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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How to Use Simple Writing Warm Ups: 5 Easy Ideas to Try Now

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Musicians and athletes understand what some writers don’t understand. Before musicians do their primary work – singing that intense musical piece or performing before an audience or before an athlete runs (or swims or bikes or walks)  the race, one must warm up one’s “instrument” the voice or the body.

The same is true with writing.

It is a rare case when the first words we write are the best of what we write. 

Why should a writer use writing warm ups?

Consider the writing warm-up as an “on-ramp” to the rest of your writing. We have to get onto the on-ramp in order to build up speed for driving on the highway and getting to our next destination. 

Writing Warm Ups Allow Us To…

  • Reconnect with previous writing
  • Get focused on the task, mission or purpose of each particular writing session.
  • Provide a “Starting Point” that is better or more clear than the confusion when the writing session begins. 
  • Stretch our “writing muscles”. Playing with words that we aren’t attached to being good or right or perfect helps our later words improve.
  • Experiment: make your warm up into a game you may use to try new and unexpected things. You may find these experiments turn into some of your best ideas of all. If you didn’t do warm ups, you would have no space for such frivolity.

Writer Lindsay Price said, “I use warm ups especially when I don’t feel like writing. Instead of walking away from my desk, I do an exercise. Nine times out of ten by the time I’m done my warm up, I’ve changed my tune.”

How do writing warm ups work?

As I started writing this, for example, I was reminded of a test taking strategy that always resulted in a better grade: I would read the entire exam before I made a single mark on it.

Why?

If I knew the answers to the questions, there would be no problem in quickly checking those off, but for the questions that were tricky, it gave my subconscious mind a chance to “find the answer for me”. By the time I had zipped through the easy questions I knew I had right, my brain had warmed up to take on the more difficult questions.

In case you are not sure about how a writing warm-up may help you, I invite you to do a writing experiment using warm up exercises.

Challenge: Experiment and play to see how writing warm ups work best for you

Here are five warm-up exercises to try. The rules of writing engagement are:

  1. Do not warm up for longer than 5 minutes. 3 to 5 minutes is ideal.
  2. If you try one technique and it doesn’t work, choose a different technique. One not working doesn’t mean writing warm ups aren’t good, it means that particular writing warm up didn’t work
  3. Have a plan or purpose for your writing after the warm up. For example: “I will write 1000 words of my novel” or “I will work on my sales campaign for the next hour.”
  • Writing Warm Up 1: Free Flow, Stream of Consciousness or Automatic Writing: these are synonymous. Simply write without editing, judgement or forethought. Let your pencil float across the page or your fingers tap on the keyboard or scan the screen. This is my personal favorite warm up.
  • Writing Warm Up 2: Use prompted writing – the best single prompts include “I remember”, “Yesterday I….”, “If things were perfect, I would…”, “What would be wisest to do next is…” and the sensory prompts – “I see, I hear, I smell, I taste, I touch, and the sixth sense – I feel (intuitively or emotionally.)
  • Writing Warm Up 3: Take 60 seconds to write a complete description of an ordinary object that can fit in your hand. Experience the object fully – feel it in your hand but lift it to your face, feel it against your cheek, smell it, compare it to similar sized objects. Write everything down, take note of the tiniest details. Warning: this may change your relationship with the things you own. 🙂
  • Writing Warm Up 4: Explore where a quote takes you. If you don’t collect quotes, google “Quotes about (insert your favorite subject of the day.) Choose a quote, copy it into your notebook or document and add, “This makes me think” and/or “this makes me feel” and see where the thoughts and feelings take you. You may find it takes your main character someplace, too!
  • Writing Warm Up 5: Write about your favorites… whatever. You can even make a jar with papers listing “movies, teacher, sci fi films, poems, athlete, musician, book, genre of book, comedian, city to visit” or whatever your likely favorites may be. If you spend a week or ten days focusing on your favorites, you will likely have a week to ten days of more pleasant writing experiences.

Which writing warm up will you use first?

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.

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The Magic of Lowered Expectations: the Joy of Meditative Writing

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If I were to ask you about your expectations for yourself, my guess is your expectations are quite high.  I know my expectations are high. 

High Expectations can wreak havoc on your self worth.

Even now, when I am here in Flagstaff with my Mom serving as caretaker, I have had high expectations. This morning I realized my schedule right now is a lot like it was when my children were young. My schedule is not about what I would most like to do, it is about what my mother’s needs are – and my schedule will be molded around her schedule.

Because of this, I have lowered my expectations about how many hours I can work on my writing and my business right now. I am in the midst of studying how I am investing my daily time over this week and then in future weeks, I can plan accordingly. 

Almost magic: set aside a time that works – a very short amount of time

I have also discovered I fare better no matter what when I set aside time for writing, even a small set aside-time rather than left over time. For me that comes in early morning and late at night.

The most important part of writing is to show up at the keyboard or notebook or screen and string together words.

Sometimes your words won’t be good at all.

Poet Mary Oliver wasn’t always perfect with her writing, either?

This morning I listened to an interview of Mary Oliver on the “On Being” podcast. She said many of her poems get thrown away almost immediately. This made me feel such a sense of relief! Mary Oliver sometimes wrote badly?

After winning many awards including the Pulitzer and being one of the top selling 20th Century American poets, the fact she continued to throw some of her writing away gave me peace and reminded me – my expectations are better served in the time I show up rather than the results of the writing. 

Where Meditative Writing & Lowered Expectations Meet

There are three distinctive ways to keep yourself in a meditative state of mind as you write instead of a judgmental, closed state of mind.

  1. Celebrate the fact you showed up to write rather than the results of your showing up. Witness the pleasure of the practice.
  1. Praise your efforts rather than your outcomes. Rejoice in the perfectly imperfect.
  1. Shine a light on the lessons learned instead of your lessons missed, lost or unnoticed. This is a space of love and possibilities.

We write meditatively when we pay attention to our breath, our body and our surroundings – while paradoxically letting go of everything except the writing itself.

Inhale: set your intention

Exhale: pick up your writing tool

Inhale: Start and continue your writing.

On the way to writing this article, I researched negativity bias and how that impacts the creative process. Is this a subject that would interest you? 

Please let me know in the comments.

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 and workshop facilitator 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

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5 Simple Tips and Hacks to Improve Your Writing Now

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Woman on the floor, writing, papers thrown about showing she is not pleased with her writing. These hacks and writing tips will help her writing improve.

I have never met a writer who doesn’t want to improve. Finding a simple tip or hack or trick may make all the difference in your writing world. Try one of these out, and then another, and then another. Whether you write social media posts, novels or video scripts, you will get better one word at a time by trying these ideas.

  1. Use writing warm ups as an “on ramp” to your writing of the day. By writing about topics that are slightly less important where you won’t be attached to the outcome, you will come to your main writing ready to write well. Look at this example, with tips on how to most effectively use writing warm ups as well as an example of one and a prompt
  1. Read books and articles in your genre rather than reading an overflow of writing how-to’s. I know this may seem weird, since I am writing a “how-to” but being acquainted with what is being well received will cause your writing to improve.
  1. Listen to audiobooks while also reading the books in either ebook, paperback or hardback form. When you listen closely to audiobooks, you will be able to hear how the author is writing – this extra level is exceptionally helpful with dialogue. 
  1. Read your “in process” writing aloud before you do your writing warm ups. Do minimal edits before you move into starting your next chapter or section within your project.
  1. Listen to subliminal affirmations while you are first-drafting or free-writing. Be sure to keep the volume low so you are not distracted.

Here is one for you to try:

Do you have a favorite writing tip?

Which one of these will you try first? Leave us your ideas and thoughts in the comments 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 or to request she speak at your next event, call or text her at 661.444.2735

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Healing Grief: Speaking and Writing Even When You Don’t Know What to Say

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Trigger Warning: Death, Murder, Grief.

The Sunday after my father died suddenly, I attended a funeral of my friend, Jodie, who was violently murdered. 

The moment came when people were asked to speak. I didn’t want to speak. I didn’t even really want to be there at all, but I was there, so I stood up and found myself in the aisle moving forward.

I realized sometimes our love for people is thankfully larger than our unwillingness to speak or write

I looked down at my feet as I walked. I felt like my clothes were all wrong, I did not want to speak, was worried I might fall on my way to the front of the room.

I was unprepared and I did not want to speak, but there I was ambling forward to speak.

There I went, doing yet another thing I didn’t want to do.

The shock of my father’s death was wrapped around my shoulders as my feet carried me toward the podium to speak extemporaneously – even though it was the last thing I wanted to do – at Jodie’s funeral. I knew her sons might feel better if they heard me remember their Mom. I knew I had a unique and positive perspective to share. I knew I loved Jodie, still love Jodie, and love the common cause we fought for together, year after year.

I was too numb to begin to know what I was going to say, but one of us from Vday needed to speak up and of the women who were there, I was the “senior leader” so it didn’t matter if I was numb, it didn’t matter if I had no idea what I was going to say, it didn’t matter if I was completely unprepared and ill-equipped – I needed to walk up to the microphone and say something, anything. 

The moment I finished speaking, I was glad I had chosen to speak.

I can’t even tell you what I said but I do remember afterwards many of Jodie’s family members thanked me for speaking.

Facing death head-on is not how I planned to spend the month of April. 

Jodie and I both worked to end violence against women and girls through performances connected with VDay, a movement created by Eve Ensler, who wrote “The Vagina Monologues”, “Emotional Creature” and other plays and books. Jodie and I also protested together, went to the beach together, sang karaoke together, were stage Moms together.

It pains me unmercifully to think the cause of her death is something we fought against. Like our friend and fellow VDay Warrior, Lori, said, “It wasn’t supposed to be like this. We never expected to be at a funeral for Jodie, we were supposed to be alive and on-stage with Jodie.”

It didn’t matter that the next day I would be driving back to Flagstaff to care for my mother and work with my siblings to create my father’s celebration of life. In that moment it didn’t matter that I felt guilty because I knew I would be missing the first hearings for the accused murderer, something important to me as well. 

What mattered was holding space for love and being present to love, even after life

What mattered was I walked into the aisle, I walked up the stairs, I stepped up to the mic, took a breath and spoke. My intention was to be positive, truthful and loving and not afraid to show my emotion. 

If I had been able to set aside my grief from my father’s death I might have done things differently. I would have remembered the reality that at funerals, people are often called to speak from the audience. I might have thought to jot some notes.

Because I was facing my father’s death shortly after Jodie’s death, I was not at a place to set anything aside, including the knowledge I must speak even if I only stammered out a couple sentences.

No matter how uncomfortable or how scared or how sad I felt, I needed to speak up.

I needed to speak up for Jodie.

Next week I will speak at my father’s funeral, reading a poem I am writing.

Coffee cup and notebook are underneath the quote from Flannery O'Connor "I write because I don't know what I think until I read what I say."

Flannery O’Connor said, “I write because I don’t know what I think until I read what I say.”

I have scheduled my out-of-town caretaking and even my doctor’s appointments for the disease I am fighting based on the next hearings for the man accused of Jodie’s murder. I have chosen to continue to write about Jodie consistently so that I will, as Flannery O’Connor suggests, know what it is I truly want to say. 

I am working on a poem for my father’s funeral. One line at a time, one sentence at a time, trusting the process of getting words on the page.

In everyday life, if I don’t write, everything gets clogged. My emotions get trapped and my creativity dries up. When grief comes, this clog or this block creates even more of a risk.

Neither Jodie nor my father would want to be the cause of silencing my message. If anything, they would have wanted me to amplify my message. I am following their guidance now. 

Because we love, we grieve.

Grief never feels like something we ask for, yet if we have lived a life full of love, we will grieve.

5 Strategies to Help You Express Yourself, especially in times of Grief

  1. Jot notes of your feelings, even if it is only on your phone or collected in text messages. Your best allies and friends will welcome your notes as you heal.
  2. Be willing to have uncomfortable conversations. If you are the friend of someone who is grieving, ask for permission to talk about the loss, to use the name of the person who died. I love when people say “Marlena” the name of my baby daughter who died at birth thirty-one years ago. 
  3. Try writing in a journal or use an inexpensive spiral notebook for journaling your healing process. Use a free flow writing style. Do not edit or think before you write, just get your words on the page. A few minutes or pages a day, whatever feels right for you. As you keep your words flowing, you will keep your energy flowing, you will keep your healing flowing. 
  4. Give yourself the gift of being vulnerable. With practice, it gets easier and easier. In my years of practice, one of the best ways to start is to ask the people you are with, “I feel vulnerable saying this and there is a big part of me that doesn’t want to say this…” and give them a chance to respond. Maybe they aren’t in a space to listen and will ask to set a time to talk later. This is a huge victory!
  5. Find or designate a “safe person” someone you can turn to at any time of day or night if things get difficult. Ironically for me, my safe person is often my notebook. It may take courage to ask someone to fill in this role for you, so you may want to assemble a team. What I have found as a griever and one who supports grieving people is usually those we ask are honored, not bothered, when we ask for support.

Once again, as you keep your words flowing, you will keep your energy flowing, you will keep your healing flowing. 

Grief is a process and has a calendar unlike any other. Offer yourself grace and forgiveness. Take your time. Writing and creative process helps the healing process steadily proceed rather than getting stuck. Using the strategies outlined here, hope will begin to grow, too. Love to you.

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.

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Your Voice and Your Writing Matters: We are Listening to You

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Your writing and your voice matter: We're listening. Two women engage in conversation. The background is a musical one, so they must be speaking creatively.

I have lived much of my life as a translator but not in the conventional sense many think of when they consider the job of a translator.

One of the gifts of having my (mostly) non-verbal brother was the ability to translate his utterances both silent and auditory and later on, translating that keen ability to listen with my eyes and fingers to translate different people with different languages.

The act of writing freely will show you what you need to know.

As I wrote of this, I realized I have never found a translator of my own: someone who hears my unspoken voice, someone who tunes in and asks loving questions and speaks when I am unable. Someone who can see my thirst on my face and rises to quench it before I feel my throat constrict.

 Perhaps that is what we secretly or I secretly yearn for and am only now discovering it.

Afterall, I am highly practiced at speaking up for others, for taking others’ needs and amplifying their cause – whatever the cause may be. 

When you become a witness of yourself within your process, you will hear yourself more clearly.

When I step back and look at myself at a distance, I am able to love my sweet-Julie-heart and say with pure witness, “Your message matters.” My written words continue to flow:

“Your translation is offered tirelessly by Julianne (the name I use for my Highest Self). It is normal to forget your highest self stands with you, always. There are others waiting to translate, yes, but first make peace and enjoy the love Julianne offers.”

With that, I hear Julianne chime in, saying, “Share this love and witness the language of your message – you have been doing it. Now do it. More.”

Your higher self knows: your job is to use your voice to translate this higher knowing inside you.

Woman pulls back a stage curtain. The Brene Brown quote says "Courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen." and in this setting - heard as well.
In our context, courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be heard as well.

I am being told “Use my voice to translate the messages inside me. Allow my messages room to room without worry about “getting them right” or even having them be acceptable. “

Tell me about your voice and your message. I am listening.

The greatest gift you can give the people in this world is your message. Without your continued commitment to act to bring your message forward,t the fewer people who will benefit from your work will be reached. That, beloveds, is sad. There are people – specific people – waiting for your words. Let’s get them on the page.

Julie Jordan Scott is the Creator of the Radical Joy of Daily Consistency Course which helps people practice consistency and completion daily in order to experience a more incredible life experience. She also founded the free, private facebook community for writers and creative people at all levels of experience: the Word Love Writing Community. Join us!

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Meditative Writing from the Senses: Witness Your Life with Writing to Feel More Empowered and Courageous

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We write for many reasons. No matter what your reason is – or whatever form of content you plan to create – the best way to get to the heart of your message is to begin writing in a free-flow, meditative or stream of consciousness style.

Use Meditative Writing to Discover What You Think, Know and Understand

When I write either a first draft or a bit of timed meditative writing, what I discover often surprises me. It is like what novelist Flannery O’Connor said, ““I write because I don’t know what I think until I read what I say.” If you want to write a blog post or a video script or a sales page, the same skill set works. The same practices work. Today, we are focusing on witnessing your life via the senses – clearly and simply.

How to start writing from the senses

Instead of writing “It looks good” or “I think it is pretty” look carefully at the subject of your writing either in your minds eye or physically. From this experience, write something like this:

“The bright purple irises fill the glass vase with the twine tied in a bow.”

“There was a hint of vanilla in the chocolate chip cookies” or

“He was over six feet tall, which made my five foot four inch frame feel tiny.”

Yes, there is some opinion in that final sentence, but do you see how it is supported in fact?

PRACTICE: What would you write about this picture? Colors? Textures? (from items like this you have in your home)? What sounds do books make?

Feel free to share in the comments and we can dialogue there or send me a message to practice more.

A writing prompt image with a picture of books, a coffee cup and plants to inspire writers by using their senses for meditative writing.


Write with sensory details- write from what is specific and concrete.

Be with what sensory – be with specific and concrete details.

Once you hold the sensory experience – what you see, hear, touch, smell, feel – then you may delve into the sixth sense – what your intuition tells you and eventually what meaning you make from life experience and witnessing your life experience.

PRACTICE: USE THE PHOTO PROMPT ABOVE AND CONNECT THE DESCRIPTION WITH AN EXPERIENCE FROM YOUR LIFE. YOU MIGHT WRITE ABOUT THE LAST TIME YOU SHARED A CUP OF COFFEE OR TEA WITH A FRIEND OR A BOOK CLUB EXPERIENCE OR YOUR FRIEND WHO ENJOYS AND COLLECTS SUCCULENTS.

Throughout this week, we will be sharing strategies to help you write more freely using techniques that will help you write better – whatever genre you have chosen to write within. Come back to discover more about how to improve your writing!

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, bestselling 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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Wisdom from Emily Dickinson: Lifting Up Ourselves and others.

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What do you think when you hear “rise” or “lift” or “soar”?

The word “rise” and “rising” have been popular lately. There are books by Brene Brown (Rising Strong); Tiffany Reese (Strong Women Rising); and many books honoring the Maya Angelou poem, “Still I Rise” in their titles and messages.

Today in the front pages of the novel, “Keeping Lucy” by T. Greenwood, I found a quote by Emily Dickinson that includes the phrase “called to rise.”

I didn’t believe it could be accurate. After all, she was writing in the middle decades of the 19th century. 

What I found was this:

“We never know how high we are

  Till we are called to rise;

And then, if we are true to plan,

  Our statures touch the skies—”

Emily Dickinson

She did say it!

She even went further:

“The Heroism we recite

  Would be a daily thing”

I am starting a blog challenge today – posting daily in May. My initial thought as I sit in my parents’ home in Flagstaff, Arizona is “Are you kidding me? This is so not the time to do a month long challenge. It’s hard enough to finish these in the best of times.” 

Yet it may be the perfect way for me to rise – and allow my stature to reach up, touch the sky and write. Write. Write.

I hope you will read, read, read, and see where we come out, a month from now. 

I trust in writing – showing up at the page and sharing what I discover along the way – will help us all be lifted up. 

Woman writing on the front porch of a brick home,
Write wherever you find yourself.

Julie Jordan Scott is the Creator of the Radical Joy of Daily Consistency Course which helps people practice consistency and completion daily in order to experience a more incredible life experience. She also founded the free, private facebook community for writers and creative people at all levels of experience: the Word Love Writing Community. Join us!

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Not on My Bucket List: Growing from the Unexpected Curves in Your Life’s Journey

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A bucket list on its side asks the question, "What to think about things that aren't on my bucket list?" and yet they may be significant growth experiences.

Today another item I never wanted to have on my bucket list will be quickly added and crossed off.

A needle will be inserted into my chest to withdraw fluid from a mass of unknown origin. I am hoping it is merely an infection. I am hoping it is not Valley fever. I am hoping it can be excised without much trouble. I am hoping.

What happens to items on our bucket list when the unexpected occurrences we never wanted to happen, happen:

I have not been writing much because having something frightening like this tends to silence my words. Even when I have a lot of stories to tell, the fear hovers. It gets stronger the longer I sit and stew even as I want to talk about it and process it with others.

I have wanted to toss it into conversations about completely unrelated topics even when it makes no sense at all.

A spirited discussion of a well written book is overcome by an avalanche of thought in my head that sounds like this: “what if this thing in my chest is cancer? What if this thing in my chest is a danger to my future? What if this thing in my chest is another chapter in my ‘so close but not quite’ which could very well be the title of the movie of my life.“

I miss the discussion that is actually happen and get caught up in my tangled thoughts.

The anti-bucket list item turns into a quickly turning road going nowhere particularly constructive.

I think of making a rag doll to sleep with, a toddler sized one with brown braided hair and blue eyes, a mini-me who might have matching heart scars to mine. Maybe we will both wind up with non-heart-shaped scars over our collective heart space. Maybe that would be cute and sweet and comforting.

This may be absolutely true and how constructive is this path? Creative output does heal – and is this something I really WANT to do with my time right now or is the idea comfort enough?

Maybe this twist in the bucket-list road would be better?

Last night I found myself lying in my bed in a cocoon of pillows like when I was in the hospital, valley fever no one knew I had, sepsis, organ failure, near death. Last night as I settled in the pillows helped it feel so much better than anything else has felt in a long time. It was cloud-like yet solid, so supported I wished I had someone there to read to me. A soothing voice to read from the novel I am reading or to read pages from the book of Julian of Norwich or perhaps even read about how to create supportive loving habits. 

For now I don’t have anyone to do that but I do have the pillows. I can recreate soft holding support. Yes! Something I can actually do easily.

The end of the road leads to Ralph Waldo Emerson?

I am reminded of the message I meant to send today, the one inspired by Ralph Waldo Emerson.

A curvy road is much like our concerns when we are facing the unknown. The quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson reminds us "Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year."

Today, even after all I have spoken I can still say I am waking up to the thoughts of Ralph Waldo Emerson, he who wrote “Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.” 

You might be saying “This does not jive with what you wrote above this fold – you just said you aren’t familiar with the ‘not tragic’ and ‘I never wanted’ and ‘frightening’ how does this add up to “the best day in the year”?

Quite simple, actually.

I am alive. My heart is still beating. I am able to create as I want to create. I have clean water to drink. I have a future in the works. I smelled almond orchards in bloom last night. I walked this morning. I am writing now. I am able to say what I most want to say.

I am awake on this, the best day of my year so far. And tomorrow, I will live the best day of my year so far because I am choosing for that to be how and what it is.

What if every day was a bucket list celebration?

In the meantime, I will be thinking of some other word for “bucket list” because that is focused on death – kicking the bucket – and after two cancers, a couple valley fever episodes, sepsis, kidney failure – I am all about the living and loving and being with whatever is and choosing the best even when it looks like it completely sucks.

It isn’t about the lessons I am learning, it is about the breath I am breathing and the love I am knowing more deeply every single day.

Julie Jordan Scott is the Creator of the Radical Joy of Daily Consistency Course which helps people practice consistency and completion daily in order to experience a more incredible life experience. She also founded the free, private facebook community for writers and creative people at all levels of experience: the Word Love Writing Community. Join us!

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What have you learned from reading so far this year?

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What is the most recent book you read recently because you wanted to experience personal growth? In the beginning of the year, self-help and goal setting and improvement books fly off the shelves and out of publisher’s warehouses.

While this may seem like a simple question, sometimes the books that help us grow may be unexpected. Let’s consider different factors and allow possible answers to surprise you.

This week I finished several books. I finished “The Practice” by Seth Godin and “The Nickel Boys” by Colson Whitehead.

When books become friends, they become lifelong companions.

Reading Godin’s book again is like having a reunion with an inspiring friend. I first read him years ago when i was new on the entrepreneurial, transformational creativity path. What I enjoy about his work is he is aligned with me AND he challenges me to think, act and grow better – with purer intention and awareness.

When I finished “The Nickel Boys” a novel about two young men in a 1960’s reform school in Florida completely opened my eyes. I read and actively enjoyed this book so much that I was known to blurt out joy by saying “Oh, this man can write!” or in dismay, “No, I can’t… I can’t keep reading this right now… no,” and walking away for three days until I felt restored enough to face reality.

At the end of the book, I wanted to fill up the trunk of my car with copies of this book and give it away to people who I know would read it because while we – as white people – can use words like “white privilege” sometimes don’t get it because we can’t quite get it clear. This novel helped to clarify not only white privilege, but the heart of Martin Luther King’s message as lived by a group of young men – while at the same time using language effortlessly and not needing to paint violent details.

One book: obvious personal development. Another book, fiction based on history, quieter and also deep in my core soulful personal development. 

Taking a moment to move into a political direction: feel free to step off the post AND please tell about books you have read.

I don’t usually get political here on this blog, but I am about to do so briefly. If you do not want to deal with anything political today, I understand and invite you to simply comment about the above material and know if you are curious, this blog post will stay here for you to consider.

 On the same day I am writing this, reports from the New York Times are telling us a woman named Amy Cooper fulfilled her judge appointed goals after being a typical “racist Karen” when she falsely reported a black man on a 911 call for threatening her because he asked her to follow the law and put her dog on a leash instead of allowing it to run freely in Central Park in New York City.

After she was arrested, she went to court and the judge requested she attend five sessions of therapy and proclaimed better. The educational course of study was specifically about racial bias. 

To read an article that summarizes what happened, please visit this article from the New York Times.

What if the course of study included literature, film, art & heartfelt conversations?

I wonder what would happen if the educational course of study included reading and reflective writing? I wonder what would happen if Ms. Cooper and others  read some books and wrote about what the books meant to her and how she would choose to live those books?

Perhaps we could put people who behave like she did with reading a book, watching a movie, looking at an art exhibit and then reporting back to the world how she grew from those experiences and how she will live differently as a result.

What might happen then?

Maybe we could entrust that reporting to her therapist would make a difference.

With well written, topical works would perhaps be influential upon people like Amy Cooper – and people like us witnessing the broken system and help us move one another and the system into a more aligned place – would learn more than just shouting and flailing and constantly standing on one end of the “us vs them” continuum. 

Please share in the comments your book & reading recommendations PLUS any relevant conversation.

Julie Jordan Scott is the Creator of the Radical Joy of Daily Consistency Course which helps people practice consistency and completion daily in order to experience a more incredible life experience. She also founded the free, private facebook community for writers and creative people at all levels of experience: the Word Love Writing Community. Join us!

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