"Always keep Ithaca in your mind.
To arrive there is your ultimate goal.
But do not hurry the voyage at all."
Greek poet Constantine Cavafy via Chris Guillebeau and Sarah Robinson in her Escaping Mediocrity "28 Days to Getting Your Sh*t together"program.
In late December I came up with my theme for 2011. I chose "Abondanza!" the Italian version of "Abundance." I wanted to create abundance, wholeheartedly and on more than simply the financial side AND including the financial side. I am the mother of a first-year college student at Smith College. Very expensive, very worth it, and definitely flashing a beautiful light of "abondanza love!" in my daily thought patterns.
I read somewhere today we are 10% into 2011 and yowza, it reminded me to keep picking my foot up and putting it down on my Abondanza journey and lo and behold, there in the Sarah Robinson's '28 Days to Get Your Sh*t Together' post was a reminder from the ever well respected Chris Guillebeau that asked me (and all the other readers of the program and now you, too), "What can you do right now (today) to continue on the journey?"
Yesterday I wrote about abondanza and what it means to me. It includes freedom - the feeling and experience of freedom and the ability to not have financial concerns hovering over one's shoulder. I must profess, I have had more of that uncomfortable hovery feeling of "not enoughness" than I ever imagined I would. And on the flip side, this past weekend on an adventure with my children in California's Gold Country, we lived ABONDANZA completely. We explored where we wanted to explore, we discovered new things about Samuel Clemens: one of my son's literary heroes. We panned for gold, we laughed, we made up stories, we ate what we wanted when we wanted. We made new friends. We even sang karaoke just because Emma wanted to sing karaoke.
And we sang karaoke - be still my heart, in a mercantile building that opened its doors in 1860 and is now run by an intentional community. Now that is MY version of heavenly abondanza on so many levels!
As we drove back toward our home in Bakersfield, I took photos as the sun set. I admit it, I was driving at the time with my hand out the window. I was being careful. Thirteen-year-old Emma giggled and said, "We should have a sign on our car: Warning! Driver is under the influence of inspiration!"
That is who I am on my journey. Inspired and inspiring to others. I didn't choose that label, "Inspiring." It is what other people call me. So, as I write this with tears in my eyes, I think it is time for me to claim and proclaim it.
So as I take my next step on my journey - my ultimate, unhurried journey of abondanza and inspiration, I am letting folks know about my upcoming Writing Camp open house. My big dream with Writing Camp is to start a Writing Camp/ Artist's Retreat that is cross generational where Artists and Writers may bring their families and take a stop on their busy journeys to rest, rejuvenate, reflect and receive inspiration.
I'm hosting an open house on Thursday and in this Virtual Writing Camp setting, that means a Teleconference with Writing Campers all over the world but it can be a pretty quiet campfire if folks don't know about it. Today, I took the steps on the journey marked, "Abondanza Marketing" ~ otherwise known as "tell the people you love about what you love in order to see if there is a connection so you may do what you love together"... Marketing doesn't have to be difficult. It is simply sharing the love.
So then, the final step on my journey today was to not only share the love, but continue on my journey which began on my birthday retreat less than two weeks ago. This year I am working to make at least one request a day, preferably a request that makes me more than a little bit squirmy. You know, uncomfortable. Not ridiculously uncomfortable, but just uncomfortable enough to make me take notice.
I asked several friends who have clout with their audiences to tweet and share my Writing Camp open house.
They said, "SURE! Julie!" and then, surprise ~ surprise, the friend I was most afraid to ask tweeted about my Writing Camp Open House without me even making the request.
Over and over again I have found this is how it works.
Remember those lines I opened with, from the Greek Poet, Constantine Cavafy:
Always keep Ithaca in your mind.
To arrive there is your ultimate goal.
But do not hurry the voyage at all."
I'm not hurrying. I am taking this Adondanza journey one step at a time and having a darn good time each step of the way.
And by the way, if you are a writer who would like to reset your writing button to "inspired"... join the fun at the Writing Camp Open House. There isn't any charge except the movement of your pencil or pen or fingers on the keyboard during the Campfire.
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