Creative Life Midwife

Inspiring Artistic Rebirth

Trust: Building a Life, One Step at a Time

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On an almost autumn morning last year I came downstairs to my home office and started tidying the desk. I heard a weird sound from outside. Was it Wally, my housemate who some of you might call a pesky woodchuck or groundhog?

I lifted the curtain and there was no Wally in sight and the sound stopped so I put the curtain down and the sound came back.

I gazed out the front window and saw one of the neighborhood wild turkeys marching through the front yard. I haven’t named them yet. I raced to the front door so I could get a clear photo without the window screen getting in the way but by then the turkey was on to my exuberance and he had one again, moved out of sight.

I wondered, “What has happened to make the manse more fairy-tale-like with all these wild animals showing up and hanging out with me?”

I have always heard the geese fly by with their morning greetings. These new friends just keep making everything feel even more magical than it already did.

My affirmation for today comes from Teresa of Avila:

“I trust I am exactly where I am meant to be.” This continues to hold true, even a year later.

Even after a number of occurrences that didn’t seem like they were on the bright side.

I persevered and I trusted. I trusted I was in the right place, ground hogs and all.

Julie JordanScott Comeback Crone Creative Life Midwife

Julie JordanScott is a Creative Life Coach, an award-winning storyteller, actor and poet whose photos and mixed media art graces the walls of collectors across the United States. Her writing has appeared on the New York Times Best Sellers List, the Amazon best sellers list and on American Greetings Holiday cards (and other greeting cards). She currently lives in a manse in Sussex, NJ, where she has recently finished her most recent book project, hugging trees daily and enjoys having random inspirational conversations with strangers.

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Let our Words Flow Writing Community: the only one missing is you! Join us in the Private Writing Group

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That Didn’t Work Out Like I Planned

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Otherwise known as THE JOY OF MAKING MISTAKES IN PUBLIC

Is there some sort of an award for mistake prone folks?

I attempted to schedule a blog post today and failed. The blog post posted, but the content had “September 17” on it and talked about the break I was taking which started the end of last week and will end two weeks from now.

Why is making mistakes so easy?

Here’s the thing: I could have pranced around angrily but instead I decided to allow it to stay there. The mistake. Public facing, big mess up and this, my friends, is an attempt to actually schedule the blog post (which will now be this one) on September 17.

Wish me well.

PS – If this turns into a mistake, I will delete it. 🙂

Woman (Julie Jordan Scott Julie JordanScott) seeming to burst through a broken wall on an abandoned home.

Julie JordanScott is a Creative Life Coach, an award-winning storyteller, actor and poet whose photos and mixed media art graces the walls of collectors across the United States. Her writing has appeared on the New York Times Best Sellers List, the Amazon best sellers list and on American Greetings Holiday cards (and other greeting cards). She currently lives in a manse in Sussex, NJ, where she has recently finished her most recent book project, hugging trees daily and enjoys having random inspirational conversations with strangers.

Follow on Instagram to Watch exclusive reels, videos, stories and posts about writing and the creative process.

Let our Words Flow Writing Community: the only one missing is you! Join us in the Private Writing Group by clicking here.

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Lesson Gratefully Learned: The Freedom of Boundaries

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I am a week into my period of self-imposed isolation, though I popped onto twitter last night to make one post. This mindful experience of boundaries is different than when I miss out on social media because life is frantic and I can’t post because of a lack of time.

This “I have time but I am purposefully disconnecting” as a conscious choice feels better and it is still strange… different… not what I would have expected.

Sometimes when I have known people to disengage from social media I have questioned their rationale. Some people feel disdain for social media, like it is an enemy or something to conquer. I have always seen social media as another point of connection, not a tool of influence or something I must do, I see it as something I choose to do like choosing to open a gift or not open a gift. 

Allowing those words to appear on my keyboard allows me to see my choice differently. The meaning speaks to me in a deeper, more interesting way.

I initially chose this dark period  (that is the theater term for when there is no production scheduled during a certain period of time.) as a way to minimize the possibility of experiencing more pain than I have the bandwidth for, with this being my first week back at school while grieving the death of my mother. I didn’t know how I would feel, I didn’t know how crushing (or not) my emotions would be.

I didn’t see this time of quiet as a gift to myself, I saw it as an exercise in strength because I receive a lot of energy from hearing your voices reflect back to me in your comments and interactions with me. By choosing to go dark it meant I was taking away the energetic exchange from you to me as well as from me to you. 

A week into the dark period and two days into the school year, I am above fair-to-middling. I am in a space where I can remind myself to smile as I walk around campus, for example. I was able to make a new friend yesterday – the school librarian! Such a natural! I haven’t cried publicly which is good. I have agreed to sing the solo on church on Sunday I was rehearsing the morning I got the call Mom had died which I was scheduled to sing the week she died.

I am taking gentle risks, allowing myself to roll out the soft landing repeatedly without rush or shouldas or if onlys.

As I am writing this I have ten more days to go. In real time when you are reading this, I am probably back. 🙂

I am, as always, grateful you are here, reading.

Julie JordanScott is a Creative Life Coach, an award-winning storyteller, actor and poet whose photos and mixed media art graces the walls of collectors across the United States. Her writing has appeared on the New York Times Best Sellers List, the Amazon best sellers list and on American Greetings Holiday cards (and other greeting cards). She currently lives in a manse in Sussex, NJ, where she has recently finished her most recent book project, hugging trees daily and enjoys having random inspirational conversations with strangers.

Follow on Instagram to Watch exclusive reels, videos, stories and posts about writing and the creative process.

Let our Words Flow Writing Community: the only one missing is you! Join us in the Private Writing Group by clicking here.

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The Day’s A-Wastin’ (Or Is It?)

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This is what happens when you start your day reading an emotionally rich, well written, best selling novel: in this case it was “Hello Beautiful” by Ann Napolitano

Haiku 17/37

Entire head stuffy

Each and every feeling –

Stories connect us

I don’t think that final line is the right one. I’m being impatient because I want to get on with my day. It’s 7:18 am the days a’wastin’!

I have no idea where I picked up that phrase, but being the daughter of an early riser and having given birth to early risers may be a part of it.

I read more than 150 pages this morning, I’ve been reading since 5 am and refused to move until the last words in the book. This doesn’t feel like wasted time, it feels like enrichment.

I would have loved “Hello Beautiful” even if it didn’t pay homage to Louisa May Alcott’s “Little Women” but with many twists and turns along the way. William isn’t Laurie – or is he? I always thought of Laurie as Thorea-like, but William is… much more like a blend of my son and me. The book opens and closes with words of him and words spoken by him.

“But if you’ll allow me, I’d like to help.” Spoken by William, who was a newborn in the first line of the book, “For the first six days of William Water’s life, he was not an only child.”

That first sentence from the book is almost like a koan, one of haiku’s cousins.

I have more to say and that last line of the haiku to rewrite, but a red cardinal is outside telling me to get on with the day. Last night perhaps it was the same cardinal who flew quickly toward the porch and then darted away before it sat down close to me, seeming to be shocked by my presence.

It is time to go downstairs and begin my day. The clogged head from tears cried and tears held back has lessened.

What is favorite book you have read in 2023?

Julie JordanScott is a Creative Life Coach, an award-winning storyteller, actor and poet whose photos and mixed media art graces the walls of collectors across the United States. Her writing has appeared on the New York Times Best Sellers List, the Amazon best sellers list and on American Greetings Holiday cards (and other greeting cards). She currently lives in a manse in Sussex, NJ, where she has recently finished her most recent book project, hugging trees daily and enjoys having random inspirational conversations with strangers.

Follow on Instagram to Watch exclusive reels, videos, stories and posts about writing and the creative process.

Let our Words Flow Writing Community: the only one missing is you! Join us in the Private Writing Group by clicking here.

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Haiku: Leaps to Steady the Course

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I was doing my best to stick with my normal routine this morning but had very little success due to connections not working. I did some testing – all appears to be well now but I also felt strongly I was meant to go for a haiku field trip.

I ate my breakfast and headed out to Liberty Loop Trail, 12 minutes from my house and a part of the Walkill River Preserve like the Wood Duck trail.

I was reminded how a change in scenery, even quite brief, changes so much.

Bridge over the Walkill river with this Haiku written on it. Haiku 6/37 Yellow pike lifts, leaps black shoes hover above ground scales flop, meet water

I’m now sitting at the Winding Waters trail where an AT thru hiker just moseyed by, also. I have seen quite a few hikers this morning as the Appalachian trail intersects with rhe Liberty Loop.

Many are wearing shorts and I temporarily halt the Mom in me from saying “are you wearing repellant? There are ticks around here!”

Both of these trails are flat and easy loops – perfect for this sticky weather.

If you wonder how I got to be such a good fish identifier, google is magic, as is my bird call app which just informed me within 1 minute 9 different birds were singing alongside me. Later I will listen to each of the 9 and continue to practice listening more faithfully.

I knew a fish 🐟 was jumping near me, shallow jumps – so I was primed to spot this grand leap. So I googled and found “walleye” which they also told me is also called a yellow pike. There is a lot of fishing here and they stock the river with these….seeing as I’ve only managed to catch one fish in all my years of living, all fish ought to feel safe around me. 🐠

The first year I wrote haiku was also the first year I saw a fish leap like the Yellow Pike did, today. I believe it is something about practicing close, quiet attention and presence.

I did not want to do much of anything today, but the devotion to writing haiku every day because you might be looking for it dragged me up and out of my doldrums to be on the Liberty Loop Trail and experience these moments of haiku with you.

Do you ever use apps to identify the nature around you?

Julie JordanScott is a Creative Life Coach, an award-winning storyteller, actor and poet whose photos and mixed media art graces the walls of collectors across the United States. Her writing has appeared on the New York Times Best Sellers List, the Amazon best sellers list and on American Greetings Holiday cards (and other greeting cards). She currently lives in a manse in Sussex, NJ, where she is working on finishing her most recent book project, hugging trees daily and enjoys having random inspirational conversations with strangers.

Follow on Instagram to Watch IGTV exclusive videos, stories and posts about writing and the creative process.

Let our Words Flow Writing Community: the only one missing is you! Join us in the Private Writing Group by clicking here.

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Welcome to Summer Expansion & Your Next Chapter: The Preface

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I didn’t realize how long I have been away from my blog.

I left at the same time I started a 5 day a week, 5 hour a day job after more than twenty years as a creative entrepreneur and freelancer. It was quite a shift to work every Monday through Friday on a contract with an educational institution.

While I am grateful I did so, I am also even more grateful to be back for a time of expansion with you.

I have finished my draft of my book (with a working title) “Living the Haiku Life” which will be going to beta readers next week for the first round of revisions based on other-readers-insights.

The Primary Focus of the Summer Expansion will be sharing a daily haiku with inspirational narrative.

These are the building blocks of the Living the Haiku Life Book and are a part of that celebration. I hope you will return daily in July to continue spreading the joy and experiencing self growth in the process.

Expansion doesn’t have to be a struggle. It may be as easy as an inhale – and an exhale.

Let’s begin now.

Haiku 1/37 Summer 2023

Three birds sing one large,
one melodic, one dainty
Welcome to the porch

Sometimes it is the invisible that matters most.

This morning I took notes before this haiku made itself clear to me. I watched a watery, cool morning breeze play with my hair and the leaves of the bushes in front of me as I rock on this front porch, so different from the Alta Vista front porch.

Last night I had a sacred moment, a time of honoring, with a skunk who took cover in the plants beside the porch to the left of where I am sitting now. What a dear one. They skittered when I turned into the driveway, on an emotional high from spending a good chunk of time with the grandbaby where we sang along to Carly Simon, Jackson Browne and danced with the GoGo’s as we sang.

There is almost nothing more precious than a baby shaping her lips to make the just right sound – and being so thrilled with the result her entire body quivers and leaps as a result.

In July I’ll be sharing haiku from exactly where I am because by the time we are complete at the end of the month days, I will also be complete with my braided memoir which tells the story of how haiku saved my life (across 377 days that time!) after I almost died from Valley Fever & Sepsis in Fall, 2019.

Returning and being in a completely different place seemed so glaringly obvious – and just right.

I am so grateful to share this time with you!

Woman (Julie Jordan Scott Julie JordanScott) seeming to burst through a broken wall on an abandoned home.

Julie JordanScott is a Creative Life Coach, an award-winning storyteller, actor and poet whose photos and mixed media art graces the walls of collectors across the United States. Her writing has appeared on the New York Times Best Sellers List, the Amazon best sellers list and on American Greetings Holiday cards (and other greeting cards). She currently lives in a manse in Sussex, NJ, where she is working on finishing her most recent book project, hugging trees daily and enjoys having random inspirational conversations with strangers.

Follow on Instagram to Watch IGTV exclusive videos, stories and posts about writing and the creative process.

Let our Words Flow Writing Community: the only one missing is you! Join us in the Private Writing Group by clicking here.


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Planting the Seeds of Love: Overcoming Resistance to Encourage Growth

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Hands touching rich, dark soil and a young seedling showing a nurturing energy

Early in the day, everyday, I start with writing practice. Today, it led to something rather extraordinary.

I was reminded as a theater director and writing teacher, facilitator and coach, how much I value process work. Sometimes that is where the gold is found even more so than the final product.

Today, I am going to be transparent and bold, sharing with you my process of drafting wrestling with my thoughts through words. What you will read is the question I asked at the end of the “Mining for Writing Gold” process I created and use.

I always end with asking a question of myself and then free flow writing for five minutes. This time, it was longer than five minutes because I knew there was more there for me to explore.

My hope is you find value in witnessing the process. I’m also wondering if you ever enter into loving, open-hearted conversations with yourself? Maybe you view your inner conversations differently. I would love to hear more, hopefully after you gain some gold nuggets from my process.

What are the seedlings – the sprouts – to overcome my struggles that seem so inherently cooked into me?  I can’t see or taste or notice them in me and yet they are there, like a virus or allergen that makes me sick at times.

I find myself wanting to go elsewhere. I want to look up quotes or google something. I don’t want to just sit with the imagery and the question I carefully crafted. I will stay. I will ask myself the question again.

What are the seedlings, bravely pushing through the rocky soil of resistance – the invisible destructive force, not the airy, gracious force I also say is there yet I don’t always act as if that is the case. I stay in the unripened state, the inert, filled with great question that sits in the core of the seed, not yet initiated into the seedling stage.

It is the potent question and the belief there is healing medicine within the answering of the question, the living the question where the seedling grows.

Giving space for the answer to rise – the seedling then, is the question + space + light + nourishment + belief – 

I take my hands away from the keyboard. I am onto something.

I am going to pause for a few moments and re-read, allowing the seedling I have just managed to create to bring more to us, right here right now,

The seedling grows when it is surrounded in love: the air it breathes, the water that brings it nourishment, the space around it is drenched in love. 

Once a coaching client asked me, “What does love mean?” and I had no idea what to answer.

From the perspective of the seedling:

Love is staying with me, not turning away frustrated when you don’t understand what I am trying so hard to tell you.

Love is bringing me your innermost secrets, your uniqueness – not holding back. How can you be afraid of me, a little seedling, when all I want to do is make this world a better place – just like you.

Love is witnessing the people we meet not at the surface, but at their core. Love is seeing the uniqueness of each one and the similarities we share. Honoring the uniqueness and delighting in the connections.

Love is being willing to set down the rushing agenda to be with the mindful agenda where we both find value in mutual restoration.

Second part: how to nourish the medicine within the seedlings as they grow and become stronger?

I went longer than five minutes. 

The second part may come up later. We’ll see.

Woman (Julie Jordan Scott Julie JordanScott) seeming to burst through a broken wall on an abandoned home.

Julie JordanScott is a Creative Life Coach, an award-winning storyteller, actor and poet whose photos and mixed media art graces the walls of collectors across the United States. Her writing has appeared on the New York Times Best Sellers List, the Amazon best sellers list and on American Greetings Holiday cards (and other greeting cards). She currently lives in a manse in Sussex, NJ, where she is working on finishing her most recent book project, hugging trees daily and enjoys having random inspirational conversations with strangers.

Follow on Instagram to Watch IGTV exclusive videos, stories and posts about writing and the creative process.

Let our Words Flow Writing Community: the only one missing is you! Join us in the Private Writing Group by clicking here.

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How to Take One Prompt to Create Multiple Forms of Content

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Woman's profile in a dry, desert setting. Quote from Terry Tempest Williams: "When one woman doesn't speak, other women get hurt."

Writing Prompts help us practice taking the best action, even if it feels risky at first. Practice facing the next similar situation by courageously remembering and in effect rewriting “What happened next.”

Prompt: Have you had a time when you wish you spoke but didn’t and someone got hurt? Share the story.

Two examples:

One friend, I’ll call her Maureen, got fired from a job. Another friend, Frank,  got promoted to Maureen’s job. No one in our friend’s group said anything to Maureen about Frank being promoted after she called Frank.

She called me to ask if I knew Frank got the job. I could hear her disappointment that I didn’t speak up. She was incredulous, “Why didn’t anyone tell me?”

The most common response was we didn’t want to hurt Maureen’s feelings. None of us thought, “Well, maybe Maureen will find out, anyway – and she will discover we didn’t care enough about her to let her know.”

Put the Other Person’s Desire Above Your Discomfort

More than a year later, Frank had more good luck career-wise. I took a deep breath and called Maureen. “I just wanted you to know… in case. I remember the last time…”

Maureen wasn’t upset by Frank’s success and she was grateful I remembered and acted differently than I had in the past. It was worth my discomfort and risk-taking.

New Scenario, Familiar Trauma and Trigger

Last week, my coaching client Sharon had a moment when her heart leaped into her throat and wouldn’t let go. 

She unexpectedly stumbled upon was a disagreement between family members – or rather one family member was mad at another and attempted to drag Sharon in it via a posting on social media.

Internal triggers and memories of years of loneliness and disconnection pulsed each moment Sharon did nothing. The drumming in her ears increased with each moment she did nothing.

Creating a new way out of her panic, she reached out to her closest family member to warn her what she would find the next time she opened her social media account.

“I didn’t want you to be hurt by what was said or how I was implicated in the posting.”

It was risky. It was scary. Yet Sharon felt instinctively it was better to reach out first. The swollen block in her throat diminished, even though for the next day or so she didn’t feel quite right. “How would I feel if I saw that, unprepared for it?”

Terry Tempest Williams wrote, “When one woman doesn’t speak, other women get hurt.”

Be devoted to being the one to prevent other women from getting hurt.

More Writing Prompt Variations to Use:

“When one woman doesn’t speak, other women get hurt.”

Terry Tempest Williams

To create a neutral gender phrasing, simply insert “person” and “people”

Questions:

  1. Have you had a time when you wish you spoke but didn’t and someone got hurt? Share the story.
  2. Have you been hurt when someone didn’t speak up for you when you couldn’t? Tell the story.
  3. What are some things you can do in your life now to build community between yourself and other people?
  4. Lists: Make a list of 1 to 10 things you would like to be forgiven for by someone else.
  5. Make a list of 1 to 10 things for which you would like to forgive other people.
  6. Bonus: Take action. Write a note of forgiveness to one of the people you want to forgive. Write a note of apology and request permission from those you have hurt.

Traditional Writing Prompts:

I remember when I spoke up and….

I remember when I didn’t speak up and….

 # #  # #There are no rights and wrongs as to following the prompts here. There is only showing up for your life and your creativity and using what inspires you to fulfill your dreams, passion and purpose.

Woman hugging a cartoon tree - white with black polka dots

Julie JordanScott is a Creative Life Coach, an award-winning storyteller, actor and poet whose photos and mixed media art graces the walls of collectors across the United States. Her writing has appeared on the New York Times Best Sellers List, the Amazon best sellers list and on American Greetings Holiday cards (and other greeting cards). She currently lives in a manse in Sussex, NJ, where she is working on finishing her most recent book project, hugging trees daily and enjoys having random inspirational conversations with strangers.

Follow on Instagram to Watch IGTV exclusive videos, stories and posts about writing and the creative process.

Let our Words Flow Writing Community: the only one missing is you! Join us in the Private Writing Group by clicking here.

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Messy Still-Life: A Writer’s Life

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A messy writer's desk in early January. A tea cup, pens, collections of nothingness.

I woke up this morning with my alarm greeting me like this:

“It’s a bright sparkly new day”

Since I had a tough time falling asleep it was quite generous of my alarm to remind me it is a bright sparkly day even though it is foggy outside, the day is still ripening and will be sparkly no matter how much of the sun shines through.

Even with a second alarm telling me “You are a miracle!” and I had an hour of joyful writing somewhere around 10:30 I lost my steam. 

I was co-working and committed to optimism so I found and read a poem and brewed some coffee to see if I might settle into a productive groove.

It is four days into the New Year and I consider this stanza of “Poem for the New Year” from WS Merwin. He wrote,

“our hopes such as they are

invisible before us

untouched and still possible”

On the first day of this year, I stood in an empty field and gazed lovingly at sunrise. I was visited by unknown, strange-to-me birds and serenaded by a flock of geese who swooped close by the tops of the trees.

Hope stirred my chest and laughter spilled from hope’s seeds within me.

The thing is, when there has been much sadness and not much sustained hope made into form over the recent seasons, maintaining those feelings from the dawn of the new year isn’t as easy as it might have been in past years.

And it is a sparkly new (about five hours in now) day. I am a miracle, still. As are you, sitting here, reading.

“Cozy jazz” is spilling through the speaker beside me.

Suddenly the fog outside my window no longer feels like an oppressive cage and a smile is now firmly rooted on my face.

A messy still life: a tea cup and saucer filled with coffee, pens, a well used ancient keyboard… notebooks. Suddenly that’s perfectly fine, too. They remind me of Merwin’s poem with my slight revision  “our hopes (and our writing lives) such as they are invisible before us (until we choose to be content with our perfectly imperfect selves)untouched and still possible” (as the words drip from our fingers to the keyboard to the page.)

Woman (Julie Jordan Scott Julie JordanScott) seeming to burst through a broken wall on an abandoned home.

Julie JordanScott is a Creative Life Coach, an award-winning storyteller, actor and poet whose photos and mixed media art graces the walls of collectors across the United States. Her writing has appeared on the New York Times Best Sellers List, the Amazon best sellers list and on American Greetings Holiday cards (and other greeting cards). She currently lives in a manse in Sussex, NJ, where she is working on finishing her most recent book project, hugging trees daily and enjoys having random inspirational conversations with strangers.

Follow on Instagram to Watch IGTV exclusive videos, stories and posts about writing and the creative process.

Let our Words Flow Writing Community: the only one missing is you! Join us in the Private Writing Group by clicking here.

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Tradition: Every Sunrise a New Beginning

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Morning sunrise photo from Northwest New Jersey

My tradition of watching sunrise on New Year’s Day began twenty years ago today. 

On that day it seemed sort of extreme: Mom of little children, cavorting in the earliest light of the sun. Now my babies have (for the most part) flown the coop and sunrise, on New Year’s day, remains.

This was also my first New Year’s Morning in New Jersey since the 1970’s. 

To say sunrise 2023 was phenomenal is an understatement.

This morning I chose to watch sunrise on an open field two miles from where I live in. The field is just east of the intersection of Possum Glen Road and Unionville Avenue in Wantage, NJ.

Tradition calls me to spend at least 20 minutes with the sunrise, admiring the light and walking around the field. I have spent some sunrises in my car, some out and about – but right now, I knew I wanted to be “with” the sunrise, close to it.

2021 New Year’s Image

Dawn is such a beautiful time and as often happens, I wanted to use the experience to coax both my soulful and my creative spirit into creative play. I didn’t remember to bring a notebook, so I decided to take photos and listen and put what I was experience into memory.

At first I basked in birdsong: birdsong I did not recognize. I listened to a bird duet. One would sing and then the other seemed to sing back. I smiled and looked up at my invisible companions.

Far away, I could hear my geese friends but none were visible.

My geese friends have been known to fly by my bedroom window in the early parts of the day, before the roads get busier and the minor hustle and bustle of rural New Jersey begins.

I enjoyed watching as the dark sky got brighter and the sun crested the mountain in front of me.

Sussex Borough is in high country, so there are lots of hills and different heights for the sun to reach up and over. It was a glorious view. I decided to walk to see what I could of the cemetery. At first I didn’t notice there was a path that would lead me there – but once I did, those of you who know me well knew I had to get a closer look. This is not a currently-in-use cemetery, it is a falling apart cemetery I love, deeply.

I walked back toward the field and I noticed tall grasses/flowers past their prime and decided to take a quick video, but at first it was blurry, which lead to more questions.

I wondered how to make the video more clear which lead to a simple experiment.

I poked the screen and immediately there was a clear screen. I laughed and thought about the ephemeral nature of hopes and wishes. Unspoken, I thought, without our breath and intention, clarity stays out of focus. 

I kept hearing the geese but there were none nearby. I wished I could take a video of them, flying but, oh well. I decided I wanted to type what I had noticed into my phone while I stayed in the field with the sun and the weeds and the small invisible birds. 

Naturally as I was halfway through the second sentence of writing into my phone I heard the geese, very close and they kindly gave me enough time to notice and even get my video camera ready to take the video.

I started filming before I could even see them.

Oh, my heart – my heart was beyond words thrilled. I didn’t bubble over in laughter because I was so in shock at the wonder of the view.

“Happy New Year, Goose Friends!” my heart said as they flew in a circle, playfully, no “eeyore thanks for noticing” energy, instead purposeful, connected, “Happy New Year” flock of geese laughter energy. To see the moment, a link to my Instagram Reel:

What a phenomenal New Year’s Morning. So much better than staying in bed, late.

This eccentric tradition directed me to start the morning and the year on my feet, outdoors, blissful, aware, appreciation overflowing. Looking back I wonder if this sunrise love on New Years Day inadvertently spilled into watching so many more sunrises – and even inspired the beginning of my 377 Projects.

Back at the keyboard now, later in the day, my hands are literally buzzing in excitement of the several hours old memory.

Two questions for you to respond in the comments: do you have any unusual traditions?

How did you begin 2023?

May your year be blessed, abundantly.

Julie JordanScott is a Creative Life Coach, an award-winning storyteller, actor and poet whose photos and mixed media art graces the walls of collectors across the United States. Her writing has appeared on the New York Times Best Sellers List, the Amazon best sellers list and on American Greetings Holiday cards (and other greeting cards). She currently lives in a manse in Sussex, NJ, where she is working on finishing her most recent book project, hugging trees daily and enjoys having random inspirational conversations with strangers.

Follow on Instagram to Watch IGTV exclusive videos, stories and posts about writing and the creative process.

Let our Words Flow Writing Community: the only one missing is you! Join us in the Private Writing Group by clicking here.

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