Shitty First Draft

Getting it wrong is part of getting it right. – Charles Handy

Week after week I’d set pen to paper and wind up discouraged and embarrassed.

I had joined a writers group when we were still all getting together and no one had yet heard of COVID. The facilitator would give us a prompt, or a picture, and give us ten minutes to write. Then a few brave members would share what they wrote.

I was never one of those intrepid souls.

Ernest Hemingway wrote and rewrote the ending to A Farewell to Arms thirty-nine times. You’ll never believe what had him stumped. He said the problem was “getting the words right.”

Long ago, I taught an introductory knitting class. Inevitably, there would be one or two new knitters who would get frustrated when they had to rip their work out for the third of fourth time.

That’s when I’d let them in on a secret. The only difference between beginning knitters and experienced knitters is that an experienced knitter knows she’s going to be ripping her work out multiple times.

R & D labs are the birthplace of many ideas that don’t pan out.

Evolution has shown us that homo sapiens didn’t spring up in its perfect form on the first mutation.

Who met the love of their life in junior high and never needed to date anyone else? Who still has the first job they ever took? Who is still using those same signature dance moves from way back when?

Which of us is proficient at anything the first time we try?

So why are we so reluctant to value our mistakes? Our shitty first drafts? Why can’t we be more like an R and D lab?

Mistakes are an essential part of an engaged life. A necessity.

No, no one wants to fail publicly. And knowing that we all do from time to time is cold comfort.

But we can learn to be more comfortable with our less-than-flawless efforts.

The first step is to not think everyone else’s efforts are perfect the first time.

They’re not.

The second is to not believe ours should be.

And so whenever I start a writing project, I take the advice of a member of the writers group I was in and I name it Shitty First Draft. It reminds me that I’m not the exception. That to create something of quality, I will have to change things, revise, and edit. Because getting it wrong is part of getting it right.

Your Real Energy Forecast for the Week of January 16, 2022

Get centered and then choose the stack you’re most drawn to.

Stack 1
No Place Like Home, Temperance

Both your home and your skin should be comfortable things to inhabit. Look in through the windows, both literal and figurative. Does your space reflect who you are? Do you like what you see? How about when you look into who you’ve become? If you don’t feel you’re living authentically, get rid of what doesn’t reflect well on you. Clean house.

Stack 2
Imagine, Page of Swords

If you can dream it, you can be it. Spend time daydreaming this week. Mix imagination with emotion. Then write it all down. What does it look like? How does it feel? Imagination becomes belief and belief becomes reality. And until it’s on paper, it’s vapor, so send it up to the Universe in written words.

Stack 3
A Leg Up, 9 of Cups

We cannot find true contentment in isolation. We need time alone, but we also have to align with others. We need help. We need to help. Embrace interdependence and watch the miracles start to happen. Now is the time to accomplish your heart’s desire through the interconnected web of all existence.

This week’s decks are The Wisdom of the Oracle and Modern Love Tarot



Your Word of the Year

Are you ready to choose your word for 2022?

You’ll want a word that challenges you or inspires you or keeps you on track. Maybe all three.

It can be a noun like Comfort, Hope, or Infinity.

Or an adjective such as Delighted, Passionate, or Amazed.

Or you might choose a verb like Enchant, Innovate, or Soar. Maybe even Canoodle!

How do you want to feel?

Or maybe we should start with how you feel right now.

During this limbo time of the year, I tend to feel flat. This year, I also feel isolated and lonely since we didn’t get to see my family again on Christmas due to covid. Yet I also feel grateful and immensely satisfied with where I am in life. Accomplished. Loved. Optimistic.

However you feel in this moment, do you want more or less of that feeling? Would you like to lessen or intensify it? Or go in a completely new direction?

Here are some words to get you started.

AmazedContentCelebrate
ProudWishCompassion
RomanceEnchantmentHope
ZealFriendshipHappy
ClearFlowDisencumbered
KnightMarvelNourished
OrganizedPoiseMate
PowerRefreshedSoar
ServiceAdaptableSprouted
TravelSwankyTrust
ValidatedPeaceWonder

What grabs your attention? What word did you ultimately choose?

My word for 2022 is shine in all its glorious senses. To sparkle. To stand out. To excel. To rise AND shine…

Let me know yours in the comments. I’d love to hear—and to support you!

Downloads from Spirit

Hold me closer Tony Danza.

Wedding rice makes birds explode.

Want a Hurt’s Donut?

Whether it’s a misheard lyric, an urban legend, or a joke we don’t understand, we can count on the internet to help us understand.

We have access to literally all the information in the world at our fingertips.

Ok, maybe not everything. You won’t find Colonel Sander’s secret blend of eleven herbs and spices, most government records, where you left your keys, or what your next step is. But most everything else is there.

How do we find our next right step?

So often we forget about all the spiritual tools at our fingertips. We can call on our spirit guides. Our angels. Our ancestors who work for our highest good.

When we remember to co-create with Spirit, our next step appears when we’re ready for it.

We all have moments of being in flow. For many of us, it means creative downloads—ideas for books, paintings, songs, and new projects that that come to us complete. For some of us, they happen as we’re working on that something. We’re writing or painting or composing and it’s as if the pen or brush has a mind of its own.

To channel the creative spark, we can meditate. Drop down into the creative well and swim around in its waters. This can be akin to sitting with your eyes closed and trying not to think of a white bear. But as with most things, meditation becomes easier with practice.

We can start our day with an affirmation. “I am clear on where I am headed.” “I always know my next right step.” “New, creative ideas come to me with ease.”

Or we can set an intention as we go to bed. Our dream state is perfect for alignment and creation. Try this for a few nights this week.

Sit on the side of your bed with your feet on the floor. Inhale and exhale deeply a few times. Imagine and feel the green energy from the center of the earth come up through the soles of your feet, into your legs, through your core and your heart center, up into your throat, and finally into your third eye. Then see a white light coming down from the sky in through the top of your head, joining the earth energy in your third eye. This white light contains all the wisdom of the Universe. Your crown chakra filters it so that only the ideas that match your intention come through and mix with the creative energy of the earth. Now set your intention. “It is my intention to receive clarity about…” or “It is my intention to see my next steps to…” or “It is my intention to have a creative solution to…” You can follow that up with “I will easily remember the information that comes to me in a clear and simple way.” And finally, “Tonight’s sleep with restore and energize me.”

Let me know what downloads you receive from Spirit using this exercise. I’d love to hear.

Celebrating Yule in a commercially-driven world

I’m in Germany as I write this, visiting friends.

Yesterday we drove from Frankfurt to Hamburg. I thought I saw squirrels’ nests in the trees but it turns out it was mistletoe, great big bunches of mistletoe.

Holly, ivy, and mistletoe are the plants associated with Yule. What a wonderful reminder for me to focus on nature and its cycles instead of on buying gifts.

Yule is one of the points on the wheel of the year that mark the seasons and the midpoints between them.

At the end of October I wrote about Samhain. The next sabbat, or festival, is Yule and it starts on December 21st.

Yule marks the longest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. It is a time of reflection and thought. A time to look back on what happened in the last twelve months. It is a time to remember that even when things look dark for us, we can persevere.

It can be difficult to find time for quiet introspection when we’re decorating, shopping, baking, and beating ourselves up for not being holiday-perfect.

It is also a time of joy as we celebrate the starting point for light to enter the world again. A time of death of the old and birth of the new. A reminder that all our lives are made up of cycles and seasons.

How can we celebrate Yule in a Christmas world?

Does that last sentence make you feel like I just added something else to your endless holiday to-do list?

What we need to do is harness the Santa-energy.

Santa doesn’t make the toys. He doesn’t decorate or bake. He creates lists and delegates. He uses magic to expand time so that he can get everything done at midnight, his eyes twinkling all the while.

If you truly enjoy wrapping gifts, wrap. If you’re like me and you hate it, hand off that job.

Instead, get out into nature.

Walk and reflect.

What have you accomplished in the last year?

And don’t append “but” or “except” to your achievements.

My list looks like this:

–I kept up with physical therapy, got stronger, and can walk again.

(not “…but still have a long way to go.”)

–I learned how to use Mailchimp, Facebook Live, Teachable, Canva, Zoom.

–I wrote my tenth novel.

–I survived a bathroom remodel.

–I helped many people around the world by clearing their energy.

Go ahead. Make your list of achievements, gains, and positive lessons learned.

Where did you shine in the last twelve months? Let me know. I’d love to share your wins with you.

Full moon in Taurus

Enjoy the stable energy that this full moon in Taurus brings.

Release any drama. Focus on peace. Heal Harvest. Start something new that requires a long-term commitment.

Ask yourself what three things that you’ve gathered in the last six months bring you the most joy?

What three things should you stop spending your money on?

Who have you picked up negative ideas from Forgive them. And forgive yourself for listening to their negativity.

Pull some cards to answer the following questions.

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