yet instinctively responds…. haha :)

“Yep I’m Living and Laughing with Lou, it’s me”…The words kind of fall out of my mouth unsure if this is a good or bad answer…haha :) I quickly glance around this lady to see what I think might be her whole family around her, all awaiting my response….As my brain finally engages- lets me honest - Lou lives in free wheeling gear most of the time brain wise, out in the world so in fairness I am a bit of an air head. Amazingly I am very good with attention to detail when it comes to one to one engagement but when I’m out in the world freewheeling, Lou’s mind is away with the fairies most of the time, in the most harmless way but this is very much a true story ;) Oh look a butterfly…something shiny…and off we go in Lou’s mind ;) Now back to the story;

The family are all looking at me as I landslide, a lot less gracefully that Stevie Nicks would as I attempt to look like a half together human who knows who she is haha :) Instantly my heart lifts….The thought of someone recognising what I do is heart moving and head exploding…now just to mention my head did not explode in real time thankfully - that would be embarrassing to say the least but you get the vibe, also noting I’ve already nearly forgotten who I am in the intro to these lovely strangers entering my world but genuinely someone to recognise me in the ‘real world’ makes my heart fly every time… To every writer, every communicator, every creative who is trying to find their way in the world this is what we are in search of - true connection with our readers, our tribe, our people….This moment truly is worth the million hours we put into our work - This is what it is all about…..

Next I hear from the same group, '“Me too. And me as well. We all follow you on Tik Tok.”

HOLY COW I THINK IN MY HEAD - I THOUGHT NOBODY WATCHED ME ON TIK TOK! :) How wrong one can be?!? ;)

Also just to put this into context, the story of me and the Tik Tok bus…..I’ve been making videos on Tik Tok since late in 2021 but never was very active. It would be a video here, there and everywhere. I was never super consistent because as many will know my Facebook family (come join the gang here :) ) are my first port of call for any thoughts, words, ramblings, laughs, tears, talks or any shenanigans. I also love spending time on the Instagram bus and in more recent years, particularly 2023 onwards, I have been trying to get more active on Tik Tok. Now nothing crazy commitment wise but I try to intentionally create content/words/chats for there too. Sometimes I gather engagement there and other times I continue to say to myself ‘this algorithm still hasn’t decided whether it likes me or not?!” but I continue. I keep creating…and I keep uploading videos of all sorts of this, that and the other……

As many of you know I spend an awful lot of my energy and passion on my Facebook page/community - linked above where without doubt I can tell you the most amazing humans live. Because of my online home and social media port of call that lies in Facebook land, so many magical moments have happened and equally it’s where I get to be all parts of me and my community, YOU - make me come alive in ways that could only happen if we were together drinking tea and in a daze of butterflies and rainbows or if we are ‘live together on FB. Because of Facebook I get to know you and you get to know me as if we were indeed together looking up to the sky…..

To tie in with FB, would you believe on this very same night as meeting this lovely group of people from Mullinagar who so generously shared their appreciation for what I do on TIK TOK, I then continued my way to the bar in which I was heading to collect a can of Club Lemon which I had forgotten on an earlier order. As I approached the bar, I saw a young child sitting on a high stool. As his face came closer into view to me, I was drawn to saying hi. If you have spent time with me in real time, you will know this is normal for me, I tend to say hello to anyone who will give me eye contact and even those who don’t! He smiled and I smiled back and said hi…Within minutes, his high stool was empty and he was nowhere to be seen…..Not because of me I promise…haha….In three sentences you will find out why he has disappeared….

I ordered my Club Lemon from the same barman that was in the upstairs bar ten minutes ago but who was now downstairs haha :) “Hello again…” Club lemon please….And as I reach for my cash to pay, I look to my left….and down towards the end of the bar, a lady with glasses smiling and waving at me…..For a minute or three, I think to myself, I don’t know that lady but I think she’s waving at me….or maybe she’s waving at someone else? I check around me….nobody looking her direction only me….Ok I better wave, nervously thinking….god this is so embarrassing if she is waving at someone else….(which regularly happens me in life) but I continue to wave and then return to eye contact with my bar man…..I then glance her way again. She is now moving towards me and out from behind her, I spot a little head….it’s a child…Hold on…It’s the boy from five minutes ago who was sitting on the stool……They make their way to me….I have to admit I was relieved I wasn’t waving at a random person who wasn’t actually waving at me but instead, this woman was now making her way towards me and I didn’t think I knew who she was…….

She steps right into me and opens with ‘I have to hug you Living and Laughing Lou’……Well if God/my higher power/Granny/someone way above the stars was trying to sign me a sign, Saturday night was indeed presenting the best kind of signs…..

“It’s you….you might not remember us….you sent that lovely message out about my Gran, she was 103 and you were so good to her and to us….My son came down to me from the bar a few minutes ago and was like ‘Living and Laughing with Lou is at the bar’…so we just had to come up and say hello.”

My response was ‘"Of course I remember ye. I did a FB live at the Fleadh in Mullingar last year and your son was the dancer. And your beautiful mam and dad I met and of course we chatted about your beautiful Gran. Let’s have that hug again, I think I missed it.”

…As our conversation flowed, I realised our relationship stemmed from Facebook and Janette was indeed one of my Facebook family. For the doubts and wobbles I have in life, these moments make up for all of them. Nobody can ever tell you if you are having a positive impact on the world or not but my god I now know the positive impact comes in the format of feelings and how each of us can make others feels and in turn that allows us to feel good too. What we might think is a small move actually can have such a powerful impact on people you might not even be able to see.

I am indeed very active on social media and the reason for that is simple: People are there. I can reach into their world through my social doors. I can reach into their kitchens, their homes, their bus journeys, their doctor appointments, their lives in so many ways and I love that….I can turn on the lights, flash them in my home and they can see that I am there. They can come in if they want. They can pass my door. Or they can come in and have a look and they might just stay like one might do in a real life way in friendship. For me, I’ve been so blessed and fortunate to gather so many amazing people into my world virtually and in real through my social media homes. I know social media is not for everyone whether in a creator way or in a consuming way but I do think for me anyways, it has brought me so many blessings. I have two rules with it.

1. I am there to have fun, to enjoy myself, to expand my thinking, to find new connections, to help, to heal, to share, to open spaces up and to simply be together with people from all over the world and on all different types of paths while we travel this journey called life…..

2. If anyone is an asshole I block and delete. My rule is straight and fast….Thankfully this is mostly only towards bots/spam and a handful of people who I’d instantly walk away from in real life. Also I don’t follow/like/read or engage in anyway with content that brings my mood down or grates my brain. The key to having an inspiring social media feed as you scroll is to choose creators/communicators/writers and even influencers who lift your soul, who bring you joy and who broaden your mind in a way that makes you feel good not bad. If you feel bad about someone on social media or in real life, please block/delete or walk away - whichever is most appropriate. And always best not even engaging them or trying to make your point. The old me would have written a message to try and explain my stance, now I don’t bother my head….I just move on…..This really is a very healthy way to deal with people who do not deserve space in your head, your heart, your scroll time nor your life :)

To finish this random Sunday night Substack letter, I just want to thank all who are here reading my words and for all who are indeed finding me, looking at me and are sharing and staying with me….P.S. as a sidenote….I apologise for any typing errors above and throughout… :) You are well use to me at this stage. I write how I think, how I talk and how I love and live…I make a million mistakes but in between those mistakes lies all of me…..I want and hope you know how important you are to me for being here and for being part of my life and particularly your commitment to my creative life too. On Saturday night - I was indeed enjoying myself but I had had a rough week personally. Lots of boats rocking. I hadn’t tipped out but the week had gone astray and some heaviness lay on my heart so when these random strangers yet not random strangers at all - had reached out and said they follow my work, that meant the absolute world to me and really I didn’t want that moment or that feeling to slip away from me without writing it down in the history books or the Substack book in this case.

It takes bravery on my part to create and to share but it equally takes bravery for people to give me their time and also to reach out to me, and definitely it takes bravery to reach out when they see me walk passed them and thats the magic of connection that I love. We share a vulnerability together in this world if we choose it and as we collide in those moments we are coming together as one. We are closer because of those moments and we are more alive by these very moves that we make towards each other! Thank you to all who tip me on my shoulder and to all who tip their phone keyboards left right and centre to let me know they are there…..

My writing, my thinking, my feeling and my communicating is something I feel very passionate about but without you, I might just believe those doubts that often creep in as a creative…as a human. I might believe that what I do is not having a positive impact but I don’t believe that because you are here part of my Substack family and I am so grateful you allow me to pop into your inbox as frequently as I do. I am so grateful to those who financially support my writing - you keep the lights on in so many ways.

I want to also thank all those who support my social media homes. My Facebook Family who are beyond a dream -each person, each soul -beyond a miracle that I will always be so grateful for and equally inspired by. You are such an amazing group of humans and thank you for constantly inspiring me, living with me, crying with me, laughing with me and travelling this journey with me. Thank you to my Instagram & Tik Tok family. We are building slowly but surely and I love the tight network of community we are creating. Thank you for entering and engaging in all the homes I live in. And thank you for approaching me in ‘real life’ and letting me know it’s you. I see you. I hear you. I feel you. And it is beyond magical to hug you in the flesh.

So many of us are in pain, are in stressful periods of our lives and for me, all that matters is that we know we are never alone and I will always try my best to be as honest as I can be with you while opening my heart to you to remind you of all the unconditional love, light and human hugs that this human has for you . I am here for you as you are for me and together we will get through anything life throws at us. Hope, help, healing and friendship are the keystones to making it to the end of this life knowing you made a positive impact on all those beautiful humans you calls your tribe - together is always better.

PS. Also eventually maybe someday I will have an editor and she/he will be able to tidy up all my million thoughts and put them in a tidy order but until then I will give you my all and everything, warts and all. And bad grammar too ;) And sure it wouldn’t be me, if it wasn’t imperfectly perfect or perfectly imperfectly ;)

My Facebook home is: www.facebook.com/livingandlaughingwithlou

My Instagram home is: www.instagram.com/loucoghlan

My TikTok home is: https://www.tiktok.com/@livingandlaughingwithlou

Please do come join my online families or you might like to leave a comment down below with any thoughts or topics you might like me to cover on any of my social homes or here on Substack…..I love your input and never forget, YOU are the reason I write. You are the reason I am me xx

Love and light starbars,

Lou over and out x

PPS. Here’s a little four minute ‘close your eyes’ and relax song….As my very good friend William would say, ‘Lets come to rest’….Join me on my path this year to relinquish pain, hurt and shadows that are locked inside me and further myself to become stronger and gentler, to become kinder and more compassionate to others and to myself. Balance is the key so we must work on ourselves to allow love in. We must work on ourselves to connect more and allow love out. We must lean in to be able to love deeper and to love without condition.

This is a little Lou encouragement to close your eyes and let your soul sit still…to join me in the second part of this year to find strength to face battles and to find awareness to always look for the light…..If you can lie down I highly recommend you do but even just sitting still with your eyes closed while listening to the fabulous O’Neill Sisters, you will feel the gentle healing magic of music, mediation and deep stillness work its way around you while listening to this…let the waters of your soul move around areas inside you that need releasing….A sound bath of lyrics, melody, song and irish soulfulness incoming. Hope you enjoy x