Julie Unplugged

Announcing the August #5for5BrainDump Challenge - 5 Minutes + 5 Days = Enormous Positive Change

Our August Session starts MONDAY! 

Join us at 6 am, 3 pm and 8 pm PT on Periscope and at 11 am PT on Facebook Live to gather, to be inspired and naturally, to pour the thoughts from our brains onto the page. Participate in one of our sessions to see what all the fuss is about - with Optional Scope Trains at 3 pm and 10 pm - follow on Periscope @JulieJordanScott and on twitter @juliejordanscot

What is the #5for5BrainDump Challenge?

It is a chance for you to experience breakthrough, to blossom, to burst to bud to open to whatever wants to be born through your pencil, your pen, your fingers on the keyboard.

We are BACK because the participants from the last challenge received such dynamic insights and had such tremendous results, I had to bring it back again.

What could be simpler?

All you do is this: set a timer for five minutes and write for five consecutive days. If you like, you may join us via live streaming to write in the company of others, live.

The first time I wrote this blog page, that's exactly what I did: I set the timer for five minutes and I wrote and hit PUBLISH.

That's right!

I set the timer for five minutes and am writing you this brief explanation because I believe the world is waiting for your words, all those words that are clogged up inside you because of overthinking and your inner critic working more time than necessary.

Dumping your brain out on the page takes away the inner critic terrorism, unlocks your word flow and finally gives the messages that have been waiting to be born through you the space to become. The space to take root. The space to be heard over all the shouting.

Seriously: in five minutes you can go to clogged thinking to a sense of peace.

Deep breath and write and after maybe ninety seconds of consistently writing without thinking, hushing the shouts of "What the hell are you doing?!?!" the good stuff starts trickling out and eventually flows.

The thing is, you grow in trust daily.

Your heart and subconscious mind starts to revvvvvv again.

Your heart and subconscious mind powerhouse understands, "He loves me!" and "She is here, she wants to get to her greatness again, that greatness that made that dimply grin when she was a toddler is opening up daily!"

Seriously – five minutes is all it takes.

(And I still have 48 seconds left, which I think I will fill with love.)

You are love personified, put it on the page.

You have so much love inside, share it.

There are people waiting to be with you, in love and admiration, write it.

You are a gift to the world, allow the world to open your gifts, to oooh and ahhhh with you!

My timer is sounding – wind chimes of celebration.

#5for5braindump challenge

 The main place to network and get support is the PeriWriters Facebook Group, but you may also simply use the Hashtag #5for5BrainDump and find us across social media platforms.

Please stay in touch: Follow me on Twitter:   and on Periscope for writing prompt, tips and inspiration daily created to ignite your artistic rebirth.

Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!)

  Follow on Instagram  And naturally, on Pinterest, too!      © 2015/2016

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 early Summer and beyond.

  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.

July 31: A Gift in Giving, Receiving and Receiving Again - Write with Me, Please

This was written “stream of consciousness style” in five minutes, sitting in my recliner in my living room. My online timer applauded when five minutes was up and I wrote for about thirty seconds more, just enough to complete the thought. There is power in writing only for five minutes at a time, tiny slices in one’s day. Try it with me on Wednesdays and the week of August 22 via the #5for5BrainDump. (Follow the hashtag - official announcement/post later today).

July was a month of ups and downs and spikes and dips and tears and hearty laughter and creative process. Awakening. Small deaths. Transition aimed precisely toward rebirth. Again.

An existential crisis mid-month almost did me in – and now looking back it was actually the start of movement into and through birth-process-like transition, that weird place that isn’t discussed enough in childbirth classes where the laboring woman actually thinks she can leave this birth process unscathed, just decide this whole birthing baby thing isn’t for her but we all know, those of us all knowing on the outside, know she WILL be birthing that baby whether she wants to or doesn’t want to.

I need to be more of that unknowing all on my inside sometimes.

The existential crisis happened in the wee hours of a Sunday morning.

I suffered alone at first, then called my notebook into action, then texted Cameron, then took photos, then Cameron responded. Then I cried and we chatted and I cried.  Took more photos and was coaxed back to sleep.

Crisis wasn’t averted by any means, but it did its job, like transition in childbirth always does and like we – probably all of  us – need to remember more consistently.

Before my wedding the photographer gave me advice more than I remember any other advice from that day. “The day will come and the day will go. It is up to you to choose to enjoy it or not. If you are uptight and nervous, it will show in your photos,” she said.

I’ve always been directable, I suppose, so my photos turned out better than the marriage did and I don’t remember anything the pastor said.

The existential crisis will come.

The months will come.

The crisis will leave and the month will leave.

This month, in all its less thans and more thans, in its challenges and victories and sameness – has been a gift.

I have given and received and given and received again and again and again and for that, I am more blessed than words can say.

= = = =

A Special Thank you to Amanda Smith of Spark Within Me.  Her Name Your Day challenge helped many to have more positive experiences throughout the month. She also has an August Blog Challenge  which I'll be participating in and I hope you will, too.

= = = =

Please stay in touch: Follow me on Twitter:   and on Periscope for writing prompt, tips and inspiration daily created to ignite your artistic rebirth.

Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!)

  Follow on Instagram  And naturally, on Pinterest, too!      © 2015/2016

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 this week.

  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

How Adding Layers to the Brain Dump Process Deepens Intuitive Insight #5for5BrainDump

Five for Five Brain Dump (known primarily as #5fo5BrainDump on Twitter, Instagram & Periscope)  is an instigator of awareness, connection and words, splashed on pages.

On the day I posted this,  I wrote quite a bit after our first session at 6 am.

Our 5 Day Challenge in October will focus on "Expansion, Naturally" and the #5for5BrainDump sessions begin on October 24. Visit our Website to sign up for reminders of our monthly happenings.

For now, an almost live sample of session and the video creation that spilled out afterwards. 

 

LIVE on #Periscope: 📚 Rise & Shine! 🔆 Morning #5for5BrainDump: ✍🏼 more of that, please... #amwriting #writingpro… https://t.co/441HbH0NjY

— Julie Jordan Scott (@juliejordanscot) July 28, 2016

Because I am holding space during the sessions, I can't write then... and I can create afterwards.

This morning I wrote and then added some coloring which definitely helped with my intuitive process about what I'm offering here as a Creative Life Coach who leads/creates/facilitates these #5for5BrainDump sessions - watch!

 

Please stay in touch: Follow me on Twitter:   and on Periscope for writing prompt, tips and inspiration daily created to ignite your artistic rebirth.

Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!)

  Follow on Instagram  And naturally, on Pinterest, too!      © 2015/2016

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 early Summer and beyond.

  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.

t tomorrow will bring, but I'm looking forward to the discovery.

Breakthroughs Abound with #5for5BrainDump - Join us tomorrow for more!

Today on #5for5BrainDump: Behind the Scenes on Day 1 (Via SnapChat)

 

 

Today has been a banner day for the #5for5BrainDump challenge. We followed up our 3 pm writing session with an “improv scope train” where Christine, Rachel and Patricia read their writing via live broadcast.

Each woman reported feeling absolutely incredible after being heard by the others on their scope.

Each woman gained viewers, followers and confidence.

I think each of us cried with the unbridled joy that comes from showing up whole-heartedly.

Please join us for Day 2 of #5for5BrainDump.

Would you like to be a part our Tuesday live broadcasting Scope Train?

Sign up at PeriWriters before 2 pm Pacific time tomorrow.

I will take the first three Broadcasters who request to share their writing. You may also share your writing on the PeriWriters facebook group, on your own blog – simply please use the hashtag #5for5BrainDump.

I ended our last moments together this afternoon saying “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if more people could feel this feeling we’re feeling now?

What's new for July #5for5BrainDump Challenge?

1. We will continue to have our signature 3 LiveStream Sessions Daily -
2. We will add Live Stream "Scope Trains" as an option for up to 3 writers to read their BrainDumps immediately after the BrainDump writing session. (Naturally you may also post on our PeriWriters Facebook Group or on your own blog or keep your writing to yourself. We are open to you choosing how you would most like to share).
3. Each Monthly Brain Dump will have a theme for the Prompts/Intention - in July our theme is "Your Next Breakthrough"
4. There will be prizes given on Saturday, July 30 at the end of the session for participants who have attended, shared and volunteered to be on Scope Trains.
5. If there is a demand, we will consider adding a Facebook Live BrainDump stream as well.

If you have no idea what we're talking about:

What is the #5for5BrainDump Challenge?

It is a chance for you to experience breakthrough, to blossom, to burst to bud to open to whatever wants to be born through your pencil, your pen, your fingers on the keyboard.

We are BACK because the participants from the last challenge received such dynamic insights and had such tremendous results, I had to bring it back again.

What could be simpler?

All you do is this: set a timer for five minutes and write for five consecutive days. If you like, you may join us via live streaming to write in the company of others, live.

The first time I wrote this blog page, that's exactly what I did: I set the timer for five minutes and I wrote and hit PUBLISH.

That's right!

I set the timer for five minutes and am writing you this brief explanation because I believe the world is waiting for your words, all those words that are clogged up inside you because of overthinking and your inner critic working more time than necessary.

Dumping your brain out on the page takes away the inner critic terrorism, unlocks your word flow and finally gives the messages that have been waiting to be born through you the space to become. The space to take root. The space to be heard over all the shouting.

Seriously: in five minutes you can go to clogged thinking to a sense of peace.

Deep breath and write and after maybe ninety seconds of consistently writing without thinking, hushing the shouts of "What the hell are you doing?!?!" the good stuff starts trickling out and eventually flows.

The thing is, you grow in trust daily.

Your heart and subconscious mind starts to revvvvvv again.

Your heart and subconscious mind powerhouse understands, "He loves me!" and "She is here, she wants to get to her greatness again, that greatness that made that dimply grin when she was a toddler is opening up daily!"

Seriously – five minutes is all it takes.

For those who benefit from IN PERSON WRITING COMPANIONSHIP we will be hosting Live Stream Writing Sessions -

We will meet via Periscope (Follow @JulieJordanScott on Periscope or follow along live on the web here or on Twitter here)

(And I still have 48 seconds left, which I think I will fill with love.)

You are love personified, put it on the page.

You have so much love inside, share it.

There are people waiting to be with you, in love and admiration, write it.

You are a gift to the world, allow the world to open your gifts, to oooh and ahhhh with you!

My timer is sounding – wind chimes of celebration.

#5for5braindump challenge

 The main place to network and get support is the PeriWriters Facebook Group, but you may also simply use the Hashtag #5for5BrainDump and find us across social media platforms.

Please stay in touch: Follow me on Twitter:   and on Periscope for writing prompt, tips and inspiration daily created to ignite your artistic rebirth.

Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!)

  Follow on Instagram  And naturally, on Pinterest, too!      © 2015/2016

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 early Summer and beyond.

  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.

What's New for the #5for5BrainDump Challenge in July? All the Details are HERE!

What's new for July #5for5BrainDump Challenge?

1. We will continue to have our signature 3 LiveStream Sessions Daily -
2. We will add Live Stream "Scope Trains" as an option for up to 3 writers to read their BrainDumps immediately after the BrainDump writing session. (Naturally you may also post on our PeriWriters Facebook Group or on your own blog or keep your writing to yourself. We are open to you choosing how you would most like to share).
3. Each Monthly Brain Dump will have a theme for the Prompts/Intention - in July our theme is "Your Next Breakthrough"
4. There will be prizes given on Saturday, July 30 at the end of the session for participants who have attended, shared and volunteered to be on Scope Trains.
5. If there is a demand, we will consider adding a Facebook Live BrainDump stream as well.

If you have no idea what we're talking about:

What is the #5for5BrainDump Challenge?

It is a chance for you to experience breakthrough, to blossom, to burst to bud to open to whatever wants to be born through your pencil, your pen, your fingers on the keyboard.

We are BACK because the participants from the last challenge received such dynamic insights and had such tremendous results, I had to bring it back again.

What could be simpler?

All you do is this: set a timer for five minutes and write for five consecutive days. If you like, you may join us via live streaming to write in the company of others, live.

The first time I wrote this blog page, that's exactly what I did: I set the timer for five minutes and I wrote and hit PUBLISH.

That's right!

I set the timer for five minutes and am writing you this brief explanation because I believe the world is waiting for your words, all those words that are clogged up inside you because of overthinking and your inner critic working more time than necessary.

Dumping your brain out on the page takes away the inner critic terrorism, unlocks your word flow and finally gives the messages that have been waiting to be born through you the space to become. The space to take root. The space to be heard over all the shouting.

Seriously: in five minutes you can go to clogged thinking to a sense of peace.

Deep breath and write and after maybe ninety seconds of consistently writing without thinking, hushing the shouts of "What the hell are you doing?!?!" the good stuff starts trickling out and eventually flows.

The thing is, you grow in trust daily.

Your heart and subconscious mind starts to revvvvvv again.

Your heart and subconscious mind powerhouse understands, "He loves me!" and "She is here, she wants to get to her greatness again, that greatness that made that dimply grin when she was a toddler is opening up daily!"

Seriously – five minutes is all it takes.

For those who benefit from IN PERSON WRITING COMPANIONSHIP we will be hosting Live Stream Writing Sessions -

We will meet via Periscope (Follow @JulieJordanScott on Periscope or follow along live on the web here or on Twitter here)

(And I still have 48 seconds left, which I think I will fill with love.)

You are love personified, put it on the page.

You have so much love inside, share it.

There are people waiting to be with you, in love and admiration, write it.

You are a gift to the world, allow the world to open your gifts, to oooh and ahhhh with you!

My timer is sounding – wind chimes of celebration.

#5for5braindump challenge

 The main place to network and get support is the PeriWriters Facebook Group, but you may also simply use the Hashtag #5for5BrainDump and find us across social media platforms.

Please stay in touch: Follow me on Twitter:   and on Periscope for writing prompt, tips and inspiration daily created to ignite your artistic rebirth.

Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!)

  Follow on Instagram  And naturally, on Pinterest, too!      © 2015/2016

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 early Summer and beyond.

  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.

Process: #CreatingFearlessly - Writing Prompts & Mixed Media meet Livestreaming

I responded to this writing prompt of my own making today after a full day of collaborative art journal activities.

This week I am participating in a Periscope Event for Art Journalers/Mixed Media artists. Five of us from across the country each scoping about our experiences with mixed media and art journaling. It is quite a rush, with each of us sharing and we're all learning bits and pieces from each other's varying expertise. If you would like to join us, visit YourDori.com for the replays and search the hashtag #CreatingFearlessly on Instagram and Twitter.

I am the least experienced of these though my willingness and comfort with being the least serves me well.

I have been haunted by the images that are appearing and the words that randomly were on the pages I selected randomly.

Here, I will show you a dictionary page with a theme I hadn't noticed until I took ink to the page.

Here, I will show you another, a page from a book by Denise Levertov with a slice of a poem by William Carlos Williams.

I pulled the print (original colors) on the scope with the flowers being born later. Do you see what I see underneath?

I asked my companions today what they wanted me to do with this page they helped to create and I was given the task of writing a poem. I sat with the prompt I created above and from the page itself and this is what was born in a five minute brain dump.

My wild things are appearing in the painted pages.

Everywhere they seem to either mock me (if I held that opinion) or hold the curious loops of a question mark in their letters. H – D- A – E –T. When I put them like that, not so scary. Not so scary.

H-A-D-E-T- is that the word for womb that has lost its usefulness?

Is T-E-A-H-D the word for mother who finally has children who have simultaneous social engagements so she may address her work, listening to harp music as she likes in the room she truly wants to be in?

Maybe so.

Synchronicity doesn’t normally speak with such insistence unless it’s important.

Stop turning your face from me, she says, Julie look.

Julie. Look.

Look. Julie.

Look.

Like a Mary, Mike and Jeff primer when I was finally allowed to learn to read.

I could have taught myself if someone gave me permission.  My children did, after all.

My shoulders turn in on themselves. I huddle in, chin to my heart. I don’t want to look.

Somehow I know in the looking comes the healing, the looking is part of the bridge that takes me to the freedom of rebirth, the beginnings that come after the tears spill off my chin and onto my calendar, empty and waiting for this season. This. Season.

Job well done, Julie.

Job well done.

Life really is a series of little deaths, over and over and over again.

With each death, rebirth follows. Rebirth won’t follow unless we allow the death shroud to fall to the ground, the blanket for our feet to step upon.

I sit with my face in my hands. My elbows on my desk, knowing my time is up and yet not wanting to move.

These wild things, these losses big and small and someplace in between. These layers of skin, shedding. These scars, ragged and often unnoticed.

= = = =

I am not sure what tomorrow will bring, but I look forward to the discovery.

 

Please stay in touch: Follow me on Twitter:   and on Periscope for writing prompt, tips and inspiration daily created to ignite your artistic rebirth.

Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!)

  Follow on Instagram  And naturally, on Pinterest, too!      © 2015/2016

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 early Summer and beyond.

  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.

 

t tomorrow will bring, but I'm looking forward to the discovery.

How to Tap into the Passionate Energy of a Beginner

Ever since I started pursuing my life work in earnest – the calling as a life coach, writer, speaker, and facilitator aimed at being a positive force for people – I have heard “become an expert in your field.”

“Be the one journalists will call on for expertise.”

“Practice positive self-promotion as THE expert to count on for solutions to your perfect client’s problems.”

I can see the value in all of this and yet I’ve noticed something I’m not crazy about Experts.

I can’t go much deeper into this without saying this: I don’t agree all of the expert hype and yes, I know this may sand sound counter cultural.

(Admittedly, it wouldn’t be the first time I confess to being counter cultural. Some might say I thrive on being countercultural).

I would rather be an expert at experiencing life with a beginner’s mindset than be an expert at being an expert.

As I write this, I realize I need to have a beginner’s mind about experts. My mind was saying just now, “An expert is arrogant and all puffed up. Bloated with ego, looks down her nose at the plebeians gathered around her for guidance…. uses language the rest of us don’t know so we have to raise our hands and ask for clarification which just separates us more from her supposed fabulousness.”

I realize there – in these words – is where my issue with experts and expertise is born:

“which just separates us more from her supposed fabulousness.”

I remember one of my friends telling me how afraid she was to approach me because of who I was, that I was known (in the community) that I was talented (according to some people), that I was confident (and perhaps she wasn’t.)

The thing is, I perpetually see myself as totally approachable and totally unintimidating. I never see myself as anything but right there in the sandbox playing with everyone else with my generic orange bucket bought at last year’s summer clearance sales, thrift store shorts and paint covered hands.

Any expertise I have in anything comes with practice and dedication, not because I elevate myself above everyone else – it is because I elevate and invite others to join me – the highly practiced beginner who isn’t particularly skilled at building sandcastles.

I am a beginner at best in building sandcastles and as a writer, I am woefully intimidated by academics. The thing is, I am sure there are many academics who, like me, come to their work every day as beginners.

Here are ten reasons I love beginners. What can you add to this list?

Beginners are gleeful and excited to be engaging in a new activity, even while slightly (or more than slightly fearful).

Beginners are aware they don’t know all there is to know and are actually thrilled just to be in action.

Beginners are earnest. Delightfully earnest.

Beginners are relentlessly curious.

Beginners are open to coaching and suggestions.

Beginners maintain that delicious blend of being goal focused and completely present simultaneously

Beginners are adorably enamored with whatever they’re doing for the first time – they are hungry and thirsty for as many minute details as possible and on the best of days, willing to take every tiny step to get to where their love and passion is steering them.

Beginners are contagiously enthusiastic, which may be problematic (hopefully temporarily) if you have no interest in whatever has struck their fancy. Otherwise, it is so charming it may crack a smile in the most curmudgeonly amongst us.

Beginners are nervous in a good way because they still trust their passion and love will not steer them in a hurtful or anything but good direction. And experts-in-the-making, “it” won’t.

Beginners are careful, but not completely paralyzed by fear as long as they stay in mindful action.

Doesn’t being a beginner sound like a joy?

We forget after a while how pleasant it is to start something new and fresh and fun and here’s the thing: every day we have the option to look at what we are doing from a beginner’s perspective.

Imagine the power of showing up with that beginner’s love, the optimism of a perpetual honeymoon, the happy butterflies in the belly – while simultaneously knowing the ins-and-outs and realities.

Why not at least try it on?

Take five minutes today or tomorrow to consider how you approach life and your projects as a beginner. How might it impact the world if you either increased your beginner mindset or started completely fresh - write (or journal or paint or meditate) your way into it.

Please stay in touch: Follow me on Twitter:   and on Periscope for writing prompt, tips and inspiration daily created to ignite your artistic rebirth.

Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!)

  Follow on Instagram  And naturally, on Pinterest, too!      © 2015/2016

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 early Summer and beyond.

  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.

To Feel Better: Awaken Creativity - Walk, Document, Write.... and Trust in the Path Itself

 

I circled the parking lot briefly this morning, curious about what those trucks parked in the north part of the parking lot knew. Perhaps the drivers of those pick-ups had discovered something that still sat separate from me, so I looked and found nothing and returned to my normal spot.

I saw a man coming rather quickly from near one of the pick-ups, calling out.

He sounded angry so I worried briefly he was talking that way to me. My eyes caught the black and white fur coat of a dog. “Oh, that explains it,” I said to myself as I got out of my car and reached back for my chair and backpack so my virtual pilgrimage would begin as seamlessly in person as it had in my head.

I looked up and saw the dog loping toward me and the man, growling at the dog – and perhaps me – and nearly tackle the dog, who once held onto like that started growling, snarling and fighting back a bit. My heart reached toward my throat as I saw the thick collar, the strong chains and watched as the angry yelling man got even angrier at the dog.

I was so present to the dog and the fear and the way my throat felt as the heated flames from my pounding heart tickled my vocal chords that I said aloud, calmly yet aloud, “Pit bulls off leash in public places are bound to make people scared.”

This appeared to make him madder as he got up off the ground from his wrestling match. He growled louder than the dog and started to walk away. Still stunned, I said, “Take care” to which he responded sarcastically, “have a nice day!” and yelled at his dog again, jerking the harness.

I stood, head down, unmoving, for what felt like a very long time but probably wasn’t.

I willed my feet to move toward the place I had come here for, even though shaken, even though afraid, even though I now felt a risk I had never even considered until that very moment before this moment.

“Ritual,” I reminded myself from the prompt from Jennie Benjamin’s Virtual Pilgrimage group.

Alisa Barry, the guest writer suggested in our reading of the day, “Use Ritual as an invitation or invocation to start your day or help you get through the day in a more thoughtful way.”

“Breathe,” I told myself, “One foot up, one foot down.”

I walked into the Preserve and allowed it to nurture me.

First I let the scowling of the dog incident to settle into my own face. “So dry, no moisture, I can’t write in the sand like I wanted and oh, no. It will be so hot so soon this isn’t worth it I don’t see how I” foot up foot down breath shallow foot up foot down breath still shadow and stop.

Footprints. An assemblage of footprints. Mine, a horse’s, a dog’s and was it a bird?

Foot up, breath, slower and more centered, foot down, foot up foot down.

Something tiny moved.

What I would have called a tree frog hopped away from me, perfectly blended with the decaying leaves. My heart hopped with it as my eyes followed.

Foot up foot down, another tree frog, so tiny!

Footprints.

Frog foot prints, perhaps, made those scratches in the sandy dirt rather than a bird?

The fear from the dog and the gnarling man left as I ventured deeper into my pilgrimage into wonder and curiosity.

Foot up and down, this path or that stop pause take a photo take this fork in the path foot up and look at that plant with a flower trying to be born and there, feel it against my face, so soft. Perfect.

I saw quail playing along the path I walked, I saw lizards, chubby lizards, chasing each other, playing together or perhaps engaging in an unknown to me procreative ritual. I had never seen such chubby lizards and until this morning had specialized in lone lizard sightings.

I saw a leaf covered path to the river. I set up my chair and sat and wrote and live streamed and allowed myself to process. I watched a lone leaf, a tenacious leaf from last year holding onto its space on the branch. Spider webs, so many spider webs. I remembered reading an essay this weekend by Janet Fitch when she wrote, "We crave the richness of the world, its smells and textures and unedited sounds."

I sat back in my camp chair, let myself sink more deeply into it. I took out my notebook and wrote.

The longer I stayed the louder the bird song got and the deeper in the distance the car sounds became. A bird I didn’t recognize came to inspect me. He moved his head sideways to get a peek at this curious character, scratching away at a white sheet of paper in a notebook.

The Mom in me realized time was moving and I needed to join it so I would take “the shorter path” back to the parking lot. I’m not sure what it was exactly but I felt uneasy walking back. I was disgusted by the dry chaparral again, not allowing the precious bird song and sweetness of the leaves and the quail and the frogs to nurture me.

Positive ritual died (momentarily).

Chapparal ugly, plain, devoid of color and pop.

And pop went my eyes. From the every-nook-and-cranny beige came a tiny spot of purple, asking to be witnessed. I reached to it, amazed this one tiny speck of purple somehow survived. My eyes moved to see another amazing speck and another and yet another until I realized the miracle wasn’t in the purple flowers, it was in my eyes finally registering, “purple flower, yes, miracle and no, not out of the ordinary here on the chaparral at all.”

My senses came alive, my heart awakened. I allowed myself to fully feel into the fear of the dog-and-owner incident.

I stayed present to my task as a pilgrim.

Passionate presence. Documentation. Awakening creativity each day makes life so much better.

= = =

Join us for the #5for5BrainDump Challenge! An incredible time of connection, community and rich content.

The main place to network and get support is thePeriWriters Facebook Group, but you may also simply use the Hashtag #5for5BrainDump and find us across social media platforms.

Please stay in touch: Follow me on Twitter:   and on Periscope for writing prompt, tips and inspiration daily created to ignite your artistic rebirth.

Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!)

  Follow on Instagram  And naturally, on Pinterest, too!      © 2015/2016

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 early Summer and beyond.

  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.

Notebook Love: How a Simple Notebook Makes Every Experience a Tiny Bit Better

I bring my notebook everywhere.

 My friends and I went to a movie in Hollywood this weekend. It’s like a field trip for adults, an excursion of sorts as we adventurers from Bakersfield descend on the big city.

 Come to think of it, this is what happens nearly every time I sit with my notebook in front of me, the blue lined white pages staring up at me, inviting me to come up with something ordinarily wonderful or astonishingly every day that somehow when wrapped in language becomes sacred.

 Last Sunday, I sat in a coffee house, writing, while my friends split up to window shop. I've taught them writing is a refuge for me so they respect my choice to sit alone - in a crowd - writing.

 We made my coffee shop the meet up point once the window shopping urge was satisfied and it was time to go to the movie theater.

 I rarely have the window shopping urge, especially when there are fun stories to share or people (even those I love) overload.

 I carry my notebook and write in it because it helps me feel companionship when I’m lonely, it helps me figure out the places I’m stuck, it even makes me laugh when I re-read the entries or cry when I stumble across an awareness just caught.

 Writing makes me feel better, always.

 Tomorrow carry a notebook with you, everywhere. Pull it out and jot a sentence when something compels you. With practice, your urges will increase and you will find yourself filling many notebooks.

= = =

Join us for the #5for5BrainDump Challenge! An incredible time of connection, community and rich content.

The main place to network and get support is thePeriWriters Facebook Group, but you may also simply use the Hashtag #5for5BrainDump and find us across social media platforms.

Please stay in touch: Follow me on Twitter:   and on Periscope for writing prompt, tips and inspiration daily created to ignite your artistic rebirth.

Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!)

  Follow on Instagram  And naturally, on Pinterest, too!      © 2015/2016

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 early Summer and beyond.

  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.