Monthly Archives: May 2015

Yesterday I went swimming for the first time this season. I took my daughter and her best friend shopping for new swim suits, and then of course they wanted to try them out. Despite the hot weather we’ve been having, I was thinking the water might be too cold for me. But it wasn’t. It was lovely. I adore swimming, and enjoyed doing laps up the river, against the current, then floating back down to do it again.

My writing life has been like that, too. The upstream part is finding time in a busy week to fit in my writing, and building the muscles of will and persistence by doing that. The downstream part is that the writing itself seems to come flowing forth without much effort, and is a whole lot of fun.

I finished and sent my monthly column for Kind Over Matter, and I was pleased with how it came out. It can be challenging to write about environmentalism and green living without sounding preachy, but I think I managed it. I also wrote a post on Starcat’s Corner called “Hospital Visits: A Guide for Sensitive Souls” that has been percolating in my mind for a while now, since my Aunt’s recent fall and the resulting surgery.

The rest of my writing has been personal in nature. Journal writing most every day (I missed Saturday because the day was packed from morning to night). Writing for the two workshop-style books I’m going through; I filled several pages in a notebook.

This week our online course begins, and I’m looking forward to diving into that. I also anticipate more workshopping, blogging, and hopefully the return (finally) to one of my bigger projects. We’ll see how it goes. Whatever happens, I’m gonna go with the flow!

It’s been a busy week, and yet I find myself getting creative work done amidst the life stuff. No, I haven’t had focused time on either of my big writing projects. But I’ve done quite a bit of writing, anyway, in the form of:

• blog posts
• a book review
• copy for our Feline Dreamers online course materials and promotions, including our monthly newsletter
• doing my journal writing every day

I’ve also:

• made another promotional video for the online course (which is going really well – folks have started signing up, and we expect more through the weekend, leading up to Monday’s start!)
• read How I Sold 80,000 Books: Book Marketing for Authors by Alinka Rutkowska
• did some zentangling and other drawing in my art journal

Up next:

• finish writing my monthly Kind Over Matter guest blog and submit it
• continue getting course materials ready and promoting the course
• get back to work on my Creative Inspiration Pack

I guess I’m into the list format today! I hope you have an inspired and productive week. See you on Sunday.

One of my biggest creative inspirations is my rich inner life, my personal connection with the Divine. In service to that, I can be kind of a spiritual growth junkie! This week, as I work back into my writing groove after a family crisis, I’ve been inspired to delve further into some of my recent favorite tools.

Exploring and expanding my spirituality helps me to tend the foundations that underlie my creative life. I’ve been having so much fun! This afternoon I got to spend some time in the hammock with my books, journal, and highlighters. The sunshine, the warm breeze, the pines swaying above me…what a soul-nourishing afternoon!

Here are the tools I’ve been enjoying of late:

“Morning” pages, affirmations, and gratitude. This is my regular daily journal practice. “Morning” is in quotes because I don’t always get to it first thing in the day. I write 3 pages, stream of consciousness style, then a fourth page that lists 3 affirmations for the day and 10 things I’m thankful for in that moment. This is my most basic spiritual practice.

The Desire Map: A Guide to Creating Goals with Soul by Danielle LaPorte. I’m reading it for the first time, and I’m almost to the second half, which is the workshoppy part. Exciting! I’m learning so much.

The Not So Big Life: Making Room for What Really Matters by Sarah Susanka. I started this book last year and then I came to an exercise that was like a huge mental block for me, so I put it down. I was just inspired to pick it up again, and this time flowed through the exercise with enthusiasm. I guess the timing just had to be right.

The 2015 Create Your Shining Year in Life and Biz Workbook by Leonie Dawson. Although we’re nearly halfway through the calendar year, I just finally finished this workbook. In another cool bit of synchronicity, the author just created a new Facebook group for those who use the planner – and I’m far from alone in taking my time with it. I’ve already learned some cool tips on how to work with my goals as the year progresses, too. Fantastic!

Ask and It Is Given: Learning to Manifest Your Desires by Esther and Jerry Hicks (and Abraham). I read this a long time ago, but I’ve been using it recently while teaching a class on the Law of Attraction (LOA) to some of the parents at our homeschool co-op. It contains a huge toolbox of LOA processes, and I’ve started incorporating more of them into my life, which feels terrific.

So that’s how I’ve been spending much of my writing and study time this week. I’ve also written a couple of blog posts for Starcat’s Corner, finished writing a book review for the Facing North website, and planned ahead for some upcoming blog posts. We moved a ton of stuff out of our basement, to donate to a yard sale fundraiser, and did some cleaning down there, which feels good. Yay for decluttering! BlackLion and I have been focusing on our upcoming online course, too. I got two walks during the latter part of this week, so that helps with getting back to more exercise and movement.

The upcoming week will be busy with family stuff, but I do hope to sneak in some writing, and of course more reading and studying.

I hope your week goes well!

Well, it’s been two-and-a-half weeks since I last updated my progress here. Wow, time flies!

My Aunt is recovering well from her surgery. She still has about 3 weeks of partial weight-bearing, but after that she should be good to go. It’s hard for her to be patient with her recovery, as I’m sure it would be for me in her place. We both like to be free to do our own things. But sometimes patience is a necessity.

I haven’t worked on revisions for our TDITK novel lately, or any new writing for the DSP e-book. In fact, I think I’m going to move the whole DSP project into next round. There are a couple of other projects that have come up this round that I want to focus on. It’s good to be flexible, right?

One project is the Creative Inspiration Pack, an e-book that will be a gift for my new subscribers to Starcat’s Corner, which I also haven’t worked on in a while. I hope to get back to it later this week.

The other project is an online course that BlackLion and I are putting together, which will take place in June. The course is based on a bunch of work we’ve already done with core beliefs. We’re taking our 30-Day Core Belief Kit and transforming it into The Alchemy of Core Beliefs: Unearthing Your Hidden Framework. So far I’m really excited about the progress we’ve made with it. We’re using the text we’d already written and the audio guided meditations we’d recorded, sending them out each day to participants via e-mail, and also adding weekly videos and a secret Facebook group.

I’ve been blogging sporadically, more this week than last. I’m 20 percent of the way through reading 500 Ways to Write Harder by Chuck Wendig. I’m also 27 percent through reading The Desire Map by Danielle LaPorte, which is an amazing journey. Not a craft book per se, but certainly one that will affect my entire career and life! I’ve done a bit of drumming, some dream journaling, and some meditation. I’ve gotten back on track with my daily journal writing over the past week, which feels really good.

We put up our new hammock on Saturday, and I look forward to having some time to write and read and muse in it. Other than trying it out when we put it up, I haven’t gotten much of a chance to use it yet. This weekend I plan to have some lovely hammock time!

Overall I’d say I’m doing just fine, and well on my way to getting back on track with my writing projects. Best of all, I haven’t been feeling upset about getting off track in the first place. Sometimes these things happen, and as long as I’m aware of it, I feel like I’m doing my best.

My aunt’s surgery went well. She’s now in rehab for the next week or so, and in good spirits. Between family support stuff, a couple of long shifts at my part-time gig, and an annual Beltane celebration, I don’t have much writing progress to report.

I did finish reading How to Write a Novel Using the Snowflake Method by Randy Ingermanson. I enjoyed it, and got some useful tips from it. I’m on day 13 of not eating refined sugar, so the family crisis hasn’t derailed me. Exercise has gone by the wayside, though, due to time constraints. I hope to get back to it during the coming week. I completed and sent the guest blog that was due on Friday, and posted to my Starcat’s Corner blog as well.

Oh, and I took some notes on a future blog post, which will be about how to deal with hospitals (as a visitor or patient) when you’re highly sensitive. This isn’t my first experience in this regard, but I’ve just now started collecting tips and suggestions.

Percy cat has been a lovely companion to me during this difficult week, curling up with me and purring when it’s finally time to go to sleep, and often greeting me when I wake.

Have a fun and productive week, everyone! Hug your family members.