Creative Life Midwife

Inspiring Artistic Rebirth

There are Many of Us with Writing Wounds: Let’s Heal Together Now

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Fifth grade was a rough year for me. I had my first taste of mean girls when my long term girl gang dumped me in one of those horrid pre-pubescent moments when the other girls decided I didn’t measure up to their checklist of cool-ness, my family was being tossed and turned by transitions and shifts, and I started middle school.

In those first weeks – perhaps the very first week of middle school – I got pulled aside in my English class with a group of 6 or 7 other students who hadn’t done well on our first writing assignment.

(The wound still hurts, I discover, so I will shift into third person for a moment).

Little Julie, who always excelled in writing, was set aside as someone who writes badly.

She who had been scribing before she was literate – dictated to her Mommy, sat in the back seat of the turquoise country squire because  and wrote cursive e’s in row after row after row because she knew she had something important to say  and she wasn’t going to let the fact that  she didn’t know how to read or write stop her.

She knew she had to write.

(Now that Little Julie had her moment, back to Now Julie).

By the time Mrs. Wilson got to me to review my bad writing, I started to cry and couldn’t stop. Here was the one thing I knew I was good at being marked the equivalent of a “D” with all the requisite red marks across my carefully planned words.

David and Perry were there and only one other girl. I was singled out with the low achievers and only one other girl who I didn’t know and I further embarrassed myself by crying as I explained, “But I always write well….”

I can step back outside myself and witness this as an adult and I see Mrs. Wilson’s horrified at herself face for “making this little girl cry” (perhaps sparking her own memory) and before the end of that session, my paper had been remarked “Excellent” and I went on to have a great year in that particular classroom.

It even became a refuge for me amidst other not-so-great stuff which may be why the call to write and broadcast about writing woundedness is so strong.

On my periscope broadcast today one of my beloveds spoke of her writing wounds and how writing with us in #5for5BrainDump changed things for her. So I cried again today, live, and now recorded, for anyone in the world to see. And now I am not even embarrassed. Tears of joy, tears of sorrow, tears of authenticity – no apologies.

I’ve been trying to find something written about the woundedness many feel around writing – perhaps the biggest cause of writer’s block and I can’t find a thing about it.

Strange, because this is oftentimes the reason people show up in my programs, classes and livestreams: they’ve gotten the word I create a safe environment for people who want to write: a place where we write together, allowing our pencils and pens to flow freely without worry of judgment or a big thick red pen marking out our most of the time carefully chosen words.

Harsh criticism – delivered without considering the person whose hand brought those words to the page – is something that has long troubled me. I have many examples from my past I’ve managed to write around which is somewhat surprising given my sensitive nature.

People have stories to tell, YOU have stories tell that the world is waiting to hear – a specific audience member, a distinctive listener or reader waiting for you to become brave enough to move your pencil across the page and say what needs to be said, what is waiting to be said as only you can say it.

With you.

The world is waiting for your words.

Let’s bring them to the page now.

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Note to Self (and to YOU, reading.) Continue: When All Else is…..

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Note to self and to you: when all else feels like it is failing, all I need to do is this:

Right now, as a vibrant member of the human community I choose to….continue. To grow, to feel, to express, to love, to seek understanding and compassion. Reminding oneself, daily, of wonder right in front of us.

Here is what happened when I reviewed a line of Diane Ackerman’s poem, SCHOOL PRAYER and used it as a writing prompt. The actual visual prompt is beneath my writing for YOU to use. Also below is a video I created as a result of this writing.

I offer myself as a messenger of wonder –

How do I do this?

I open my mouth.

I open my mouth and I speak what is in front of me.

I open my mouth and I speak the details of what is in front of me – the lines, the light, the way the lines and light reach back to me and fill my hand with energy that ignites my muse and makes my fingers push the keys that become these words and further the process in an infinite loop de loop when someone else lifts her or his or their chin and sees… oh, the plug.. oh the chord into the plug that makes the light turn on. The switch. I hear the click, I see the light turn on and suddenly I notice…

And the a-ha’s flow because people say “I never saw it like that, I never thought of it like that, I never… until now and suddenly the plug becomes an object of wonder and curiosity and we appreciate those who created the plug and the lamp and our heartbeat joins their heartbeat and the collective heartbeat and….

In what ways am I currently a messenger of wonder?

Here. Now. This. You. Look. Listen. Translate. Taste. Touch. Cry when you feel it, laugh when you feel it. Feel free and stand with it, allow yourself to hold onto that fearful moment with the same gentle tenderness as you hold onto a first kiss or a first bite of the most incredible taste ever (pesto, dark chocolate, pear brandy come to mind) and then….. recognize the divinity of that moment and….

How would I like to further my message of wonder in the world?

Increase the people I interact with and who appreciate what I am up to… invite them in. Cherish their them-ness. Reflect this beauty of humanity so the static will be silence and the pure breath and tone and light and harmony and dissonance and choking and relaxing back into presence flows….

Right now, as a message of wonder in my world I choose to….continue.

And now it is your turn: write about being a messenger of wonder in your unique way. Splash words and images freely on the page. Ready? Here’s your prompt:

 

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When Prompts Don’t Quite Do The Trick, Here’s What I Do

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See the prompt to leftt?

It didn’t work this morning for me. I tried it – and nothing.

It is from the poem I am focusing on this month, “In Praise of My Destroyer” by Diane Ackerman  and it just wasn’t working.

I needed to do a couple things.

  • Search for related quotes. One I focused upon is from my dear friend and always inspirational Ralph Waldo Emerson. I aimed the patience he suggested directedly at myself.

“Adopt the pace of nature. Her secret is patience”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

  • Choose key words out of the prompt or reading and focus on them as singular entities rather than a part of a whole. This really helps ignite the writing process. “Humble Guardian Nature” allowed me to play with each individually and provided me freedom.
  • Create art, letting go of the need for language. here’s what I came up with:

And finally I got down to the business of the Brain Dump… moved my fingers and trusted….

Sometimes I have a challenge with the prompts I write, the prompts others write… prompts in general. I sit at my keyboard or at my desk, my fingers mute. No movement – and I wonder, “Am I concerned somehow with getting this right even though I am the only one here, writing? I’m not in a class and then it comes to me.

Consumable. Audience. Worried about the consumable product I am trying to create.
It would be more apt to say I am a worried creator of hoped for value but never trusting it will really work out so if I sit with my fingers immoveable close to the keyboardd nothing bad will happen until we discover 15 years have passed and nothing of note or merit or meaning has happened.

And I am to blame.

And not moving and ignoring the blame (which I know kvetching without action to change is really foolish) and so I chase my tail.

I say I don’t want to chase my tail and I won’t chase my tail so I find myself a guardian to my stagnation, choosing to lie down atop my gifts and talents, a rather forlorn lump of purple plaster of paris, cracked and crumbly who has given up on seeking water to replenish her.

(My thought now? Geesh, I’m being melodramatic again, no wonder people don’t like me.”)

It is close to dawn.

I look out my living room window as I type, taking my hands away from the keyboard long enough to hold my coffee mug to my lips and gaze at the mulberry tree standing watch over the bay window.

Her chin is lifted now (her being the tree, not me suddenly speaking in third person) her branches up and not quite weeping.

My gardener doesn’t like her sweeping branches, kissing the ground.

I love them like it when the branches kiss the soil. Next Spring, I need to speak clearly to my gardener to let the branches sweep the lawn with their grace.

I notice Emma did some tidying up while I wasn’t looking and am slightly surprised and primarily pleased.

My intention for today is to feel better.

Yesterday was another ball of contentment: a blend of work-life, taking care of loved ones and basking in the afterglow of long-ago creative process that is such a part of acting in a film. We do our thing, put our images on film and the artists who come afterwards continue the process while we go back to the rest of our lives and almost forget that initial process.
I am a humble guardian of my days, wanting not to send myself into a pattern of destruction. I want to live.

I would like to be a humble guardian of my gifts – one who takes my gifts and mixes with whatever turns up and move forward with better and better life experiences.

The timer goes off again.

I say good enough for now and know the keyboard and the letters will still be where I left them when the time comes to write again.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here’s a surprise – for some of you.

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

Seriously play.

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

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

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

Come on, you know you do.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here’s how the Drizzle Works:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Light and dark and back and forth again.

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

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

Julie Jordan Scott inspires people to experience artistic rebirth via her programs, playshops, books, performances and simply being herself out in the world.  She is a writer, creative life coach, speaker, performance poet, Mommy-extraordinaire and mixed-media artist  whose Writing Camps and Writing Playgrounds permanently transform people’s creative lives. Watch for the announcement of new programs coming soon.

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

  Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing. 

 

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Does it Matter What Causes Your Block or Simply Get Over It? #5for5BrainDump

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For months – or over a year, rather, my neighbors have gotten in the way of my writing on my porch. It is a favored space for me to sit and write in the morning or broadcast or drink coffee and find peace while rocking in the oversized red rocking chair. The new neighbors with their questionable “friends” and other “accessories” have kept me inside, until lately.

For months – since May, I haven’t slept in my Virginia Woolf room I started creating well over a year ago. When Emma came home, I gave it to her as a temporary space until we juggled bedrooms and I took up residence on the couch. Yesterday, I slept beside the window and walk up this morning in the grey light, happy to find myself under the breeze from the gentle ceiling fan and the carefully picked out art showing me Virginia’s room.

It felt so good until my mind started scattering marbles all over the floor and I lost the deep peace – for a moment or twelve.

“One step at a time, one thing at a time, one solution at a time” are some of my favorite watch words lately to bring me back into presence.

They are soothing, another word which has become a frequent visitor in my lexicon.

The applause says time is up, which I’ll accept.

I did also want to honor my age old tradition of writing haiku on Friday. I sat on my porch this morning and wrote, even with my less than optimal neighbors bent over cars and having folks in and out before 7 am.

Haiku writing is healing: a simple poetry form, a sacred prayer form as well, here is a song suite from this morning that was born when I invited myself to say what needed and wanted to be written.

We heal one haiku at a time

 What I want to say

Yogurt calms rumbles

Ativan calms inner howls

Wait: tide will go out….

fake it til you make it

Sunrise through elm tree

Red rocking chair and coffee

Alta Vista peace

Worst strategy:

Please don’t nag at me

Each contact leaves a blister

Longer time to heal – 

Best strategy

I’m thinking of you –

Let’s create this together

Your work helps the world 

 

Prompt: Haiku is simply a seventeen syllable poem, a short work of art.

Some say it is like an inhalation and an exhalation.

I often start my haiku with what is in front of me, which can be seen in “fake it til you make it” above.

The worst strategy and best strategy are microcosm statements of what works well – and doesn’t work well – in communication with me. I realize it is helpful to be able to express these thoughts to people, especially when I am experiencing depression.

So start with something in front of you and write it in this micropoem container.

______/ ________ / ________/ ______/______

______/ ________ / ________/ ______/______/_____/______

______/ ________ / ________/ ______/______

Next, if you are an entrepreneur, see how you might fit your business story in a tiny haiku. For the artful entrepreneur, combining headline writing and copywriting with haiku adds another layer of creative play.

Set your timer for five minutes – and write as many haiku as you’re able!

Julie Jordan Scott inspires people to experience artistic rebirth via her programs, playshops, books, performances and simply being herself out in the world.  She is a writer, creative life coach, speaker, performance poet, Mommy-extraordinaire and mixed-media artist  whose Writing Camps and Writing Playgrounds permanently transform people’s creative lives. Watch for the announcement of new programs coming in soon!

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

Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.

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Trust the Page to Hold Your Heart, Always

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It is never a bad time to write.

Nearly everywhere you find yourself, in every situation, it is a good time to write.

Sometimes I write in my head, the inner narrative keeping me company when I’m alone. I may be observing the street scene in front of me or the memory behind me, yet I know this quiet contemplative “writing” soothes me, whether the leaves on the mulberry mask the sunshine or the fog covers my lawn with such density I can’t see the cars drive down the street, writing is my companion.

Its always been that way.

For some people it is a dog, a pet, a lover, a best friend, a workout, a walk, a drive, a shopping trip.

For me, it is words, strung together on a page or a document or even just in my mind.

Word-love – sometimes lust – attuned to the greatest good – it is never a bad time to write.

I’ve trained myself to focus and upon the light as I end my writing rather than any destructive elements that appear when we open our mind and heart onto the page. We process pain, grief and the elements of life some categorize as “less than” which I know to be, at times, filled with sacred bliss when one allows them space to move within.

Writing has helped me consistently to engage such experiences and heal, grow and morph through a partnership with love and gratitude amidst their experience rather than deny their experience.

It is never a bad time to write.

Julie Jordan Scott inspires people to experience artistic rebirth via her programs, playshops, books, performances and simply being herself out in the world.  She is a writer, creative life coach, speaker, performance poet, Mommy-extraordinaire and mixed-media artist  whose Writing Camps and Writing Playgrounds permanently transform people’s creative lives. Watch for the announcement of new programs coming in soon!

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

Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.

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Tales of a Gratitude Convert: How Writing A Love Letter to My Eyeglasses Caused a HUGE shift

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There was a time when I would describe myself as a “Gratitude Convert”. I had been wayyyy over the top cynical about what I called the whole “phoneys with their attitude of gratitude nonsense!” yet several years ago all that shifted.

I am now a proponent of gratitude from the first hand knowledge of its power in my life. Period.

My practice isn’t what it used to be, though.  I can’t even explain why.  Yesterday and today, I “got” gratitude even more deeply, even as a long time gratitude practitioner. I am thinking I will Re-Start my practice by doing exactly what I did yesterday. Read on to see what I mean:

I read a prompt yesterday when I was in a moment of “I want to write but I just don’t feel inspired by anything!” and voila, my purple eyeglasses caught my attention.  I wrote for sixty seconds. I didn’t come up with anything particularly brilliant, but it – and they – helped me to see into gratitude a bit more deeply.

You know, feeling meaningful gratitude for those every day, mundane items in our lives that we would function less well if we didn’t have them.

I decided to pull the prompt out and write a thank you/love letter to my eyeglasses. Before you read my love letter, find something of yours that is right there, within an arm length. Set it beside or in front of you as you read my love letter.

If you want to feel even more deeply, read my love letter aloud.

Beloved Eyeglasses,

You tirelessly sit on the bridge of my nose, asking for nothing but the occasional cleaning. You help me to see things I could not see without you. Even now, as I get more mature and take you off and leave you places carelessly, you don’t complain.

You never get up and leave me. It is I who consistently leave you.

I feel your generous smile when I put you back up there, straddling my nose, aligning with my ears, fulfilling your sole purpose: to help me see.

Oh, beloved Italian purple eyeglasses, Katherine keeps telling me to get a new pair, that you don’t work as well as you once did for me, that I shouldn’t have to take you off all the time but… I can’t bring myself to switch to a different pair.

Sure, there have been others. My first pair fell into the Delaware River when I was canoeing after my mother warned me, “Don’t go canoeing with your glasses on!” and 

then, there was the time when we sat at the optometrist and I, in a brief moment of prepubescent rebellion told my Mom to just shut up about my going to camp by myself and how brave it was – “Shut up with your praise, Mom!”

You must understand, Purple pair of eyeglasses, this was the back-then equivalent of saying “the “F” word you, Mom…” My glasses have all made me feel braver, I suppose, because with you, I can see.

Without you, everything is blurry.

I remember one spiritual friend of mine insisting glasses are not a real need, that I could use my mind as a visual corrector instead.

I didn’t argue as I don’t usually. I nodded and listened and knew when I have you in my life, my life is simply better.

Oh, beloved purple eyeglasses.

It took this moment for me to see what is right here, in front of my face.

I love you dearly.

Thank you.

Your now even more grateful owner,

Julie

 My eyeglasses are my friend, nearly lifelong friend. Eyeglasses have been a part of my profile since I was in sixth grade and could no longer see the chalk board. I didn’t always wear the same purple pair, but I have always had some always-ready-to-serve eyeglasses close at hand.

I had brief flings with contact lenses and these days, I use them differently, but oh, my glasses. How I love and appreciate the work you do for me.

Writing this love letter meant so much more than just adding them to a list of gratitudes.  I love my gratitude lists and may write them again in the future. For now, I am going to write gratitude love letters to all those mundane, overlooked, underappreciated aspects of my life I normally don’t even notice.

Maybe you’ll even feel compelled to write gratitude love letters along with me.

Try it out. Start with 5 minutes of love for something ordinary.

If you post something – an instagram post, a blog post, anything – please send a link my way. Maybe I’ll end up writing a love letter to YOUR love letter.

Julie Jordan Scott inspires people to experience artistic rebirth via her programs, playshops, books, performances and simply being herself out in the world.  She is a writer, creative life coach, speaker, performance poet, Mommy-extraordinaire and mixed media artist whose Writing Camps and Writing Playgrounds permanently transform people’s creative lives. Watch for the announcement of new programs coming in soon!

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

Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.

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It Feels So Good (To Finally Feel Better)

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Today is the first day in many days I woke up feeling good. Revisiting old works-in-progress, writing new poetry that weaves old in new, combining household chores with wild creativity in the AND space (rather than either-or)How do I forget how good this feels?

I posted a flat-lay of my calendar and hints of my creative process and knew, just knew, I needed to spend five minutes in stream of consciousness, free flow brain dumping to make the day even better.

I’ll admit it: part of this is an invitation for you to create alongside me – so if you’re willing – keep reading and prepare to write, too.

It feels so good to….

Set my timer for five minutes and know I can completely give this time over to my creative process.

It feels so good to listen to classical music just because I like it and not worry about anyone judging my taste or think anything other than “wow, this must really make Julie feel good to listen to classical music!”

It feels so good to have my diffuser going as I listen to classical music and write. It feels so good to ask myself questions and have conversations not with my higher self but with this self – the me that is right now inhabiting this imperfect body in this scratchy time in our culture that sometimes looks like thunder storms are brewing and then I remember, “I sort of, no not sort of – I enjoy thunder storms.”

It feels good to smile, gently, truthfully – and feel it get wider as I think “Mona Lisa, in my imagination anyway, would be proud.”

It feels so good to have conversations over breakfast with Emma and Samuel, to invoke Samuel’s creativity and watch his non-poker face as I mention his gifts in the way of seeing. “Samuel is a really good photographer” I say and Emma says, “He has a really good eye. I don’t.”

“Ahhh, practice will help that,” I tell Emma. “I’m like you. Samuel is a natural.”

That just feels sacred and holy, moments we would often brush aside as we exfoliate our memories and our presences.

It feels so good to reorganize and tidy up a bit. It feels so good to put my hands in the suds as I wash dishes and clean the counters not in an angry “Oh I have to do this and I hate it” but “oh, I am so glad this will look so bright in a few minutes and the way this stuff smells….mmmmm” and yes. It all feels so good.

I hear the applause on my timer peter our and it tells me this particular moment in good times writing is over.

I am grateful I took the moment. I am grateful you are reading. I am grateful for feeling better this morning than I have for a long time.

Now, your turn. And now you write….

=      =      =      =

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.

 

 

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Write It – Whatever You Claim as “It” Right Now. Just Write It.

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I didn’t think about it, I just did it. I took the moment to take a breath and look at it. Look at what was there. And I wrote. I wrote of a picture of nothing and I found so much more than I knew was there.

The short, sweet paragraph above is the Pollyanna version. The rampant negative self-talk edition goes like this:

“What the hell are you doing? When will you stop steeping yourself in self importance and realize no one cares? Do you hear me? No one cares. No one thinks like you do nor would they ever want to. Who takes pictures of shadows on the wall and brags about it? You aren’t looking at a scene of a Hawaaian beach with your perfect middle aged body (HA! AS IF!) and your stock photo kids going to important schools doing volunteer work with the homeless while voluntarily working at non profits for a pittance because you have more money than you know what to do with? That’s what people want to see. Not shadows on the wall that have no meaning dumbshit idiot.”

Gee. That makes me want to write more.

The thing is: when we push through that globby mess that comes on either side of the truth and continue moving forward in the space of what is – anyway, however wherever whatever, our words will find our way no matter what sort of writing you are doing.

You can take your brain dump about the shadows on the wall and relate that back to your work as a copywriter or portrait painter or hotel manager. Write yourself a prompt, “What does this image say about pareto planning for office managers” and before you negate the question write your way into it.

Write your way into and through whatever is in front of you.

Finally give yourself the freedom to say whatever it is you need to say to the world.

Yes, I wrote the above words in a five minute free writing Brain Dump. I didn’t edit or think, I just wrote. This morning when I was still in bed and not feeling well physically (I still don’t) I saw this – and took a photo:

I set my phone timer to five minutes wrote into my phone notes section.

Shadows of mulberry leaves etched in my sky blue walls promise nothing and I write them, anyway. I only now notice my fading, needs to be reupholstered couch is also covered with leaves, sketched against blue, waiting to be noticed and remembered.
These last 24 and a few more hours have little within them I want to continue to carry beyond these words. My thirst recollects being quenched, my feet remember feeling strong and optimistic, my eyes remember looking straight ahead, determined and magnetized by the eastern horizon as blank slates of a new day rose to greet me with fluid consistency.
What changed?
What blighted my perception?
What is it that makes me surrender to even a moment lost to its residual calling?
Today I stared at losses of two particulars, non abstractions and shrugged. My muscles go limp and I slither down the slide. 
5 minutes. Done.

Now it’s your turn. Write for your five minutes. Take a photo of whatever is in front of you and allow that to inspire you for a mere five minutes at your keyboard or in your notebook or writing into your phone notes section as if you were texting a friend.

For a bonus, set your timer for another 5 minutes and ask yourself, “How does this relate to my current (project, plan, challenge) in my work life?” and write for 5 more minutes. No planning, no forethought just write.

If you are in our Facebook Group – the link is here – post a photo and your writing in a safe space.

If you aren’t in our facebook group, post a comment here or email me at juliejs@creativelifemidwife.com

Coming Up: 30 Days of Writing Passionately

Julie Jordan Scott inspires people to experience artistic rebirth via her programs, playshops, books, performances and simply being herself out in the world.  She is a writer, creative life coach, speaker, performance poet, Mommy-extraordinaire and mixed media artist whose Writing Camps and Writing Playgrounds permanently transform people’s creative lives. Watch for the announcement of new programs coming soon!

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

Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.

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Let’s Experience, Express & Explore Gratitude.

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The power of gratitude is undeniable, whether you want to leverage its strength in your business or relationships or your personal growth is up to you.

I won’t even say you’re crazy if you don’t because that’s just not my style but what I will say is coming next.

When you are alert to life as it unfolds around you and you begin to notice the nuances and subtle whispers it offers you, you will begin to experience gratitude in ways you never expected.

Surprise! You are taking a break to just breathe between coaching sessions with clients and a monarch butterfly catches your eye, affirming the work you just completed. Exhale gratitude.

Your clients and that butterfly and every tiny speck and fleck of your unfolding life offer you an invitation into more gratitude exploration.

Your task? To jot some notes right now and continue throughout the day. Invite your awareness to increase. Then ask your subconscious to tag team and make connections between what gratitude shows up and how that interrelates to the solutions to your client’s problem.

What does the monarch butterfly appearing and affirming you have to do with your clients’ most pressing needs?

I can feel you smiling all the way over here. Well, all of you except for you – my dear friend – who thinks you have to control your thought process. That’s ok too, really, except try for a second to breathe into the gratitude and exhale the solution without thinking about the solution – think instead about the gratitude and let your subconscious mind bring the goods on the solution.

We’ve got you!

One last thing? Please let me know how it goes.

(This post was written using the model I explored in a previous blog post over on Julie Unplugged, “How to Become a Better Writer Using Instagram. Check it out and see how I followed along.)

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.

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