DIANA

Dancing with Dragons

The Middle Way Forward

I am Diana.

Born in Germany in 1964, the Chinese Year of the Wood Dragon and the final year of the Baby Boomer generation, I've spent more than six decades living, learning, questioning, challenging, creating, and occasionally wrestling with dragons of my own. These days, I'm learning to dance with them.

I'm the daughter of a Puerto Rican father who served as a U.S. Army soldier and Vietnam veteran, and an Austrian mother from Salzburg. Growing up in a military family, moving between cultures, and experiencing life through different perspectives taught me early that there's usually more to a story than meets the eye.

Armed with a degree in Finance and Business Administration from the University of Florida, I spent decades working in commercial banking, affordable-housing finance, real estate, and new-home sales. I even ran for public office. Along the way, I learned a great deal about money, markets, leadership, incentives, and the complicated systems we humans create—sometimes to our own detriment.

But my education didn't end in classrooms, boardrooms, or sales offices.

Life had other lessons in store.

I've experienced personal and professional successes, disappointments, unexpected detours, and some spectacularly messy moments. My own mental health journey has included periods of profound struggle, difficult decisions, and the ongoing work of understanding myself, finding balance, and healing.

I've learned that being intelligent, capable, and accomplished doesn't make us immune to suffering, poor judgment, or our own blind spots. And sometimes the systems we turn to for help are themselves in need of healing.

The events of September 11, 2001, awakened something deeper in me—a calling to be a peacemaker in a world too often consumed by fear, anger, and division. That calling has taken many forms over the years, eventually leading me to become a Usui/Holy Fire® III Reiki Master.

My spiritual practice, Christian roots, and appreciation for wisdom across traditions have helped me understand that healing isn't simply about fixing what's broken. It's also about learning to live with greater awareness, compassion, discernment, and love.

And somewhere along the way, I began to recognize a rather inconvenient truth:

I am part of the systems I question. And some of the dragons I've been battling have been my own.

I'm also a wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend, caregiver, dog mom, consumer, bargain hunter, and occasionally a hot mess. I love beautiful things, thoughtful design, good service, a good laugh, and discovering the extraordinary lessons hiding inside ordinary experiences.

I'm still learning. Still questioning. Still growing.

I am Diana. And this is my journey.

Dancing with Dragons

What if some of life's greatest lessons aren't found in grand events or extraordinary achievements, but in the ordinary moments we tend to overlook?

A shopping trip. A medical appointment. A family disagreement. A beautiful dress that turns into a ridiculous adventure. A decision made in haste. A system that makes absolutely no sense.

My forthcoming book, Dancing with Dragons: The Middle Way Forward, explores the connections between our everyday experiences and the larger forces shaping our lives.

The dragons are familiar: fear, ego, control, certainty, identity, projection, avoidance, and the incentives that influence human behavior.

They live within us and around us—in our families, businesses, institutions, communities, and politics.

I've spent plenty of time battling dragons, sometimes with good intentions and less-than-wonderful results. I'm discovering that learning to dance with them requires something far more challenging: emotional intelligence, humility, courage, boundaries, wisdom, and grace.

And a sense of humor certainly helps.

Through my books and Field Notes from the Middle Way, I share stories, observations, questions, and occasional confessions. I connect the personal with the systemic, the practical with the spiritual, and the serious with the sometimes downright absurd.

Because changing the world begins, in part, with changing how we see it—and ourselves.

The Middle Way Forward

The Middle Way isn't about sitting on the fence, avoiding difficult conversations, or finding the halfway point between competing opinions.

It's about looking more deeply.

Understanding what works, what doesn't, and why. Recognizing our assumptions and blind spots. Asking better questions before rushing toward solutions. Finding the courage to change course when the evidence—or our conscience—calls for it.

I believe healthy people contribute to healthier families, communities, businesses, and institutions. I believe ethical enterprise and responsible stewardship can coexist with compassion and service. And I believe peace requires more than good intentions. It requires practice.

The Middle Way invites us to move beyond the need to be right, to win every argument, or to fix everyone else.

It begins with the person in the mirror.

And it extends into the choices we make every day—how we spend our money, treat one another, lead, serve, care for our communities, and respond when life doesn't go according to plan.

I'm not offering a perfect formula or claiming to have all the answers.

I'm offering a different way of approaching the questions.

Needs before solutions. Clarity before complexity. Service before sales. Peace as a practice.

Gratitude grounds love in action. And love, expressed through service, helps us find the Middle Way Forward.

Books

Life has a way of teaching us lessons, often when we least expect them—and sometimes when we'd rather not learn them at all!

Through stories, reflections, poetry, and a healthy dose of humor, my books explore the human condition, the dragons we encounter within ourselves and the world around us, and the wisdom we discover when we slow down, question our assumptions, and learn to see beyond the obvious.

Because sometimes the most meaningful changes begin with the smallest, most ordinary moments.

📚 Explore my books on Amazon

amazon.com/author/dianavazquezdouglas

All titles are published through Middle Way Press, an imprint of

Diana Vazquez-Douglas, LLC devoted to truth, balance, and creative freedom.