Doesn’t “Piece de resistance” conjure up images of a fancy Frenchman talking passionately using his hands to talk and raising his right hand as if conducting a symphony to say “piece de resistance”  va! va!! va!!! vaaaaa!!!!

For those so interested Piece de resistance : is a French term (circa 1839), translated into English literally as “piece of (or for) resistance,” referring to the best part or feature of something (as in a meal), a showpiece, or highlight. It can be thought of as the portion of a creation which defies (i.e. “resists”) orthodox or common conventions and practices, thereby making the whole of the creation unique and special. The phrase gives the sense that the referred-to element is the most outstanding, notable, or defining of the collection.

But really the kind of resistance I felt inspired to write about tonight is not this kind it’s the other kind.  The “War of Art” kind.  In the beginning of Steven Pressfield’s book there is one page that has smudge marks from me returning to it again and again when I find myself ONCE AGAIN resisting a writing project. That page says this:

“Look in your own heart.  Unless I’m crazy, right now a still small voice is piping up, telling you as it has ten thousand times, the calling that is yours and yours alone.  You know it. No one has to tell you. And unless I’m crazy, you’re no closer to taking action on it than you were yesterday or will be tomorrow.  You think Resistance isn’t real? Resistance will bury you.

You know, Hitler wanted to be an artist.  At eighteen he took his inheritance, seven hundred kronen, and moved to Vienna to live and study. He applied to the Academy of Fine Arts and later to the School of Architecture.  Ever see one of his paintings? Neither have I. Resistance beat him. Call it overstatement but I’ll say it anyway: it was easier for Hitler to start World War II than it was for him to face a blank square of canvas.”

Ooooh I so relate to this page. Not that I’m Hitler, but I have been known to accomplish great projects during avoidance.  Steven Pressfield so understands what it is like to not do the work that is calling from our soul.  I’ve been resisting getting going on my writing project lately.  It is my eBook about Energy Surfing which will entail digging into past communications and creating a structure to put them in and then write around and about them.  In the meantime, a very good friend of mine gave me a book that a good friend of hers (Donna Johnson) wrote called, “The Holy Ghost Girl” which is a memoir about Donna growing up in a tent revival family.  I loved the book and have it on my “keeper” book shelf, but boy did I allow it to add ammunition to my inner critic for resisting beginning my own book.

I won’t even let the tension of resistance enter into trying to define why I’m not creating a structure for my eBook right this minute because at least I’m writing about it now.  I’ve put off writing for 48 hours which I knew was going to get me into trouble and keep me from writing anything, much less moving forward on my eBook project.  What I will do tomorrow is keep “the War of Art” out on my desk as a talisman to remind me of what I am dealing with inside.  And perhaps I will begin ever so slowly putting together the remnants of communications and words even though I have no idea what the hell I’m doing.   At least I will have you, my reader friends, as witnesses to this process because I know that at least of a few of you have the same word-calling as I do.

Fight on my friends so that what we resist today will become our “Piece de la resistance” tomorrow!

What is your first step as you face the winds of doubt?

Right away I have to admit to you that I am not an artist….at least in the traditional sense.  I mean, I can sketch trees pretty nicely and grasses.  I can even come up with some interesting water color composites but I wouldn’t try to pass myself off as a good sketcher or painter.  And don’t even get me started on things that I am unable to make by hand (although I can still put together a little board with nails and thread strings through to make a dang good bookmark or pot holder!). Even with all of these things that a traditional kind of artist can do very well that I can’t do, I still know when I see something that is beautiful, well-made and has that extra oomph to it and I bet you do as well.

I love watching Project Runway because of the gorgeous and unusual clothes the designers make.  I can barely sew on a button much less hem long pants but I can really appreciate a beautifully designed and well-made outfit.  I’m amazed at the ideas that the designers come up with and make in so little time.  Reminds me of a student in my boarding school who was a year behind me with such a gift for designing and sewing clothes.  For one of our balls, she made the most extraordinary dress.  It’s so many years later I can barely remember the gown I wore, but I can absolutely remember the gown she made because it was unique and it was stunning. Of all the “pictures” in my mind’s records that could have been held on to her dress is permanently ensconced in the archives.

The point of all this is to say if you’re an artist, fantastic, you’re already aware of how to look at everyday things differently.  But if you’re not an “artist”, like me, you can still have an artist’s eye.  I suppose back when our bodies and minds were being put together we somehow did not come with that piece that helps our brains and bodies carry out what we “see”.  Still,  you can use your gift of artist’s site to see the world differently.

Take today for instance.  I’m driving down the highway after class at lunch time so everyone else on the highway seemed to be hungry and agitated or in a rush to get to their next meeting plus on top of that a good portion of the stretch I drive has been in various stages of construction for what seems like f o r e v e r!   I could have gotten myself into a state of impatience and frustration by numb nut drivers, admittedly I was almost there, until I happened to catch a beautiful scene out of the corner of my eye. A flock of pigeons was doing that unison flying thing that they sometimes do weaving  back and forth, in and out of each others’ paths right above a La Quinta Hotel where the sunlight just happened to ricochet off as it peaked in and out of the clouds.  There was such harmony in the colors (gold of the hotel, gold of the sun, gray of the sky, silver and black of the birds) as well as  movement (strong solid object of the hotel, puffy Cumulus clouds, intricate flock pattern of the birds in flight).  It’d probably have made a magnificent short video.

As a result of that one brief moment that I saw  through  an artist’s eye, I forgot to be upset with the guy in front of me driving 55 mph in the fast lane.  Instead,  I spent most of my way home replaying what I had just seen with my mind’s eye and hoping to catch something else equally as beautiful and unexpected.

It really is how we look at things isn’t it?  Do you ever have these experiences of catching the wonder of life?  And more than that, the unexpected beauty?  I suppose many of  us, especially Americans, have been steeped in looking at the negative aspects of our world so that we can be aware in order to keep ourselves safe, that we don’t spend a whole lot of time considering that instead we could look for the beauty that’s happening around us all the time.

Love the discussion that has begun on this blog site and encourage you to jump in with your experience and comments! The water is warm!

Starstruck Milkyway - West Texas

I’m talking literally!  Here’s just a snippet of some of the words that I look at everyday when I sit down to blog:

1.  Permission to Enjoy The Traffic Around You For you Are There For A Reason.

2. I begin now, today, to open myself to ever increasing prosperity.

3. Each year the woman gathered to renew their spirits, nourish their souls & earn their laugh lines.

4. Angels are just Cairns with wings.

5. “Even or odd, thou shalt win the wager.” The friends of God shall win and profit under all conditions and shall attain true wealth. In fire they remain cold, and from water they emerge dry. Their affairs are at a variance with the affairs of men.  Gain is their lot, whatever the deal. To testifieth every wise one with a discouraging eye, and every fair minded one with a hearing ear. — Baha U llah

6. Nurture Yourself.

7. Begin

8. I’d rather be dumped by a horse than a man!

9. princesses rule

10. This way to a brand new experience

11.  May you be gentle with yourself and others. May you trust the goodness of life. May you appreciate the wonder that you are, May you discover your own special abilities and contribute them toward a better world. May you believe.

12. Surrender to God

13. You are the force that plays with your mind and uses your body as its favorite toy to play and have fun with. That is the reason you are here to play and have fun. You are born with the right to be happy and enjoy life. You are not here to suffer.

14.  My greatest gift to give is my happiness.

15. I now live in limitless love, light and joy. All is well in my world.

16. “It’s kind of funny, really, all these years, everybody has been so busy trying to figure out what life is all about, and all the while, it was just something for us to enjoy.” – Fannie Flagg

17.  The Celestine Prophecy Insights (9 of them but 8 usually pokes out at me first)…8 is “When enough of us enter this evolutionary flow, always giving energy to the higher-self of everyone we meet, we will build a new culture where our bodies evolve to ever higher levels of energy and perception.”

And that’s not counting my all the books I look up to on my book shelves, the degrees and certifications on the wall and a very special poem that a friend wrote for me when I left C&T Consulting  I figure if my brain is going to parrot back to me what I fill it with during the day and if I’m going to spend a good part of my day sitting here writing to you, then might as well surround myself with words that feeds my soul!

How do you surround yourself with words?

“We’re all in hiding” said my friend Kat this morning when we were talking about retreats and creativity.  We were talking about retreats that we’re leading (hers this weekend and mine in December) that have to do with creativity and then, of course, our conversation dipped and segued into what being creative means.  Because Kat’s retreat is being held at a Presbyterian Church, there are some religious teachings that will be interspersed throughout it.  One of the stories she shared with me comes from the Book of Genesis about Adam and Eve and how after they took the bite out of the apple (and became conscious) they hid and God looked for them saying, “come out, come out wherever you are”.

Now what are the odds that particular story would come to me from two totally different directions (see my post from last week that refered to Ryan Torok’s blog about the same lesson)?! This is when I tend to believe “the Universe” is really listening to me and that I am being “talked” to and it is me that needs to do the listening now.  As this story of hiding pertains to creativity  it is germane to how I’ve felt about my own creativity.  For years, I felt like the black sheep of the family, the outcast, the “different” one (and I was in many ways let me tell you!?) and I was always drawn to very creative people from musicians to writers to artists yet I never felt like I was creative because my ruler stopped at my ability to create things with my hands or at least play a musical instrument (which I cannot do).  Meanwhile, I’ve created all kinds of scenarios of stories in my head for years, which many called daydreaming, and defined that as yet another reason that I was inept at life—a prisoner within the confines of my mind.

Until I began to write.  And when I wrote, I felt that creative part of me engage in an outlet that I saw shine forth on the faces of my musician friends when they would hit the sweet spot of their song and on my artist friends after many false starts when they’d come up with THE picture that was inside of them.   But even with all of this confirmation if the least little bit of attention came to me for my writing or speaking, I would hide away.  I didn’t understand or know how to handle the attention that I thought I wanted so badly.

Today, it is much easier to be who I am with my writing and public speaking and allow people who enjoy my writing and/or speaking to be who they are with how they let me know.  I get it now that it is not about me, but about them.  And I don’t need attention for my writing now (although I love it when people get it and love it!!) because I write because I have to write now.  It’s in my DNA (I bet there’s all kinds of little scrolls rolled up in there) and the synapses have been connected from that part of my brain through to my fingertips to express the ideas that only the clouds knew for many years.

Come out, come out wherever you are and let your creativity free!  It’s a beautiful thing to give wing to that song inside of our hearts that is just waiting for our own unique expression.  How will you let yours out today?

If you’re reading this and you’re younger than 50, you may want to review in your mind what you understand getting older is all about and discard those beliefs that leave you feeling negative about life.  Just get rid of those now to make room for new, better beliefs that help you feel even better about yourself than you already plan to feel.  For those beliefs that you just feel “eh” about, put them into a safe cubby hole in your head labeled “for further investigation” that you can take out to ponder every now and again when the time is right for you to decide what is a “keeper” and what can be let go.

Getting older is a total trip.  There really isn’t a good way to explain it to anyone who isn’t the age you are when you’re explaining what it’s like to be older except for those people who are your age.  I mean, when I think about the times my Mom and Dad used to tell me that even though there were xx age, they felt like they were 12 or 16,  I just kind of smiled at them and didn’t really get what they were saying at all.  Today at 53, I totally grok what they were saying.  I’m very grateful that I live in a day and age where I can get away with hopping up on to a brick wall and balance-walking to the end of it if I feel so inspired.  Partly because I can physically do it and mostly because I so don’t care what anyone’s opinion is of me doing it.  It’s great to be free from worrying about what other people think of me…..most of the time.

It’s a startling occurrence when our bodies first begin to show signs of aging, such as the tell tale signs on our faces.  I’ll never forget the first time I was flying down the highway in my red convertible at the age of 42 and just happened to catch a glimpse of myself in the side mirror.   It was pretty sobering when I caught the image of a  middle-aged woman instead of the young 20 something girl that I felt like in my heart and soul.    My husband kids me all the time for being so vain about my wrinkles—and he’s probably right—but we woman have been steeped in worrying about how we look for so many years, it’s hard to break the habit.  Not that it is wrong to want to look attractive; however, many of my male friends around the same age are certainly not as focused on their looks as I am on mine.  At least those guy friends of mine who are self-realized and have done a lot of working on their psyches.

Here’s another great thing about getting older that I don’t remember learning about when I was younger and that is how much fun it is to realize that you know more than you may have thought you knew.  For instance, I’m back in school and who knew that I would be one of the, if not THE, biggest blabber mouth in political science class? Certainly not me.  Especially when we’re covering dry subjects like taxes and the economy.  It’s also nice to know so much more about broadcast communication then I had any idea I knew and to have a real connection with the professor because we’re about the same age.  In fact, I’m going to meet with him next week to talk with him about changing my major from the very boring Bachelor of Arts and Sciences track (cuz that’s what they recommend returning non-traditional students to take) to Mass Communications.  I mean, I don’t have any grandiose vision that I am going to  the next Katie Couric by the time I graduate, but life is just way too short  to be taking classes that you don’t relish. Thank you Mom, thank you Kat.

I hope that if you are older that you realize that you can reset whatever negative thoughts or beliefs you’re carrying around about being older. They probably are really not true or they could use a real good editing job.  And if you’re younger and reading this, well hallelujah enjoy your life as it unfolds! It only gets better, really it does.

Remember, we humans are just 80% bags of water.  Might as well swim through life while we can and enjoy the journey along the way!

Lately a whole lot of people have been talking about allowing your creativity to come through authentically no matter how weird it may feel or be!!  Seth Godin wrote a recent blog about “Being Weird” and the vunderbaugh author Sarah Bird sent out a tweet today containing a you tube video cleverly promoting her next event–it was all about creativity. and of course one of my all time favorite authentic creators, Mitch Ditkoff, blogs about creativity on a regular basis (and with a very offbeat approach as well!).

This semester as I inch toward actually seeing the end of the tunnel for education journey I embarked on awhile back, I am taking a Mass Communication’s class (taught by Dr. Tim England) which is teaching us all kinds of information about radio, television, broadcasting and programming (yep, it’s right up my alley).  It is amazing, simply mind blowing how far we have come in such a short while when it comes to communication. Talk about creativity!!  History is being re-written every 5th of a second I’m sure.  Now anyone of us can be a programmer and broadcaster with free web radio and YouTube.     What is happening now is that who will really stick out are those of us who really let go and step out there and be who we are…..wonderfully weird and all.

Look at Lady Gaga.

Here’s the Brainy Quote definition of “weird”

Definition of Weird Weird

Fate; destiny; one of the Fates, or Norns; also, a prediction.

A spell or charm.

Of or pertaining to fate; concerned with destiny.

Of or pertaining to witchcraft; caused by, or suggesting, magical influence; supernatural; unearthly; wild; as, a weird appearance, look, sound, etc.

To foretell the fate of; to predict; to destine to.

There certainly have been many times in my life when family and friends  have called me as weird and now is finally my time to embrace it…but in a good way. In a truly wacky good way.   In a truly creatively, wacky, authentic, double-somersault weird way.

The other morning I was talking with my mom (who is one of the wacky hilarious people in my life) and I warned her as I pulled up into the line to order my coffee that I would have to order pretty soon but that it would only take a minute.  Well, wouldn’t you know that the voice that came out over the speaker was just about as unexpected and wacky as you could expect to hear at 9:30 in the morning.  My mom started giggling uncontrollably because she knew that I knew that this girl’s voice sounded like we had stepped inside of a bar on Star War’s. In fact, that is what my mom whispered into my ear as I was trying to repeat my order to the voice.  Then we, my mom and I, collected ourselves and continued our conversation until, of course, I drove up to the window to pick up my drink and the person with the voice repeated my order again and handed me my drink.  At that point I was really trying hard to be polite and not crack up laughing  because of my mom laughing since she heard the voice again.  What I was seeing that of course my mother could not see over the phone, was the person that the voice was coming from so did not match  her voice. It was definitely weird. Not the girl, bless her heart,  just the whole situation of us with our off kilter humor and her voice at that time of the morning.

Anyway, all this to say that I have had little vignettes of laughing at the absurdities of life all throughout my life thanks to my mom, my dad, my brother and several hand-picked friends who “get” (even encourage) my real sense of humor.

Let your creativity shine,  be yourself and for heaven’s sake embrace your inner weirdness!

Nanny McPhee

Why oh why are some of us born with this innate need to HAVE to write to have to get these ideas circling around in our minds, hearts and souls into words?  You’d think I would have remembered from last year how when I made the commitment to write 365 blogs in 365 days that with each passing day, I had to dig deeper and deeper to get to the vein of gold that had the flow of ideas into words.   I suppose the writing process can be like being pregnant and having a child when after a period of time, many of us can forget the uncomfortable stuff.

I wonder how our penchant for writing will morph as new technologies become de rigueur and reading tomes of writings becomes passe to the masses.  I’m pretty sure there will still be many of us who will  have to write.  I can’t remember which movie it was, but I do recall there was a character who had an illness that made them write tons of words and sentences and explanations all over the walls in their house.  I’m not quite to that point (yet), but I do feel better once the words are written somewhere.  And it’s amazing how that flow of words can become constipated when I HAVE to write them, like right now because I made an agreement with myself to blog 365 blogs in 365 days (and not quit a handful of days before 365 as before).  This is my writing marathon that I’m going to finish this time dagnabit!

Today was Day 1 for Author/Soul Writer/Teacher Janet Conner’s “Plug in for Writers“.  I’m already feeling inspired and supported just after this first class.  Janet had guest expert/writer Gail McMeekin join us to share her experience, strength and hope about her latest book, “The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women”.  Very inspiring and what I took away from the class tonight is that not only can we ask and receive support during our writing process but it’s probably a really good idea for us to pull those support systems around us until we do complete our writing intention/project.  Such a wonderfully female approach to solving an age old isolating situation—create with a community around you.

For the past few days, my Coach and I have been hitting some pretty deep pockets and shaking out the blanket of my comfort zone so that I’m having some of those gritchy feelings arise that I thought I had put to bed a long time ago. But, no, here they are again. Of course, taking a political science class in school this semester is just adding fuel to the fire for my beliefs, opinions and feelings of general helplessness I’m sure!  It’s so interesting to just have to experience these feelings and thoughts instead of being able to run away from them.  I keep thinking of one whole summer after my Freshman year in college years ago when I totally bombed out….I stayed high pretty much the entire time because I could not fathom how I was going to survive the tremendous shame and fear that I felt for totally blowing my first year of college.   I’m so glad I don’t have to live like that anymore, but I’m also grateful for the memory because that memory is pretty much the first one that my mind flicks to when I’m feeling aggravated at mankind as a whole and afraid of everything including my shadow.

By the way, my intention in sharing all of this with you is to let you in on my process so that if you happen to be a writer, or creative person or entrepreneur who gets freaked out when you walk right up to that stark naked part of yourself that is trembling in the dark, that everything is really going to be okay and it seems like most of us (if not all of us) go through this process. At some point, we will all be bumping up against ourselves. Unless, of course, you’re missing that gene in your DNA and then you’ve got a lot more issues than I’m equipped to relate to in this blog!

There ought to be a dance or a song that we can jump right into when we’re in this place so that we can remember to not take ourselves so freaking seriously, but I don’t know what it is.  Surely it’s at least good laugh with ourselves when we recognize that who and what we’ve been afraid of all this time is….well…..us!

Mirror Lake Reflection

*Thank you Steven Pressfield. author of my “resistance is futile” Bible book, “The War of Art”.  Whenever my muses run away and leave me hollow and forlorn, all I have to do is pick up this book and open it up to the first page, okay sometimes the third or fourth page that I “hit” and there will be an inspiration for me to write about.  This time it was from the chapter, “Resistance and Procrastination, Part Two” which says:

The most pernicious aspect of procrastination is that it can become a habit. We don’t just put off our lives today; we put them off til our deathbed.

Never forget: This very moment, we can change our lives.  There never was a moment, and never will be, when we are without the power to alter our destiny This second, we can turn the tables on Resistance. 

This second, we can sit down and do our work.

For a writer/blogger these days, it is such a ripe environment to pull out and over the blanket of procrastination.  ugh. What an awful feeling to have that part of you that just HAS TO WRITE BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT WE ARE IS A WRITER but then that sluggish part that crawls all down into our low self-esteem to convince us that there really is no hope for us ever getting our pieces read much less published because of all the people out there who are writing and blogging and getting paid millions already! Much less that they are half my age!

Call B.S. on yourself and get to writing.  Never before has it been so easy for us to write and rewrite and revise and publish.  Just put your pen to paper or pull up WORD on your PC and get to writing.  Let whatever comes out, come out.  Somewhere in the dribble there will be a gem, I promise.  You may not recognize it immediately, but it will be there. Trust the process.

Now quit reading this and get back to work. Your audience is waiting?!

"Resistance is Futile" Borg Queen from Star Trek Enterprise

You may be thinking, “first of all Lynn, what the heck do you mean by “systems” much less paradigms”?  Good question!  In this blog, I am using the word system to refer to large institutions, businesses and/or entities who have been using a well worn pattern of offering services or creating products.  I’ve always been a kind of renegade when it comes to bucking various systems; however, in many instances I was my own worst enemy because I allowed my personal unmet needs and wants to get in the way of why a particular system or paradigm was not working for me.   People tend to not listen or adhere to what someone is saying about an outdated/outmoded system when they keep confusing what they haven’t taken care of within with what is not working outside of themselves.

The good thing about getting older is that hopefully you’ve had a chance to work out some of your issues and questions about yourself and the world around you which you can then use to help support your point of view rather than detract from it.  Another thing is time becomes very relevant, even though it has always been true that you only really have the very moment in front of you that you can count, it becomes easier to distinguish where you want to direct your passions and spend your time (the grains of sand seem to be moving faster!)

In a conversation with a good friend who is mentoring/coaching me right now, we were talking about various systems and how they are changing and/or need to change.  In the past five years we have seen many systems seemingly go away and new ones replace them over night (such as the impact of book stores, newspapers and magazines by electronic media).  We also talked about academia.  For the past three years, I’ve been faithfully driving 70 miles twice a week to a college campus to finish up a degree.  I’ve always been a lover of learning and, for the most part, have enjoyed the classes.  Now that I am about 13 classes away from graduating, I’ve become somewhat disillusioned because of the “system” that says even if your someone my age “you have to take two physical education classes” (I run about 27 miles a week)  or you’re put into a large class such as Biology with 150 other students with one teacher and no TAs which then forces the teacher to give multiple choice tests instead of tests that give you the opportunity to show what you’ve learned and not what you crammed to memorize. It’s all about memorization.  My friend and I agreed that large universities like the one I’m going to are about ten years behind what is going on socially.  Surely the reason for memorization (and not comprehension) is outmoded by the sheer aspect that we can look up pretty much any piece of information we need on our PC’s let alone most phones at anytime we wish.

Last semester I had a fantastic professor who has a Ph.D. in Social Work.  She saw my aptitude and leanings and encouraged me to explore changing my major to social work which I seriously considered.  But upon further exploration, I discovered that our school only offered two areas of study and internship under the umbrella of social work which were Child Protective Services (don’t even get me started on the dysfunctionality of that system) and Geriatrics (so nursing homes and assisted living centers).  Both areas were well established systems with entrenched paradigms.  From my experience with both systems as passionate and well intentioned as I may be, if I went into either system over time I would be absorbed like a tar baby into the sludge of yesterday.  Change won’t happen within it will happen by stepping out and creating a whole new way of doing things.  For example, I am hopeful that there is quite a bit more movement to creating intergenerational villages and moving away from traditional nursing homes and assisted living.

I am also hopeful that as more and more of us step out of systems and paradigms all kinds of new and good changes will be created. When you take into consideration the impact of global population growth and how all of us could be living on this here Earth a few years down the road, it becomes apparent that some systems will have to go away and new systems created to take their place in various economies, in ways of doing business and in how we think about ourselves and interact with our world.

It’s either that or annihilation and I’d much rather put my intentions towards creating better ways of living wouldn’t you?

(recently posted at www.lifebeforebusiness.com) 

The big buzz film this year isn’t “Babel” isn’t “The Departed” and not even “The Queen”, the big buzz film isn’t even in the movie theaters, in fact it was introduced to the world on the internet. The film I’m talking about is, of course, “The Secret” which you can find at www.thesecret.tv.  I’ve certainly had a process digesting the suggestions from The Secret and as a result another Coach and I will be offering a retreat the weekend of April 27-29 called, “Beyond the Secret” to share what we’ve learned.   What we have realized is although there were many messages in the film that were excellent and reinforced our understanding of how the world works they only skimmed the top of the pot and did not delve into the ingredients of the recipe to creating the life we really want.  I further understood that although it is wonderful to dream big and dance around with lofty ideas, at some point I have to get after the business of making my life happen. In other words, I need to figure out and delineate the steps to creating the stairs so that I can reach the stars of my dreams.