Challenging Myself: Joining NaBloPoMo ~ Committing to Writing A Post A Day For January...

"Finally, if you want to write, you have to just shut up, pick up a pen, and do it. I'm sorry there are no true excuses. This is our life. Step forward. Maybe it's only for ten minutes. That's okay. To write feels better than all the excuses." 

~o~ Natalie Goldberg ~o~

Dear Ones,

I have spent a lot of time these last months trying to figure out a way to keep up with my blog and do my other work, as if somehow my blog wasn't central to my work. And then I went back to the BlogHer network which I hadn't been involved with for years but I knew the time was right, needing to be involved with women's communities and to get back to a daily writing practice which, although it seems that I am always writing, and I am, the practice, this practice, if only for ten minutes, will be central to my day and my life and achieving the goals that I have set for myself in 2013, and this year it is more important than ever. 

I will be 59 on April 30 and this year I will publish a book, build a community of women to support one another who are past the meridian of midlife (Younger will be welcome, and bring energy, and perhaps be mentored by the loving and gentle advice of the sages and the crones who are the main focus of the community), I will begin to take private students to shepherd them on their journey through a time in their lives when they need to fall in love with themselves and who they fully are so that they can build a life that meets their needs and brings them a kind of peace they have never found before. These sessions are "Deep Listening Soul Guidance" sessions, and my book, "The Deep Listening Soul Guidebook" will be out by my 59th birthday. Too, I will be writing monthly eBooks and concentrating on making my newsletter a more enlivening resource for my readers, wanting to enrich their lives, bring them free resources, love, and I hope, become a touchstone for them in their lives. I have been trying to do this for months and not succeeding as I'd planned.

This month's challenge with "NaBloPoMo" (National Blog Posting Month) is for bloggers who want to take up the gauntlet and commit to writing a post a day. Previous this would have sent a chill down my spine because I felt so overwhelmed on a daily basis that sometimes taking care of the 9 animals and doing what work I could was a challenge I had trouble meeting. The last six months I have not only changed a lot due in large part to having begun working with teachers and mentors which I will continue to do, including business coaching these next months, but I am also finding that it is true what my mother always said, "If you want to get a job done, give it to a busy person." What I am finding is that being busier in a more organized way, with self care also a priority so that I don't mean that I am burning the midnight oil, but spending time over coffee planning my day and my tasks and working through them in an orderly fashion, is helping me accomplish more than I ever have. I am early on in this process but amazed by the results I've had so far. A daily post here will be a part of this and I can already see and feel what a good thing it will be to add to my roster of tasks that shape my day and help me collect my thoughts and move forward with my work.

So here I am, on January 2, beginning a month of daily posting. I can't yet imagine what the experience will be and mean in my life, but I know it will have to be good food for my soul's growth and the support that I need in 2013. This month's theme is "Energy" and it is just that, more than anything, that I need to learn to balance in my own life in both a healthy and productive way. The timing could not be more perfect.

The quote at the top of this page is very special to me. I studied with Natalie Goldberg early on in her national teaching days, the first time in 1986 not long after her now famous Writing Down The Bones appeared on the scene, and then again less than a year later for a week in Taos, New Mexico. Also, as a 30 year teacher of the journal writing process I am shocked at how I have fallen away from what I taught for so long and it has created a tremendous hole in the tapestry of my life and being that has left me not as balanced as I need to be. So here I am and here I shall be perhaps long after NaBloPoMo, because I need to be, and I hope, in the process, I can encourage you to write, for yourself, in whatever way works for you in your daily life, because it does make a difference. I ask myself the old question, "If not now, when?" Well this year is the "when." It's about time.

I wish you well on your journey as I set off with my napsack filled with books, notebooks, and pens (not to mention a laptop computer!) in mine. Onwards and Upwards, and Tally Ho!