Monthly Archives: September 2013

How Can I Possibly Sum This Up?

Well, I haven’t posted for about three weeks, and here it is the end of the round. What happened?

I’ve been helping a friend with terminal cancer, who is now in hospice.  Rather than trying to re-create what I’ve written about it before, I’ll refer you to this blog post. If you’d prefer the summary, well, suffice it to say that most of my creativity has been going toward being a priestess for my friend.

Even though I haven’t been living much in the world of goals and word counts, I do have some ideas about what I want to do during Round 4 of ROW 80.  In the meantime, here are my notes on how this rather chaotic round went for me. In the big picture, I’m growing and learning, and while I regret that my friend is leaving this plane, I have no regrets about how I’ve been spending my time and energy.

Writing and Editing

Write 5,000 words per week on the Daily Spiritual Practice e-book. This is a project that I’d started a couple of years ago and set aside. I already have a working outline. I’m enjoying my regular writing sessions and want to keep the flow going, so I’m picking this WIP up again. Hasn’t happened. I’m going to put this WIP on the shelf for a while, as I have some other significant writing projects I want to focus on in the coming round.

Finish all edits, appendices, and revisions of the Cultivating Self-Love e-book and give it to BlackLion for formatting. DONE!

Create a wonderful cover for Cultivating Self-Love. DONE!

Post to my Starcat’s Corner blog at least 3 times per week, and on this blog at least 2 times per week. Hasn’t been happening recently, but overall I’ve been keeping up well with my blogging responsibilities, and enjoying them.

Write and edit at least 3 guest blog posts and have them posted. DONE! I’m not sure I ever shared my most recent Kind Over Matter post with you – so here it is.

Promotion

Practice inviting people to purchase our Feline Dreamers wares and my books. Do it with joy and from a place of feeling positive and confident. As part of this process, learn more about effective, ethical promotion techniques. Still in progress, and I’m continuing with this goal in the next round.

Set up and offer a successful local book signing and reading for Starcat’s Corner: Essays on Pagan Living. DONE! We had a thunderstorm with pouring rain on the evening of the event, so there were only about a dozen people, but I still consider it a success. If nothing else, it helped me get over my fear of doing these types of events, and I know I’ll be doing more of them in the future.

Learn to use Amazon’s indie author resources to promote and sell my Cultivating Self Love e-book. Still in progress, and being continued to next round.

Raise all the money we need for our Rethinking Everything adventure, and have a fun and successful journey there and back! (Curious? Check out  this link to the conference website). DONE!

Wellness and Practice

Continue doing my two main daily practices: morning pages and affirmations in my journal (4 pages each day) and daily dancing (at least 20 minutes each day). DONE! Yeah, not so much during the recent crisis, but I’m doing just fine.

Practice drumming at least 3 times per week, plus the weekly troupe practice. DONE!

Add more yoga to my life. Haven’t done it, but I want to. I will probably continue this goal, and find new ways to get inspired and find the time to yogafy.

Spend more time outdoors. Walk, hike, meditate, and swim. Relax and enjoy the lovely summer weather! Mixed results. I’ll continue this one, too, changing “summer” to “fall.” 

2 Comments

Filed under ROW 80

What I Did on My Summer Vacation

Well, it’s been three weeks since my last check-in here. Although I’ve been super busy, I’m going to think of it as my summer vacation. So, here’s my take on the September ritual of the “What I Did on My Summer Vacation” essay, which of course includes notes on how I’ve been working toward my goals.

A lot of my time was taken up with preparations for our big trip to Texas for the Rethinking Everything unschooling conference. We finished our fundraising (success!! yay!!), prepared our presentations, and made all our travel arrangements.

Mid month, we took my teenage daughter to a neighboring state so she could spend a few days with some friends before they move out west. She had a fantastic time! In the meantime, my performance troupe had a three-day gig at a festival up in the mountains. So there was preparation for the gigs involved, plus getting all our camping gear in working order. The festival was a lot of fun! We made some good contacts there, for Feline Dreamers as well as the troupe. My son’s soccer season and tryouts started up in earnest, and we had to drive him to practice multiple times per day.

Before we knew it, it was time to head off to the conference! We had a fabulous time. Met a lot of great new people, connected with some friends we’d met at the New Hampshire conference this spring, and hung out with a lot of fun teens. Our sessions were well-received. Our vending at the bazaar on the last day went well – we sold several guided meditation CDs, a couple of copies of my first book, and gave out a gazillion bookmarks to promote Cultivating Self-Love. We also signed up 15 new subscribers to our e-newsletter, and made many great connections. Best of all, I got to meet a friend in person for the first time! We have been online friends for several years, soul sisters really, yet we live on opposite coasts. We hung out “in real life,” and it was just like we’d known each other forever! So special. I just know I’ll see her and her amazing family again. Also, it looks like the organizers of the conference would like us to come back next year. Yay!

Since we got back, I’ve been resting, celebrating some family birthdays, and making plans for the fall. This means gearing up for our unschool year, figuring out what our studies and activities will look like and then beginning to put plans into motion. Unschooling, if you’ve not heard of it, is a form of homeschooling that emphasizes child-led and project-based learning. We also belong to a homeschool co-op, so I’ve been planning what I’ll teach there this fall and helping organize all the class offerings.

What I haven’t gotten to: much actual writing, particularly for any type of longer work. It’s mostly been journal writing, taking notes, and blog posts here and there. I haven’t had as much physical activity as I’d like, though I feel like I’ve been on the go, which does mean I’ve been moving a lot. This weekend we went swimming both days, which felt great both in terms of exercise (swimming up the river against  the current) and getting out in nature.

As I help my teens get their fall plans organized, I’ve also been thinking about how I’ll adjust my own priorities and goals. September and October are all about research and action in the area of ethical promotion. I really want to get this new e-book out to a whole lot of people. Not just to help me make a living, which is important, but also because I think it’s crucial for people to learn about loving themselves. I feel it will really help in the process of humanity’s collective awakening. We had a lot of folks interested in it at the conference and I want to keep the buzz going.

I also want to start making an outline for – gasp! – a novel. I’m planning to do NaNoWriMo for the first time ever. It’s a big step for me, and I’m excited as well as nervous.

That’s all for now. I’m pleased with where I am and where I’m going, and excited for all sorts of creative work!

4 Comments

Filed under ROW 80