Creative Life Midwife

Inspiring Artistic Rebirth

Archives for September 2017

For the Love of Lists: Gratitude, To-Do’s, Ta-Da’s & Passionate Possibilities

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Yesterday I had a chat with one of my friends about how to use the writing prompts in the Word-Love Writing Community and I thought it might be helpful to many if instead of just throwing writing prompts out here, I would talk about how I use them, then use them, and then use them differently.

We’ll start with lists. I have had a longtime love affair with lists.

On a recent visit to Quora.com a web visitor wanted to know:

How powerful is writing to do lists and gratitude lists every day?

For a long time I worked from “To Do” lists which I called “Passionate Possibility Lists” and often times, in my normal rebellion against the linear, would create attractive looking not-too-listy-lists.

I find lists quite handy, actually, and have come up with a couple methods that serve me well.

Starting and ending the day with gratitude is very potent because of the energy thanksgiving brings with it. When you purposefully take note of the goodness and beauty and happy moments, it shifts your attitude.

When you have a to-do that isn’t as pleasant, if you’ve started the day with gratitude – it lifts the attitude enough (most of the time) to begin to get seemingly unpleasant tasks done.

I have also worked from a “Ta-Da!” list which catalogs my accomplishments throughout the day. As a busy entrepreneurial mom, there are often tasks that pop up and I efficiently get them done, but other priorities are left undone.

If I was legalistic about my progress, I would punish myself or slog myself with negative self talk. If I use a “Ta-Da!” list I am able to celebrate what actually took place. I congratulate instead of criticize myself and I can see patterns in my behavior and use what actually happens as a metric to create my lists differently.

Most recently, I create a list of 5 tasks to complete the next day before my work day is over. I add a bonus item for best wishes and save it for the next day. I often review it as I write my end of the day gratitude list.

What happens as a result is I am getting more done, more efficiently and with a batter attitude.

I’ll take those results anyday!

Take a mini retreat in the canyon, perhaps… or in a local park.

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. Sign up now for her October 5 Day Writing Intensive Program – 

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The Why it Happened or the Reason Isn’t What Matters, Responding Now is What Matters: Write What You Need to Say

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I realized something today, something somewhat simple – well, absolutely simple actually. I’m sort of embarrassed to even say it AND I realize in saying it there is power so here goes.

I have spent far too much time looking at who I was “before” rather than being present with who I am right now – and how the who I am right now is far more valuable to the world right now than who I was then.

Ten years ago I had a domino effect of horrible, lifetime movie inspiring themes take place within a matter of months and they effectively shattered me. I was crushed, defeated and fell to my knees with my face hitting the ground in one of those slo-mo fight scene sort of ways.

I attempted to get up and didn’t. And repeat. And repeat. And probably repeated again in that I got distracted and then I got scared and then I got scared of the distraction and while I could still talk a good game and though I kept writing, I didn’t keep taking action that made my work profitable – certainly not at a sustainable level and not as it was ten years prior.

I felt hopelessly stuck.

I talked about it in therapy and got lost in more fear, more breakthroughs but still not forward progress toward sustainable work.

This year my life took another hit and if I didn’t make changes I couldn’t feed my kids kind of crisis I knew something had to give and I fell into yet deeper depression, this worse (if there is such a thing) than I did ten years ago.

Perhaps worst of all is I managed to slowly drip away all sheds of optimism I once carried, so I couldn’t look to light anymore because I couldn’t see light anymore.

About two months ago I called the mental health crisis hotline a couple times, just needing to have the comforting feeling that someone cared about me because I had found my way back into the space where I didn’t want to trouble people in my immediate circles with the depths of my depression and I doubted they cared or if they did care, I doubted they had the resources or the patience to deal with me.

Last Thursday my new therapist asked “What caused you the most pain in the last ten years?” or something like that and I was “struck dumb” as the saying goes in that I couldn’t speak.

It was like a noose was around my neck, pulling tighter and tighter and the pain from my throat became increasingly unbearable with the gravity of the question and my inability to point to one thing immediately just that the question hurt too much to respond to and I didn’t want to start talking because I might start crying and not be able to stop and I am just. so. tired. of. crying.

Odd thing is I’ve been slowly feeling better.

I can’t point to a why or an a-ha moment or a medicine or a new diet or exercise routine. I have been broadcasting daily, I have been communicating with people and leading #5for5BrainDump and I even have a schedule and some pay-to-play programs scheduled which people are interested in taking with me.

I’ve been writing for about ten minutes now. Haven’t edited but my timer went off and I kept going. I know it is best if I stop and come back so I think I will do that, after I re-read and come up with some “moral to this story.”

I’ll just wrap back around to where I started.

I realized today I need to stop looking back at that ten-years-ago story. It is a chapter, it isn’t the whole story. What I am doing now is finally getting up, finally shaking the mud off my face and realizing the mud has kept me safe to a certain extent.

I could talk about my cancer or other such chatter and I won’t, except for what I just said.

Now, and the actions I take in it, are what matters. Being charming, silly, passionate, pull-out-the-soapbox-whenever-the-right-mood-strikes-me JJS is what matters.

Some people will think this writing is self- indulgent and silly. I believe it is helpful to whomever has read to the end. It isn’t for me to judge, it is just for me to hit publish. Which I’m doing 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.

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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Inspired by Equinox: Poetry and Writing Prompts Lives Again

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My original livestream periscope show, writing and poetry prompts in the park is being revived. It may not always be in parks AND it will always be poetry, curated by me, and offered to you with prompts to guide your creative process.

Our first broadcast will have a series of Autumn Themed Poems – this prompt came from the poem “Equimox” by Elizabeth Alexander. You may find it on the Poetry Foundation Website here: Equinox by Elizabeth Alexander:

The Broadcast may be enjoyed below with my written response to the prompt below it:

Now is the time of year when I feel free to settle into my recliner and write, ignoring everything else. We cocoon and it’s cool. We cover up with scarves and softness. We have permission.

I have permission. I cocoon and it’s cool. I can hide in my Virginia Woolf room and leave the loudness of shouts about football and politics to others. Bring me in a plate of warm cookies and mocha and I’m happy for hours.

This is the time of year when I’ve had repeated illness and periods of letting go, usually together like companions in stopping the thread of what ceases to serve when this time of year rolls around.

This is the time of year I got married long ago and Katherine is getting married soon.

This is the time of year I got back up on stage, the time of year I watched a General Assembly general session, grieved more than one election, never had a child. Interesting: this is the season of “No Birth” and “No Death” just illness and letting go. Interesting.
Now is the time of year for putting on costumes and taking off metaphorical masks.

See the words with pluses? These are all words I could use for “pulling apart” in my mother’s sewing (actually preparing to sew) her least favorite part of the process.

Now is the time of year for blank paper and canvas, research rituals and learning anew. Stepping back into the classroom, delighting in connections found there, forgetting things and being forgiven for the forgetting.

Usually.

And letting go of those who don’t understand grace. And that’s ok, too – because that’s what grace is, right?

This feels like the longest five minutes on record and my timer says… “Recollection is over!”

= = =

Sometimes it feels like our brain dump goes on too long but when I keep writing I discover the juicy stuff is right there…. on the otherside of my opinion!

= = –

#5for5BrainDump has a new challenge starting next week if you’re up for it check it out now at our companion website:

#5for5BrainDump – YAY!

Coming Up: 30 Days of Writing Passionately

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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Darkness: Courage & Being Open to What’s Best

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“In order for the moonflower to completely open, it has to bathe in darkness. I am not a big fan of the dark. It scares me. Still. Yet I cannot walk by this flower without bowing to it, without putting my face close to its opened-by-the-dark heart.”

I am intimidated at cataloguing times of darkness because not only am I afraid of the dark, I am afraid of stacking up towers of memory that threaten me. Sometimes I feel like my life has been either a long, disappointing not-happily-ending-lifetime movie or actually series of movies because I have so many dark days it is almost comical.

Like my new-still-in-therapy-probation-therapist said, “You are interested in too many things” maybe it is the unprocessed darkness soup I have on my metaphorical stove. Maybe that is it.

Maybe I have never bathed in the separate flavors of darkness soup so they haven’t been able to turn into stepping stones I may rise above so the suction moves me instead into infinitely hellacious quicksand, which I’ve learned doesn’t actually exist in the way we might think it does.

And I edit myself.

I stop myself thinking “Julie, you want to publish this and right now you are sounding more than a little ridiculous. I know Beth the dog is wandering about and I hear the sweet little chirping bird and you, in this downward spiraling rant, are sounding like…. A fire engine rumbling on your front porch without any specific fire to put out but it can smell the smoke, continually, always looking threatening so it just sits there, rumbling, doesn’t even have the siren on.”

My timer goes off signifying I’ve been attempting to make some semblance of form from this dark amorphous blob and it’s time to stop.

Even in this gobbled gook I see threads I may return to for clarity: the darkness soup turned into stepping stone soup. The fire truck, loudly idling. Lots of smoke, no seemingly productive fire.

Do you see anything else of merit I might write my way into more deeply from what I’ve written here?

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Goal Playing: Let’s Make Reaching Our Goals More Fun (and Productive!)

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There is a tendency to forget we have the capacity to make nearly anything and everything fun. Note to self: remember to make this fun and share that giddy, goofy, get-it-done energy with others.

I realized somewhere along my journey of today that I create and reach towards goals much like a child bounces a ball against
the school yard pavement or a child-artist moves her paintbrush freely on a canvas.

I create goals and step into goals because I find it to be great fun.

In my life coaching work I have often suggested to my clients, “Ahh, just throw some spaghetti against the wall. Go ahead, try that out – it isn’t going to hurt anything! And besides, the process itself can be darn funny. Try it… shush, stop your hesitating and just
throw spaghetti!”

This has been so much a part of me that I didn’t even see the uniqueness in my approach.

I like setting wacky goals alongside my serious, world changing goals. You know. just for fun, not for anything else but the sheer joy of creating them and then inviting other “kids” to play along.

I can easily get into the zone when I am being childlike.

Am I possessed or obsessed? No, I am playful.

I am being the otter, sliding around the water, barking and clapping my hands.

I am the monkey, swinging from the branches, hopping over to my friend and running my hands through her fur coat, inviting her to swing with me.

I am the preschooler, carrying toy kitchen accessories around the room, delegating roles, “I am the Mommy, you are the daddy, you are the sister, the brother, the other sister, and you are the puppy” and when the other sister would rather be the Aunt Millie, I shrug, and smile and ok and when the puppy gets bored and wants to build with blocks, I smile and wave her away to go have fun doing something else.

No attachment, no worry, no hurt feelings, no drama or added meaning.

To me my goals provide crystal clear, joy-filled play.

Here’s a surprise – for some of you.

Our world changing, deeply serious goals may be brought into reality more quickly and effectively if we play with them first.

Seriously play.

Natalie Angier wrote “along with love and a good joke, playfulness seems like something that should not be explained, a brilliant splash of animated joy so sheerly pleasurable to watch and engage in that it is its own justification.”

To me, goal creation, goal reaching, goal tweaking and goal realization fit those words perfectly.

How about you – want to come along with me? Want to wrap yourself up in a costume of choice as we create something engaging and fun?

Come on, you know you do.

I can see that shy or sly grin crossing your face. See my ball, bouncing its way towards you?

Reach for it – your goal, my goal – unattached, joy-filled, possible, passionate.

So glad you are here, playing, creating, being with me right now.

Listen for a little while longer for the specific steps to make the biggest difference for you.

It would be so easy to stick our fingers in our ears and sing so we wouldn’t “hear” the prompting of goals, to-do’sa. What if we were deaf to the forward movement required to bring to life our intentions, dreams, vision, mission, whatever-title-you-choose-to-name-that-‘thing’-that-pulls-you-forward.

This may be a day when you have several “must-do’s” on your agenda, like my friend Shirley did when other people’s request piled up and fun didn’t feel at all possible.

This is a good chance to invoke the Heart/Mind/Goal Game Drizzle.

Even when Shirley was babysitting her grandson at 9 for a couple hours or so, meeting her friends for a play at 6:30ish depending upon the needs of the rest of her family she could make it fun and productive with minimal effort.

Why? Because none of these tasks interfered with her brain/heart drizzle, a fun companion activity to stir up that day or any day.
One of the grand things about this plan is I don’t have to complete it today and if I somehow slip up, I can return at any time on any day and claim a do-over and simply begin again. I can’t think of anything that soothes me more to know right now.

Here’s how the Drizzle Works:

1. Close your eyes and put your right hand over your heart.

2. Take a couple nice deep breaths, focused on clearing out any traces of negativity you may be feeling.

3. With your eyes closed and your negativity cleared, ask yourself silently, “What would be the best choices for me to make this month in order to reach my goals (be a good mother, make the world a better place, contribute to my community, get into better shape, put whichever fits the best for you here.)?

4. Allow yourself to continue to breathe in silence for even just 15 seconds.

5. Go about your day and when you think of it, repeat the question either silently or aloud.

6. Be aware of any thoughts that come into your awareness throughout the day that relate back to your initial question. To make this step extra fun, I’ve been known to actually shout-out “Thank you!” which made my children laugh when they were little. Now it makes me laugh with me.

7. At night, sit with your notebook or a big sheet of paper and write or doodle whatever comes up without pre-thinking or forcing it, just ask the question again and let yourself go onto the paper.

8. Let the continued questioning and heart opening and playful energy drizzle your loving, playful plan into being without effort, without angst and with heaps of joyful celebration.

9. Repeat these steps for up to three days to create a firm foundation for your goals (or whatever you want to name them) for your next week, month or quarter.

Shirley devised a life changing plan the last time she took on the Heart-Mind-Drizzle Goal Play. Now it’s your turn.

I help people – mostly creative entrepreneurs or those who hope to become creative entrepreuneurs, like Shirley and life you – to end writers blocks and barriers to communication by providing methods and means to allow their words to flow, finally, freely and without judgment.

We then take that they’ve written by using the #5for5BrainDump method I created – writing a mere five minutes a day for five days a week – to become a “something” tangible. It might be an article or blog post or a poem or a chapter of a book or a screenplay or a sales letter. It might be a Ted Talk or a way to start a conversation with a lover or a business partner. It might just be what it is – a stream of consciousness ramble that eventually morphs into a bridge to that place the writer has always dreamed of being but she didn’t know ever existed so she was unable to put it into words until… she did.

We continue to build on this “something” together either with me one-on-one or in a larger community of creative entrepreneurs – and in time, a new Creative Life is born.

The people who work with me, these creative entrepreneurs, discover a place where they fit in and are appreciated. It is so fun to watch the smiles spread across their faces and their words to rain in gusty storms like monsoons and sometimes just a slow, sweet mist… and at times… the sunshine takes over and we rest and bask in it.

Sometimes what we start with is not at all what we eventually create, but this new Creative Life – and the way it feels, remains strong and firm and delectable.

Each one uniquely quirky, each one jagged and smooth, whole hearted and angry – content, happy-sad, morbid and silly.

Light and dark and back and forth again.

All of this written from a prompt from a blog post I wrote in 2007 in a time of deep sadness:

“In order for the moonflower to completely open, it has to bathe in darkness. I am not a big fan of the dark. It scares me. Still. Yet I can not walk by this flower without bowing to it, without putting my face close to its opened-by-the-dark heart.”

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 soon.

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

  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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Writing Prompt: Today I am Choosing….

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Our writing prompt today offers a choice in perspectives. To get your subconscious mind started, consider and respond via comment your initial “gut/heart” response to “Today, I am choosing….. “

As you write for five minutes, allow the opposite or different its space if it enters into your writing. This is a part of “righting” your beliefs and experiences. For “righting” practice, try, “I once chose lack and what I discovered was…..” and as you complete each sentence add, “I now consciously choose abundance.”

Here is what I wrote during my time of 5 minutes of free flow writing we call #5for5BrainDump:

Today I am choosing abundance. I look out my window and I see the early morning slanted light, curling its finger at me, inviting me into a day of lush color and form. I once chose lack and what I discovered was black, white and grey scale. I discovered nit picking and rock throwing and finger poking. I now consciously choose abundance. I don’t choose airy-fairy outside reality abundance, I see abundance in the times of mishaps as well – there is something about the dappled shadow-light I especially love.

I grant myself permission to make mistakes when I choose abundance. In fact, it isn’t even a right or wrong thing when I choose abundance it is a “hmmm. Check this out” kind of thing. In fact, I often feel wobbly when I choose abundance because I am practicing the creation of new more empowering beliefs to build my life upon rather than the oft times destructive nature of lack. Lack architecture has building blocks of “don’t do,” and “can’t do” and “oh my gosh, you’re such an embarrassment.”

Abundance architecture is built upon beams of playful experimentation, hugs of compassion when setback appear, deep eye contact and laughter based in love, not lack’s chosen companion of humiliation.

Today I am choosing abundance. I am choosing to agree with divine favor. I am choosing to be open to what comes and discern as I lift my foot and put it down.

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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End Writer’s Block by Promising Myself Rewards? (Is it working well?)

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Today I am earning a cup of coffee by writing about what I don’t want to write about.

Perhaps this is the little known secret for ending writer’s block: withhold coffee (or chocolate, or sex, or whatever a person likes best) until the first 750 words are written.

What do you think?

I could easily follow this tangent.and.I.won’t.because. I am supposed to be writing:

  • About walking down 19th St with Josh last night about the early days before and after Samuel’s diagnosis.
  • About seeing an educrat last night who long ago insisted it was bad mothering causing Samuel’s behaviors (which were so obviously spectrum anyone with any ounce of knowledge should have known.)
  • Putting myself back in my 2007 shoes – finding the gap of July 31 to October 23 without a blog post. Unheard of in that era. Most eras of my life actually.

My last blog words on July 31, 2007 were “In order for the moonflower to completely open, it has to bathe in darkness. I am not a big fan of the dark. It scares me. Still. Yet I can not walk by this flower without bowing to it, without putting my face close to its opened-by-the-dark heart.”

I must have had the notion the darkness was behind me: my brother had died and I was doing ok with that – only light on the horizon, right?

Blog Silence for all of August. All of September. All of.

Darkness. I bow to it, putting my face closer to the flower that is poison and only opens in the dark.

(My timer goes off. My five minutes are up. I am angry. Now I get to drink my coffee. All will be ok.)

= = =

To review my history in words, visit:

My final blog post before Samuel’s diagnosis:

My nebulous return, including a country western tune for good measure.

 

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. 

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Sometimes There are Topics You Just Don’t Feel Like Talking About. Thank you. No, not that please.

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This 5 minute brain dump… was like the veins in my arm is to a needle. My veins roll and don’t want to submit to the needle. These finicky veins protect me from bleeding AND are problematic.

As always, when I just hold tight to the topic while simultaneously releasing attachment to writing in any particular way, the flow started. Sort of. I’ll be back AND for now, thought it was more important to show the process than worry about perfection.

There is something parents with special needs children often refrain from discussing.

(Can you feel the tightness in my language there? The holding-close of my words? The self-protection?

Grief is not something people usually seek out. It is not like the new car everyone wants or the fancy new phone from Apple or even a new outfit or daytrip.

Grief, in fact, is something we avoid at all costs, so when your child is diagnosed with autism or spina bifida or a learning disability, we would rather pretend we didn’t hear what we were told. We would rather pretend we never noticed anything different about our little one, the one whose life is indelibly connected to ours.

Years ago I worked for county mental health, primarily with people diagnosed with schizophrenia or other severe diagnoses. What many don’t know is the onset of these illnesses is usually somewhere in late adolescence or early adulthood so the individual is “normal” for childhood and high school and then – suddenly, they are not.

I wondered what it would be like to think you have a perfect child only to discover your perfect child has a disease you can’t fix – you may treat it, but you can’t fix it with all your best Mama-Love juju. It won’t seem to matter.

At the times after Samuel’s diagnosis with autism when he was six-years-old I felt some of what I had contemplated although he was much younger.

Even writing this causes me to hesitate. In these first five minutes, I can’t break that barrier in not wanting to talk about “it” – feels like a combination of betrayal, not wanting to step back into those now too tight “shoes” and worry I will somehow offend someone with my thoughts or observations.

If I was my creativity coaching client, I would give myself a time out. “Set your writing aside and come back soon. Don’t leave it completely. Leave it open and come back soon.”

So that’s what I’ll do today.

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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Even If “The” Writing Prompt Isn’t Working, Keep Moving Your Pencil (Or Fingers on the Keyboard) Anyway

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Sometimes writing prompts get you nowhere. This is a reality those of us who write prompts oftentimes don’t want to confess. We think if people are stuck and our writing prompts haven’t moved them on, we’ve somehow failed them. We’ve failed at our life work.

As a writer of prompts, I feel very guilty when folks’ words stagnate from my suggestion. I open the word-love valve wider but still nothing happens.

Here’s the thing: I wrote a prompt and avoided it for three days.

When I finally wrote to it in a #5for5BrainDump the first go-around was good, but I knew I had to go deeper. I know I needed more time, more writing moments.

I tried to take on Jack Kerouac’s quote again… and wrote tangentially. I was supposed to be writing about being amazed by myself and here’s what came off the ends of my fingers, tapping on the keyboard in 5 minutes.

We were sitting in a circle together: about eight of us. I didn’t know any of them very well – it was a circle of women who knew each other by face if not by name. We had a common interest though not much else.

I’ll take responsibility for suggesting we all introduce ourselves but I wasn’t expecting each lady to leap into a snippet of her personal story.  The thing is, everyone was entranced.

I was nervous though because people were starting, generally, with their names and their employers their geography. They were sharing quantity of kids and ages of kids and I just for once did not want to bring my kids into the equation for once. I am at the end of their collective childhoods and part of the letting go is to stop using them as a mold for my identity.

I don’t have a normal employer or a normal geography.

We were sitting in a place owned by a specific political party, which I am not a part of.

I was squirming and uncomfortable in my seat because I felt 100% cast off and wrong and wondered for a moment if I could just escape somehow before I had to confess I was so different than everyone else and they might not want to have me around anymore if they knew the truth about me.

I don’t know how I started. I don’t know how I finished. I do know I talked for what I felt was too long and I apologized for rambling.

But no one chased me away. No one seemed to look down their noses at me. I did mention I didn’t really understand intersectionality even though I live it. I did mention I had a deep respect for Palestine and immediately worried I might offend any Jewish people in the room including a woman I hoped would be my friend.

After all was said and done and we were back in our homes, one of the women wrote in the facebook group her favorite part of our meeting that day was the sharing of stories.

Rambling. Over excited. Laughter. Connections. Memories.

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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Remember Yourself with Awe and Amazement: Let’s Write #5for5BrainDump Style Together

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It took me a few days to warm up to this prompt. Seriously, I wanted/didn’t want to write to it and when I finally got down to business with it…. I… well, I’ll let the #5for5BrainDump process tell the story.

Here is a less-than-60 second video of the prompt – some photos are mine and some are from the Lumen5.com very smart process…

And now, written in 5 minutes is my first crack at this prompt. These are, for the most part, stories that are familiar to me. What is more valuable to me is the work beneath these fairly obvious answers.

I want to honor myself and YOU by sharing here. I’m considering this the “Bonus” you’ll see in the prompt itself.

It has taken me three days to even attempt to write on this prompt, not because… well, I am tired of excuses.

When I set my timer just now, salt licked my eyes. Tears – unspent and afraid yet begging me to release them.

So I procrastinate further by drinking coffee and I wonder what I possibly have to be amazed about so I step out of my head and into my heart and will ask myself to begin a list without worrying about how many times I may or may not have been amazed at myself.

  1. I gave birth four times without pain medicine. One time, my first, in a car as it barreled down the freeway. My daughter didn’t survive that birth. She had probably died the day before.
  2. I climbed a 44 foot rock climbing wall at the conclusion of my life coaching training primarily to prove to my trainer that anything was possible. He had told me I couldn’t possibly have 16 life coaching clients so quickly. “But I do,” I told him. His disbelief has messed with my head off and on since but I will always have the victorious climb no one – including myself – thought I could do.
  3. I have couch surfed across the US.
  4. I quit my comfy cushy job and have lived comfortably and uncomfortably ever since.
  5. Somehow when I had melanoma I attracted a surgeon who would give me a heart shaped scar to wear on my face until I die. People have commented, “Only you would actually have a heart shaped scar… which fits you perfectly.”
  6. I returned to acting after a 30 year hiatus. Hi-jinx from that episode include running through Oildale without a shirt on embarrassing my children to no end. What amazed me is…. How focused I was on what the director wanted from me. I love when my acting is so director-actor-collaboration that everything else disappears. I love that. I want more of that. I had a taste of that last Summer when I made a film with Inclusion and a butterfly appeared on set. See #1.
  7. I have won every storytelling competition I’ve joined. I need to join more that I hope not to win so that I may continue to become better. Make that a goal – to be amazed at not winning.
  8.  (is yet to come)

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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