August 21, 2012

What Can a 15 Minute Mini Retreat Get You? No More Molasses, a Lot More Hope, Joy and Gratitude

You know that restless, you’re sitting at your desk or trying to get your household chores done but every move feels like it is being swished around with a bunch of molasses?

I had that earlier tonight and remembered a thought I had this morning. I said then I wanted to watch the day become night. I wanted to focus on that transition in addition to the sunrise which I know exceptionally well.

I told my family, “I’ll be back in 15 minutes!” and I went three blocks from my home to the Panorama Bluffs where there are benches and paths and trees and views. My notebook was with me and I brought along some art inspiration I’ve been toying with as well as my phone for its camera and whew.

In just fifteen minutes I was able to experience more creativity than I knew was possible.

I wrote a list of today’s wins, today’s “couldas” (missed opportunities primarily due to procrastination) and tomorrow’s “I wills” – the beginnings of my possibility list for tomorrow.

I watched joggers and walkers and chatted with a Mom and her curly haired toddler with deep brown eyes who was riding on a fancy car-stroller toy and desperately wanted to tell me… something he was pointing to was very significant.

I wrote a theater inspired sunset haiku:

Light's memory fades

Nightfall moves down left, just... so

Ponytail points east

And I headed home after fifteen extravagantly stretched minutes.

How did I accomplish such serenity in this tiny little mini-retreat on the bluffs?

A pure intention guided me ever since I wrote it this morning: I wanted to try writing sunset haikus as a counterpoint to my regular sunrise haiku practice.
I put my mini-retreat into a timed container. Yes, I literally timed myself.
I asked permission of myself first and then my family. I was very specific, “Is it fine with you if I go up to the bluffs for fifteen minutes? I want to write and take photos.” They are used to me both writing and taking photos so it seemed 100% reasonable.
I took advantage of every single moment I was there. Not a single second was wasted thinking negative thoughts or critiquing anything. I was open and willing to squeeze the marrow out of the bones of these fifteen minutes I invested.
When my timer went off, I packed up and headed home. I honored my commitment to my family and myself. It was so gorgeous, I wanted to stay longer but… I didn’t.

These fifteen minutes were transformative. I was able to consciously survey my day in a short, non-judgmental and constructive way. I was able to experience joy, beauty and hope.

Who could ask for more than that?

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Posted at 09:34 PM in Busy Women's Tips, Creative Every Day, Creativity Challenge, For the Seriously Time Challenged, Haiku, How-to, Inspiration, Loving Life, Mini-Retreat, Naturalist, Passion, Photography, Poet, Science, Solitude, Spirituality, Time Management, Wilderness, Woman Naturalist, Woman Writing, Word-Love, Writing, Writing Camp, Writing Inspiration | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

School's In & We'll Keep on Soaring Along! (Why am I humming this?) - Your New Playgrounds are Here

School is back in session so who knows where you might find me now!

I know, I know – these are silly photos and true photos as well. Granted, I more than likely will not be riding any motorcycles in the near future, but I will be feeling the delight of freedom, the joy of connecting along my journey that I sometimes miss when I have my perpetual entourage of kidlets with me.

Please don’t get me wrong: I adore each and all of my three children AND when the time comes for them to return to school and me to return to my life work, we are all content in a different way than when we are together.

This Autumn I am in building mode. I am reaching out to new people via different methods. I am participating even more in different social circles like the Naptime Review’s Like Me on Facebook Hop from Julie Marling and I am hosting the Gevalia’s Bean Chat this Thursday morning on Facebook and Twitter.

Our word-love wings are stretching as I am reminded Writing Camp doesn’t look like writing ONE way or another, Writing Camp is about writing YOUR way in the space where YOU feel the most free. I will be offering opportunities for individual and group retreats tailored to you or your group in settings/formats of our collaboration.

I will be continuing to offer teleclasses, e-courses and in October I plan another “Big, Bad-Ass” program in the tradition of my wildly successful 42 Days of Passionate Prosperity and 42 Days of Writing with Passion from the old days at 5passions.com.

Are you ready to stretch your wings and soar beyond where you've been until now?

Join me in these and other upcoming adventures - right now, the Like Me Hop is happening here ~ this would be a grand new beginning!

This feels beyond words incredible, doesn't it?

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Posted at 08:51 PM in Advice, Creative Every Day, Inspiration, Life Coaching, Mini-Retreat, Mommying, Motherhood, Notes to My Children (and Yours, too, Perhaps), Parenting a Child on the Autism Spectrum, Parenting Teens, Peacefulness, Randomness, Sequoia National Monument, Wilderness, Woman Writing, Womanhood, Women in Literary History, Word-Love, Writing, Writing Camp, Writing Inspiration, Writing tips | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

August 15, 2012

Women in Literary History: California Gold Rush Correspondent, Dame Shirley aka Louise Amelia Knapp Smith Clappe

I couldn’t help but fall in love with Gold Rush writer Dame Shirley, who was called Louise (Amelia Knapp Smith Clappe) by the people who knew her.

Her place in literary history came from the letters she wrote to her sister, Molly, who lived in Western Massachusetts. Louise entertained her family as she made a life with her young husband first and last in San Francisco with two years in the early 1851 and 1952 along the gold mines of the Feather River northeast of San Francisco where young couple moved because Mr. Clapp was in ill health.

Louise’s writing became a powerful link to the lives of the women of the California Gold Rush.

I especially enjoyed her letter to Molly telling about when she actually tried on the occupation of Gold Miner. “Nothing of importance has happened since I last wrote you except that I have become a mineress; that is if the having washed a pan of dirt with my own hands, and procured therefrom three dollars and twenty five cents in gold dust, (which I shall inclose in this letter) entitle me to this name.”

Her letter continues to share she would rather not continue as a miner. She realized the male miners were hungry for female companionship while doing this grueling work. The solution, they thought, was to hand a new mineress a pan to sift through that was heaped with gold as an encouragement for her to continue because “it was such easy work.” They knew better AND they wanted more women around!

When she and her husband returned to San Francisco, she wasn’t happy about it. She wrote in her final letter: “My heart is heavy at the thought of departing forever from this place. I like this wild and barbarous life: I leave it with regret.” Her husband was tired of California completely. They divorced, he moved to Hawaii and eventually back to the eastern US and she added an “e” to the end of Clapp forever becoming Louise Amelia Knapp Smith Clappe and happily stayed in San Francisco.

Her colorful letters were first memorialized via a magazine called The Pioneer in 1854 and 1855. Famed California writer Bret Harte later published fiction that bore a stunning resemblance to the stories Louise told in her letters to Molly.

Harte was her primary detractor, criticizing her letters when published in The Pioneer. Interesting, isn’t it, that when questioned about the similarities between her early letters and Hart’s later work when she was a teacher in San Francisco in later life, she stood beside her frenemy saying, “Oh, no he didn’t plagiarize my stories. He was unconsciously recreating what he had read from my letters and meant no harm.”

She taught for twenty years before returning to Elizabeth, New Jersey, where she was born. Another irony from Dame Shirley’s life was she rekindled her friendship with Bret Harte’s estranged wife in New Jersey. She actually lived in the boarding house of one of Mrs. Harte’s nieces when she died in 1906.

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Julie Jordan Scott has been a Life & Creativity Coach, Writer, Facilitator and Teleclass Leader since 1999. She is also an award winning Actor, Director, Artist and Mother Extraordinaire. She was twice the StoryTelling Slam champion in Bakersfield. She leads Writing Camp with JJS & this Summer will be traveling throughout the US to bring this unique, fun filled creative experience to the people wherever she finds the passion & the interest.

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Posted at 09:58 AM in Books, California Writer, Inspiration, Julie Jordan Scott, Leadership, Reinvention, Storytelling, Women in Literary History, Women in Literary History from A to Z, Women Leaders, Word-Love, Writing, Writing Inspiration | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

August 10, 2012

Curiosity ~ Asking (and Living) Questions with Aloha Friday

I found a new playground to make new friends - Aloha Friday

I learned this from our lovely hostess Kailani. “In Hawaii, Aloha Friday is the day that we take it easy and look forward to the weekend. So I thought that on Fridays I would take it easy on posting, too.”

So, with that in mind, she continues “Therefore, I’ll ask a simple question for you to answer. Nothing that requires a lengthy response. If you’d like to participate, just post your own question on your blog and leave your Aloha Friday post link below. Also, please consider linking back to this post so that others can join in, too!”

And then…. A question, any question is asked of those hopping blogs making new friends, too. If you would like to link up, too (hopefully after you read my question!) Visit Aloha Friday here.

So my question is what is something you have been saying you wanted to try but haven’t yet? (Optional Bonus Question – what’s stopping you?) + a quick Pre-S for the folks from Aloha Friday - for some reason a lot of wordpress blogs block my comments... as they have from many of your blogs I have visited. Please check your sp@m boxes... because I have enjoyed answering your questions & hope to get to know you.

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Posted at 12:14 PM in Asking and Living the Questions, Awe, Blog Hop, Curiosity, Inspiration, Julie Jordan Scott, Living the Question, Making New Friends, Peacefulness | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

August 09, 2012

Our Great Southwest Road Trip Part 3- Moving Beyond the Cranky That is Bound to Interfere (Momentarily) with the Blissful

I don’t like to be the bearer of bad news, but while you are on your blissful vacation getaway with your family, there will be tension. There will be crankyness. There will be botched communication.

If you are roadtripping, you will miscalculate miles. You may not stay at the hotel you planned to stay in and if you couchsurf like we do, you may have to write to your planned hosts and say, “Sorry, we can’t come stay with you after all.

Believe it or not, hosts look forward to having couchsurfing guests, even rag tag lots like us. I am chronically afraid of disappointing people.

It wasn’t daily but it was near daily when we were going from nature spot to nature spot that Emma verbally lashed out at me for making her attend this worst ever family vacation and why do we go on these stupid vacations because we always end up hating each other.

I listened, I agreed with most of what she said, but I had to deny the hating each other part.

Yes, it wasn’t her idea of nirvana like it was my idea of nirvana, but we will remember certain things until the end of time. Things like Samuel’s silent but deadly farts that were so bad, we had to roll down our windows to keep from coughing “to death” Katherine would shriek, “Samuel, you are killing us!”

This, naturally, would make Samuel laugh, howl and fart more.

He is eleven. I think we will have many years in the future of Samuel farting when the roadside gets uninteresting to him. He can fart and entertain himself by making his sisters scream and then laugh hysterically. He is the star!

I like to think (delude myself?) I have raised my children to be healthy by nature of allowing them to speak up about how they are feeling. I come from a long line of WASPy people who don’t believe in emotions and certainly don’t believe in airing their emotions to anyone unless they are happy, content or an accomplishment laundry list.

I allow Emma to complain. I allow Samuel to fart. I allow Samuel’s rituals to stay intact as much as I can.

I allow them to see ME have a rough time.

Traveling alone with three children – even when one of them is twenty-years-old – isn’t easy.

Tomorrow I will share with you my biggest secret trick that helped make this entire trip happier for each of us. It is a secret trick you can easily replicate. I can see you smiling from here –

Now, just watch out for those silent by deadly gas emissions.

And know that if your daughter is upset, let her say it and then watch the venom dissipate. If you insist she hold it in, your vacation will quickly go further downhill.

Happy Travels!

Writing Challenge:

Tell about a time when you were cranky and lived to tell the tale. What solutions did you find? Please share your stories with us!

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Posted at 08:13 PM in A to Z Roadtrip, Autism, Couchsurfing, Creativity, Family, Family Travel, High Functioning Autism, Inspiration, Julie Jordan Scott, Mommying, Motherhood, Notes to My Children (and Yours, too, Perhaps), Parenting, Parenting a Child on the Autism Spectrum, Parenting Teens, Roadtrip, Summer, The Great Southwest Roadtrip, Travel | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

August 07, 2012

Dreams and Places Left Behind and Rediscovered: Seeing & Writing with Brand New Mesa Verde Colors

I didn’t know leaves could wear so many shades of green. There is no memory of such greens on any trees from my past experience.

I also don’t remember when I first learned about Mesa Verde. I know it was sometime in childhood, sometime when I spent my days in classrooms with black chalkboards and long banners showing perfect cursive penmanship (or today, penpersonship) atop the bulletin boards.

I looked at pictures of the cliff dwellings in Colorado and wished, hoped, prayed I would someday go there even though the thought of climbing down ladders to access the ruins frightened me even then.

It may have been a text book that turned me on to Mesa Verde. I found one on Amazon published in 1961 by a gentleman named Don Watson. Perhaps that was my trigger. The Pueblo Indians are a long way from the New Jersey Leni Lenape our teachers faithfully taught us in Linden Avenue School. Maybe it was that my mother was born in Colorado. The kinship I felt came from my mother’s soul-bloodline so I felt to the Puebloan Natives of the 13^th or so century.

The today Julie might say, “These dwellings were being built when Rumi was writing his poetry. There is the connection!”

Fact is, I don’t know and I will most likely never know but I may continue to surmise.

I do remember standing on the edge of the canyon and looking down, not too terribly far, and seeing dwellings. It was just a week ago yet it seems like it was forever ago and just a split second past.

There they were: just like the photos I remember as a little girl.

The path we chose was a paved one. It was also wheelchair friendly, something I didn’t know they had in Mesa Verde. I was still holding the belief I would need to hoist myself up and down a scary ladder across a grueling precipice.

None of that was true.

Well, none of that was true in this particular spot at Mesa Verde.

Samuel and Katherine walked ahead of me on the path. Emma gave up before she started. I slowly, ploddingly in places, made the trip down the path. I preferred it this way. I liked feeling as if the dwellings and the people who once lived in them were wooing me with the slight breeze and the mottled pathway, shaded by leaves I didn’t know in many shades of green.

Everything green is unique here, I discovered. It isn’t a flat green or a sort of brownish, faded, choking “I need water!” green I see so often in my Bakersfield landscape. The green on these trees seemed to celebrate the fact I was finally showing up. I was finally listening to the invitation they extended to that little girl at Linden Avenue School so many years in the past.

One irony of this dream finally come true is I didn’t even know consciously it was waiting.

When we planned to visit Cortez, Colorado on our trip the sole reason was its proximity to the border. I wanted to give my children the experience of as many states as possible. They’ve covered lots of ground in the past from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota to California, Arizona and Nevada. We needed to fill out the rest of the west with Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and the Navajo Nation.

I didn’t realize I would be dipping into a romance long dormant not unlike the dormant romances I have had in the past with theater and poetry and photography.

I didn’t know leaves could wear so many shades of green before that warm day last week when I stood in front of these centuries old Pueblo homes. I didn’t know until I looked outside the kiva room from buildings some people call ruins but I prefer to call “Places Left Behind.”

There are so many things to say about this and I plan to gently unfold the almost here and now memories over the next several days.

When I was traveling I kept saying, “I can’t wordify this! I can’t write this” and until I sat down today to write, I made that belief into truth.

I didn’t even dare bring my notebook with me. It wasn’t until later in our journey that I started jotting notes in my cell phone. It all felt like too much, too grand an extension of the reality I thought I knew.

Like I made the dream I had forgotten into truth, I will begin to translate my experience here, now, for you.

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Posted at 01:39 PM in Cortez, Colorado, Couchsurfing, Family, Family Travel, Inspiration, Julie Jordan Scott, Memories, Mesa Verde National Park, Mini-Retreat, Mommying, Motherhood, Naturalist, Parenting, Parenting a Child on the Autism Spectrum, Parenting Teens, Roadtrip, The Great Southwest Roadtrip, Travel, Unplug, Woman Naturalist, Writing, Writing Block, Writing Inspiration | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Paradox: You & I Meet Tuesday, August 7, 2012 for a Mini Writing Retreat

Today – August 7, 2012 - met me in the same way a seventh grade girl, Melanie, meets her longtime crush, Joey, on the edge of the dance floor. Unsure, a bit wobbly, and slow to make a move forward, morning and I wondered at first if anything would happen or if I would pull away, refusing to believe our relationship would ever feel the same as it did when Joey and Melanie were in second grade, sitting side by side at desks in Mrs. Anderson’s classroom at Linden Avenue School.

First I poured a cup of coffee.

Second I gathered my notebook and pen and went outside.

Third I drew a random soul collage card.

Fourth, I made myself write.

Looking at the card I wrote, “I have a history of hiding under a blanket of darkness. Divinity clothes me in white when she does my bidding. I sit in the center of paradox: the this and the that, the hovering tightrope slowly unraveling, an awkward unwinnable tug-of-war and the solid cord hung firmly and the confident collaboration, singing songs of cheer upon successful completion.

I notice water droplets of water on the leaves.

Sitting here, moving my pen, being a faithful companion to my writing is key to living my story.

This dress on the little girl is so similar to what my Mom would have made me.

I want to remember Mom meant her dresses as testaments to her love for me which she wasn’t able to translate into the language you spoke and still speak. This doesn’t minimize her love.

I want to remember that earlier this Summer I learned about Wolf Lichen after mistakenly calling it “moss” after all these years.

My Rilke reading earlier was another significant companion:

From Wer seines Lebens viele Widersinne:

She who reconciles the ill matched threads

of her life, and weaves them gratefully

into a single cloth –

it’s she who drives the loudmouths from the hall

and clears it for a different celebration

These reminders pour through my hands onto the page.

I look at the collage card, I look at Rilke’s words, I write: “It feels so grand to sit on my front porch, the gentle wind feels like a zen gardener tending my forehead. Worry erased by house finch.”

Melanie holds Joey with just the right closeness as their slow dance comes to its conclusion.

She can feel his breath against her neck, his hands respectfully above her waist.

She is both naïve and knowing. She is a paradox who is a human truth in the making.

As am I and As are You.

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Posted at 12:00 PM in Art and Spirituality, Art Begets Art, Behind the Scenes, Beyond Language, Blogging, Blogging tips, Celebration, coffee, Collage, Creative Every Day, Dawn, Forgiveness, Friendship, House Finch, Inspiration, Julie Jordan Scott, Memories, Mini-Retreat, Peacefulness, Poet, Poetry, Soul Collage, Spirituality, Summer, Time Management, Writing, Writing Block, Writing Inspiration, Writing Prompt | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

August 06, 2012

Shopping: Why I Detest It and Lust for It

It is a well known fact that I abhor shopping. I abhor grocery shopping, clothes shopping, much of Christmas shopping. The only sort of shopping I routinely enjoy is thrifting or flea market shopping, possibly because it is akin to a treasure hunt rather than an expedition into “what is hip and cool today and will be out of fashion before Christmas Vacation.”

My other shopping love, though, is two-fold and related tangentially to school.

I love buying office/school supplies and books.

Lots of books.

I love sitting in book stores and writing, people watching, eavesdropping my way into literary heaven.

I did this yesterday and it was like being at a spa. I spent ten bucks on bargain box books, too, but mostly I read books I didn’t buy but may later. I read poetry and cried. I took notes and I cried. I watched people and wrote poetry and cried.

If only I could look at back to school clothing shopping in the same way!

When we were on vacation I managed to buy my daughters some jeans and some bras. I loved it because at the Levi outlet they did personalized jean fitting for each girl. Their waists were measured and their hips were measured and they were assigned a certain level of curve. They could choose which rise they wanted and which cut they wanted and how much blue of the denim they wanted.

This, I thought, was cool yet I still sat on a bench outside the store while they tried on and made choices.

I also took them to a bra shop where they could be measured again to find the perfect size. Emma thought they measured her too small because for some inexplicable reason the girls in her tenth grade class somehow view beauty according to cup size.

She did manage to buy a couple bras and some cute panties, another necessity for theater dressing rooms and p.e. locker rooms I am told.

Give me books, give me stationery, give me old stuff and art supplies any day. I’ll shop for hours, I’ll lose track of time. Today’s clothes, no thanks. Sorry, loves. I want a sewing machine for that and Clinton and Stacey on What Not to Wear would probably shake their perfectly coifed heads at me.

I can’t help it.

I don’t even want to help it.

Just like I don’t even want to shop! Unless, ofcourse for.,... well, you heard enough about that!

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Posted at 01:58 PM in Blog Dare, Creativity, Creativity Challenge, Family, Inspiration, Julie Jordan Scott, Mommy Blog Dare, Ultimate Blog Challenge | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

July 27, 2012

Samuel & Mommy: Beyond Language - On Ritual and Safety in Parenting a Child with High Functioning Autism

It’s #FiveMinuteFriday free write time! <—click to tweet this!

Where a flash mob of folks spend five minutes all writing on the same topic and then share ‘em at LisaJoBaker.com.

Words from my five minutes -

Samuel and I communicate in a beyond language place not unlike my brother, John, and I used to do.

People from the outside can’t climb inside our beyond language place, but for me it is a sacred experience between mother and son, fed by days and weeks and months of ritual and built on a foundation of safety and “I understand you” is the water we swim in. “I understand you and I love you.” is perhaps a tiny bit more accurate.

Samuel lives on the autistic spectrum. He has high functioning autism, so to most people he appears absolutely normal until something, unseen by most of the world, happens to interfere in his world and he blows up, to them, unexpectedly.

This happened last night at a party. I didn’t communicate clearly with him so when I said it was time to go, he wasn’t ready. He started crying, hard, and yelling at me.

He is eleven-years-old so this is pretty abnormal behavior for a boy his age.

He didn’t know many of the people there very well.

I felt awful about it, for him primarily.

When Emma saw him start to go, she retreated into the house. She gets scared when these episodes happen and she also gets more embarrassed than I.

I remember what it was like to be a special needs sibling, after all, my brother John had Down’s Syndrome. Before he died, we would communicate silently as well. I would “hear” him, though, clear as a bell. He would tell me things with his eyes. I would respond. No one else would be able to hear our conversations, our beyond words spaces and places we walked within.

I could easily be resentful or angry to have these relationships with these two guys in my life, but I am not. I am blessed. John prepared me to mother Samuel. Samuel prepared me to be an educational advocate, to communicate better with bureaucrats than I ever wanted to in the past.

Beyond language, beyond appearances, beyond our own understanding, we are blessed.

Five minutes: Over....

The guidelines for Five Minute Friday -

1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking.
2. Link back here and invite others to join in.
3. And then absolutely, no ifs, ands or buts about it, you need to visit the person who linked up before you & encourage them in their comments. Seriously. That is, like, the rule. And the fun. And the heart of this community..

OK, are you ready? Please give me your best five minutes on:::

Beyond…

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Posted at 10:43 AM in 5 Minute Friday, Activism and the Arts, Advice, Asking and Living the Questions, Autism, Beyond Language, Education, Family, Fear, Forgiveness, High Functioning Autism, Inspiration, Julie Jordan Scott, Memories, Mommying, Motherhood, Parenting, Parenting a Child on the Autism Spectrum, Parenting Teens, Special Education, Special Needs Siblings | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

July 26, 2012

Soul Assignment: Becoming a More Engaged, Educated, Inspiring Woman Leader, Part 2

“ Intelligent discontent is the mainspring of civilization. ”

— Eugene V. Debs

I was discouraged yesterday and believe it or not, I made that discouragement mean I was wrong. My not very productive thought was “If I was doing the right thing with my life, I wouldn’t feel discouraged. I wouldn’t feel discouraged.”

What I did next was important, though. I got up and moved away from my stuck place behind the keyboard.

I went about doing chores, taking care of my children, doing my afternoon Mom-Schlep and I allowed my mind to wander.

My mind wandered to my soul collage card from yesterday to Women and Leadership.

I had recently decided to leap into the discovery of current women in politics, especially those beyond the United States. I was an international relations major but somehow I had gotten way out of touch with the political world, especially on an international level.

One conversation knocked on my heart and helped me break through the inertia.

Last weekend I created a soul collage card that to me called me to personal leadership as well as the study of women leaders. I quickly discovered Angela Merkel, chancellor of Germany.

I confess, I had never even heard of Angela Merkel until yesterday. Now, I am deep into a study of Merkel and other top women leaders. The Forbes list for 2011 includes two powerful wives, a handful of politicians and a smattering of business women.

This made me feel very uncomfortable. It made me feel squirmy in my seat and more than a little bit disappointed in myself. Instead of getting stuck deeper in the quicksand of “my shortcomings” instead I accepted that for the past and now, I have turned the corner into spending more time learning about women leaders so that I may also become a better leader in the work I do.

I may not be the secretary of state, I may not be the head of a multinational corporation worth billions, but I do serve on several educational committees and I run successful Writing Camp programs and am in the midst of raising three phenomenal human beings.

My discontent of today, my squirmy ickiness isn’t holding me back any more, my vision of being a better leader is pulling me forward.

What will you do, today, to become a more engaged, educated leader?

This may be as simple as a shift in thinking or a quick google search on a woman who intrigues you. Allow your vision of yourself as a better leader pull you forward. The discontent is the nudge and the vision is what gives you wings.

This is post #18/31 for the Ultimate Blog Challenge. Slowly and surely I am getting caught up!

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Posted at 12:27 PM in Asking and Living the Questions, Current Affairs, Education, For the Seriously Time Challenged, Inspiration, Leadership, Leadership Development, Literary History, Living the Question, Loving Life, Mommying, Motherhood, Parenting, Parenting Teens, Passion, Photography, Reinvention, Soul Collage, Special Education, Spirituality, Time Management, Twitter, Ultimate Blog Challenge, Women Leaders, Women's Movement, Word-Love, Writing, Writing Block, Writing Inspiration | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

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