jjscreativelifemidwife – Page 40 – Creative Life Midwife

Open the Gift of Your Future in Your Present Moment, Today

April 17, 2018 by jjscreativelifemidwife

This week I want to be aware of those moments that may seem to be wrapped in insignificance and yet when the gift of the moment is unwrapped, we discover a nugget of gold that continues to radiate and shine long into the future.

This awareness started with a question, “What if that conversation didn’t happen?”

I was reading a note I started to write yesterday. A note I never completed. A note that just sat here in my unpolished gem file – waiting for me to take action (or not) with it.

I wrote once again about the most important conversation I had in 2017.

It was a completely random conversation with a stranger. It clearly didn’t happen within a context of deep personal history and connection. It happened because I was being fully myself in a moment of time when an unsuspecting stranger didn’t realize he needed exactly the medicine my “fully-myself-ness” offered.

His words and actions allowed me to see myself differently.

“I want to hear what you’re saying,” he said, and turned off the radio so he wouldn’t be distracted.

I’m accustomed to going about my day, taking care of my kids, showing up for my friends as best as I can, making contributions as best I can and my perception of myself is often one of invisibility.

That one conversation has lifted me up countless times since that day and provides me the exact medicine I need when I am feeling discouraged.

Thankfully the conversation happened and I continue to receive its afterglow of grace and self-love.

Instead of worrying about “what if it didn’t happen” I am choosing to shift my focus to receiving the continuing gifts from the fact it did happen. Every conversation, every connection is a gift.

Every conversation is a gift.

Every connection is a gift.

Now, receive the gift.

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.

Once Upon a Time…. The Magical Writing Prompt + You

April 16, 2018 by jjscreativelifemidwife

All writing, all books, all movies – start with a letters, words and most of the time a single sentence.

“Once upon a time” was perhaps the favorite sentence of my childhood. Having my mother’s undivided attention while she read aloud to me was perhaps one of the singular greatest joys of my childhood.

Perhaps that is why I became a storyteller?

Once upon a time reminds me of a spell, a musical note that says “Listen, you will enjoy this (and I do, over and over again.)
It is also invaluable for those of us who are aiming to rewrite, reframe and recraft our narrative.

That sounds so simple – and yet, I know it isn’t always so – which is why I suggest we start with the less significant moments in time, the everyday experiences and learn to get to know those fully with words prior to diving into the deep end of our emotional narrative.

Let’s try that today: take any scene from the movie of your life and replay it, starting with the words, “Once upon a time” and then let the words flow.

If you would feel better narrowing down your writing choices, look at the last week and make a list of the things that happened in your life and start there.

In your mind’s eye, project that moment in time on your mind’s movie screen and narrate back what is happening as if you are telling it to someone who can not see.

Here’s what I wrote in a description of this prompt on Instagram:

Once upon a time there was a woman named Julie who enjoyed sitting in her recliner, writing for 5 short minutes at a time. Little did she know those five minutes a day would not only change her life, those five minutes a day would change many lives the world over.

(That made me laugh… a bit of levity always feels good.)

And now it is your turn:

All writing starts with words, a phrase and finally a sentence.

Take 5 minutes now and see where in your life you revisit first.

The image to the right could be a moment in time about going to the movies, being at the movies, it might be about being IN the movies. It might be about an academy awards party (that’s where we were) it might be about wining a prize (Emma’s hand is actually in the prize box.)

My writing might begin: “Once upon a time I tried, once again, to make sure Emma enjoyed herself at a time I wish I could have been some place else. Isn’t that an important part of motherhood?”

Or it might begin, “Once upon a time, I walked through the doors of a movie theater and had the experience of seeing myself projected on the screen, larger than life, and praying not so secretly I hoped no one made a fuss but hoping truly that people would make a fuss.”

To practice, start with last week or even this morning, like the section above when I was in my recliner writing. A week later, I am once again in my recliner writing.

Timer set for five minutes? Start writing, now.

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

What Will You Do to Make a Positive Impact in Your World?

April 12, 2018 by jjscreativelifemidwife

I just started the same sentence several different ways because the first few attempts just didn’t feel good, didn’t feel right, didn’t feel like me – so here I will say it again, this time like this:

I feel a deep satisfaction from being constructive, making an impact, showing up and being a light in my corner of the world. If I can say something or do something or share something and a light goes on for someone my heart reaches out and sings –

Today I was doing a livestream broadcast and it seemed like when I made important points the light from the window – the sunrays, shone down on my heart. It was like Divinity was saying “Yes, listen!” This is important, you will feel happy when you cultivate this!”

Trying again.

What will you do to make a positive impact in your part of the world today?

I type those words and wait, hoping some lightning bolt will rise through the ends of my fingers on the keyboard. I look out my window and I think, “There is something here I know it!” and the leaves dance in response. The wind says “You are here, Julie. You are HERE!” and I think…

That’s it. I am here. I am writing. I am showing up at the page, I am sharing with you. I am present.

I think about Emma whose class got cancelled, Emma who is in her room, quiet, and I think she wanted to run an errand and when I am done with this 5 minute writing spree I will ask her when she wants to go – because my positive difference is oftentimes with my children.

I think of Samuel’s carefully crafted birthday wish list, complete with arguments and possible rebuttals covered and all started with “Please stick within your budget, Mom” and “Since it is my birthday and you’re only buying for one person, maybe you can spend a little more than for Christmas.”

I laugh, what a kid, and am so grateful he knows he can ask for things.

I never wanted to and still feel anxious about asking sometimes.

What will I do to make a positive impact?

I am sharing here with you. Perhaps these words will touch you in some way, some way I don’t even have an idea about right now, perhaps you will write and tell me later. I would like that.

Please, comment or send me a note to tell me, “What will you do to make a positive impact in your part of the world today?”
When you respond, I suggest you go more deeply into what you will do, with a specific, absolutely non-generic response. I want to know the goods – the excellence within the goods.

What will you do to make a positive impact in your world today?

As you are writing, repeat the prompt.

I wonder for a moment why the timer hasn’t gone off yet?

Because I neglected to set it – and I suppose you were best served by repetition.

Let’s get those pencils moving, those fingers on the keyboard dancing. Share with me. What will you do to make a positive impact in your part of the world today?”

Use this question as a writing prompt, a meditation or a reflection question. Please be in touch and let me know how this prompt served you.

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

What Message are You Sending the World? Think Authentically Before Responding:

April 11, 2018 by jjscreativelifemidwife

What message are you sending the world?

You may think, for example, you are sending a message of love and abundance but your self-talk is filled with messages of fear and scarcity. Don’t messages or “watch out!” energy may permeate you while you may say “Love is everywhere” your subconscious is hearing “watch out for danger lurking everywhere, all the time.”

I say this because I have done it for so long I didn’t even notice it.

I’ll be telling a story this week on Periscope about an experience I had eleven years ago that was always important and yet I haven’t told much – and it wasn’t until this weekend I realized how much it has impacted my life.

The thing is – this story has transformative power and unfortunately I have morphed that power into fear and scarcity. I have taken heavenly energy and sheathed it into destructive energy rather than constructive flow.

Now I could keep digging my hole by scolding myself in weakness AND once again, that is clearly not the message my heart desires I send the world.

I am a stand for love and hope and peace. I am a soul opener, giving fellow humans the space to be authentically true to who they are no matter how eccentric and quirky and straight-laced and totally ordinary and polka-dotted and denim all of what you are is phenomenal.

The world is waiting for all of your words: the stories of your screw ups as well as your triumphs because truly – the path from the screw up to the… whatever is… connects us deeply with our fellow travelers.

Speaking of which – my writing time is up for now as I need to go fetch my child at school.

I ask you again – what message are you really truly sending the world?

Let’s shift your intention to send the message your heart desires you send now.

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

Take Time to Reflect: Mindful Action = Amplified Results

April 9, 2018 by jjscreativelifemidwife

I alternated this morning between angry, sad and anxious.

Hardly a productive combination of ways of being: more like a recipe for turbulence and possible destructive action – which tends to create more emotional carnage and rarely anything with an ongoing positive flavor, at least not in my life.

So far this morning I have cried and fretted. I have cleaned and sulked. I have edited some images and now, finally, I am writing,

I managed to have small moments of reflection primarily because I know reflection will (eventually) yield results though sometimes – in the process – reflection feels pretty lousy.

I wrote a micro-poem in a moment of anger this morning. I like it but I probably won’t rush out to post it all over social media because then my reflection turns into someone else’s pain. I don’t want to cause pain. Ever.

Reflect in short bites. If it feels lousy at first, let it feel lousy with one caveat: attempt to keep your lousy in your own realm.
Write, art or exercise out your reflections as a means of digesting whatever appears. Sometimes one, two or all three (and repeat) is necessary.
Add an element of forgiveness into your process. Like in #5for5BrainDump when we focus on gratitude at the end of our five minutes, focus on forgiveness of yourself and others when you are completing your reflective time. Punctuate with gratitude and intention as feels right.

Interesting to note: in simply writing these words (total time investment about 7 minutes) I feel better. I feel less cranky, less anxious, less fretful.

Week ahead: I am coming your way. We are going to be great together!

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

D is for Diane Di Prima: Beat Poet & Extraordinary Human – Literary Grannies from A to Z 2018

April 9, 2018 by jjscreativelifemidwife

It was Spring, 2015 when I last talked about Diane di Prima. I was at the Beat Museum in San Francisco and the gentleman working there told me her health wasn’t doing so well. I have no other update than that.

Diane di Prima broke into the “Boys club” of the beat poets and although many don’t know her name nor her influence, she remains one of my favorites. I found an eloquently written article from “The Heroine Collection” and can’t imagine saying it better. Please check it out here.

From my 2012 Series:

‘I think the poet is the last person who is still speaking the truth when no one else dares to. I think the poet is the first person to begin the shaping and visioning of the new forms and the new consciousness when no one else has begun to sense it; I think these are two of the most essential human functions’ -Diane Di Prima

I recently fell in love with the Women of the Beat Generation. I was curious, after hearing so much about Jack Kerouac, Allan Ginsberg, Charles Bukowski and the rest, I wondered, “Where is the news about the women who were with them? It couldn’t have been completely a Men’s Word-Love Club!”

I discovered while the still best known Beat Poets are men, there are a number of women who not only wrote and lived that era, but women who are still actively creating today.

Diane Di Prima is one of those women. She has been dubbed “Poet Priestess” and “Poet Activist” and “Beat Babe” but those feel condescending to me. After all, her creativity has been present for her entire lifetime. She founded New York Poets Theatre & the Poets Press, she has written plays and poetry and is now the Poet Laureate of San Francisco.

Julie has participated in the A to Z Blog Challenge for several years and is thrilled to be back, once again with Literary Grannies. Follow here throughout April for blog posts featuring women of literary history along with a daily writing prompt that reflects each featured writer.

Julie Jordan Scott is the Creative Life Midwife: a writing coach who specializes in inspiring artistic rebirth for those who may have forgotten the pure joy of the creative process. She offers individual creativity coaching as well as creating individualized programs for businesses and groups in the form of workshops, webinars and more. Contact her at 661.444.2735 for immediate assistance with facilitation, speaking or experiencing an enriched life no

C is for Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Literary Grannies 2018 #atozchallenge

April 6, 2018 by jjscreativelifemidwife

Charlotte Perkins Gilman has been my hero for years.

She inspired me more than five years ago to create an entire body of work I’m still growing based on The Women’s Sphere” those aspects of life seen as driven by the female gender, the softer domestic traits that aren’t on there own as anything bad – it is the devaluing of such that has made them be seen as less-than.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote her landmark novella “The Yellow Wallpaper” in two days in June, 1890. In those two days, she changed how women were treated for post-partum depression forever.

She herself underwent the then approved therapy which included no writing, no art, no use of the mind. Rest and domestic tasks alone would heal woman, it was believed.

The problem with that is if you are a creator, you may as well have been issued a death sentence.

The home in Pasadena, California, where Charlotte Perkins Gilman died.

I wondered when I started my “The Women’s Sphere” project how Charlotte survived without anti-depressants. Now it is I who am experiencing that lack of medicine and while it is difficult – I am able to feel what I imagine she felt, able to detach myself from the pain of it all.

If you are unfamiliar with her work, please read it soon.

One quote: “When the mother of the race is free, we shall have a better world, by the easy right of birth and by the calm, slow, friendly forces of evolution.”

Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Julie has participated in the A to Z Blog Challenge for several years and is thrilled to be back, once again with Literary Grannies. Follow here throughout April for blog posts featuring women of literary history along with a daily writing prompt that reflects each featured writer.

B is for Bella Bella Akhmadulina: Literary Grannies from A-Z/2018 #atozchallenge

April 2, 2018 by jjscreativelifemidwife

One of my favorite aspects of doing this challenge is I encounter new writers. Bella Akhmadulina was a Russian poet, essayist and translator I didn’t know until I wanted to find a new granny to represent for the letter B.

Those of you who are writers and poets, what would it be like to perform in front of a packed arena, as if you were a rock star or super bowl athlete?

That’s what happened for Bella Akhmadulina! She was well loved, defended the dissidents and in doing so, was not published much. She was among the top 4 poets of the time in Russia – and the only woman in the group.

She was one of 40 writers who banded together in 1993 a group of writers to stand up against then President Boris Yeltsin.

I want to get to know Bella Akhmadulina better. I hope you do, too.

Writing Prompt: Imagine yourself a Writing (or whatever your passion may be) Rock Star. What would you say to the crowd gathered to watch you do your thing? Take 5 minutes to write – and just let your words flow without forethought or editing.

A is for Ada: Literary Grannies from A to Z/2018 #atozchallenge

April 1, 2018 by jjscreativelifemidwife

Please welcome Ada Lovelace, the first purely STEM writer to grace the Literary Grannies canon.

Ironically she is the daughter of 19^th Century rockstar poet, Lord Byron, who she never met. She was entranced by the man whose portrait hung covered in her mother’s home, but her mother was so consumed with not wanting her daughter to be a fanciful poet, she hired tutors in mathematics in order to distract her daughter’s possibly poetic mind.

Ada instead created a fanciful flying machine, meticulously designed with her brilliant mathematical (and my best guess also lyrical mind).

Her mother worried needlessly about Ada, who teamed up with Charles Babbage who devised the plans for “The Analytical Machine” – a general purpose computer. Ada saw the applications for the Analytical machine could go much further than computation and she published the first algorithm and instructions for how to use it with more depth.

Ada is the first STEM writer to appear among Literary Grannies and the first since I stared CreativeLifeMidwife.com.

Her full name was Augusta Ada King-Noel, Countess of Lovelace. She was born December 12, 1815 and died November 27, 1852

Writing Prompt: Think back to what your mother hoped for you when you were a child? How does that differ from who you are now (or how is it the same)? Write about it – take 5 minutes and write, free flow style.

When Words are Left Behind: Revisiting Georgia O’Keeffe

March 19, 2018 by jjscreativelifemidwife

Perhaps it is my theme reveal for the A to Z Challenge that has me thinking of Literary Grannies and Creative Makers who are trailblazing women, I don’t know exactly but for whatever reason, Georgia O’Keeffe sprang into mind today and I spontaneously posted an image and a quote of hers on Instagram. A quote about the ferocity of fear and the equally tenacious quality of creative life force.

To see my Instagram Post and read the quote (and you ought to follow me while you are over there, the slice-of-life stuff may be interesting to you) visit here.

I had studied Georgia O’Keeffe years ago so I decided to look in my old blog to see if I could find anything relevant.

There, nine years ago, I was with Samuel (then Sam) on a mini-roadtrip-turned-too-long and her presence was quite strong. Here is what I wrote then:

It was the end of Spring break and tech week for “The Winter’s Tale”. The last ten days were rapidly fading in memory. They left behind a tired, soul aching me, sitting at my porch desk as the day faded.

I had no words left.

Instead of conventional language I had three blobs of paint on a paper plate palette, a brush, water and a piece of paper I had torn angrily into four more-or-less equal pieces.

Samuel and I had arrived home to an empty house following a trip to the Los Angeles airport. We were held tightly during eight hour round trip (due to traffic) into a cocoon in the back seat of a small car. He sat peacefully watching a hand-held GPS device while I allowed thoughts to flicker and flow through me and eventually brought me to this speechless frustration-laden perch on
my front porch that commanded me “Paint! Without question.”

“P!A!I!N!T!”

So I did exactly that. I just painted.

I dipped my brush into the blue-ish blob and added a touch of red and the speechless frustration turned into groaning, angry, somewhat muffled choking as I put the odd-colored paint onto the page and became even angrier at what I created.

“This is not the color I wanted,” my soul lamented silently. From my lips came words I didn’t know were there. “I hate you, oh how I hate you. I h a t e you!”

Where was “this” coming from, I wondered, and what was “this” talking about, why was I so angry and what did I hate?

These questions rose up and washed away as I splattered color and water on one square and it leaped onto the other squares, skittering and scattering from the tempestuousness of my brush beating.

I rinsed my brush, dried it and dabbled into a sweet shade of yellow. I made a box, wanting to practice the shapes and lines as called on by one of my book-learning-painting teachers I met with success-failure and kept painting.

My anger met my breath and I mixed my intention with the paper, water and color, making brush shaped rectangles of orangey-red and then yellow-y orange. My square-once-house became a pastoral scene.

I felt peace rising.

I continued. I continued again and again, two more times. I painted what came, painted what I felt. I sat there, painting, painting, painting.

It felt like hours had passed and it felt like no time had passed.

What happened next surprised me.

I reached out to the initial attempt at painting. When I wasn’t looking, the angry, blue-ish blob that overflowed with contempt had become something beautiful.

It had become beauty itself.

Edgar Degas said it like this: “Only when he no longer knows what he is doing does the painter do good things.”

Even if the only person ever impacted by this painting spree at my porch desk is me, it was and is and will continue to be a good thing.

“Good thing” doesn’t begin to express it.

Georgia O’Keeffe reminds me in her words, “I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way–things I had no words for.”

This painting episode was different than anything I had ever felt. The “must paint” feeling was overwhelming, stronger than any other creative call I have ever had – perhaps because I needed to listen to the message from the paint.

I needed to be the speaker, the conduit, the artist, the audience, the emcee, the chorus, the straight-man and be none of these because the paint overtook everything. It merged with my emotion: it became anger and frustration. The brush and the paint and the water and the paper were as much a part of me as my skin, my blood, my muscles, my bones.

Tears came and washed everything “just right”.

Tears didn’t wash it clean because clean and dirty aren’t relevant.

Comparison – in the moment – doesn’t matter, it is needless. It no longer carries the markings of meaning because tears came and washed everything into a wordless version of “just right”.

I don’t need language dense words to know the exact word-language definition of “just right” because I am intimate, on a soul level, with the wordless “just right”.

I don’t need language dense words to step into the questions the paint answered so vividly for me, for you, for us.

It is as it is, raw and unedited – unmolded, without words, just right.

Julie Jordan Scott inspires people to experience artistic rebirth via her programs, playshops, books, performances and simply being herself out in the world. She created the process #5for5BrainDump that has birthed books, breakthroughs and many more livestream broadcasts. Participate in this process via livestream – to check the current schedule visit #5for5HQ

She is also 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.