Creative Life Midwife

Inspiring Artistic Rebirth

October Outlook: Grateful for YOU, dear Reader of this Blog

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Autumn leaves and a blue sky with text that welcomes friends, long time and new. Inspiration for writing, blogging and content creation with Julie Jordan Scott.

If I had to use three words to describe myself last year at this time I would say “hurting, perplexed, tenacious.”

IN OCTOBER, 2021

I was hurting because my father died less than six months before October last year. I had been my mother’s primary caretaker from April through July and spent much of that time simultaneously emptying her home before assisting my brothers in moving her into an assisted living facility. I was perplexed because I had managed to hurt my middle daughter by following through to move to New Jersey without adequate ongoing communication for a much needed sabbatical from my life on the west coast. I was tenacious because I didn’t stop trying to get it – life – work – my creative pursuits – better than they had since I had a near death experience in 2019 and quite honestly, for a few years leading up to that.

WHEN LIFE’S PLANS ARE DIFFERENT THAN YOUR OWN….

I didn’t know last October I would go on a wildly circuitous route to find myself starting over again. I am back to the manse where I started my “year of creative retreat and radical self-care” on October 6, 2021.  

I didn’t know it would devolve or evolve into a second period of intense grief, and crisis caregiving of an entirely different sort which lead me to spend January, March, May, June, July, August, half of the preceding December and half of September only to return right back where I started – as if my hopes and dreams chewed me up and spit me out – and I got back up, Slowly and sometimes quite unsurely I brushed myself and my circumstances off and insisted upon finishing what I desperately longed to start AND finish.

AND THE IRONY OF THINGS D/EVOLVING INTO BETTER

Ironically – and I wouldn’t have expected to be saying this – but experiencing that crisis caregiving time healed the rift with my middle daughter, strengthened my reserves and built my west coast family into much more of a team. Our communication is stronger. It is safe to say we all feel more resilient.

There was one important request I made before I got on an airplane and headed back east on September 15.

DOING LIFE DIFFERENTLY: THE SIMPLE THINGS

I said “You guys need to text me for no real reason. You need to let me know how you are, tell me how your day went, ask me how I am doing, because right now, I get scared with every text I receive. 

“When I left last year I only heard from any of you if something bad happened. I do not want it to be like that.”

It isn’t like that.  Our healing through tears, struggles, laughter, strength building and stubborn will changed us all for the better.

I am still grieving – with my younger brother’s death last December 10th there are still tender firsts to experience. I am still concerned about the health of my family members.  There is still left over sadness because I was hustling so much to be sure Samuel’s college tuition was paid I didn’t get to invest in as much time in work around my home in Bakersfield or connecting with friends AND.. things are so much better I am still wondering when I will wake up from this dream.

THE HEALING POWER OF POETRY

In May Swenson’s poem, “October”, one stanza includes this section:

“I sit with braided fingers

and closed eyes

in a span of late sunlight.

The spokes are closing.

It is fall: warm milk of light,

though from an aging breast.

I do not mean to pray.

The posture for thanks or

supplication is the same

as for weariness or relief.”

YOUR THREE WORDS… OR PHRASES.

For you, I am grateful for your presence, I am thrilled to connect with you again, and I am honored to meet and walk alongside new companions

I am relieved and thrilled to be back here for another October with you and another Ultimate Blog Challenge. I have not been stable through any of the months we have done this since… I don’t know when – surely at least since 2019  but that makes me even more determined to be here for the other participants as well as to honor what I have been through this year and what is coming next in the future.

I would love to hear what you are looking forward to in October and how I might help you either in the content I write or the encouragement I may be able to offer you.

I am beyond words grateful that you are here reading my words.

Woman hugging a cartoon tree - white with black polka dots

Julie Jordan-Scott 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 Northwest New Jersey (Sussex Borough, Nj) where she is working on finishing her most recent book project, hugging trees daily and enjoys having random inspirational conversations with strangers.

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

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The Important Link Between Gratitude and Abundance

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Woman meditating upon her gratitude, learning how to give and receive.

Tis the Season to be Grateful: are you expressing your gratitude intentionally or in a more haphazard way?

Let’s tune into Grace, Gratitude and Giving

I have had an active gratitude practice for years. Although I don’t journal gratitude daily right now, I definitely know the power of paying attention and speaking thankfulness into the world whether that means aloud to people or via writing – on social media, on my blog or in engaging with others.

I wasn’t always a fan of gratitude until I had an a-ha moment and connected gratitude to receiving. Because of this connection, the relationship between gratitude and abundance came more clear.

The not-so-true “It is better to give than receive” myth

How often have you heard (and possibly repeated) the phrase, “It is better to give than receive”?

Giving is a blessing – especially when mindful -is an important practice. This may be in stuff, it may be in a compliment, it may be in presence and time. My love language is quality time so the best people can do for me is to simply be with me. Deep and meaningful conversations are among my favorite activities.

The problem is, if everyone is giving, who is open to receive from our wellspring of giving?

Introducing the Infinite Loop de Loop

Our giving, when conscious, comes from the gifts of who we are – and how our gifts offer goodness and light to fellow members of the human community is started from divinity, our creator, God, the Universe.

We can complete that process by receiving with an open heart and a wildly-in-wonder smile on our face.

When we receive, we finish and spiral to the next level of what was divinely started.

This infinite loop de loop continues over and over and over again and is stopped when… someone decides giving is the thing, receiving is not the thing – and (sometimes or) we decide we aren’t worthy to receive. 

Is this starting to sound familiar?

Blocks of all kinds start with the inability to receive.

Most often the inability to receive is based on our opinion and judgment of ourself. We are not worthy of receiving, we are not good enough, we are somehow “less than” others and therefore need to continue giving even when our well is running very close to dry.

I confess, I have come in and out of blocks many times, most often based on my inability to receive.

The way through the block is to receive with active gratitude. 

Inhale and fully receive what has been given to you. In fact, when you breathe in, you are receiving life-giving oxygen.

Bring that oxygen into your lungs and feel the energy of breath – of inspiration – fill your body.

When you exhale, you are giving breath back to the world. 

Sometimes I create a vision of  my exhale expanding upon the gifts I have received by offering what I know, what I love, what I am coming to understand. I can see the breath of inspiration swirling around me and reaching out to others who are also open to receive.

With every mindful inhale and exhale, I am adding to the increase of abundance in my life and I am adding to the increase of abundance in other people’s lives.

That, my friends, is beyond words amazing. Before you click away, practice breathing like this.

It feels so good!

Julie JordanScott is a multipassionate creative who delights in inviting others into their own fullhearted. artistic experience via her creativity coaching individually or in groups, courses and workshops. To receive inspiring content and videos weekly and find out more about Coaching, Courses, Challenges and what’s going on in the Creative Life Midwife world? Subscribe here:

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

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Gratitude: It doesn’t always look like you expect it to –

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This morning I was scrubbing the toilet. Round and round I went with the brush, round and round and round. 

I remembered when my son was little and the only way I could get him to allow me to wash his ears was to make it into a game. First we would play the game of washing his hands in the kitchen sink. We would dunk them 100 times in the water and then dry them with a washcloth. We would then get another clean washcloth and wash his ears with gusto and joy, he would be laughing and squirming and I would be grateful for making up this game, otherwise his ears would have gotten horrible and I would have felt like a neglectful mother.

I am grateful I am still able bodied to scrub the toilet.

I am grateful I have a toilet to scrub.

I have had an intentional relationship with gratitude for a while now, but at first, it was not entirely wanted. I didn’t believe gratitude was all that useful.

I knew about people who went on and on about “an attitude of gratitude” and usually they looked about as plastic as the Barbie my daughter played with every once in a while.

Then I hit one of my first rock bottoms on the way to a long sequence of rock bottoms.

I started tracking my gratitude every day and posting it on a now defunct social media meets goalsetting website. I did this for 500 days. Now I use gratitude as the closing to my daily writing practice and teach the same method in the writing workshops I lead.

Ending one’s writing practice with gratitude brings the end of the session to an upswing, something that is often a necessity if the writer has processed a lot of garbage and grit and not-so-pleasant stuff – like most people face when they scrub the toilet.

I’m going to ask you about gratitude – and I want you to pause before you throw down the first thing that pops into your mind. 

What are you grateful for that is underneath what you usually say.

If you are grateful for your child, think about what annoys you about the said child and consider what about that annoyance can you claim as gratitude.

If you are grateful for your home, think about a chore that you don’t like so much and think about what about that chore is actually a blessing.

If you are grateful for the sunshine outside your window, remember the last time you got caught, unprepared for the weather – and what brings a smile to your face from that memory.

Now jot one or two of those items in the comments.

Gratitude, when expressed from your deepest gut places, is immensely transformative.

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

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This July: Cultivate Memories that Transform Your Life Experience

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I started this year holding the intention for transformational memories. I would that intention has definitely come to fruition, but they came about in ways I wouldn’t necessarily have chosen to happen.

It is valuable to collect memories, especially the transformative ones - so that we may continue to return to them for their love filled and meaning - rich energy. Collecting them now in the middle of summer will help continue the power and add to the initiating intention.

What are transformational memories?

Memories tend to fall into several different categories: the mundane, the memories we want to forget, the bad memories that are burned into our psyche and the mountaintop memories – or big events we work to remember for later in great detail.

Transformative memories are those every day moments that make a lasting mark on who we were in the moment and who we are becoming, still.

Are transformational memories active gratitude, counting your blessings?

2020 may have many transformational memories for you that are certainly not mountaintop memories and they were also not mundane. This is evidence of the “unprecedented times” we keep hearing about and experiencing again and again and again.

Now we have crossed the bridge to 2021 and although the calendar has changed, we are still facing many of the challenges from before. This series is to stay focused on what moves us forward.

Building a creative streak to practice successful completion

It is also an example of a small “streak” or container to hold a 31 Day Experiment in Counting My Blessings everyday that also is a method of completion practice.

I am a believer in practices like this because it gives you a daily completion, so you get practice in what it feels like to accomplish something simple to do and significant to do everyday. It is nothing short of magical. 

Don’t believe it?

Try this for a week and tell me how you’re feeling.

Today in June I am revisiting – Three cool things I noted from January 3:

  1. Samuel started the day shift at his job. No more graveyard. From now on he will work conventional hours and I won’t get to bring his lunch to his bedroom door by special delivery every day. That is a sadness I will just get over.
  2. Katherine got a full-time church job! She will be the Solo Pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Sussex, NJ. I told her today I look forward to the day I can travel again and see her in action in her congregation! Update: In September, 2021 I will be moving to Sussex myself for a year to be close to Katherine and Donald AND experience an entirely different life. It will be a valuable experiment I never could have imagined when I set the intention for a year of transformative memories!
  3. I created a bunch of content for the week to come, ahead of time. “Getting ahead” always makes me happy – now I simply need to get better at batching – working on one task theme for a set amount of time. For example. An hour of making graphics. An hour of writing copy, an hour of scrubbing the kitchen. 

This process also helps me as a part of my evening writing practice, something I have wanted for a long time. As soon as I am done with this, I will do some writing in my notebook, some meditation and fall asleep.

The significance of revisiting recent (and not so recent) personal writing to mine for transformational memories.

I am revisiting this writing at the end of June, 2021 and have decided to begin this practice again for the month of July, 2021. To recap between January and now, I will touch base on some of what I have been experiencing.

I will share three transformative memories – and attempt to keep them succinct.

  1. My father died on April 18. From that moment, so many things happened and the memories have been very sad and also very filled with love.
  2. I learned the Valley Fever I have been carrying disseminated, which means it spread beyond my lungs. This could be very dangerous AND I have been receiving ongoing treatment AND I have never felt more confident in my ability to manage my health. I was filled with stress for a lot of time from January through whenever it was I had a biopsy-turned-drainage (I think in March? Since Dad died, a lot of time has had a very different meaning and context.)
  3. I have been getting my writing mojo back, slowly and surely. Poetry is back, working on my book projects is back, writing in my notebook daily is back. I realized in getting it back I was in quite a state of languishing for a long time. This is definitely transformative.

It is easier to see Transformational Memories from a distance, but what does naming 3 good things from any given day tell you?

I like to look at collecting transformative memories (and transformative memories-to-be like this: it is as if my future self and present self are having a party. Since my life in 2021 has been in a surprising uproar, there are so many times when I have said to myself with a lot of incredulity, “I am so grateful my past self was looking out for me!”

It is in the tiny, day to day things that the transformative memories happen. It is only from a distance that we can see what the whole picture looks like.

With that in mind, tell me:

What are 3 Good Things from your day? When July 1 hits, I will return here every day. I hope to see you here, too. This will be informal, flexible and fun.

Are you ready to count your blessings? Let us know in the comments!

Julie Jordan Scott is the Creator of the One Small Shift Course which helps people practice consistency and completion daily in order to experience a more incredible life experience. She came to this conclusion after almost dying and coming back to true healing by writing 377 consecutive haiku… and a lot more along her way to building that streak! To find out more about this program, visit this link, here.

She has been a Life Purpose and Creativity Coach since 1999. She has taught workshops in college classrooms, hospitals, teleclasses and webinars with participants across the world.

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3 Good Things: 2 January, 2021 Edition

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Announcement about 3 Good Things in January 2021 May this year bring transformational memories

My friend Ghia taught me the importance of sharing 3 Good Things at the end of every day. At least until the end of January, I am borrowing her practice – a little bit of gratitude, a little bit of counting your blessings, and a lot bit of putting a smile on our collective faces.

Let’s count our blessings

the sun shines over the Kern Canyon wall. This could easily have been one of the 3 good things.
  1. A meeting with the community I am a part of hosted by Jennifer Louden called “The Oasis” – we planned our quarter together for about an hour. I had a fabulous time and might even dance the next time we have one of these things. I remember I used to dance during live streams which is dancing in front of strangers but somehow when a person I really respect suggests dancing, I back off. Weird – but hey, it was great.
  2. I read the same part of Julia Cameron’s book about active compassion towards myself. Active self compassion. There was a quote I really got, viscerally, that went like this: “Skepticism is rooted in fear, and fear is healed by compassion.” I sat there in bed, nodding. Compassion. Which leads me to think, “How do we heal systemic fear? Compassion.” Nodding more.
  3. I have gotten so much praise about the photo I posted here yesterday when I made it into my facebook cover photo. I had no idea people would like it so much.

Simple Gratitude, shared

What are 3 Good things from your life today? Share one or two or all three in the comments!

Julie Jordan Scott is the Creator of the One Small Shift Course which helps people practice consistency and completion daily in order to experience a more incredible life experience. She came to this conclusion after almost dying and coming back to true healing by writing 377 consecutive haiku… and a lot more along her way to building that streak! To find out more about this program, visit this link, here.

She has been a Life Purpose and Creativity Coach since 1999. She has taught workshops in college classrooms, hospitals, teleclasses and webinars with participants across the world.

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How to Use Moments of Gratitude to Improve Your Life (and the lives of others)

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Gratitude is both tender, like a tiny shoot of a plant rising up, and fierce, like that same shoot that managed to push its way up through densely packed, dark and heavy soil. 

Gratitude has been one of my faithful friends when other friends went silent, tunneled underground so I wasn’t able to reach them. Or maybe it was I who went underground and it was gratitude who lowered a ladder for me to climb up on.

Gratitude is one of the highest forms of energy available to us.

For these and many other reasons, today we began our time together in #Refresh2020 using gratitude and gratefulness as the focus of our first prompt.

It is a solid, deep and wide foundation for us to build upon as we move forward in 2020 with purpose and passion. 

When we make that determined decision to “do 2020” differently, we aim to do it better. We can learn from experiences of gratitude. We can grow from holding space for grateful moments to continue.

What we know now that we might not have known in January 2020 is this:

  • Aspects of the world are chaotic. They may get even more chaotic, they may stay the same. We can’t say they will get better or worse or anything. We just know that around us, there is a whole lot of chaos and dissension.
  • We don’t know when the pandemic will be over. We don’t know when a vaccine will be available. We don’t know when it will be safer for people like me – with health issues – to function similarly to how we did in the past. This is similar to war-time. People have survived in times of not-knowing-when for generation after generation. We can do it now, too.
  • We don’t know how many more (metaphorical) shoes will drop. For now, I am considering it to be a centipede of many colors. I can admire the colors or I can go into my hole and complain about it or go into my hole and write a lot of stories about a centipede-free world. I would rather be out among the people, helping it to be a better world whether or not there are centipedes.

Our intention is to experience the rest of the year differently.

We are adding to our expanding knowledge about how to use gratitude as a tool. When we recognize the power of simply sharing and remembering experiences of gratitude causes us to be elevated to a higher level of consciousness.

When we continue to step into this awareness by taking aligned action, our personal satisfaction and rewards will be many. We will laugh more, get more tasks done with more ease – and we will lead a happier life.

Application: Take your list of five experiences you are grateful for and use them as creativity and conversation prompts.

Creativity Prompts

Video: Take 5 minutes and make a video telling the story of that moment of gratitude.

Writing: Take 5 minutes and write the story of that grateful experience. BONUS: Hand write the story in letter form and mail it to the people you were with who became “characters” in your gratitude story. Add individual thanks for each person. Here is an example from my list.

Conversation Prompt Tips: When you see a friend or family member begin to rant about how terrible living in this time of chaos is, let them wind down and start a new conversation about what experiences they are grateful for from 2020.

Warning: some will say “Nothing! There is nothing to be grateful for in 2020.”

In those situations you may turn and walk away (without a retort is best). Take a second breath and share one of your experiences. It’s an extra bonus if your gratitude experience includes them.

Intention + Passionate Action = Purposeful rewards

When was the last time you had a conversation with someone about being grateful, especially in 2020? How might you start that conversation?

Julie JordanScott typing a love poem on the edge of a foothill of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
Julie JordanScott typing a love poem on the edge of a foothill of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

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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Join the conversation in our closed  Bridge to the New Year Facebook Group

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Gratitude: Ordinary Beautiful & You

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What am I grateful for in 2018?

I’m staring across the room, looking at a candle I lit about a half hour ago as I settled in to see who I might connect with: what like hearted people, people with whom I might build a positive relationship in order to make this world a better place through writing and the creative process.

Now I am quiet, attempting a go at naming only three things I am grateful for in 2018.

Only three. I am setting the timer to write for five minutes or else I might get stuck trying to make this perfect, which it will be no matter what, anyway.

  1. I am grateful for tenacity. In early Summer things looked ridiculously bleak. After the year started with such promise, but July, I was despondent. It wasn’t until the last six weeks or so that I felt consistently better about myself and about the year.
  2. I am grateful I started reaching out again to different people thanks in great part because of local groups and people using social media. I found KWESI and my new Cameroonian family and I took that extraordinary day trip to the Tejon Ranch artist in residence day that was so spectacular my mood was bright for weeks afterwards. That was a really big thing I almost missed but I hung in there and did it. So grateful.
  3. I am beyond words grateful to everyone who is participating in Bridge to the New Year. I have cried repeatedly to Paula who started it with me because I have wanted to do something like this for years, literally, and in doing it I feel like I am shedding a lot of excess ugly thoughts and no longer constructive attachments. I am looking forward to more people showing up in the last two weeks of December and am excited to be adding a week of brain dumping into the mix, too. Every day in every way, better and better and better.

I purposefully didn’t add “big things” (except for The Bridge) because I know gratitude best in the small moments, the day to day, the extraordinary ordinary. A lit candle, the voice of my son asking me for something or another, a clean desk. Grateful. For you reading? Thank you, more than you know.

What are you grateful for?

Our group is ready for you, even if all you do is read along with us your presence is valued.

Click here  to connect with us and become involved in the group  and/or  the upcoming livestreams.

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Insights into How to Tune into Gratitude: Bridge to a New Year Day 4

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#BridgetotheNewYear Day 4 Prompt: Appreciation and Gratitude

Today’s Prompt: What have you grown to appreciate in 2018? .
How do you show your appreciation? .
Is there a way you would like to grow in gratitude practice in 2019?

I started adulthood  as a cynical naysayer, sneering down my nose at the “attitude of gratitude” army who I likened to television evangelists with overdone make up and dramatic acts of supposed religiosity. And then, something happened.


I am not sure when or who or how it happened, but I decided to start making a gratitude list every day.
And then I started making a gratitude list in community.
And then I started making a gratitude list in community for 365 days straight.


This isn’t for everyone… and it changed things for me. Oprah was talking about it, gratitude was an every day “thing.”


It still is for me, though I don’t keep a 365 Gratitude list anymore, it is ever present in my consciousness most of the time. (A side note, perhaps it will resurge in 2019).


This year I have grown to appreciate in greater depth something I have believed for years: the majority of the people sharing this rich, ripe globe with me want to do good by one another.


They want to pitch in, they want to help and be of service. People enjoy being asked to provide as they can and get a lot of satisfaction out of lending a helpful hand (or wallet or spare bedroll or bisquit.)


A month ago this came to light in a new, larger and more grand way than I could have foreseen. A woman I have come to call my daughter was in a crisis more than 1,000 miles from me and more than 2,000 miles from her blood family. She was a refugee stranded in a small city in Colorado after enduring more hardship than most Americans I know endure.


When her teary voice said to me, “I don’t know if I can take this, Mum.” I sprang to action and started connecting with people who started connecting with people who started connecting with people and miracles happened for this young woman.

My three youngest children, Samuel< Queenta and Emma. Children of my blood and of my heart. Welcome to the US, Queenta.
My three youngest children, standing by the Palm tree where they have traditionally posed for years. Samuel, Queenta, Emma


The thing is, we had more outward differences than samenesses AND the greatest sameness lived in our heart space, in our love for humanity and in a willingness to go beyond what others may do – but only because they don’t know how yet.


The next day I spoke to my cousin and she said, “Wow, you have an incredible network of people.” And I responded, “They’re your network, too,” just like they are YOUR network, you who are reading this now.
I didn’t know many of the people who helped. I just knew people who knew people who knew people and I asked and I kept asking until my daughter was safe and sound.


I’m still showing appreciation and gratitude to the people I met along the way.

Gratitude is best expressed and practicing in a variety of ways helps.
In 2013 I had a gratitude jar, holding delights, which doubled as a writing prompt jar. Writing of gratitude expands it. 

I stepped away from writing and thought, “Sometimes I throw my gratitude out there, littering the world with it when I’m feeling fully connected and vibrant. When I am not, divinity delivers an invitation to notice gratitude and sometimes, the circumstances are so overwhelmingly beautiful in every way, it is like gratitude has rushed in and done a cosmic happy dance and I can’t help but burst over with joy.

Gratitude: sometimes I lean into it, sometimes appreciation takes my hand and shows me the way and sometimes gratitude is a moshpit of laughter so great I can’t even begin to fully understand it.

In 2019 I want to deepen my gratitude practice. As I said above, I believe it is time to share my gratitude in a journal and also publicly. I shared on my facebook page a few days ago I think I will continue to do so.


I also want to use the power of energy to share gratitude, via the people I meet randomly – really looking into their hearts, their being – and expressing gratitude not only with words but via the beating of my heart. I don’t think that makes sense in language form, but I do know my heart just warmed up as I wrote those words.


Woo woo. I can hear some of you. And then I remember what I used to think about those “fakes” and “weird attitude of gratitude” people and my temporary embarrassment diminishes.


Now it’s your turn. If you blog, consider blogging on these themes – link up at juicyjournaling.com


Today’s Prompt: What have you grown to appreciate in 2018? .
How do you show your appreciation?


Is there a way you would like to grow in gratitude practice in 2019?

If you Instagram, look for the hashtags #BridgetoTheNewYear or #Bridgeto2019 Follow our prompts there, too. 


If you would like to be a part of a Free Facebook Group where these subjects are being discussed, please visit us here and request membership.

Until tomorrow,
Julie JS Your Creative Life Midwife.

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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.Facebooktwitterpinterest

This Exact Gratitude: Origin Unknown – Result? Remarkable

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The date of this exact gratitude list that gave birth to this (nearly over) mini-retreat/soulful social media quiet time is unclear. I remember sitting in my car, scribbling the list  it – but exactitude? It won’t matter in the long run. It doesn’t even matter now, a week or so later.

I wrote:

I am grateful for the ability to communicate.

I am grateful for the beauty of words.

I am grateful for the people who read the words I toss, cry and mindfully set down upon blue lined paper.

I am grateful for whatever it is I manage to create today (because I know I will. Eventually anyway.)

I am grateful to know I will not judge quantity or quality or relevance of the words and objects I create today.

I am grateful I am able to move my pen across the page. I am grateful words fall off the tip so effortlessly.

I am grateful there are papers to catch the words I write in cursive (and it looks pretty!) I’m grateful for pencil sharpeners.

I am grateful for crape myrtle trees and finches and mourning doves.

I am grateful for enthusiastic young people (I sound like an old farm-hand) who just got promoted who still have a vision for their lives that includes accepting whatever happens with grace and building upon those circumstances, whichever, with grace.

Today I am grateful for the years I have been writing and sharing consistently. That “old stuff” is so current, so accessible and ready.

It created the plan and execution of that plan. Edit to evolve and the mighty, beneficent yes shines through.

My mission is to daily “gather our word-love community to collaborate and create a ritual, path, method to save/preserve/curate and continue to breathe heart into our collective life work.”

Daily, recognize and claim my place as a singular and sacred expression of life itself and a gift from the divine to the world – meant for taking action with passionate gratitude to join the flow because I know this world is a place of healing, wonder and wholeness where all know each one is welcome.

= = =

Since I re-visited this time of creative process last Wednesday, I have repeated these declarations and oh, have they ever helped me not only in my daily direction, but also in casting my future and present vision.

This exact gratitude list may have unknown origins, but the continued growth and rebirth as a result of gratitude is blanketing my life. It is grounding me and lifting me toward heaven.

It’s been a while since I felt like this.

Today I am remembering and standing on this strength to continue as I declare daily: I recognize and claim my place as a singular, unique and sacred expression of life itself and a gift from the divine to the world – meant for taking action with passionate gratitude to join the flow because I know this world is a place of healing, wonder and wholeness where all know each one is welcome.

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 above 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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