Creative Life Midwife

Inspiring Artistic Rebirth

Fall in Love with Video and Live-Streaming: From Fear to Freedom

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A screen shot from a livestream video reminds me of the early days when I had more fear than freedom with video making and live stream video. Now, I love live streaming and I hope you will, too!

Not long ago I livestreamed every single day, sometimes more than once a day, for four years straight. I loved livestreaming for many reasons: the friendships that were born, the skill set I built, and the access to ‘instant research’ and “rough drafting” of content I was trying out.

I started wondering why I stopped live streaming, especially since I found so much joy there.

Toward the end of Samuel’s senior year, I became overwhelmed stirred up with disappointment, longing, and grief about the end of this significant phase of my life.  

When we dropped him off at  UNLV I started falling into a funk which I didn’t recognize at the time, The life that tumbled around me that season and for the seasons after that gives me a clearer perspective of why I stopped.

October 2019 brought me the gift of Valley Fever, a hospitalization that nearly killed me and the start of a long physical recovery period.

Toward the end of my recovery, the Covid19 pandemic and stay-in-place orders started.

A year and a month later, my friend was murdered. Her funeral was the first large group event I attended. Masked. Sitting with a handful of friends and speaking up for the positive nature of her life.

In the days before my friend’s funeral, my father died.

Immediately after that until last week my siblings and I were immersed both in funeral planning and helping Mom decide where she would most like to live. 

A-ha: Reflection cured the live-streaming and video mystery.

This is why I haven’t been live streaming lately, but what kept coming back to me has been “I always felt better after I livestreamed consistently.”

I also noted my YouTube channel was much less active. I no longer regularly offered even short YouTube videos and rarely checked in with my previously made videos. I have the skills, but the motivation wasn’t there.

It was like my video – love – balloon had deflated so I put up a tentative new video trial balloon in my private Writer’s Facebook group to see if any of my closest creative friends would be interested in gathering to explore video-making in the privacy of the facebook group.

Enough people are interested to give me the energy to do my best. That is what I am promising: only my best. We will be in this together, collaborating and cheerleading and the intention is to enjoy the video making process.

Let’s Transform Video Creation Fear to Freedom to Make Videos Playshop Adventure Challenge

I am still working on dates because I am still traveling back and forth to Arizona and home to help Mom during her transition, but it looks like it will be sometime after July 4th. 

Some of what will be included:

  • Basic skills teaching and practice with coaching and feedback geared for creatives, especially those who write or journal.
  • Foundational clarification of the purpose, mission and reason why participants would like to use video. 
  • Prompts people may use for the videos plus tips on how to take the prompt and relate it back to the participant’s “why” for live-streaming.

It will run for 10 days with 5 prompts and 2 option livestream trains where participants will practice live streaming either in the group or on their own facebook page and we will all join the livestream to support and help one another practice what it is like to have an active, conversational livestream – it helps make it less scary to have friends “in the house.”

I made this short video in 2018 – when I was still going live every day. I look forward to the increased energy and excitement once again.

If you have an interest in participating, head over to the Word-Love Writing Community on Facebook where all the fun will happen. 🙂 

By the way, if your knees are knocking at the thought of this, that’s a good thing. Mine are, too, actually. It will be fun listening to the chorus of our knees knocking like a chorus spread out across videos across the world.

Julie JordanScott is a Creative Life Coach, Writer, Speaker and Mom extraordinaire who loves working with creative entrepreneurs, artists and healers to get their words written on the page, spoken in their videos and shared across social media platforms with confidence. She has learned the power of daily consistency and currently is on day 191 of 377 days of tree hugging!

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Beating Writer’s Block in One Quick Visit to Google Land: Don’t Give Up: There is Even a Video!

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Julie JordanScott is ready to teach about ending writer's block and even having fun while doing it. There is even a video to watch with the same image on it!

I was so excited to sit down at the keyboard today and write: I had a nice, healthy swath of time to write – finally – and I sat down with my keyboard and then – nothing.

So I turned on a podcast, which isn’t smart because language just gets in the way of me creating my own narrative. When I am hearing someone else’s narrative in my ear as I attempt to write myself, nothing happens but itchy discomfort and nothing constructive as far as me creating content.

What listening to language does is moves me to get up and declutter rather than sit down and write.

I could declutter.

It would be smart to declutter but no, I will not declutter.

I wanted to use this rare wide swath of time to write.


I turned to YouTube, my favorite source of instrumental music. I was recommended jazz music, a book club with Simon Sinek, an upcoming livestream so I could become more financially successful or….. Willpower.

I clicked on the Jazz music but before I heard music there was an advertisement meant to take me away from what I wanted to hear: pure musical notes, not more information about conspiracy theorists or anything, please.

Pure musical notes, no matter how mediocre at this point.

Finally, mediocre jazz and from the ends of my fingers to the keyboard. Nothing.

I turned to Charles Bukowski who wrote, “writing about writing block is better than not writing at all.”

Ray Bradbury joins the conversation. He talks about writing everyday and then adds, “Read intensely.”

Does Ray want me to pick up that book I was reading earlier today instead of sitting at the keyboard attempting to write?

Does any woman except Maya Angelou (who I appreciate a lot) have anything to say on the subject?

“Almost all good writings begin with terrible first efforts” so sayeth Anne Lamott. “You need to start somewhere.”

I wasn’t wild about the last book I read by Anne Lamott, but she has written so much I have enjoyed I am entering into a secret pact with her she knows nothing about:

To Anne, I pledge I am going to write five sentences about random topics I find by googling my own name and seeing what comes after…Julie is…..1

  1. “Julie is her name.” (From a singer named Julie London who I have never heard of until just now.)

My parents named me Julie after careful consideration of other names such as Joanne, Jill and maybe Jane – they were concerned, after all, that I might get teased for the combination of “Julie Jordan.” I didn’t get teased but I did endure many teachers singing to me on the first day of school with me acting as if I had never heard that song with my name in it ever before.”

  • “Julie is underappreciated.” From Urban Dictionary.

When someone finally notices you are uniquely fabulous, you don’t stop to google them or ask for a reference check, or interview them about their political or religious views but perhaps I should have on that fateful day I met you-know-who.

  • Julie was the first child Kelly and Delaney met at their first Kidsave event.

I don’t believe in happy endings.

  • Julie passed away peacefully at her home on Monday morning, April 6, 2020, surrounded by her loving family.

See what I mean? A woman with my name but seven years younger than I am died a few weeks ago leaving her husband named Kenneth and three children.

  • “Julie is a popular French first name which is originally derived from the Latin Julia that could mean youthful, soft-haired, gorgeous or vivacious.”

From this Julie is… I would prefer the latter two meanings, especially if “known to be wise, intuitive and inciteful” was included in the mix.

What I noticed, however, in finding five different paths to take with my writing I actually found more: I could take most of these branches of words and write at least two or three different beginnings and an infinite number of endings.

Next time you have nothing to write about, google your name and “is” – take the first couple and then scroll until you find something you find slightly appealing or even vaguely appealing with the smallest bit of tweaking.

At first glance, the obituary felt oddly familiar given the names and number of children but from the other Julie’s life, I could go very deeply into my own experiences.

The “I don’t believe in happy endings” was visceral. I will pick that up and run with it.

If your name was Julie, which of these five would you write from first?

I challenge you at some point in the next five days to google “your first name is” and use at least one of them as a writing prompt.

Now I want to nap. That was invigorating and tiring.

Please let me know how it goes – and watch the video if you would like to see some of how my inner process works when it isn’t just written on the page. 🙂

If your name was Julie, which of these five would you write from first?

I challenge you at some point in the next five days to google “your first name is” and use at least one of them as a writing prompt.

Now I want to nap. That was invigorating and tiring.

Creative Life Midwife: WRiter, Speaker, Mom, Artist.... and owner of this blog/website.

Julie JordanScott has been writing since before she was literate by dictating her thoughts to her mother and then copying in thick crayons onto construction paper. She was a pioneer in epublishing and continues to reach readers through her blog, best selling books, greeting cards and her essays and poems in anthologies. Join her for one of her upcoming #5for5BrainDump programs or an upcoming writing circle or writing for social media programs.

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Speaking of Trees: How Listening Like a Tree May Make You More Human

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When we talk of trees, we honor several qualities our human friends might not understand or apply quite so readily.

We honor quiet listening, listening like the tree listens.  

When we listen like this we listen without giving advice. We give complete permission for the other to speak, just say whatever is longing to be said.

When we listen as trees, we aren’t thinking “Do I believe the same things? Do I agree with what she is saying? How can I argue with their point in order to make them agree with me?”

The tree does none of that. The tree isn’t planning to speak when it is her turn. She isn’t being dismissive because our opinions differ. 

The tree stands beside us, patiently, without judgment, without rushing in to offer “magic bullet” or the latest hack or portion that will be what finally convinces because the tree recognizes it is connection, rather than convincing, that allows us to grow and flourish.

When we listen as the tree listens, we honor shadow – which sometimes makes the living more comfortable when it is too warm in direct sun though at other times, we may become downright chilly in the shadows. In those moments we may choose to step back into the sun.

The tree stands and offers us to gain comfort in her shadow and learn to relate differently to the shadows we bring with us. She reminds us sometimes it is cold in the shadow and the sunshine brings warmth. This doesn’t make shadow wrong, it just makes the shadow different than the direct light. 

Sometimes in the shadow we fuss and squirm and sometimes we stay dryer and warmer because of her shadow-protection.

The tree teaches us to honor shadow.

When we listen like the tree we honor rootedness – staying in place – without wishing, wanting or moving to another destination.

We learn from the tree to  honor rootedness – staying in place – without wishing, wanting or moving to another destination. It feels so good when we stand, rooted, with the tree and allow ourselves to lift up with our arms – exposing our heart and giving our face to the sky to be kissed.

Can you feel the hugging back when you do that, when you stay delightedly in place?

I feel so full and rich and treasured when I allow myself to fully understand what it means to feel this rooted, this grounded – as I’ve discovered my place and space in the world. 

Do you have a tree you especially admire or enjoy? 

Stand with the tree, or stand with me, right now – under this tree.

Breathe with the tree.

Quietly allow the tree’s presence it’s due attention.

Return to your notebook or keyboard and allow the words to flow from your fingertips. Yield your stuff – the gunk and the muck and the sticky repetitive thougths – in honor of the tree.

Write a thank you note to the tree you most admire. See if you may craft your gratitudes into a poem.

Inspired by the Poem What Kind of Times Are These by Adrienne Rich.

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Listen to Me: You are Exactly What the World Needs Right Now

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One day more than six years ago I sat to write for five minutes on a Sunday morning. I wrote of this belief I had then which I still have now: my writing was created  stream of consciousness style.

I used a prompt based on something from Ralph Waldo Emerson which I translated to this:

You are exactly what the world needs right now: exactly as you are right now.

I wrote for five minutes and when I was done, I sought approval, I needed approval, I was hungry for it.

One difference between the me then and the me now is the me now no longer expects approval. I assume no one will approve or even notice I wrote. This does not mean I don’t want approval. In fact, I have been known to opt out of experiences if I don’t feel included. I’ll just pick up my metaphorical marbles and go home and find someone else who seems to appreciate me.

Both of these facts: the not expecting response and the retreating from experience when I have felt slighted, illustrate my floundering trust in the now much less in the future.

I wonder if that is true for you, too, which is why it bears repeating… and repeating… and repeating….You are exactly what the world needs right now: exactly as you are right now.

I have somehow left my optimism elsewhere and am instead freshly coated with a fresh dose of cynicism. It’s gotten worse this year than I ever thought it would. It seems like our whole society has caught the “snarky” malaise, the angry bickering competitive ugly-ness I have always veered away from and until now have never looked back.

This malaise is detrimental to my health.

Yet here I sit in my dark and quiet living room feeling pangs of hope again.

I love my six-years-ago self. She had so much hope, was so naive even though she had so much pain in her not-so-distant past. Enough of her still reigns in me that I feel another slight tug of optimism.

I won’t assume you will want to read, but it isn’t horrible: i’m not embarrassed about what I wrote. It might even invite a thought my current me wouldn’t think to ask anymore. Maybe it is time for me to intentionally step back into those shoes and slightly less frown-face assumptions. So 2017 readers, meet 2011 Julie.

Note: I wrote one version of this and then my computer ate it. Frustrated anyone? Early on a Sunday morning when my son is hovering like a hawk, waiting for me to take him to one of the city pools which doesn’t open for another ninety minutes when I would much rather be plunked on the porch with my laptop, writing my heart on the page?
So – using my prompt… “You are exactly what the world needs right now: exactly as you are right now.” the 5 minutes may begin…

I wrote this very sincerely and I believe it earnestly yet somehow in between all that rah-rah believe me when I say this thought and love coated eye contact with word-love I heard Billy Joel crooning away, “I love you just the way you are” and my college friends snickering, “So, Billy doesn’t want his woman to improve… would rather keep her in her place so no one else will be attracted to her ever-getting-better nature.”

Now these were the days when Christie Brinkley was either married to Billy Joel or at least involved with him, so I remember raising my eyebrows thinking, “Most men would love Christie Brinkley just the way she is, too… absolutely gorgeous and perfect physically.” but I digress yet stay right on course.

The challenge to women (and perhaps men as well) today is we don’t think “as we are” is just right.

Instead, we buy into the cultural, societal notion that we are never good enough. We are always ten pounds from love or this orthat degree away from that job and one or twenty friends short of popular and if we did this or took that course or prescribed to this wonder pill, all would begin to brighten when in reality – if we changed our perspective and our thinking we would realize we ARE exactly what someone needs right now.

Our stories, our experiences, our listening ear, our chocolate chip cookies or hands to help a friend declutter or hold a crying-almost-complete-stranger – you are exactly what someone in this world is waiting for at this precise moment.

Not the next job you.

Not the next house or apartment you.

Not the skinnier or bigger breasted or more educated you.

This exact here and now you.

You are exactly what the world needs right now: exactly as you are right now.

I am writing this while sitting on my sofa in my messy living room. I haven’t taken a shower yet and my hair needs to be touched up. Badly. Yet I sit and write for five minutes (and then this second five after the computer ate my words) because I firmly believe…

I am exactly what the world needs right now, exactly as I am, right now.

Say it now, with me...I am exactly what the world needs right now, exactly as I am, right now.

And the timer went off and I said, very excitedly in my 2011 version me….. There! Ta-Da!

Let me know, please… anything you are thinking after reading these words hot off the tips of my fingers with no editing allowed.

I think the 2011 version of me was onto something very, very good.

I am exactly what the world needs right now, exactly as I am, right now.

You are exactly what the world needs right now, exactly as you are, right now.

We are exactly what the world needs right now, exactly as we are, right now.

= = = = =

Julie Jordan Scott inspires people to experience artistic rebirth via her programs, playshops, books, performances and simply being herself out in the world.  She is a writer, creative life coach, speaker, performance poet, Mommy-extraordinaire and mixed media artist whose Writing Camps and Writing Playgrounds permanently transform people’s creative lives. Watch for the announcement of new programs coming in soon!

To contact Julie to schedule a Writing or Creative Life Coaching Session, call or text her at 661.444.2735.

Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.

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