An Enchanter: The Gabbie Cabbie

Finding out how to live a life worth living and being able to overcome the adversities that befall all of us in a normal lifetime, while also experiencing enough positive emotions to feel happy much of the time, may sound like a tough assignment. But if you can just be true to yourself and learn to read your own personality style, interests and potential, or as I say, recognize your ‘Song of the Soul’ than being happy can be a very realistic happening. In my book, THE ENCHANTED SELF, A Positive Therapy, I teach you many techniques for recognizing who you are at the most authentic level and also how to learn to meet your needs so you can live out your dreams. I give many case studies in the book about how people do just that. However, it is always great to hear of or meet someone who has already done all of his homework. For he is reaping the rewards of true happiness, living the good life, full of mental wellness, and is such an example to others. A few years ago I was driving in my car and suddenly on Public Radio a wonderful interview came up. A journalist was interviewing a man who calls himself, The Gabbie Cabbie. This is his story as I remember it: Mr. Franklin is a cab driver in New York City. As a result of some magic in his life and his own inspiration, he started a corporation called Gabbie Cabbie, Inc. He decided that no one in the world was better suited to tell you about New York City than a cab driver who drives it all day. He looked at himself in the mirror of life and decided that he was the one! So, he and his wife took some time and they approached every radio station in the world, which meant over 40,000. The ball started rolling and before he knew it, he was being called for interviews. Since he started talking about living in New York, he has had over 40,000 appearances on the radio. He has been interviewed around the world, both on the radio and on audio on the web. At first, he was self-conscious. He talked about events that had happened in the city and the people who came into his cab, but not about himself. He was almost a little afraid to be personal—even had fantasies that he would be stalked. However, over the years he realized that people loved to know a little about him. It made him human and very real to them. So, he began to share more about his son, who had just graduated from West Point and his daughter who was living in Ireland. Currently, he still is out there talking about his city, his world and himself. He feels that he has helped people around the world better understand New York City. He is determined to continue as this is his passion and his message to the world. I think that he is a wonderful example of somebody deciding that indeed they have a role to play beyond earning a living, beyond all the standard roles of being a wife, husband, neighbor, etc. Inside of himself, he realized that there was a special spark a gift he had to offer the world. He wasn’t just a cabdriver—he was an ambassador of a great city. He had a mission and no one else in the world could do it exactly as he could. Becoming an Enchantress or Enchanter (in terms of have the excitement and energy to send out into the world what we are most passionate about) means deciding what roles you have to play in life that are exquisitely suitable just to you. In fact, no one else can do them as you can. Then you can begin to cast your spells of Enchantment, as the Gabbie Cabbie did. As an Enchantress or Enchanter you combine inspiration with mental perspiration in exactly the right balance to move forward. That’s what the Gabbie Cabbie was willing to do. I admire him and I admire each and every one of you with the persistence and courage to cast your positive spells upon the world!