Creative Life Midwife

Inspiring Artistic Rebirth

That Didn’t Work Out Like I Planned

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Otherwise known as THE JOY OF MAKING MISTAKES IN PUBLIC

Is there some sort of an award for mistake prone folks?

I attempted to schedule a blog post today and failed. The blog post posted, but the content had “September 17” on it and talked about the break I was taking which started the end of last week and will end two weeks from now.

Why is making mistakes so easy?

Here’s the thing: I could have pranced around angrily but instead I decided to allow it to stay there. The mistake. Public facing, big mess up and this, my friends, is an attempt to actually schedule the blog post (which will now be this one) on September 17.

Wish me well.

PS – If this turns into a mistake, I will delete it. 🙂

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

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

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False Fear of Abandonment & Truth: Love is Everywhere + Video & Writing Prompt

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You know those beliefs that are stuck so deep you don’t speak them ever for fear of… well, for me I suppose it is fear of amplifying that belief no matter how false I pray it is.

“If I don’t say it aloud then it can’t be true, right?”

Wrong. The reality is, if I don’t say it aloud it gains more and more power over me.

This morning I took on one of my primary, most primal fears that perhaps you share with me. After all, the majority of us have this fear hardwired into us. I replaced that belief with the simple affirmation. Love is everywhere. Love is everywhere. Love is everywhere.

Using the 5 minutes of magic that is #5for5BrainDump…. well, read further to see what came next.

The premise and not so happy prompt:

People will reject me: I don’t want to/I can’t survive being abandoned

I am so uncomfortable approaching this topic, I am going to use the phrase above repeatedly in my writing so if I veer off course with it (avoidance) I will plug it back in.

Here’s the thing: it isn’t true but for the majority of my life I have been acting as if is true and I have had enough of it. I know that you and I both have a purpose and a mission to fulfill and mine is anything BUT being afraid of being abandoned because I have learned… I won’t be… because over the years people I thought I could trust HAVE abandoned me yet I was never alone.

My mind is flashing back to a Davy and Goliath episode from long past, perhaps my favorite one because Davy was on a train and it was like the train was speaking to him, “God is everywhere, God is everywhere” and if the God word bothers you, plug in whatever you believe in instead.. perhaps “Love is everywhere, love is everywhere, love is everywhere” and in fact, beloveds, I might scoop up that mantra and carry it with me from now on.

Because I know above all, People will not reject me. I thrive when I recognize I am living according to the purpose I was born to fulfill. How invigorating this is for me and for you, too, because I believe we all have a purpose, a mission, a reason….

Perhaps part of mine is to tell you that talking about whatever it is you think is too scary to speak will take you along a path of extraordinary freedom.

Who thought when I started with “People will reject me: I don’t want to/I can’t survive being abandoned” that I would end with freedom?

My norm is to scoot off course when I write something that scares me but today was different. Maybe it is because I was holding my purpose in my heart and I was holding YOU in my words as they flowed from me.

The timer went off when I put the question mark on freedom. Affirmative, right? Yes. Because Love is Everywhere. I may open my heart and trust divine timing.

That feels so good. That feels so good….

Now, onto a prompt and a “What’s Next Mission”for you to consider, and write, and contemplate, and art journal or have a transformational conversation:

Tell about a time when you didn’t speak (or write, or journal or even think) about a particular sore subject. Remember what I’ve said here – and take a step toward giving freedom to that untalkaboutable so that you may shine in your unique, distinctive purpose.

Start with a sentence, just a sentence, and see if you are able to write for five minutes.

I’m available if you need me. Call or text me at 661.444.2735. If I don’t answer, leave a message and I will call you back. 

The world is waiting for your words. Let’s get them on the page, together.

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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Writers Talk: Memory as a Strength, A Gift, A Treasure + A Writing Prompt for You

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“You remember too much,
my mother said to me recently.
Why hold onto all that? And I said,
Where can I put it down?”
― Anne Carson

I have been accused of remembering too much, holding on too tight, not being willing to forgive.

I’m working on forgiveness, a continual form of spiritual practice it seems.

I’m playing with the harmony of forgiveness and self-protection and advocacy. Where do I need to grow more? Forgiveness doesn’t mean reconciliation, it means recognizing the other’s humanity and giving them the room to feel better, to know they aren’t causing you pain.

After all, the other side of me says – no one is capable of “making” anyone feel anything. It is a choice to feel what we feel, for the most part. When I feel crappy and depressed I feel crappy and depressed. No one makes me – circumstances may be lousy and there are times during deep rottenness I feel driven and optimistic and ready to expand into deep transformation.

(I can say clichés with the best of them.)

Thing is, I remember.

I can’t stop remembering.

I don’t want to stop remembering. (Here, try this prompt with me)

It is like telling an artist to remove certain colors from her palette. “No more purples, Julie. You need to focus solely on green.”

Doesn’t work for me.

I don’t focus only on the bad memories, either, I appreciate a memory concert. Here a memory of being the ultimate silly one, there a memory of a cloudy afternoon in 1983, I can hear the conversation, I can feel Mel’s arms wrapping me in compassion, I can feel the incredulity rising up in my chest.

I hadn’t remembered that in a couple decades but it comes to life and pours itself onto the page exactly when I need it most.

Why would I want to stop remembering? It is my ultimate super power – translating memory into words and reaching out with them to you and to you and to you.

My timer went off and I watched my neighbor slouching toward her SUV. I cant remember the last time we exchanged niceties. Perhaps, now, the memories will float up.

I think it was most likely about the tulip magnolia tree her husband planted and I was so excited I set aside her cat hating, sneering demeanor and loved her for a moment instead.

Perhaps, yes, right now, I will choose to love her in my thoughts, prayers and actions more often. If I hadn’t elected to remember, watch and continue to write from memory, I would only see the slouch and the sneer.

I will not give up my memories to you. Or him. Or her. Or them.

I will use the grace of the memories as transformational tools to work for the greatest good of all.
That feels so…. perfect. Just right, here and now.

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Decide to Make Progress: Tenacity and Abundant Love

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“The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can change and control your life; the procedure, the process is its own reward.”

Amelia Earhart

I can’t remember how many times I’ve said to my children, “Here I go… faster than a speeding bullet!” and then I stay immobile. I think it started when I was pregnant with Samuel and felt enormous and weighted down with “oh my goodness how will I do this?” and somehow it has stuck all these years later.

For me it isn’t as much the decision to act, but combining the decision to act with the movement itself. I appreciate what Amelia says here and she is certainly a model for decision making and managing risk – but for me it goes one step further.

Fears are paper tigers, Amelia said. (Note – paper tigers are defined as “a person or thing that appears threatening but is ineffectual.”)

Maybe the gold lives in letting go of “oh my goodness how will I do this?” and settling instead into the forward movement, even when I don’t know how. Moving my pencil when I don’t know what it will point out in me, making the phone call when I don’t want to hear the voice on the other end, tying my shoes, stepping out the door and taking the first, second, third, forty second and beyond step.

“Decide” needs to carry an action with it. What popped into my head just now is the first syllable is picking up the foot and the second syllable is the locomotion, the movement, the forward in the direction that calls.

What if for the next few days (or hours even) I reward myself for the process rather than the result. My process here went like this:

  1. I realized I hadn’t done my #5for5BrainDump session.
  2. I wanted to keep my streak going of writing and publishing daily.
  3. I rationalized, thinking how smug I was about writing my morning pages and getting started on a Top 10 list.
  4. “But that isn’t publishing” my writing angel reminded me. “That isn’t brain dumping into blog post.”
  5. I took all the necessaries to move from deciding into action into finished project.

My timer went off, so I am going to go to my website dashboard and prep a page as efficiently as possible. (I did it! less than ten minutes later, here you are loves! Offered with tenacity, a sprinkling of daring and buckets of love.)

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

What Brings Light to the Darkness? Daily Writing, Everytime

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I didn’t know for certain whether I would write today. I’ve been feeling lousy – new medicine and adjustments to it have not been smooth – and I just didn’t feel like it.

Yes, that would be me, who knows and has known for years, the value of daily writing practice.

What is up with that?

I sat at my desk for a tiny slice of time and made a writing affirmation image and realized the message was as much for me as it is for anyone else.

Funny how often that happens.

So I will stand hand-in-hand, heart-to-heart, soul-to-soul with the affirmation I just wrote.

Read it, say it, write it with me now:

Daily writing brings light to the darkness. When I write, I feel confident, capable and courageous.

Yes, that statement is true. I have remembered and written into that truth so many times: daily writing does bring light to the darkness. It helps to process what may feel unsayable until it is written. It is silent and you are with it alone – with no one else lobbing judgment at you, you say to yourself what is so and in doing exactly that, you shine the light on it.

When I confess to the page, “I feel lousy, this medicine has been kicking my butt straight into silence” is like a flashlight of clarity. “Wow, it has been keeping me from doing what I love. I haven’t done many livestream broadcasts because I’ve been so tired. I haven’t made many images and beyond my braindumping, I haven’t written at all.”

The light of clarity reminds me I don’t have to stay in this zone of silence, this disempowering slice of experience.

Instead, I realize while it may be the medicine’s side effects at cause, I may now make choices and step into a variety of solutions.

And writing for five minutes, #5for5BrainDump style has power.

Here’s more evidence.

(My timer went off three sentences ago this time. I’ll stop and hit publish, even if the confession itself feels wobbly. That’s part of being courageous.)

 

Julie Jordan Scott inspires people to experience artistic rebirth via her programs, playshops,

Coming Up: 30 Days of Writing Passionately

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

Writing Prompt: What Compels you? #5for5BrainDump

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This morning I was driven to write about what compels me – what draws me forward – what insistently attracts my attention.  Do you know that feeling?

I even started a short video of what compelled me visually in a neighborhood near my own.

The question, “What compels me?”  or “What calls to me?” may bring up new surprises and delights that are simply waiting for you to take note. Like Greg Levoy wrote, “Calls are essentially questions. They aren’t questions you necessarily need to answer outright; they are questions to which you need to respond, expose yourself, and kneel before.”

Are you ready?

This is what compels me: Stories – history – play. Playful stories of history and literature.

People’s lives.

I believe everyone has a story. Truly. I’m not just hanging out in that airy-fairy story of privilege and tragedy or tragedy to victory or pauper to princess or any of the clichés we are so accustomed to today.

Ask people, “What was it that made you decide to….?” And stories tumble out.

Often times the teller doesn’t recognize how interesting or attractive her story is. He doesn’t recognize himself as worthy of praise or admiration. “Oh, this is so easy,” they say, “nothing special” while the rest of us look on in awe thinking “If this is nothing special. I’m in trouble.”

Places compel me – perhaps it is the echo of the people who inhabited the spaces? What did they think, feel, what objects did they cherish? What did they create and what stirred them into creating it in the first place?

What would that 19th century writer want me to know?

I want to hear it – from her, in her own words and cadence and modest luxury, perhaps/

I am compelled by differences, light, reflections and instrumental music. Lately binaural beats have been favored. I wonder if they have altered my mood as I have been cheerier lately.

I am compelled by questions to live and gifts I can give and receive.

I am compelled to know what compels you.

Applause came two sentences ago so I must stop writing, but I don’t really want to stop writing. If you write to this prompt, please comment and share your link below. 

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

Experiments in Brain Dumping: What I Learned May Help You, Too!

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I did an experiment last week with the process I created, the #5for5BrainDump.

I wrote using prompted brain dumps for five minutes a day for five consecutive days, allowing my thoughts to pour onto the page and then I published the unedited writing on my blog.

I wrote these reflections on Friday and I published last week six times on my blog.  This will technically be my first post of the new week or my seventh post from last week.

What did I learn?

It is best to have a blog template ready to go – I made mine on Sunday – so that when it was time to do my five minute writing all I had to do was the five minute writing, copy paste and publish. I know for many the hardest part is pushing that publish button.

I think next week I will have the prompts ready ahead of time so all the images will be uploaded as well so it will be a simple copy, paste and done. I really ran with the Eleanor Roosevelt quote this week and I wasn’t expecting that, so I will allow myself to be open to whatever flows this week.

I want to keep a table of contents each week as I go with highlights of each post. I have found in my enormous body of work there is much that sits, forgotten, that is worth being re-published and shared with the world.

I want to explore how this practice may help with entrepreneurs as well. This will be a part of my focus next week – because I know once people begin to explore these methods, they may experience greater flow in their work world as well.

AND THE APPLAUSE SAYS – 5 minutes is up!

(Yes, this was written #5for5BrainDump style with several small edits on Sunday morning, just a different way of managing the content stream.)

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.

 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

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.Facebooktwitterpinterest

Discovering New Strength, Thoughts and Ooops, That Not-So-Surprising Surprise

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Preface:

It took me far too long to begin to write to this prompt. Multi-fold procrastination which I might describe as block which reminds me: most everything that looks like block is actually fear.

One of the reasons people do not do a writing practice on an ongoing nature is “fear of stirring up more than one may want to stir up.”

Mine is like a book with many chapters: I am afraid of failing, falling short of not living up to… whatever it is I daily don’t live up to and I am afraid of making people angry and I am afraid of finding myself all alone because of everything I have noted up until now.

(It took me a full five minutes to explain my procrastination so please grant me another five to write about today’s prompt:

Starting… now.

My renewed thoughts are….

This morning I looked outside and my heart literally felt like it enlarged in my chest: the garbage collectors had come by my home and taken my trash away. The trash can was no longer overflowing! It was ready to be rolled back to its place beside my house! I didn’t have to worry about it getting knocked over or making a bigger mess. It was gone, gone, gone and although I had a full day ahead with some not-so-pleasant tasks on the list, my heart was happy and in turn, my happiness has continued to expand.

And perhaps be a foundation for the more challenging prompt –

One risk my heart is longing to take….

I want to start over again after Samuel graduates from high school. I see myself being a vagabond, leading tours for people who are either writers or literary junkies or a combination of both.  I want to take people on explorations of self and literature while having a ridiculously good time. I want to help people find their guiding inner writers, their favorite quotes and deeply textured writing fairy god-mothers (and fathers, I would suppose)

I want to risk building bridges with people from “I can’t” to “I will” to productive, heartfelt creativity while adventuring, while exploring new and familiar spaces.

And then… applause is here. We have been heard.

 

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

Move Your Writing & Your Quality of Life Forward with Inspirational Quotes

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“With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.”

Eleanor Roosevelt reminded me of this today. New strength with the sunrise, even if it is invisible – with the new day I have a whole slate of new choices. With each week, a new clean crisp canvas.

Lots of other people complain about Mondays. I rejoice in Mondays and actively seek out fabulousness each other day of the week. Currently I’m working on incorporating a full day of rest at least once a month. Surprising how challenging this has become.

I don’t mean rest to smoosh in all the stuff I’ve missed out on from working – I mean rest to simply sit and be and have a completely open, quiet calendar. Intentionally. Weird. Wonderful.

I am going to repeat today’s quote each day this week for several reasons.

#1) I know is power in memorizing significant thought leaders wisdom. “With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.”

#2) I believe in the message it sends and it will both serve as a reminder and an attractor of new strength and new thoughts. Remember the tenet, “What we focus upon grows.”

#3) I feel empowered when I hear the quote aloud and feel my pencil write it. “With the new days comes new strength and new thoughts.” My face smiles automatically when I think about Eleanor Roosevelt. Smiles make us happier, instantly.

#4) I think this experiment will teach me, make me aware of new facets of living and writing I am not even vaguely aware of yet.

#5) I intend to have an enjoyable, deeply playful experience of momentum with my writing by repeating and integrating these thoughts more and more deeply via repetition as prayerful affirmation. “With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.”

I am ready. Are you ready for today’s story? Find a short quote from a favorite writer to use each day this week as I am using the one from Eleanor Roosevelt and experimentally play with the direction it leads you with your writing this week. Please let me know how it goes – –

 

 

 

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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 and below to follow her on your favorite social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.

 

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