when swimming in a culture that doesn’t seem to want that at all When things aren’t working (and that feels like ALL.THE.TIME), I find myself looking for systems and procedures that can get any one area of my life under control. It doesn’t have to actually get it under control – just needs to give me a semblance of control. It gives me some form of an understanding (even if it’s false) in a world that I‘ve always found pretty messed up and hypocritical. I tell myself that this semblance of control is needed to keep me from spinning out.…
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Metaphorically of course…unless… When the last season of The American Ex Wife Podcast changed its tagline (thank you lyz ) from “May the dresses we burn light the way” to “May the bridges we burn light the way” it tugged at something deep in my heart. I’ve been told all my life not to burn bridges. At times I’ve been happy I’ve followed that advice (when I was young and uninformed and didn’t know what was at stake.) And there are times… when I should have grabbed the torch, rounded up my girlfriends, set it all ablaze, toasting marshmallows and…
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The first pearl in my Necklace Writing Prompt from Beth Kempton’s Free Winter Writing Sanctuary 2024 – SoulStack by Beth Kempton It was a day like any other day. Life crumbled around me and I did my best to gather up all the pieces and put them back together each night. It was a semblance of a life really. But that’s what I thought life was back then. That day, sometime in the haze between January and April, those pieces shattered as they hit the floor. And that day, I wasn’t trying to pick them up. Instead I walked slowly…
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Not because we have to but because we get to… Photo by cottonbro studio I get frustrated when “The Work” (all the things that all the people do to make sure that we can do all the things we need and want to do) seems to be ignored, debased, reviled, and denied. (See last week’s rant if you want more background on what I’m referencing.) “The Work” affects us beyond what we and others do that keep life running around us. “The Work” is actually what brings us life. Not because we got someone to clean our house, because someone…
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Whether or not you are doing it yourself “The Work” is the daily stuff of life that has to be done, those tasks that you don’t want to do, that aren’t “fun”, the stuff that actually moves you forward but tends to be ignored… I have spent many times speaking with people who are in charge of things who have no idea what is actually going on (both personally and professionally.) It’s depressing. It’s frustrating. But most of all it is mind-boggling… How, if you are “in charge” of such things, do you have not a clue of what is…
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“The Work” is the daily stuff of life that has to be done, those tasks that you don’t want to do, that aren’t “fun”, the stuff that actually moves you forward but tends to be ignored… Photo by Liliana Drew Okay, so you want to do “The Work” – you know you need to do “The Work”… But you will do anything and everything, to not do “The Work.” It may not be fun. It’s usually not a great story (unless you like reading about daily chores, cleaning up messes, cooking a meal for the 500,000th time, writing crappy first…
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I know, what in God’s name is this woman talking about? Hear me out. I’ve been in lots of conversations lately in my various roles (full-time, part-time, volunteer, etc.) about getting things done. It’s something I do, which is why people ask me to do lots of things. (And then I burnout but that’s my problem that I’m here to grow through…) I’ve never known an idea that I couldn’t get done. I have many gifts and one of them is taking any idea and finding a way to make it a reality in the physical world. Especially if it’s…
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Mine. “They are mine”, I tell myself regularly. But are they really? There’s this dream as kid that when you are an adult you’ll get to have ice cream for dinner every night, stay up as late as you want and do the things you want to do. Then you grow up and realize that if you thought there were a lot of rules when you were a kid, adulting adds rules upon rules upon rules. And the tricky part is, unlike when you are a kid and the adults tell you “Don’t do this” or “You can’t do that!”,…
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Maybe that’s what I’m doing? Photo by Black ice I’ve been thinking about my discussion with Ann Marie McKenzie about Numerology and Listening. Usually once I learn something new I am all over learning about it. There would normally be eight podcasts to listen to and ten books from the library to pick up about the new topic. Not the case this time though. I’ve been fascinated with all the “occults” since I was a girl – tarot, spells, astrology, divination, Wicca, Gnosticism. Pretty much anything the Catholic Church (the religion of my family and therefore my religion) said was…
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(For the season…) I’ve been wrestling personally with my rhythms. I have found a lot of support in routine – in doing things at certain times, at the same times, to stay in my rhythm or my flow. It gives my regularly panicking brain a break to know that “X will be done at Y time.” I’ve realized though it’s not about the things I do – it’s about what those things mean to me and how I am when I’m doing them. It’s more the timing of the things rather than THE THINGS themselves that gives me the routine.…