Welcome! Let's Start here.
My decision to finally, really, I'm not kidding, begin sharing my writing...
Welcome, friend. If you are new here, I’m a lifelong creative, actor, filmmaker, and teacher exploring the intersection of creativity, spirituality, and the healing power of our shared stories. I’m excited and ready to step into the freedom of this container and see what it might offer us. Thanks for checking it out.
THEN
In 2020, I vowed to myself that I would share more of my experiences with others and be more transparent in my journey. I always say that I believe in the healing power of our shared stories. I decided it was time to be. braver in sharing more of my own.
I continued to feel that the social media platforms I was using didn’t really support what I was being asked to do. I needed a space more my own to stretch out and play, to explore. But the idea of setting up, developing, and committing to a blog felt, well, just too overwhelming given everything else going on in my life.
I was experiencing a pivotal year. Who wasn’t, right?
In addition to the ongoing pandemic, in 2021:
I learned about IFS ( Internal Family Systems) Therapy and the integration of my Self and my parts. It made immediate sense to me and I got to work.
I discovered and began participating in a 12-step recovery group called ACA which supports those who identify as Adult Children of Alcoholics ( I wasn’t ) and also Dysfunctional Families ( I was).
I made the decision to get “sober curious” and stopped drinking for a year. It made sense to me that if I was going to focus on deep healing, I needed to be fully present to it. Best decision of the year.
I was accepted into Richard Rohr’s The Living School - a two-year commitment to intensive study of the mystics, spiritual practices, community-building, and social justice.
THE BIG LEAP. After almost a year of living overseas after selling 80% of our belongings, we moved into a rental house in Fort Collins, Colorado in Nov 2020. One couple, two dogs and three suitcases. That’s it. We had no furniture. No car. No household items. When I say none I mean it. Not a cup. Not a fork. Not a bed. It took a while to get ourselves set up again. As you can imagine, there was a “whole lotta shakin’ going on” internally and externally.
I remember thinking that I would share insights and inspiration along the way from what I was learning in the Living School as I learned it. Sometimes all I can do is laugh at myself, with compassion.
It might have been rich. I wrote almost every day. A lot of my experience was captured in my personal notebooks and writing practice, but it never made its way out of the safety of those pages. And honestly, much of it is not for public consumption, it was just between me and Spirit. That in itself is a lesson.
NOW
So why a newsletter? Why now?
A couple of reasons come to mind.
I simply want to. I am drawn to this and I am following where I am drawn.
Timing. I feel it intuitively. I’m ready. All the internal work I did for the last few years and especially in 2021 has led me here. I also discovered this particular hosting platform on Substack which makes the newsletter process super easy. Ease is good.
Also, I approached things in reverse this time. Instead of obsessing about the perfectionistic trappings of the newsletter - the name, the format, etc., I decided to simply begin and trust the creative inspiration that urged me to start. I decided to allow it to evolve and show me what it wants to be.
That’s it.
So, here we are. Howdy! Have I mentioned how happy I am that you are here? I am.
I’ll share what the curriculum of my life is teaching me. I’ll send along a few links to things I found interesting, inspiring, helpful or funny. I’ll likely also pass along something that Ron did or said that week that made me laugh. And we’ll let it unfold.
What do you think? I’d love to hear any comments or feedback you might have as we go along. I do truly hope this can become a community of sorts- the kind where everyone feels welcomed but without any particular expectations, save kindness.
My husband makes me laugh. Mostly on purpose.
Situation: We were out running errands and Ron is driving. I was talking to him about human incarnation and levels of consciousness. You know. light topics. I mentioned Jesus’ statement that we are capable of far more than even He manifested on Earth, which is quite something to ponder. Truly, truly I say to you, the one who believes in Me, the works that I do, (s)he will do also; and greater works than these (s)he will do.”
Ron’s response? “ I think you probably make a better potato salad than Jesus.”
Welcome to my world.
P.S. I do make a mean potato salad.
Ron made me laugh, too! So SHARE your potato salad recipe!