Creative Life Midwife

Inspiring Artistic Rebirth

Take 5 Minutes: Reawaken Your Love for the Writing Process

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Yesterday I attempted to write. I set my timer for five minutes – giving myself the gift of five minutes – and two quotes as my inspiration.

“When love awakens in your life, it is like a rebirth, a new beginning.”

John O’Donohue

“My sun sets to rise again.”

Robert Browning

I am sharing my writing now as an inspiration to you.

Now, for the journey my writing chugged through….

There are so many distractions as I sit here and attempt to write for five minutes about awakening love for my writing process. I see a broom and want to sweep, I look at the clock and I want to assemble lunch for my children and get out into the money making flow “hurry it up hurry it up hurry it up!” I hear in my inner ear. Oh, Lord I can’t do it all – my anxiety reaches for my throat to shut my voice – my writing voice – down.

Five minutes. That’s all.

My fingers continue to move, on the keyboard focused.

Reawaken love for the process.

Let go of end result. Welcome bad or mediocre or luke warm results. (Youch!) Yes, even lukewarm.

Awaken to the process being enough. This is so un-pilgrim-esque there must be results. There must be a something in order to continue I can’t just continue for a nothing that makes no sense.

Writing this is not a nothing, like when Cameron says “No one this or that and no one the other and…” he stares straight at me as he says this. “So I am a nothing and a no one, since I…”

Oh, yeah, that.

Process is worth all of the wonder and exhilaration of being on a best seller list or having twenty five people pay a thousand dollars to hear me speak.

Kathleen is pushing me and I am welcoming it.

My community is rising up to greet me and say “Bring your work forward with and for us” it is almost surreal, beloveds, almost surreal.”

If it was a job.

Is it still less than five minutes?

I heard the coffee pot call me, the coffee pot that has been creating really tasty coffee lately.

I think of the squirrel and planning and play. And me. And love. And movement.

And applause. All that in five minutes.

I like this!

Julie JordanScott, the Creative Life Midwife, is a writer, a poet performer, a Creativity Coach, and a Mother of three. One of her
greatest joys include loving people into their greatness they just aren’t quite able to realize yet. To set up a complimentary exploratory session, please visit here. Be sure to follow her on Social Media platforms so you may participate in one of her upcoming events. You won’t want to miss a thing – your future self will thank you!

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And Time Marches On…. and This Mom Continues Learning, too.

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I heard a weird scratching at the door which I thought might be the cat, though I didn’t see her get out. I watched as the door opened and Samuel stepped through, smiling.

“What are you doing home so early?” It was only 9:30 and his Japanese class at Bakersfield College lasts until 11:10 and then he usually is home a half hour after that, at least.

“Today is mid-terms,” he said, with a wider small than I am used to seeing across his eighteen-year-old usually-bored-with-his-old-mother face.
“How did it go?” I asked.

“Well,” he said. Since he was smiling even more widely, I continued the conversation.

“When will you find out how you did?”

“Tomorrow I think, probably,” he answered. He \share more, his face still bright, the shortened week thanks to the Fourth of July. He took himself and his soda and Takis chips which he bought on the way home, into his Man Cave before texting me.

“I need to rent “The Last Samarai” with Tom Cruise in it for a worksheet for class. I need to get it done soon.”

We went back and forth via text even though we were about twenty steps apart before I gave him my Amazon log-in so he could watch it on Prime.
I think he was excited to use his new debit card for a thirty-day prime trial, but he could wait and use his shiny newly-minted-adult-no-parents-allowed-goodies for another time.

This all feels wonderfully surreal.

  • Wasn’t I just showing up when he was in kindergarten, barracuda mom, when the vice-principal insisted my parenting skills were obviously awful or my child wouldn’t be behaving like this?
  • Wasn’t I just battling it out with educrats about whether or not he could be mainstreamed into more general ed classes?
  • Didn’t he just call and convene his own IEP meeting in writing his Freshman year to make a change in his education plan?

His time at Bakersfield College for Summer School has been nothing short of remarkable, where I was able to stand as an anonymous witness. I have been a student and an employee there. I can blend in and watch him manage the administrative tasks at one time the educators “in charge” never imagined he would do successfully.

The next few months will be interesting. Now that it’s July, we are on the sixth month count-down to a brand new decade. Whoa. I hadn’t connected the dots like that until just this moment.

What are you looking forward to over the rest of this year?

Julie JordanScott is the author of the upcoming book, Dear Autism Mom, a collection of encouraging, instructing and inspiring letters to parents of children who are on the autism spectrum. Her son, Samuel, recently graduated high school and will be attending University of Nevada, Las Vegas in Fall 2019. She is a Life and Creativity Coach, a Writer, Retreat Leader and Social Media Expert who loves inspiring others into their greatness.Facebooktwitterpinterest

How to Be Open to the Art of Receiving

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Receiving: it is one of the most important skills on your journey to living a passionate life. 

Yes, I said “skill” because so few of us are as adept at it as we could be and if we mastered it, truly, both our abundance and passion would grow exponentially. I’m not alone in this thought, I learned it from other experts. Look at what Alexander McCall Smith says: “Gracious acceptance is an art – an art which most never bother to cultivate. We think that we have to learn how to give, but we forget about accepting things, which can be much harder than giving. Accepting another person’s gift is allowing him to express his feelings for you.”

1. Truly receive your next compliment. No matter what your next compliment is, your task is simply to say “Thank you.” You may not rebuff the compliment, for example, say “oh, that’s nothing” because it is something. Receive kudos well and more receiving will come your way.

This video not only shares a valuable writing prompt, it goes more deeply into the concept of accepting compliments as a means of receiving and accepting gifts as a receiving practice.

2. Give without expectation of being “paid back” or “receiving in return” for what you give or what you do. Practicing practical, daily detachment is a heart opening way to invite more receiving into your life. When our motivation is giving-to-receive the greatest point is left behind.

3. Gracious acceptance may mean accepting both what we see as positive and negative. One of the most important skills we can learn, alongside with receiving is also being able to receive criticism and news we don’t want to hear with grace as well as a clear heart and mind.

4. Communicate to others what it is you really want. Oftentimes those around you have no idea what that may be because you haven’t yet communicated with them. One of the techniques I regularly use is asking the question, “Do you know anyone who….?” and then fill in what you want or need. It is like a magic wand to receiving what is wanted or needed.

5. Visualize yourself receiving what you want down to the tiniest detail. Jim Carrey is one of those well-known people who visualized his success long before his success was apparent to others. Athletes consider it “mental rehearsal.” Those who rehearse more often in the mind are also successful in the rest of their lives. Practice this and receive more abundantly.

Before you go, please remember to write to the prompt:

Today I am open to receive….

Below is my unedited response.

I am open to receive surprises. I am open to receive gentle words and refreshing gifts. I am open to receiving the energy to do some of the tasks that aren’t thrilling me. The idea of cleaning my desk, for example, felt so great when I initially planned it as homage to Maria but right now it doesn’t feel so great.

It is almost like she just whispered, “One drawer at a time, Julie,” so I will at least choose to start that project.

I am open to receive financial abundance via my expertise and gifts and talents. I am open to receive new people and connections that will serve as bridges to more abundance in experiences and opportunities.

I am open to receive a splendid sleep and to wake up with plentiful time to hang out with my online friends at 6 am and my new group of spiritual friends at 8 right here in Bakersfield. This, by the way, is so prosperous! Great new friends in Bakersfield!

I am open to receive direction, I am open to receive hugs and praise. I am open to receive new subscribers to my YouTube Channel and social media channels. (This feels almost silly to say but hey, I am open to receive them!)

I am open to receive flowers and chocolate before I die.

I am open to receive shared laughter and deep conversations with surprising people. I am open to receive smiles and acknowledgment and praise. I am open to receive apologies and authentic requests which I pray I am able to fulfill.

Today I am open to receive. I am open to receive.

I am grateful for cooler thn average temperatures. More walking than usual, clean-house-cleaning supplies. I am grateful for pencil sharpeners, good conversations with friends and fluffy pillows.

I am grateful for abundant receiving practice.

Biography of Julie Jordan Scott, Creative Life Coach, Writer, Actor, Mother, Artist, Activist, AdvocateJulie JordanScott, the Creative Life Midwife, is a writer, a poet performer, a Creativity Coach, and a Mother of three. One of her
greatest joys include loving people into their greatness they just aren’t quite able to realize yet. To set up a complimentary exploratory session, please visit here. Be sure to follow her on Social Media platforms so you may participate in one of her upcoming events. You won’t want to miss a thing – your future self will thank you!Facebooktwitterpinterest

My Unsung Hero & Best Gift, 2018 #BridgetotheNewYear

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I am the one without a neck, sitting on my mother’s lap. I was about four months old.

This is one of those stories that had to be written right now and if I didn’t take the time right now to throw words on the page I might have lost courage. I come from a long line of WASP-y people who do our best to not show emotions.

I am a poet and an actor. Asking me to not show emotions is like telling me not to breathe. The way I don’t show emotions is to completely shut off my creativity which I have done on more than one occasion but tonight, in the corner of my living room in Bakersfield, California this is a story that is begging to be heard, felt and shared.

I don’t have an image to share on social media that captures the best gift I received in 2018.

I will never forget it. It can never be replicated. I was both wholly alone and entirely connected in the less than five minutes this gift existed.

It was after a more than slightly unconventional to me Christmas Eve service in a small church in Flagstaff, Arizona. I was the last of my family group to arrive as I slid into the seat next to my sister-in-law. I greeted my brother, who was seated on the other side of my mother, and my sister, her husband and my niece who were sitting in the row behind us.

When the service ended, I stood and waited to greet my eighty-six-year-old mother as she left the pew.

I didn’t expect her to grab my hand and hold it with such tight insistence. It was then I noticed her other hand gripping the cane she had acquired in the months between this and my last visit.

My hand had never been held so tightly, with such fierce determination and so much love.

She let go of my hand only to shake the pastor’s hand as we left the sanctuary.

It didn’t matter that the piercing cold hit my face with force or that I didn’t know what car we were walking her toward. What mattered was she chose me to hold her hand on that cold Christmas Eve.

None of our past aches entered the silence we shared as we focused on each step we took. None of our misunderstandings or lost moments or fretting about endless minor details that often come between a mother and daughter rose above our sole intention: to stay connected as we got Mom safely home.

I helped my mother into my brother’s car and while I am sure arrangements were discussed for me to meet the family back at the house before I turned and walked alone to my car I don’t remember a word.

I remember using my phone’s flashlight to reach my cold car parked on the edge of the unlit parking lot. The pine trees stood silently as I started to cry, suddenly so grateful my children opted not to come to church. Their absence gave me this opportunity to be my mother’s guide and for that brief moment in time, be the most important person in her life – a rarity when one is born into a family with six children.

Earlier that morning I spoke with my father whose biggest news was Mom hadn’t fallen in the last two and a half months. This was a relief to him and good news to me since I knew her falling was now much too regular as her experience of Parkinson’s disease progressed.

I’ve heard people discussing gifts in the days that have gone by since Christmas, but I have remained silent, softly smiling. I don’t have an image to share on social media that captures the best gift I received in 2018.

Mom had her first Starbucks in San Juan Capistrano.

Julie JordanScott, the Creative Life Midwife, is a writer, a poet performer, a Creativity Coach, a Mother of three and one of Nancy Shryock Jordan’s daughters. When she was thirteen-years-old her mother surprised her with a guitar from Santa, all four grandparents and her parents. That was the first time Julie received a gift from her mother she didn’t know she wanted.

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Sacred and Strategic: Welcoming the Return to Heart

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Last night two exceptional things took place: I chose to light a candle before I sat down for my evening writing time and in doing so I claimed the time as sacred. 

Before I went to bed, I blew out the candle and as strange as it may sound,  my notebook insisted I take the time to do my evening sacred journal time.

My sacred strategic journaling time, something I have wanted to do consistently but had challenges making into a regular ritual.

I fell asleep later than expected last night and yet I am awake again before 6 am, writing. My life long lover – writing and the creative process – who I have been neglecting and in neglecting my writing practice I’ve also been neglecting myself.

Sacred. Set apart. Loved.

The action of writing, free flow, journaling is sacred. When I recognize and complete the act I recognize the blessings I receive in taking the simple action. It is the opposite of neglecting myself and my intention, it is bathed in spirit and love and it says “You have chosen yourself, you have chosen to invest in your vision, you have come inside it instead of pressing your nose against the window of it.”

Somewhere in the past few years at some time, it doesn’t matter right now exactly when and where, the last lingering shred of my daily practices fell away.  I did them less often than I didn’t.  I didn’t make excuses, I didn’t talk about it I didn’t even notice enough to put voice to their absence. Unconsciously, I pushed away what kept me the most productive and happy. I didn’t even look up as they exited the room.

A metaphor hovering above my fingers is “your lack of devotion to your practices closed your heart-door” and along with it my mind-brain door. And while I looked pretty ok on the outside, if one looked closely – it was obvious. 

Now I’m back, now I am taking action – in the book-ends of sleep and waking. Three days in and a part of me says “You can’t call yourself back yet,” but I do and I am.

Yes, I had been writing – but it wasn’t as much of the free flow style, writing simply to write that quenches the thirst of my spirit, that actually soothes the underbelly of what’s showing up as “wrong” in life and understands clearly it is all simply process.

This was sacred. And I forgot it. 

Last night, I picked it back up and held it in the candlelight. 

I remembered. Sacred. 

Sacred is back and I am, too. 

I am sitting in the center of the sacred chambers of my heart, moving my fingers on the keyboard allowing words to find their way whether good or bad or boring – the letters and words are no longer stalled. I’m declaring the end of my prison term, the completion of my punishment and the return of the daily sacred, of experiencing the transcendent joy in the extraordinary ordinary, I am devoting myself a bride to my own worth and return to the safe haven of self-love.

I realize some people will find this entire public written display to be quite odd.

So be it.

This post came from engaging with the 7 Magic Words process from Marisa Goudy. Find out more here. 

Julie JordanScott is a creative life coach, writer, poet, Mama extraordinaire and mixed media artist whose greatest joys include loving people into their greatness they just aren’t quite able to realize yet. To set up a complimentary exploratory session, please visit here.

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Best Social Event: “I Wasn’t Feeling Well Emotionally, So I Declined”

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Yesterday Facebook started making video year-end recaps for its users and I was slightly surprised most of my images they posted were family, family and more family. Extended family and my children with one photo of an outing with friends, one photo of the play I was in, and one photo about my social media work.

Add to that surprise and today’s Bridge to the New Year prompt and another reality clunked me over the head: my social life has taken a nose dive in the past couple years but this year quite markedly.

What was the best party or social engagement I attended? What was the most significant?

Looking back, I didn’t attend many parties – in fact, I didn’t attend any at all after a Super Bowl Party – except for my parent’s 65th anniversary party. For someone who used to attend several parties a month, this is one of those big red flags that sometimes remains invisible and reminds me why year end recaps that cover a wide variety of themes are so important.
Wait: I stop myself. I did attend Katherine’s ordination and there was a party involved.

There were, however, two parties I attended in Bakersfield: a book club related Super Bowl party. I attended a first birthday party of a precious little boy.

I don’t remember invitations flooding in, either. I remember one birthday party invitation, but I wasn’t feeling well emotionally so I declined.

That. Is. It. In. a. nutshell.

“I wasn’t feeling well emotionally so I declined.”

My task for 2019 is to challenge my “not feeling well” through creating context so that I will be included, so I won’t be isolated. I have made some new connections locally and have been asked to participate in a video project and have an article assignment for a local publication.

My book club is party-like at times. There is a meeting this Friday which I hadn’t planned attending because I didn’t read the book (couldn’t find it easily and it isn’t a particularly compelling title but now I am thinking I will read excerpts and go anyway.)

I have had “Host a Sunday before Thanksgiving Gathering” on my list of wish-to-do’s for years. This weekend I am putting together a calendar for the year and working backwards to insure my biggest projects have tasks broken down throughout the year.

This will be one of them.

I will also add “getting together with friends in the “in between” times. ” to my calendar. I used to love doing this when I attended more parties. i see now, visibility helps.

Small, meet-ups for coffee. Casual movie matinees. Taking note and following up on birthdays. Texts for no reason letting people I care about know I am thinking of them and want to include them more in my simple, everyday activities.

It may seem like a simple, not much there prompt and yet it is so much more.

Join the community forming for Bridge for the New Year now. 

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2018: My Heart Held by a Cause.

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Most people I interact with on a daily basis don’t know I was an international relations major back when I was studying and dinosaurs roamed the earth. I even studied at the United Nations for a semester with my biggest thrill being when I was mistaken for an employee one day. Be still my heart!

I surprise people more when I tell them I am an Africanist. My area of special interest was Sub-Saharan Africa, with an emphasis on West Africa. I don’t get to use my expertise much, but recently, I have been visiting refugees seeking asylum in the United States who are currently being detained at a facility here in Bakersfield.

I won’t go into my many complex thoughts on this issue, but I will say opening my heart to these women has been among the most moving experiences of my life. Their stories, their determination, their kindnesses are unmatched.

As I write this I am on a train headed toward Oregon for my Aunt’s memorial service. My first daughter from Cameroon is praying for my travel to be safe and stress-free. I texted her – we text often, as I do with my other daughters. My second daughter from Cameroon is currently in detention so I see her weekly, for an hour. We write letters back and forth. The hour a week goes far too quickly.

I am still actively involved with One Billion Rising/and VDay, working to end violence against women and girls.

Now, however, my heart has a unique outreach concerning violence against refugee women worldwide.

I didn’t expect my heart to be so enriched that day when I saw a training from a local refugee and immigration rights group and decided it might fill the void of other losses this year. On a whim, I went – and I have not been the same since.



This blog post was written from a prompt offered in the “Bridge to the New Year” experience which you may find at JuicyJournaling.com. Join a group of creatives reflecting, connecting, intending and taking passionate action as they step into 2019.

Julie Jordan Scott is the Creative Life Midwife. THANK YOU for reading!



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Unfinished Goal: Re-Devoted: The Virginia Woolf Room

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I knew I had neglected the room I was so excited to create. I knew there came a point after I moved the furniture I had been using when Emma was away into the other room and I settled again for leftovers and mishmash that I was also sending a message to myself that wasn’t very loving.

“It is in our idleness, in our dreams, that the submerged truth sometimes makes its way to the surface.”

― Virginia Woolf

The nuances, subtle, go unnoticed.

I mean, I knew I had neglected the room I was so excited to create. I knew there came a point after I moved the furniture I had been using when Emma was away into the other room and I settled again for leftovers and mishmash that I was also sending a message to myself that wasn’t very loving.

“You can have whatever’s left. Sure, you were going for a feminine and feminist room of your own, literary granny style and all, but you know, that was a lark just like so many other things you try…” and little by little my once-almost-what-I-wanted became a disorganized jumble, not at all the oasis it was eighteen months ago, newly painted and hard wood floors restored, a soft comforter in pink and so many pillows in various shades of pink and polka dots it made my heart go pitter pat whenever I walked in and plunked on the bed to write. I had a make shift lap desk, art on the walls, and at about five o’clock every day the light became especially magical.

When Emma reclaimed her furniture, my pink bedding no longer fit. The dresser was bulky and dark, the bed lumpy and small.

The love affair was over. I took the art off the walls. I never changed the time on the clock to reflect falling back and springing ahead.

While I had thought about springing into action to reclaim my vision, it wasn’t until I chose to answer the prompt for today it all fell into place so clearly.

I even made a plan

  1. Clear room, beginning the day after return from Oregon (December 11)
  • Move book shelf to D’s to complete the restoration by January 1 (latest, 1/29)

It might sound strange, but this unfinished project is a barrier because its taking up of space in my room is an example of me not feeling heard and me agreeing, by default, that I wasn’t valueable enough oto be heard.

A carpenter I met offered to make me a custom book shelf – because I wanted it to include slates to sort my ephemera and paper. I told D about this but he insisted he could do it better. He  bought an enormous shelf from a university he wanted to fix up, but he didn’t ever seem to hear what I wanted. He punted it to me to work on, which is definitely not what I wanted. About a month ago I sent him an image of my “dream shelf” and suddenly, he got it. Maybe nearly two years late, but if I get it before the beginning of the year – or even before my birthday on January 29 I will be very happy.

  • Only put back into the room what is MEANT to be in there and has a purpose for being there. Make list and diagram of wall art and furniture. Complete by December 15.
  • Commit to blog on December 31 with photos of progress. J

Vision reclaimed, plan in place. Virginia Woolf room, I am excited to enjoy you again! Happy New Year!

This blog post was written from a prompt offered in the “Bridge to the New Year” experience which you may find at JuicyJournaling.com. Join a group of creatives reflecting, connecting, intending and taking passionate action as they step into 2019.

Julie Jordan Scott is the Creative Life Midwife. THANK YOU for reading!

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Bridge to the New Year Day 1 – Introduction: A Potpourri of Me

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In December of 2018 and 2019 we reviewed the prior year and created a vision for the next year. 2020 threw us a curve ball that has left many of us nostalgic and…. longing for anything different.

Below is a throw-back post from Bridge to the New Year that invites you to know who I am at my core – and at the bottom you will see a place to sign up for our Mid-2020 Shift: #Refresh2020…. an initiative to return to Passion and Purpose, even amidst this chaotic. confusing, revolutionary year.

Use this prompt across social media – link up at JuicyJournaling.comhttp://juicyjournaling.com


My first thought was:


How am I going to get 10 – 30 things about me that are in anyway interesting that won’t bore everyone because we all know, well, some of us have been educated – there is nothing more horrid as an artist than being boring.


So. I took some time to brainstorm some things about me you may not know. I haven’t done much proofing so I apologize for any grammatical or spelling errors in advance. Take it as freedom to be imperfect.


1. I have never seen any Harry Potter films nor have I read any Harry Potter books. I know you may be saying “How shocking! That’s appalling! I would LOVE Hermione! How could I not read these fantastic books?! Two parts to that response. 1. I take offense when woman authors don’t proudly stand up and say “I am a woman!” granted, I didn’t know JK Rowlings’ story at the time or I might not have been so strident and 2. When I say something, I usually stick with it.

2. I am a melanoma survivor. I have a large heart scar on my face as a remnant and a reminder. I often cover it with hair styles.

3. I gave up acting for thirty years between the ages of eleven-years-old and forty-one-years-old. Although I am not as active in performance as I once was, I have done more than thirty stage productions, seven films, a documentary and a handful of commercials. Weirdly, I have an IMDB page. How did this happen?

4. Writing and poetry has been in my blood stream since before I was literate. I still love being read aloud to – it is one of my most favorite activities on the planet.

5. One of my highest values is showing up, so if I say I will be somewhere I try really hard to get there and if I am not there, I am either near dead, helping out in a child-emergency, or beating myself up for not planning better or whatever it is that got in my way.

6. I have a brown spot in my left eye. This is one of those boring trivia items just because I tell it all the time and it is no longer interesting.

7. When I was in high school, I entertained my friends during lunch by doing accents. Now I entertain my friends on live stream… doing accents.

8. My uncle Jim used to call me “A dandy baby” primarily because I smiled all the time and was very charming. I used this throughout my childhood and into young adulthood. I remember when we were traveling I would focus on business men with my coquette-ish flirting. I remember receiving at least one gift. In my first job after college at a rental car company, my co-workers were in awe of how many customers brought me gifts.

9. I am an ordained minister, like Joey in Friends. I am also an actual ordained deacon in the Presbyterian Church, USA. I can officiate weddings and funerals and any other sacred ceremonies people might want performed. I have the honor of doing weddings from time-to-time though I really loved facilitating/leading/officiating my brother’s celebration of life after he died and would enjoy doing more of those.

10. I have been blogging since 2003. I had a rather successful website from which I made a sustainable living from 1999 to 2007. I originally blogged to have an “unplugged” place online where I didn’t have to be my “professional persona” all the time. Everything has evolved but I have a block around websites. I have a new one half-assedly in the works and the designer of CreativeLifeMidwife and I never really hit it off in a way that made completion a thing. So. There’s that.

11. I am an art journaler and mixed media artist. (I said that aloud here for some of my artist friends who have been waiting to hear me confess that.) As far as visual arts go, I have mostly sold photos but I have also sold several mixed media pieces. Not a lot, but… perhaps someday.

12. I love to travel and aim to be a digital nomad once my children are up and out of the house. After today, with Emma’s health issues I wonder if that will be any time soon at all, which is a fair thought neither to her nor my vision for the world and the future. These thoughts are exactly why Bridge to 2019 is so important! To work through what happened and gain clarity so that intentions may be set and re-visioning may take place.

13. I have been writing since before I could write. I would dictate to my mother and she would write out what I said and I would copy it in crayon. This is part of my ‘writer’s story” which I feel I overtell.

14. Before I was 45 I lost 5 close friends to various sorts of cancers. I have never explored the impact of this, but I don’t know anyone else who has lost so many close friends. I just connected how close their deaths came to John’s death and the many losses of 2006/7.

15. Speaking of 2007, when John died, I had an out of body experience. How I describe it is this: my soul leaped from the shell that hosts it and chased after John. God (insert whatever word you use here) literally shoved me back into my body and wordlessly told me “No you don’t! Your work isn’t done here.” I might not have believed this really happened except my children who were in the car with me when it happened (yes, the car was parked) saw my body rise up, flop down and miraculously not crash my head against the steering wheel on the descent.

16. I am a PTA Mom. This didn’t happen until Samuel was in High School. I believe in parental involvement, but usually kept my business on the district level. I am grateful my time as a PTA Mom is almost over. My specialty within the group beyond being the secretary is doing all the public speaking and selling stuff.

17. I have been known to say my children are my greatest creative project of all. I believe this to be true. My biggest fear in life is failing my children. I don’t think this fear will ever go away.

Emma, Samuel and I at my childhood home in Glen Ridge, NJ in 2017

18. I believe the world is filled with loving people, primarily wanting to have a positive place in the world. I recently saw this unfold when a totally diverse group of strangers and friends rallied around a young refugee woman from Cameroon I befriended while she was in detention at an ICE facility here in Bakersfield. These people didn’t ask about political parties, religion, socioeconomics, anything. They heard there was a need they could fill and they did, immediately and in the moment. This was one of the most humbling, incredible experiences of my life. I’m sure it will come up during the Bridge.

19. I have four brothers and one sister. I have had one brother die. I basically don’t speak to two of my siblings and sometimes I wonder how they will feel when I die. I think I have grieved the loss of our connection for a long time, so I have no idea how I will grieve. My brother I am in closest touch with texted me tonight and confirmed we will all have Christmas together, something Mom had mentioned but I was afraid to follow up on. This means – during the Bridge, I will have a closer answer.

20. I realize I have many more than 30 I could share actually, but I will stop here. I separated out the birth stories. I have always been fascinated with birth stories (there is a reason I am the creative life midwife!) and Katherine is named after a midwife – who happened to be one of my close friends who died very young – but I figured not everyone is as enamored. Oh, wait. Make it 21.

One of my favorite photos of my daughters and me, circa 2012 ish.


21. I am a relatively open book and will answer most questions I am asked directly without hesitation. Feel free to ask.

Birth Stories:
22. I have been pregnant 5 times. I have three living children and 2 other daughters-of-the-heart who refer to me as Mom or My Mom.
23. When I gave birth to Samuel, I was speechless when I saw I had managed the impossible – giving birth to a boy. (If you are willing to have some TMI, I also had an orgasm when I had Samuel. How strange is that! I will never tell him that though… just too weird.)
24. When I gave birth to Emma, my first loving words to her were, “She has a cone head.”
25. When I gave birth to Katherine, it took me a while to look at her. I was scared. After all, the first thing I said after Marlena was born was, “Our baby is dead.” I think I’ll edit that out. In the end,  I chose not to. Edit it out.

Julie JordanScott is The Creative Life Midwife and one of the Founders of Bridge to the New Year. Join us now in 2020 in #Refresh2020 to reflect, connect, intend and taking passionate action to create a truly remarkable rest of 2020. Click the graphic below to find out more and register to receive emails.

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Do You Have a Secret Goal?

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I do. Well, the goal itself is secret – the fact I have a secret goal is obviously not so secret now.

Loud and clear now: “My name is Julie and yes, I have a secret goal.”

I’m not going to share what it is quite yet, I am sticking with it personally on my own in quiet until I get comfortable sharing about it and when I do, I am going to show it rather than tell it.

This post is my way of showing its beginnings that today moved from thought into action and goodness, that action feels remarkable.

My birthday is three months from Monday and my goal is to aim toward this goal daily until then and on that day, my birthday, I will elect how to focus for the quarter after that and throughout the year, I will continue to move and assess every quarter.

Why a secret (yet not entirely since I am sharing about it here) goal rather than just blurting it all out in its whispered audacious self-consciousness?

Secret because the little girl in me is scared of disappointing my adult self, she knows my adult self has had too many moments of sadness this year and to make a wild pronouncement… and then if something disrupted it… she is well aware I have come close to my personal limits of being ok with the muck of life this year and she is protecting me – herself – by standing here, holding my hand, in self-protection and love.

When we work on this secret-not-so-secret goal, we smile and laugh and jump up and down… yes. This final quarter my friends… it will be such a blast to share with you.

The people who named me “Creative Life Midwife” found words and paint and laughter and flexed their courage muscles on the way to a deeper satisfaction in their daily lives via new blogs, books, webinars and friendships – just to name a few. Contact me now for your complimentary Transformational coaching conversation.  Click here to complete the request form now.  


Julie Jordan Scott (the one who wrote this blog post) says: This is what I crave for you: soulful creativity, aliveness in your passionate productivity, and a deeper sense of knowing how you belong in the world so that together we will be able to create a context for the rest of your life via your next book or your next workshop or simply your next day, week, month or year.

The people who named me “Creative Life Midwife” found words and paint and laughter and flexed their courage muscles on the way to a deeper satisfaction in their daily lives via new blogs, books, webinars and friendships – just to name a few. Contact me now for your complimentary Transformational coaching conversation.  Click here to complete the request form now.  

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