Today we’d like to introduce you to Lisa DiNoto Glassner.
Lisa, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Years ago, I had what many might have considered a perfect on paper life. I’d gone to college at Columbia University in New York and then gotten my JD at Harvard Law. I’d practiced Big Law in New York and Washington, DC – in both places specializing in big deal mergers & acquisitions. My work was well respected and my partnership prospects were bright – but I was miserable. I had a happy marriage and two young sons, a beautiful home, and stability. But I wasn’t fulfilled. The demands of Big Law required the increasing delegation of the aspects of life that I loved and the signing on to membership in a sort of culture of misery that came with respect in the industry and a comfortable living.
Then in 2013, four months after the birth of my younger son, my father was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. The ten months that followed were the literal things of nightmares – and to survive the emotional and psychological stress of his illness, work, mothering, and just life, I began distance running.
In February of 2014, the day after my 36th birthday, we let my dad go… and I kept running. With it came a continued mental clarity that gave me the strength to fix so many things that felt “wrong” with the perfect on paper life that we were living. First among them being walking away from that career in Big Law almost five years ago and beginning the long process of rewriting my life from scratch with my family. We packed our bags and moved to Florida, where we now live about 1.2 miles as the crow flies from Cinderella Castle and wake up to the Magic Kingdom train whistle.
I openly and honestly chronicle this process on my blog, TheCastleRun.com, where I also host a shop called Core Memory Candles – handmade Disney-inspired candles and other olfactory indulgences designed to transport us with the deep-rooted powers of our sense of smell. Core Memory Candles might be Disney-inspired, but I like to say that that’s our little secret. To the non-Disney fan entering your home, they are just beautiful, clean candles that fill your home with gorgeous scents. And it’s between us that it’s actually the smell of a fresh-baked soft pretzel or your heart resort’s lobby.
As for the blog – I like to hope that it isn’t just for Disney fans but anyone looking for permission to realign their lives with what they love and who they want to be.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Yes and no. I’m an only child and leaving my mother, geographically at least, was something that I never thought I’d do after we lost my dad. If she didn’t want to move with us, I originally assumed that it wasn’t in the cards for me either – until I sat with a clergy member that I knew and loved one afternoon and she gave me the permission that I didn’t know I needed to do what was right for me and allow my mother to do what was right for herself. Since we moved down I often half-joke that we see her more now than ever before. She’ll come down for a week or two many times a year and when she’s here we are fully focused on our time together.
As for the bigger picture – yes, of course, it’s hard. Whether you live in Disney World or not, life is still life. Chores still need to get done, people still get sick. Money issues are still money issues and arguments still happen. Life does not become picture perfect or easy simply because you live next door to the Happiest Place on Earth – but for us, it is still right. This is still the place that calls to us and where life feels right.
And above all – there’s a certain overwhelmingness to having your own happiness be on your own shoulders. By taking the reins on your own life to the extent that we have, it is fully up to us whether we feel fulfilled every night when our heads hit the pillow. I’ll admit that there are days when we get that right and days when we don’t and that that’s not easy. I don’t want to squander this chance that we’ve taken to do life right. But I do know in my heart that, in trying, we are taking the most important step.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
The way I approach things these days is to ask – what is my skill set and what does my community need? In finding the intersection of those two things, I find my work. Whether it is the work ethic and love for design and creation of a tangible object that leads me to create the candles or the photography skills that have led me to Instagram and the capturing of family and individuals in their most vulnerable moments or simply writing on the blog, I aim to serve my people with whatever it is that I can offer.
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
I’m not sure if you’d call me a risk-taker or not. It depends how you think about those things. Does what I did look like I took a huge risk? I’m told it does… But did I spend a year preparing emotionally and financially to walk away from my legal career to minimize the chances that my kids would ever want for anything because of what I was doing? Also yes.
And am I scared of failure? Heck yes. Constantly. I know I’m not supposed to be, but I’m human and I’m used to succeeding and the problem with that is that it makes you averse to failure and failures are sort of necessary on this path forward. So I’m working on that… When you have two kids depending on you, risk looks a lot different and can be a lot scarier than it feels when you’re in your 20s with no one looking to you for care. So it’s a balancing act. Cover yourself, but jump into the unknown a little too. Learn to fail. Make sure your people are taken care of. But learn to fail.
Contact Info:
- Email: lisa@thecastlerun.com
- Website: TheCastleRun.com and CoreMemoryCandles.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/thecastlerunner
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ldinoto & https://www.facebook.com/thecastlerunner & https://www.facebook.com/CoreMemoryCandles
