Creative Life Midwife

Inspiring Artistic Rebirth

Welcome, July – Optimistic, Warm-Hearted, Let’s Celebrate Completion Friend

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Happy New Month! Happy Monday!

It may seem odd the simple joy I get from layered white canvas. Monday is a week’s new canvas, the 1st of a month is a chance to do my best, again – though my best differs from time-to-time.

I am participating in the Ultimate Blog Challenge once again. My blog and my website and my business have fallen by the wayside more often than not since… well, for a long time. My biggest July intention includes changing that – I have a plan, I have a method, I have collaborators.

This delights me.

Completion, skating along the infinite loop do loop towards endings and beginnings is a place the blog will document throughout the month. I look forward to meeting new people and spending time with old friends.

There is only one July 2024 and one of my greatest desires is to be able to look back at it and say, “Wow, that was an incredible month of peace, joy, fulfillment and more than I expected.

My biggest completion is I am finishing “Haiku Saved My Life: How the Healing Properties of Courage, Creativity & Consistency Changed Everything.”

I refuse to say “finally” because the entire process was important. 

So much of my life over these last years has been about falling down and getting up that the pace of this project is not setting a pattern for books that take forever – after all, this one took half the time of the last one which I ended up shelving so this is actually progress!

“Haiku Saved My Life” is a braided memoir sharing the tales of 377 haiku writing from the end of 2019 into the beginning of 2021. The reader will be taken on an adventure which opened the door to creating several inspiring bodies of work one small step at a time.

It has elements of inspiration, instruction, poetry and themes of mortality are woven in as well.

By mid-month the plan is to send the final draft off the the book designer – and go from there.

Here’s to a festive, celebratory, project completion extravaganza in July!

Julie Jordan Scott is a writer, creativity coach and creative entrepreneur. She enjoys drinking coffee at her desk as she expands her entrepreneurial circle.

Julie Jordan Scott is a Writer, Creative Life Coach and Creative Entrepreneur who looks forward to a July that expands her work as a writer, speaker, teacher, facilitator and traveler.

She is grateful to be spending parts of July with her.

Watch her reels and images on Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/juliejordanscott/

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Gut Kicks & Delayed Returning Day 31/31 of (Self) Belonging:

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I have been wading around the shallow waters of (self) belonging for the last few days due to – not surprisingly – due to what felt like a piercing of my shield (maybe better seen as a cushion, safe space, another word) of my sacred internal safe space.

I don’t feel the need to write the specifics here, but I was thrown by what happened and had the privilege of expressing my emotions with depth and had support to restore myself.

Another metaphor, from the poem “Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver, “the soft animal of my body” needed to go back into my cave and gently, quietly lick my wounds in a familiar, anonymous setting.

A bit of a setback and a bigger space of deeper healing because I allowed myself to feel what needed to be felt, to speak what needed to be spoken and perhaps most important, I allowed myself to receive the gift of belonging from my sister – even when the message I was pushing back on and stumbling along the way was translated through past experiences and the tapes that have played in my mind for years that rang out  “you are wrong, you ruined everything, you are unworthy, you are a problem, you don’t belong” which historically brought me to my dank, dungeon exile, empty of the nurturing tools of love and reassurance.

I can still hear my sister’s light laughter when I recognized she reached out to protect me, to be with me in what had become my danger zone.

I’m not accustomed to being protected. I am grateful she did as it helped me stay in the cave longer and use tools that before would vaporize after an attack rather than become completely numb and unable to access my self-nurturing tools at all.

I realize as I continue to process – my acceptance of protection and taking my time before jumping back into the public sharing is also an example of (self) belonging.

During these last 61 days of 2023, I am getting closer to understanding how to express and live from a space of (self) belonging. What a heart felt victory!

How do you connect with the concepts I’m sharing here in this rough, raw draft?

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

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Belonging in the Classroom of Life: Day 25/31 of (Self) Belonging

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With 67 more days in 2023, I feel a strong call to be more intentional with the time I have both introspectively and in action as I integrate what I have learned and discovered this year in this wildly wonderful classroom of life.

Yesterday I did some early research about belonging in the classroom as a part of my 100 Days of Belonging project. Since I currently work in a school and spend 21 hours a week in classrooms and have a deep caring for the students I serve, this feels exceptionally important.

Unlike many of my peers at the school, I don’t have the pre-Covid/post-Covid experience to longingly look back towards.

Instead, my focus and my independently operated “course of study” and assignment from Harvey Milk – even though he has been gone from the planet for years – is to work from the inside to discover as much as I can about belonging from my experiences with these students.

It’s kind of like yesterday, when I had a huge a-ha about my body and belonging in my body and realizing the significance of shoes in my overall life experience.

More than one of the students I work with show up at school declaring they want to be at home. “I want to go home,” they say. “They want to go home?” says my curiosity.

Instead of what some of my peers do – marginalize the student’s spoken desire – I do some research to see what it means most often when students make such proclamations. 

When students say they want to go “home” it is evidence of being overwhelmed, perhaps a bit of languishing – maybe not being engaged…here we are stepping even more clearly into belonging territory.

As I continue to focus on my self-belonging, I am challenging myself to see where my exploration of self-belonging will help me reach out to students differently. 

On Monday at the end of day, I linked arms with a student who was going through a rough time emotionally mostly because she felt alone and unheard in the classroom. I created a space for us to be together and for her to be heard, to know she was safe saying whatever she needed to say with an adult who would listen, consciously, to what she felt was missing that lead to her upset.

I went home feeling grateful for that connection and looking forward to returning to the workplace as more than just a place to do my seven hours and get back to my “real work” as a creative entrepreneur.

This week has been rich with a-ha’s. I look forward to seeing what’s next.

What has been your biggest a-ha this week?

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

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

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

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Belonging In The Body, Part 2: Day 24/31 of (Self) Belonging

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With a week to go in October, I am starting my monthly ritual of preparing my documents for November.

I like having physical journals and checklists and files, but I also do a lot of my work here at the keyboard. I always begin with the beginning of the previous month, copy and paste.

On October 1, I was recounting a trip to Middletown, New York to look for new shoes. 

New shoes have been a big deal since childhood AND believe it or not, the experience has been primarily unpleasant since around 2019.

A-ha just now – as that coincides with when I first had Valley Fever and Sepsis and spent 13 days in the hospital recovering from my body shutting itself off.  I haven’t been comfortable wearing heels since then. I haven’t worn “cute shoes” since 2019 and have mostly lived in a succession of nearly identical wide width running shoes – wide to make room for the tailor bunions on my left foot – 

On October 1, I purchased three pairs of shoes. Two bootie style, one with a heel (!) and a pair of Mary Janes – perfect for casual dresses. 

On Sunday, I wore the Mary Janes all day – and I was on my feet a lot, and my body did not hurt afterwards.

My body did not hurt.

MY BODY DID NOT HURT!

This morning I woke up and noticed my knees weren’t complaining.

On one of my walks from the kitchen to my desk, I did a exercise I have been trying to incorporate into my routine. It looks easier on the Instagram Reels than it is for me – and once again noticed the stability in my feet and although tired, my body simply felt good. Grounded. Like I belonged within it, like my body and I are joyful companions, not two disparate beings with conflicting agendas.

Huge.

And it all began with belonging.

Allow that to sink in. 

My body simply felt good. Grounded. Like I belonged within it, like my body and I are joyful companions, not two disparate beings with conflicting agendas.

It all began with belonging.

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

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

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

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Belonging’s Invitation: Day 23/31 Please…

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Belonging invites us, at times, to embrace our experience itself to be overflowing with its essence. It helps to both look forward AND look back:

I am coming off a very busy weekend full of belonging-at-large and self-belonging.

This morning, Monday-ist of Monday mornings, I am not feeling as together as I usually am because of that very busy weekend full of belonging-at-large.

My October blog schedule calls for Saturday reviews of the week in the past and then beginning again, fresh on Monday. If you are thinking “wait a second, neither of those have happened” you would be accurate in your assessment.

It is 6:30 am on Monday morning as I write this. I am sitting at my desk eating my breakfast casserole (thanks to food prepping) and sipping coffee. I have managed to get my backpack ready and by the door, I am fully dressed even with accessories, and I have shared my focused time of writing practice and life prep with partners in Australia, Europe and now, with a friend also in North America as I start my last half hour before I go to work, smooshing in as much goodness and joy and productivity into the beginning of the week as possible.

This schedule – starting the day at 5 am with an hour of writing – helps me in both the belonging with others and also belonging to and with myself because writing – and creative entrepreneurship – is something I value highly.

I recognize I go to a jobby-job three days a week that fills tidily into the box that responds to the question, “What do you do?” for many people. For me, where I go on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays is more about “where I go” and “how do I contribute to the community I live in right now.”

My real work day starts at 5 am until 7 am and begins again when school ends and I hit the trail or the library or the desk and create, freely, with all of you in mind.

Part of the deep joy that comes on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays is I can truthfully say when I am there, I am completely content to be there. I am devoted to the students and my co-workers. I am undercover about my creative career. 

Now I am seeing the leap from my school-life to the rest of my life as a super she-ro dropping into that transitional space – like on Star Trek they have the place they go in order to be beamed down to their assignment or Batman and Robin going to the Bat cave and taking off, purposefully and ready for whatever is calling them forward to take their place in serving the world.

I won’t even get this written in time until after I return from the trail, and my most magical local space much later today.

It is so much later, I forgot I had written this and left it unattended… which is fine because I am going to take a few moments and write about the spot on the trail where I felt the ultimate level of place belonging.

This weekend created an odd blend of belonging and hangover… and I hope to do it again, soon.

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

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

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

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Books Reflecting the Longing to Belong: 21/31 Days of (Self) Belonging

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Last night I finished the book “Lessons in Chemistry.” I loved it all the way along, but the last 100 or so pages I found myself so deeply connected to the characters and the messages and the story I could not stop the tears.

I kept flashing to messages from “Braving the Wilderness” by Brene Brown. It was uncanny, how the two connected.

The story itself – one of not fitting in and only feeling a smidgeon of belonging to oneself and only a smidgeon of belonging to a small group of people – it hit home so squarely. The author even used similar phrases that Brown uses. 

As I neared the end of the book, I cried even harder when I realized my favorite books of 2023 had similar themes: grief and belonging. Belonging and Grief. My top four fiction reads this year so far are “Take What You Need” by Idra Novey; “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” by Gabrielle Zevin; “Lessons in Chemistry” by Bonnie Garmus and “Hello Beautiful” by Ann Napolitano share a stunning similarity that the book I am currently reading “Playing the Witch Card” also shares.


Struggles with belonging to oneself and the connection of that to true belonging with others.

I write those words and a part of my nervous system says, “Go to sleep.”

Interestingly enough, when reading “Playing the Witch Card” today I almost shut the book when a scene hit too close to home. I didn’t want to read more. The desire to stop reading wasn’t  to process what I had just read, it was to push away what I had just read.

I wanted to forget the truth reflected in my own life from what I just read.

Ouch and YES!

I kept reading. I will continue writing.

I will grow in belonging with and to myself. I will continue to use this spiritual practice of awakening and notice the connections that are popping up everywhere because in saying YES to belonging, it is also saying YES to synchronicity, even those moments that feel painful at first.

What are you saying YES to in your life today?

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

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

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

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Spread the Love: Day 20/31 of (Self) Belonging

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I wrote a long post and decided not to publish it. Instead, I am offering the opening line from my original post. a belonging quote, a prompt and a short road map to creating your own (self) belonging community.

Yesterday started badly (and processing and choosing to step away, mindfully, helped me to present something more aligned with who I am as one who belongs with you today.

“When you know and respect your Inner Nature, you know where you belong. You also know where you don’t belong.”

Benjamin Hoff, The Tao of Pooh

What was a moment in time in the last three months where you felt like you absolutely belonged, without a doubt?

Take three minutes to write about this experience in detail.

If you can’t recall a moment in the last three months when you felt like you absolutely belonged, consider a small action you may choose to take so that three months from now you will be guaranteed to have an experience where you felt the deeply transformative feeling of belonging.

Ways to Create a (Self) Belonging Community

  1. Ask one to three people to help you with your own belonging project. Invite this person or people to be mutual believing mirrors – look at one another with authentically open eyes and reflect back what you see about each other that is remarkable, unique, significant – and back that up with tangible evidence and witness because concrete visions of “remember when” bear a great deal of meaning, more so than vague concepts. Tune into developing ways to see your inner nature through other people’s perspectives.
  1. Choose to add an action-step to daily times of quiet time. One of my quiet times of the day is driving without the radio, a podcast or playlist going. It gives me space for my mind to wander. This is when discovery deepens – and adding action to those insights questions  like “With whom do I feel the most sense of belonging and satisfaction? Reach out to one of those people via email or actually make that phone call.” These quiet times followed by action will be another tangible way to make friends with your inner nature and your highest self.
  1. Notice the features and qualities of people in your everyday life that you would like to emulate. I have a co-worker who sets the treadmill to walk uphill for twenty minutes a day, for example. I may say to him, “Your walking uphill on the treadmill reminded me I could do that, too, in order to become a better hiker. I won’t start with 20 minutes, I will start with two minutes and work up to ten to start.” Not only does this help you, it helps the people in your life feel a sense of belonging, too. 

Spread the (Self) belonging love!

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

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

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

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The Nurturing Power of Best Habits & Spiritual Practices: Day 19/31 of (Self) Belonging

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A funny thing happened on the way to working for someone else.

I have been a creative entrepreneur for more than twenty years. Even when I “went back to work” it was as a freelancer or gig worker and that’s how I liked it. It is how I wanted it.

I didn’t want to have an employer. Thank you, no. 

When I got my regular, go to work for a set number of days and hours this year it was actually by accident. I wanted to be a substitute teacher but then was offered a five-hours-a-day, five days a week job which I accepted as an experiment.

I became much more organized as I began finishing long awaited projects and when school started this year and I was also babysitting my precious grandbaby 2 and a half days a week, I realized I would be most effective in all of my endeavors if I was more organized with my habits and practices. I needed to put what I learned from “Atomic Habits” by James Clear and “The Power of Habit” by Charles Duhigg into practice.

I do not have extensive, do-or-die practices and habits, it is more like I created habits and spiritual practices that help me feel more loved and nurtured by myself. I need to have extreme focus, especially when I write. Time is limited.

I now prepare my breakfasts one day for eight days and prepare two different protein sources which last me for the entire week of lunches and dinners. 

I put together my outfits so when I wake up I can slide into my clothes as soon as I am out of bed so I don’t have to even think about what I am wearing.

I have a set writing schedule and use focus mate to write with many people all over the world every single morning (at my desk at 5 am 5 days a week and sometimes on Sunday, too.)

I didn’t realize how much I love caring for myself in these ways. It feels so caring, so loving, so much like a caring parent or guardian who says “You are valued, I want you to feel calm and cared for and without a worry in the hectic hubbub of life.”

I am continuing to build my habits so that I may continue to hone these profound feelings of practical means and passageways for belonging to find her way back to me and me to her.

Never, ever did I expect to see this marvelous miracle approaching me.

There are now 73 more days of 2023. What small new habit (or renewed habit) would you like to try until the end of this year?

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

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

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

 

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Belonging Appears in the Strangest Circumstances: Day 18/31 Days of (Self) Belonging

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After writing from a deeply emotional space yesterday, I am stepping into a more lighthearted arena today. I will be back in the deep zone in the next couple days – and I have found my healing works best when I recognize it and give myself pause to remember the times when belonging came easily.

There is a reason I enjoyed driving for a rideshare company: I am primarily openhearted and the instant connections I made with people as I drove them to their destinations was such fun.

This wasn’t true with every single person I drove, but it was uncanny how many people would be 100% vulnerable with me shortly after they got into my car. I gave away free books and some decent conversation as well and sometimes referred to myself as a bartender on wheels without the alcohol.

Yesterday at work I had two separate episodes where I felt instant belonging with new people I met who also work at the school. One I had met before but never had a conversation with until yesterday.

In the first conversation we bonded – connected – felt a sense of belonging when we both confessed to appreciate skunks, up close and personal. 

The second person I had emailed but never met. I have actually seen him but didn’t know who he was. We connected over the Camino de Santiago. Hiking and walking with a soul purpose.

If you have been following me for any amount of time, you know I have been hiking regularly as an adult since 2020 but have loved being on trail since I was a very little girl. It was my father who introduced me to the Appalachian Trail and since moving to New Jersey in 2022 so close to “The AT” I have been fascinated with long hikes. 

The second person was thrilled to talk about “The Camino” and when my excitement matched his, we stayed late after school. I apologized – but he reassured me he loved talking about this and I thought, “Wait a second. This energy feels so familiar.” 

His parents also watch his toddler like I watch my grandbaby. With so many instantaneous belonging key points including him loaning me a book about a Grandma Hiker and me exuberantly telling him to look into Peace Pilgrim I realized this could be an ongoing friendship.

If this sounds foreign to you, remember what it is that creates belonging: In this series we are looking at belonging as an experience of living, working, playing, creating and growing vulnerably with others within a community who are committed and devoted to care for one another – even if it is a temporary, 5-minute community. With belonging, we don’t just talk about caring for one another, we act with care towards one another in a context of transparency, acceptance and openness. All emotions are welcome.

When we see, hear and listen closely to the people we are in relationship with, we are forging a space of belonging.

A smile, a greeting, an extra awareness and kindness all cultivate an environment that says, “I am glad you are here, on this planet.” Everyday, surprise moments of belonging can be great practice for offering compassion and love to those we share our lives with everyday.

The bonus is the ripple effect of each person walking away from an interaction smiling.

Can you remember a 5-minute time of belonging? Please tell us about it in the comments.

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

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

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

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

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Hold Space for the Process: Day 17/31 of (Self) Belonging

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This morning I wrote a mish-mash of notes and I decided to share them here because sometimes the growth towards belonging includes a lot of messy, cluttered, uncomfortable thoughts and examination that doesn’t fit nicely into carefully curated containers.

Last night I forced myself to write a poem about what happened after my mother died and I experienced an episode of extreme anti-belonging. The antithesis of belonging. Another variation of not being seen, not being heard and as a result, being left out of the services for my mother.

I really didn’t even want to write that here.

I didn’t want to put it in black and white.

I wanted to sidle into that reality sideways, not telling the whole truth and instead leave context clues but my fingers on the keyboard forced me further.

Last night I forced myself to write a poem of the extreme pain of the aftermath.

I wrote a sentence and then wrote a poem using the words of the sentence as the beginning of the poem. 

I found it difficult to finish. It most likely won’t be shared, but there is a high value in the process of shaping those words meaningfully.

Sometimes belonging to myself means guiding myself down a cragging unsettled path, like when I walk on the rockiest parts of the trail. The trail hurts my feet and my ankles as I balance and move slowly, methodically, my eyes on the ground to steady myself. I wonder in these moments why do I proclaim how much I like to hike? 

Who cares about hiking and healing and belonging if it feels this tortuous to get here?

Sometimes belonging means I must do the things I want/don’t want to do.I must face the most painful aspects of my stories.

Slowly and methodically I am picking up the pieces of grief and examining them and in order to do that, I need to dust and vacuum away the aftermath – the pain I experienced after Mom died, indirectly as a result of Mom’s death that was and wasn’t about Mom’s death. 

The pain is an echo of my core life stories that have caused me the majority of my sadness, my off-and-on-again relationship with depression and the internal battles I have fought for decades.

In order to heal the pain, I need to give myself room to examine it with not only love and compassion and hope. I need to allow the red hot coals of anger to be at the metaphorical table, too. Tthe difference is, perhaps for the first time only. I am recognizing anger directed toward the outside instead of deflecting anger back into myself – which is what reflects the adage from Sigmund Freud, “Depression is anger turned inward.”

In reading an article from Downtown Somatic Therapy’s blog post, I read “love” and “anger” in the same breath. Anger is love? Anger has a component of love? 

For now, at this stage, I am going to engage with anger and let it help me find my way into a deeper sense of belonging to and with and for myself.

Even as I write this, I brace myself for people who will say some variation of “get over yourself and move along” but what is vulnerability if not knowing people may not understand the value of the work and the healing I am doing and going forward, anyway? Isn’t this an example of belonging as opposed to fitting in?

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

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

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

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