Julie Unplugged

#Wishcasting, Contentment and Treasure Boxes: Who Could Ask for More?

Today Jamie asked: What treasures do you wish for?

When I first read this, I thought about treasures in an intangible sense: treasures of love, treasures in the presence of my children: stuff like that.

When I looked again and walked around with the question in my mind, I thought, “Treasures.  Tangibles. Big foot lockers overflowing, like a hope chest… a treasure chest….”

I have come to know my treasures do not always equal others treasures.

I don’t go for ostentatious wealth. I was raised in a suburb of New York where a lot of people had a lot of money. My own grandparents had a lot of money. There was a difference between the people who were showy with their wealth and those who had treasures and knew it had always known it and didn’t need to blast from trumpets, “We are wealthy!” They didn’t have to shout to others about their fortunes, their wealth showed in their presence, commitment to community and investing their money in good causes as well as adding to external investments.

I would rather be the latter: the one who wears my treasures quietly. I don’t feel the need to trumpet my treasures or have the world shine a spotlight on JULIE! BEARER OF TREASURES!

With that in mind, those who are quietly wealthy stay that way because they don’t forget about being wise with their treasures.

So now, I imagine opening my treasure chest and finding inside everything and anything I might wish for to be inside:

I wish for the treasure of family photos: my family, playing and celebrating in a home that reflects each member.  I circulate these in and out of the treasure box so I am reminded and refreshed by different moments in time from my life.

I wish for the treasure of letters and cards from beloved ones, sharing how I have contributed to their lives.

I wish for the treasure of family heirlooms which I don’t leave in the chest: instead, I joyfully place them around my home so that I may always experience them.

I wish for the treasure of papers documenting my investments and my bank accounts, always showing a positive abondanza flow in and out. Plenty so that everyone is cared for well and then some. Not a huge “some” or “sum” but enough to be generous with others in a quiet, understated, intimate way.

I wish for the treasure of art of all sorts. Publishing contracts, collected and sales receipts from different art shows and events are all documented.  Thank you notes from readers and patrons are inside.  Any awards or media coverage…I have started this collection of treasures. I see it growing. I see it growing steadily. I see it growing in ebbs and flows because that is how life is ~ not a straight line rocket trajectory, but a meandering flow through the river. Sometimes there are rapids along that river and things are loud and exciting and sometimes there are still spots, where the water sticks around for a while and sometimes the water seems to go dry and sometimes the pace is just right. Ebbs and flows and enjoying each treasured moment within those ebbs and flows.

I feel completely content now, sitting with my treasure box.

I couldn’t wish for much of anything else.

Thank you, Jamie, and the Wishcasting Community.

As you wish for yourself, so I wish for you also….

  Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot

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© 2011
Julie Jordan Scott

 

#ROW80 Check In ~ November 30. Where, oh where did November Go?

Would someone tell me how it got to be November 30? It is as if this month has been swallowed while I went to powder my nose. I can not remember ever experiencing a shorter November. Is this just because I am getting old(er) and am now less than two months from one of those *significant* birthdays?

SERIOUSLY!

I am not even doing NaNo (though I did read from an ancient text book called Understanding Fiction yesterday.)

On non-writing related news: I am officially… an employee. This is odd because I have oftentimes said, “I never want a job again!” but this is a very part time job working for the local colleges ESL department as a reader. The intriguing thing is the friend I am working for told me about an adjunct job… which I am going to apply for also. Being an adjunct instructor would be something of a dream come true for me. Part time, decent pay for part time AND I would be doing something I love: teaching writing. My friend says she would recommend the class right before the students transition from ESL to 1A.

It’s funny because I have been considering going back to school to become an adjunct instructor. I’m still planning on going back to school, but am thinking the adjunct may come before I am done.

Wouldn’t that be grand?

Now, for my goals and progress with ROW80:

Write: Daily. Lots of words. Surprising even myself.

WIP:  YES! Oodles of progress. I love when I am making progress and the ideas just flow out of me… feels so good.

Edit:

Poetry: Yes. I edited a poem I wrote last week. I love the newer version and think… I may be onto something!

Prose: As I said above, in relationship to my WIP, this is happening to a much larger extent than ever before AND I am not dreading it or avoiding it, I am doing it!

PROSE: Read: One poem a day. YES. I usually read more than one.

READING about CRAFT

As I said before, I read from an ancient textbook called “Understanding Fiction”. There is some good stuff in there… trying to figure out if I should continue to casually read it.  I was also surprised to find some YouTube videos of lectures from Yale. I am not usually much of a watcher of YouTube… but this one English instructor had me transfixed. I need to look at more and decide if I would like to invest my mind there.

Creativity as a Practice:

I haven’t been doing much visual art this week. It’s not that I am stuck, my time has just run out more often lately. I figured I get about 5 hours a day to do EVERYTHING I want to get done. If that. So I need to smoosh a lot into the day. Instead of being frustrated, I am focusing on writing and if the other stuff doesn’t get done, I am forgiving myself. Plus tomorrow I am starting rehearsals for Marat/Sade AND yes, an AND… I need to buy some more paint for my next “Women’s Sphere” piece.

Social Media

Weekly: Write no less than five blog posts weekly J Yes, Ma’am. I am.

Biweekly: Post my #ROW80 updates on Wednesday and Sunday! Continue with SOCSunday and Wishcasting.

Daily: Visit no fewer than two or three of my fellow #ROW80 as well as participants in Art Every Day Month. I’m doing this. I sometimes comment more but not less.

Thank you, all, for your comments on my words.

My version of AMEN: REMEMBER I WRITE BECAUSE I LOVE IT and… Word-love has the power to change the world. One sentence at a time, we are having a positive impact on this beloved planet.

Until Sunday, Word-love to you all!

  Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot

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Julie Jordan Scott

#AEDM2011: Collaboration, Creative Inspiration and Completion, Step-by-Step

Confession: I was ready to not bother sharing an Art Every Day Month post... sorry if it sounds repetitive, but then a Linked Within link from Day 22, 2009 inspired me to share, even if... I feel like I have more to say than can fit one post.

So many great events from the last few days and I will post here three in a nitty-gritty almost tweetlike style. I know I want to support all of you ~ and I know the feeling is more than likely the same with you. So rather than write-on-and-on like I usually do... here we go!

Snail mail from Mother Henna brought a lovely letter to Emily Dickinson which I will use with the next Emily Inspired piece. I aim to complete it by the 30th. Here is the letter alongside two of my earlier Emily Pieces: Homestead.

If you would like to collaborate with me on any future "Women's Sphere" pieces, the possibility is still open! I would love to receive letters to any women writers you love, especially those from the past. THANK YOU, Kara, for your lovely contribution.

SECONDLY, many repeat visitors know my admiration of Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Her writing in The Yellow Wallpaper was instrumental in starting the "Women's Sphere?" project. Yesterday... I visited the home in Pasadena, California where she spent her final days. The current owners even invited me inside to look around. I was sooooo joyful!

And THIRD! I completed my most recent work within the "Women's Sphere?" project. It is a bread board focused on Sara Teasdale. I love how this one turned out. It is inspired by the art of quilting... do you see hints of a quilt in it?

The grey and yellow photos in the center of the piece show what the breadboard used to look like with the Yellow Blob of paint representing Women's Suffrage. Women fighting for the right to vote here in the US wore yellow as a sign of solidarity. Much of this project includes yellow SOMEWHERE and in some pieces, it is the dominant color.

THANK YOU all for visiting and commenting. My next post MAY be longer. I love sharing my passion for my subject AND I love communicating my love with you.

 

  Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot

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Julie Jordan Scott

Desperately Seeking Author's Homes (& Graves & Homesites & Ephemera & & &) #SOCSunday Rambling

This morning I thought, "I know I have a lot to write and post today, yet I can't remember where to start." I wrote my "A Round of Words in 80 Days" check in post, got up from my computer when it hit me. ITS SUNDAY! IT is time for SOC Sunday! With the holiday, all my time is wonky. I kept thinking Friday was Saturday. Having a house full of people, constantly, drips onto my writing fingers and makes all sort of unintelligible messes.

AND my SOC Writing, later in the day than usual, pleased me to no end. It even Mirrors Fadra's own post... sort of... anyway, step into 5 minutes within this writer's mind.

I have a strange addiction to places.

I love visiting author’s homes, memorials and graves. Most people know this by my constant visiting of such places, sometimes even ferreting them out. In fact, the ones of the lesser known authors are actually my favorite.

I have visited some biggies: Mark Twain’s house in Hartford, Connecticut is astounding: but I also love his home outside Angel’s Camp, California – the tiny dwelling he shared with several other men AND the place he wrote about his breakthrough story about Jumping Frogs. These are the places that give me shivers.

In Angel’s Camp, you can visit the bar where (not yet Mark Twain) Samuel Clemens told stories and heard stories. He may have got his first hankering to be a humorist rather than a typesetter and journalist right there.

You can even see the brothel  a very young Clemens visited. Well, you can’t go inside if you are under 21 as it is above a rather boisterous bar, but you can look up and say, “Wow.. so much happened here!” My children and I even sang karaoke at a Mercantile which still looks much as it did when Clemens lived there.

Granted, his Hartford home grounds are also the location of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s house, I will give them that, but there is something about “being” with the author before he hit it big that completely inspired me.

Yesterday was an exceptional find for me: the final residence of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, author of The Yellow Wallpaper. She was quite prolific in her Pasadena years. Her future as an activist, reformer and suffrage worker also found place in her fiction, speeches and non-fiction essays.  Did I mention she is the great-niece of Harriet Beecher Stowe?

I could go on and on but my timer just screeched at me, “Your five minutes are up!” so I do not have space to pontificate about why your children should visit author’s homes or how to inspire your writing and creativity by visiting author’s homes.

We’ll save those words for another writing time.

 

This was my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…

• Set a timer and write for 5 minutes only.
• Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
• Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
• Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post.
• Link up your post at AllThingsFadra.com
• Visit your fellow bloggers and show some love.
• By the way, this photo was taken in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, Massachusetts. I was sitting by the graves of the entire Alcott Family, as in Louisa May Alcott, her sisters and parents. A complete stranger happened by and I asked him to please capture the moment.

 

  Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot

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Breaking Through Barriers to Reach My Writing Goals: #ROW80 Check In

This week would be best categorized as one of breaking through barriers, in some cases barriers I didn’t even know were there.

My belief is this: because I am aware of my ROW80 goals, respect them and follow up continually, they are at the forefront of my mind ~ or at least the forefront of my subconscious… so I find ways to move forward, even when life feels the bleakest.

It also provides insta-motivation to continue to move through my goals, whichever ones they are. I would have to say this has been my most balanced week since I started ROW80. Even on Thanksgiving when I was cooking up a storm, I managed to do two wordmongering rounds, adding words to my WIP as well as doing some gleaning for my WIP.

I wrote poetry while waiting for the woman I am working with at Bakersfield College to show up: instead of being angry, I filled the time with creativity. Friday I had coffee with a friend who was in town for the holiday. After she left, I sat with a book of Sylvia Plath and wrote a “dialogue” between us which will become a monologue poem for me, eventually.

I am smiling as I carve out writing in my busy life, not worrying incessantly, “Am I getting the job done?”

Thank you, ROW80 friends, for helping to make that happen.

Now, for my goals and progress:

Write: As I said above, I am picking up my pencil (or phone or keyboard or whatever is handy) and simply writing with much more consistency. With so many folks NaNoing, I am almost inspired to start writing fiction again. Almost.

WIP:  This has been very exciting. I have been both writing and gleaning, gleaning and writing and revising. (Gleaning in this case is going back to previously written material and seeing which pieces may fit as components of the overall piece I am creating.) I am actually seeing several smaller books, in a series, rather than only one. Even as I write about this I am nodding and getting excited about the thought.

Edit:

Poetry: Yes. I am continuing to focus on editing nearly as much as writing. I also pulled down my book length poem, Upper La Cresta Sojourn. The time to edit and call it complete is now.  It’s happening!

Prose: As I said above, in relationship to my WIP, this is happening to a much larger extent than ever before AND I am not dreading it or avoiding it, I am doing it!

PROSE: Read: One poem a day. YES. I usually read more than one. Read a lot of Sara Teasdale this week, as I created art honoring her life and work.

READING about CRAFT

One Book on the Art of Writing. This week I read from both Naked, Drunk and Writing by Adair Lara. Even as she continues to contradict herself, I am getting some good tips from the book. Another credit to ROW80, I probably would have set this aside if it wasn’t on my list here.

Creativity as a Practice:

I am back to working on my “Women’s Sphere Art” and in fact, yesterday I had a huge day as I drove to Pasadena (about two hours south of Bakersfield) and visited the house where Charlotte Perkins Gilman died as well as the site (the home is no longer there) where she wrote The Yellow Wallpaper  as well as other stories, poems, essays and articles. I even got to go inside the former home, something I didn’t expect would happen. I was standing outside taking photos, one of the front door, when it opened. A smiling face of a young woman greeted me. I fumbled an apology and explained how much I love Charlotte Perkins Gilman… and she invited me in to take a small tour, even though she felt her house was messy. It wasn’t!

Social Media

Weekly: Write no less than five blog posts weekly. I did cross the 1400 blog post mark. I haven’t posted voluminously this week, but I have a lot “in stock” now from all the wordsprinting and wordmongering I have done. Usually I work either on my WIP or I write essays and articles during Wordmongering. In fact, wordmongering is where I write most of my ezine essays and blog posts. Now I need to make the choice: which to post first? J It is a conundrum I like!

 Biweekly: Post my #ROW80 updates on Wednesday and Sunday! Continue with SOCSunday and Wishcasting. I didn’t post my ROW80 update Wednesday. I was so busy with other work and strangely or not, I didn’t have much response to last Sunday’s post so I just elected to work on what was in front of me and not make myself wrong for not updating and I wasn't upset or judgmental I didn't get much feedback. It felt very balanced. YAY!

Daily: Visit no fewer than two or three of my fellow #ROW80 as well as participants in Art Every Day Month. I’m doing this. I sometimes comment more but never less.

Thank you, all, for your comments on my words.

My version of AMEN: REMEMBER I WRITE BECAUSE I LOVE IT and… Word-love has the power to change the world. One sentence at a time, we are having a positive impact on this beloved planet.

Until Wednesday, Word-love to you all!

  Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot

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Sara's Bread Board Quilt + Questing after Charlotte: #AEDM2011 Check In

Two exciting developments are coming to fruition for my Art Every Day Month main project.

First, I am taking a sort of pilgrimage today to see two Charlotte Perkins Gilman landmarks: the place where the home was where she wrote The Yellow Wallpaper in the late 1890’s. I don’t believe the home is there still, but a historic district is there with homes similar to the time when she was there now exists. I am also visiting the house where she lived when she died of a conscious suicide because she had terminal cancer. It has been moved from its original spot. My intention is to at least visit the house if not its original site.

I am so excited I may annoy the heck out of my daughter, Emma, who is taking this road trip with me.

First, I painted the breadboard with yellow, red and orange, using a technique I originally learned from Art Journaling, to make backgrounds and paper for my journal. I was fascinated with how it turned out, even before it started to become a Sara Teasdale quilt.

Next step, create a “reminiscent of a quilt” pattern containing Sara Teasdale poems and photos of the original breadboard + yellow.

Today, finally, I see my body of work growing enough that I can feel proud of the emphasis I have placed on the "Women's Sphere?" project. November has been a big month for me in many ways. It seems perfect that this project was a part of my overall November 2011. Thank you, Leah and Art Every Day Month!

I need to wrap this off so I can hit the road questing for Charlotte’s writing roots.

Enjoy your artful life today!

  Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot

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Art Every Day Month Day 26: Continuing to Create & Contemplate, Contemplate and Create #aedm2011

This morning I felt as if I was woefully out of love with my "Women’s Sphere?" Project.

I thought, “Well, if I don’t show up at Art Every Day Month, no one will notice anyway. It can be my little unfinished secret.”

I decided to just take some photos of what I had accomplished so far. I took my most recent piece which definitely didn’t cause me to feel in the slightest bit enamored. I enjoyed the concept, but the execution shows my fumbly beginner ness.

I realize as I write about it, “What is wrong with beginner fumbles?”

My inner wisdom pokes through not with a finger wagging, sneering presence, more like the Mother or Auntie I wished, always, to have.  She is loving, guiding, encouraging and most of all believing in me. This is the Mother, Auntie, “Fake Mommy” I attempt to be, always.

In taking just a few photos with my phone camera since Samuel took my normal camera to take videos and I don’t know where he left it, my heart softened. I remembered why I started this project. I reached for my next possible canvas.

A “Welcome Friends” hanging breadboard, a fossil from the “country kitchen craze” that took place I believe in the early 90’s. Those years just morph together for me: there was a lot going on in my life.

I thought I would paint it, but I should gesso it first.

Why do I put barriers in front of myself? My gesso is outside in the garage in the dresser with my many art supplies which are temporarily living there.

I found some old yellow paint on my kitchen counter.

I know, what was it doing next to my coffee maker?

It was giving me an option.

Instead of getting stuck in the “no gesso” just like I didn’t get stuck in “I can’t find my camera!” I used what I had and I got the job done.

I took process photos and in the midst of that, captured a moment I will use and reuse, I am sure, throughout this creative process.

Look at it, here.

Yellow is the color of suffrage, which to me was one of the key components of women beginning to be free from other’s expectations.

I thought about this yesterday, as I spent hours in the kitchen making Thanksgiving Dinner. It was a joy for me to be in there. It was a choice for me, not a duty “inflicted upon me” by society or my family. I love making traditional foods from scratch. I (beyond-words) enjoyed the scents that rose from my oven and crock pot. At any given time I smelled Sage, Cinnamon, Turkey, Rosemary, Ham, Cranberries & Orange Juice, Chocolate Chip Cookies.

This was close to heaven for me.

Why wouldn’t I choose something I love?

This is what I see modern feminism is all about. Please continue to read: don’t be turned off by that word, Feminism.

Feminism isn’t about militant women who never wear makeup and hate men.

Feminism is about making choices. It is about having freedom to do as we want to do without limitations set by gender roles. Feminism says I am not less than because I am a woman and you are not more than if you are a man. Feminism does not worship hierarchy; it appreciates circles and communities in collaboration.

Just because I am creating art about “Women’s Sphere?” focusing on traditional women’s roles doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy some of those tasks. This isn’t it at all.

What I mind is women being thrust into roles they do not have the slightest bent or interest in pursuing. They are there because of duty and expectation by their society.

Yesterday as I lovingly basted the turkey, I thought about some of the unfortunately dry turkeys my mother served on Thanksgiving. She wasn’t wild about cooking, ever, and it showed in the outcomes. I love the creativity of cooking and it shows in the satisfied mmmms and ohhhh, wows! that tumble from people who aren’t just eating the food I prepare, they are admiring the consciously artful way I prepare it because I don’t see preparing food as a duty, I see preparing food as a joy.

I also realized my “woefully falling out of love with my project” was because I hadn’t spent much time with it. I forgot momentarily what was significant about it to me, personally, and also the subjects of my work.

In those times when I feel unmotivated (can you say classic depression) I will do pieces of the project I enjoy.  I love working on bowls. I also want to have paper ready to work with, so I need to create an inventory, ever ready. I think my belief “I don’t have my studio set up like I used to, like I want to” has gotten in my way. Instead, I am looking now at the “What can I do with what I have?” rather than lamenting what was in the past.

With that, and this, my relationship with my art is just a little bit stronger.

On the day after Thanksgiving, 2011, that makes me feel exceptionally grateful.

  Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot

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Jamie's #Wishcasting Question of the Week: What Do You Wish to Remember?

Once a week at Jamie Ridler's Studio, a group of us gather to share our wishes. You are more than welcome to join in by checking out Wishcasting at this link.

My wish? I wish to remember what it felt like then.

It was a time in my early to mid twenties when life was progressing as I always knew it would and should for me. I had a great job and good friends, I was happy in my marriage. We bought our new home right on schedule. I traveled a couple times a year. We had recently visited Central Mexico. Ken passed the bar on his first attempt.

I had no reason to think my life would do anything BUT continue right on course. When I got pregnant shortly after we bought our first house, it was an incredible blessing. This baby was like the first baby ever.

When you lead a life that feels so perfect, when the worst thing happens, it is beyond surreal.

I wish to remember what it felt like before my first baby was stillborn.

Actually, I wish to remember what it felt like to be naïve and passionate while still bearing all the wisdom I have now: when I learned life was not about company cars and expense accounts, that working for myself in a creative endeavor is what makes me happiest and with the three children I have now, people don’t  know the “yearning for babies” shadow I used to bear: infertility problems and feeling broken as a woman.

I wish to remember what it felt like, then. In the wishing, I realize I love the way I feel now ~ yet, going back in time and visiting those bright days would be intriguing… it would be like going to a museum of me.

I’m sticking with the wish.

I wish to remember what it felt like before my first baby was stillborn.

 

  Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot

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Art Every Day Check In: Day 22 ~ Autumn (and sometimes #AEDM2011 reports) comes late to Bakersfield

It’s a fact: Autumn comes late to Bakersfield

Yesterday I worked on my second piece inspired by Phillis Wheatley. I am not comfortable showing it here, though – it just isn’t up to par yet so I will have to wait until tomorrow to unveil it.

I’ve felt sort of stuck this past week because time constraints have been this big blockade for me. I have taken nibbles of creativity, but it never felt like enough to report on.

Somehow working on Emma’s costume for “Alice in Wonderland” wasn’t enough.

(That's her, behind the white rabbit, reaching for a cup of tea.)

Somehow taking photos with my phone wasn’t enough.

Somehow choosing which Women’s Sphere? Piece to make next wasn’t enough.

This morning, as Samuel and I walked to school, I came upon a tree which became a fire blossom of color this weekend. What a grand surprise! I had to photograph it: it's leaves were too beautiful not to capture.

When I popped over to look at what Leah had posted for Day 21, I found this quote she left for us to ponder:

“The object isn't to make art, it's to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable”  

Robert Henri

Today I split my day between household chores which built up over the weekend and writing, my first creative love. I spent last half hour thinking about whether I was depriving Samuel or engaging him during our walks, when we discuss what we see, what we smell, what we notice that is different every day.

I felt like the quote Leah posted from Robert Henri was a gift, like a flashlight showing me the way I lead my life is artful, whether it is in playing with my children or discussing the play we saw or the film we saw or “What is it, that smell in the air. Where is it coming from?”

THIS is creativity at its finest: taking moments to see and experience wonder within unexpected moments.

We don’t march from this to-do to that to-do. We get it done AND we notice the artful treasures along the way.  I don’t create “either/or” lives for my children, I create abundantly “AND” lives, instead.

It feels so much better.

  Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot

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Writing and #ROW80 ing Differently - Check in November 20, 2011

Today I am writing (and #ROWing!) differently: getting stuff done ahead of time so I don’t perpetually feel behind, as I was this week.
Several life crises woven within the week made for a different quality yet still high quantity writing experience.

I am grateful to know my writing continued, anyway. Some of my goals sit, waiting for me to pick them up and dust them off and as usual, I am much more kind and compassionate with myself since I started ROW80.

Meanwhile, I am waiting until Monday to hear from my sister the results of some medical testing. The symptoms she suggested scare me a lot, but I soldier on… offering continual support as I can from a distance and constantly stalking her facebook page.

Now, for an update of my goals ~

Write: I facilitated Writing Camp with JJS this week even as chaos continued breaking out. It felt delightful and though I don’t often do so, I wrote alongside the Campers. The discussions were true and deep. Most campers produced better writing than I have ever heard from them. This feels, in looking back, like an enormous win for each and all.

WIP: Thanks to the #Wordsprint writers, gathered up via the lovely Lauren Garafalo (join us each weekday at 11 am PST for an hour of writing) and #Wordmongering experiences this week, I have stayed on task. This is another “remarkable, the week was actually better than I thought!” My word counts daily were mostly well over 3,000.  (This surprised the heck out of me. Perhaps it was the detachment that make the counts come freely?)

Edit:

Poetry: Yes. I am continuing to focus on editing nearly as much as writing. Another… yay, it’s happening!

PROSE: Read: One poem a day. YES. I read also in conjunction with my art project, A Women’s Sphere. I focused on several women poets this week: Phillis Wheatley, the first African American woman to publish back in the 18^th Century. I also read Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton, plus some of Anne Sexton’s letters.

READING about CRAFT

One Book on the Art of Writing. This week I read from both Naked, Drunk and Writing by Adair Lara and Annie Dillard’s A Writing Life.

I am feeling much friendlier toward both books. Lara continues to contradict herself and Dillard still sounds condescending and “know-it-all” but despite that, I learn new things each time I read from these books.

Creativity as a Practice:

I spent much less time here mostly due to my time being stretched beyond capacity. I did work on my daughter’s costume for Alice in Wonderland which I believe counts AND I did facilitate Writing Camp. Both of these activities are highly creative… in fact, as I type I realize I should give them greater merit than I normally do.

Social Media

Weekly: Write no less than five blog posts weekly .  Yes. I continue to hit this mark. I am almost up to 1400 posts on my blog and am considering ways to celebrate this reality. Pretty amazing.

Biweekly: Post my #ROW80 updates on Wednesday and Sunday! Continue with SOCSunday and Wishcasting. Yes, yes, YES!

Daily: Visit no fewer than two or three of my fellow #ROW80 as well as participants in Art Every Day Month. I have been slacking. I’m still commenting but not daily due to this week’s chaos.

Thank you, all, for your comments on my words.

My version of AMEN: REMEMBER I WRITE BECAUSE I LOVE IT and… Word-love has the power to change the world. One sentence at a time, we are having a positive impact on this beloved planet.

Until Wednesday, Word-love to you all!

  Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot

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© 2011
Julie Jordan Scott