Caroline Allen's Blog - Posts Tagged "water"
Art is our Activism
"Pandemic, death of a friend, wildfires, elections -- let nothing stop you in the pursuit of your creative purpose. Art is activism!"
In the past few months, like everyone else globally, I’ve been sideswiped by the pandemic. Isolation from friends, the lack of external entertainment, the fear of death, the fact that the people we usually rely on for emotional support do not have it to give -- it’s been trying for all of us.
Then my best friend died, suddenly. Not of COVID, but of natural causes in her horse barn, next to her beloved Arabian. I took in her corgi. Then a few days later, the entire West Coast of the US went up in flames, including the area where we live. I was evacuated with four animals for two weeks (see earlier blog: Diary of a Wildfire Evacuee).
In the middle of all of this, I was preparing to launch my fourth novel, Water. I’d spent four intense years writing it. I’d revised it six times from start to finish. I’d had my editor look at it in November, revised it again, had her copy edit it in June, and then did another full revision. The night before it was meant to go to the page designer, I realized it needed one more full rewrite, which I did. I’d commissioned the cover. I’d sought out pictures of tarot cards to adorn each chapter. I’d commissioned two, then three book trailers. If you haven’t published before, you have no idea the amount of intense detail that goes on for many months prior to publication. Finishing writing the book is just the beginning.
The sudden evacuation happened just as I was getting ready to upload the book to Amazon, and establish a marketing push to get the book out there.
Even at home, such a task is time-consuming and exhausting. I found myself on an island I didn’t know, evacuated to a cabin without WiFi, sitting in my car with two dogs at an internet cafe, paying people on Fiverr to do all of the work for me. It was a logistical juggling act, and one made even harder by a mind befuddled by wildfires burning down forests, and houses, and communities of animals, plants, and humans.
Why not just postpone the novel launch? It’s a legitimate question. Why not wait until the fires are over, until I am home (unless, of course, my house had burned down, which I didn’t know for a long time during evacuation)? Why not get settled, then publish your novel? My answer: We have no time to wait! It’s now or never. We have to step up.
Writing is my activism. I’m also a visual artist. Art is my activism. It isn’t something you put off. It’s what makes the difference in a world out of balance.
Global warming, rampant depression, higher suicide rates, deaths due to a mishandled pandemic -- this is all because our world is out of balance. Our relationship with the earth is out of balance. I address these issues in my novels. My art is not separate from what’s going on in the world. My art is my passionate plea for humanity, and for myself, to wake up and make a difference. My art is my activism.
As a book coach and creativity coach for 20 years, I see how fear has shut down creatives across the globe.
Are you a creative? A writer, artist, dancer, musician, maker? Are you not doing your work because of all of the chaos? You are needed now more than ever. Our creative spirit is an antidote to the destruction. Tired, upset, losing it? Use that in your writing and your art. Step up! We need all creative hands on deck. Now! You are the answer.
In the past few months, like everyone else globally, I’ve been sideswiped by the pandemic. Isolation from friends, the lack of external entertainment, the fear of death, the fact that the people we usually rely on for emotional support do not have it to give -- it’s been trying for all of us.
Then my best friend died, suddenly. Not of COVID, but of natural causes in her horse barn, next to her beloved Arabian. I took in her corgi. Then a few days later, the entire West Coast of the US went up in flames, including the area where we live. I was evacuated with four animals for two weeks (see earlier blog: Diary of a Wildfire Evacuee).
In the middle of all of this, I was preparing to launch my fourth novel, Water. I’d spent four intense years writing it. I’d revised it six times from start to finish. I’d had my editor look at it in November, revised it again, had her copy edit it in June, and then did another full revision. The night before it was meant to go to the page designer, I realized it needed one more full rewrite, which I did. I’d commissioned the cover. I’d sought out pictures of tarot cards to adorn each chapter. I’d commissioned two, then three book trailers. If you haven’t published before, you have no idea the amount of intense detail that goes on for many months prior to publication. Finishing writing the book is just the beginning.
The sudden evacuation happened just as I was getting ready to upload the book to Amazon, and establish a marketing push to get the book out there.
Even at home, such a task is time-consuming and exhausting. I found myself on an island I didn’t know, evacuated to a cabin without WiFi, sitting in my car with two dogs at an internet cafe, paying people on Fiverr to do all of the work for me. It was a logistical juggling act, and one made even harder by a mind befuddled by wildfires burning down forests, and houses, and communities of animals, plants, and humans.
Why not just postpone the novel launch? It’s a legitimate question. Why not wait until the fires are over, until I am home (unless, of course, my house had burned down, which I didn’t know for a long time during evacuation)? Why not get settled, then publish your novel? My answer: We have no time to wait! It’s now or never. We have to step up.
Writing is my activism. I’m also a visual artist. Art is my activism. It isn’t something you put off. It’s what makes the difference in a world out of balance.
Global warming, rampant depression, higher suicide rates, deaths due to a mishandled pandemic -- this is all because our world is out of balance. Our relationship with the earth is out of balance. I address these issues in my novels. My art is not separate from what’s going on in the world. My art is my passionate plea for humanity, and for myself, to wake up and make a difference. My art is my activism.
As a book coach and creativity coach for 20 years, I see how fear has shut down creatives across the globe.
Are you a creative? A writer, artist, dancer, musician, maker? Are you not doing your work because of all of the chaos? You are needed now more than ever. Our creative spirit is an antidote to the destruction. Tired, upset, losing it? Use that in your writing and your art. Step up! We need all creative hands on deck. Now! You are the answer.
Banking on Spirit: Healing Our Relationship with Money
How do we heal our relationship with money?
I’m not just talking about making more money or acquiring more possessions? I’m talking about healing our integrity with money. I’m talking about healing our relationship with the earth.
In my most recently released fourth novel, Water, I wrote a scene about a woman in a pub burning money. She does this as a joke, as an experiment to see how others will react. And react they do — no one is left unaffected. From the waitress to the drunk at the bar, each person is traumatized by watching a $20 bill burn.
We are addicted to money, obsessed with money, desperate for money, clinging to money. We marry for it, divorce for it, kill for it, steal for it.
While the world goes down with a global pandemic, while the forests go up in flames, while we poison our waters, we’re still obsessed with money and possessions. Or we’re desperate to make our rent or mortgage, to buy food, and pay the bills because our very existence depends on the existence or lack of small rectangular pieces of paper.
Why is that? What is going on? Is there another way to approach this?
About a decade ago, I decided to heal my relationship with money. For a few years, I read books and listened to podcasts but nothing stuck. As an indie novelist and visual artist, I’ve always struggled with money. Year after year I’d start and not finish a money journal where I’d look at my relationship with money through the history of my poverty-riddled family. Nothing seemed to change for me.
It was in my mid-50s that I decided to take it seriously. A friend leant me Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover CDs. I was also working with a therapist. I took the whole healing my money situation on as a project, I:
looked my debt in the face, every debt, every interest charge. I cried.
created a budget and began to stick to it.
started paying down my credit card debts and it started to work.
Explored how money was fitting into my core values.
began to heal lessons I learned about money from poverty-stricken ancestors
decluttered my house.
made a massive mistake, and with the fear surrounding the pandemic and loss of income went into debt again, but caught myself sort of in time.
Read woo woo books on money, Love Money, Money Loves You and The Soul of Money.
As my path to healing around money continues, I’ve learned a few basic things.
First, the healing is a mixture of spiritual (woo woo) healing, emotional healing, and very practical action steps. None of these things will work without the others.
Secondly, It’s actually not really about money at all. It’s about abundance. What do you really want and need for a good life? For me, it’s been more about what I don’t need. It’s been about getting rid of, letting go of, living with much much less. Which leads to the final and most important thing that I learned.
It’s not about money at all. It’s about the abundance we feel in our spirits, and it’s about the healing of the earth.
No amount of money can make up for a starving spirit. I know it’s a pandemic and we’ve just come out of a tough political situation, but even with that, do you feel joy every day? Do you feel a love for yourself and the earth? Are you excited to be alive?
No amount of money can fill you up. You have to fill the spirit. This is true abundance. What profit a man to gain the whole world but lose his soul?
Then there’s the healing of the earth. What difference does cash make if we can’t breathe clean air, eat clean food, drink clean water?
I was looking for images to illustrate this blog, and found many like this one — a plant growing from a pile of money. The message, I’m sure, is “You can make your money grow.” For me, I’d like to flip that message, “Let’s invest in making the earth grow, in healing our planet, or at the very least, leaving it alone to heal itself.”
What do I mean when I say healing around money is all about the earth?
You see all these social media ads for coaches: Make Six Figures Overnight. What good is it if all of our food is poisoned because we’re poisoning the earth? These are supposed to be caring coaches. Why are they just trying to manifest more money? Why aren’t we trying to manifest what’s so much more valuable, the healing of the soul, the healing of the planet?
I’ve seen so many people, even spiritual people, use visualizations to try to manifest “things”. Why aren’t we using our visualization to manifest spiritual healing for all sentient beings?
When we talk about healing our relationship with money, I believe it does begin with very practical steps surrounding our cash and debt. I also believe to truly heal around money, it has to involve understanding the fundamentals about the abundance of our spirits and the health of the planet. Or, truly, what the hell is it all for?
I’m a metaphysical coach and a book coach, contact me at info@carolineallen.com.
I’m not just talking about making more money or acquiring more possessions? I’m talking about healing our integrity with money. I’m talking about healing our relationship with the earth.
In my most recently released fourth novel, Water, I wrote a scene about a woman in a pub burning money. She does this as a joke, as an experiment to see how others will react. And react they do — no one is left unaffected. From the waitress to the drunk at the bar, each person is traumatized by watching a $20 bill burn.
We are addicted to money, obsessed with money, desperate for money, clinging to money. We marry for it, divorce for it, kill for it, steal for it.
While the world goes down with a global pandemic, while the forests go up in flames, while we poison our waters, we’re still obsessed with money and possessions. Or we’re desperate to make our rent or mortgage, to buy food, and pay the bills because our very existence depends on the existence or lack of small rectangular pieces of paper.
Why is that? What is going on? Is there another way to approach this?
About a decade ago, I decided to heal my relationship with money. For a few years, I read books and listened to podcasts but nothing stuck. As an indie novelist and visual artist, I’ve always struggled with money. Year after year I’d start and not finish a money journal where I’d look at my relationship with money through the history of my poverty-riddled family. Nothing seemed to change for me.
It was in my mid-50s that I decided to take it seriously. A friend leant me Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover CDs. I was also working with a therapist. I took the whole healing my money situation on as a project, I:
looked my debt in the face, every debt, every interest charge. I cried.
created a budget and began to stick to it.
started paying down my credit card debts and it started to work.
Explored how money was fitting into my core values.
began to heal lessons I learned about money from poverty-stricken ancestors
decluttered my house.
made a massive mistake, and with the fear surrounding the pandemic and loss of income went into debt again, but caught myself sort of in time.
Read woo woo books on money, Love Money, Money Loves You and The Soul of Money.
As my path to healing around money continues, I’ve learned a few basic things.
First, the healing is a mixture of spiritual (woo woo) healing, emotional healing, and very practical action steps. None of these things will work without the others.
Secondly, It’s actually not really about money at all. It’s about abundance. What do you really want and need for a good life? For me, it’s been more about what I don’t need. It’s been about getting rid of, letting go of, living with much much less. Which leads to the final and most important thing that I learned.
It’s not about money at all. It’s about the abundance we feel in our spirits, and it’s about the healing of the earth.
No amount of money can make up for a starving spirit. I know it’s a pandemic and we’ve just come out of a tough political situation, but even with that, do you feel joy every day? Do you feel a love for yourself and the earth? Are you excited to be alive?
No amount of money can fill you up. You have to fill the spirit. This is true abundance. What profit a man to gain the whole world but lose his soul?
Then there’s the healing of the earth. What difference does cash make if we can’t breathe clean air, eat clean food, drink clean water?
I was looking for images to illustrate this blog, and found many like this one — a plant growing from a pile of money. The message, I’m sure, is “You can make your money grow.” For me, I’d like to flip that message, “Let’s invest in making the earth grow, in healing our planet, or at the very least, leaving it alone to heal itself.”
What do I mean when I say healing around money is all about the earth?
You see all these social media ads for coaches: Make Six Figures Overnight. What good is it if all of our food is poisoned because we’re poisoning the earth? These are supposed to be caring coaches. Why are they just trying to manifest more money? Why aren’t we trying to manifest what’s so much more valuable, the healing of the soul, the healing of the planet?
I’ve seen so many people, even spiritual people, use visualizations to try to manifest “things”. Why aren’t we using our visualization to manifest spiritual healing for all sentient beings?
When we talk about healing our relationship with money, I believe it does begin with very practical steps surrounding our cash and debt. I also believe to truly heal around money, it has to involve understanding the fundamentals about the abundance of our spirits and the health of the planet. Or, truly, what the hell is it all for?
I’m a metaphysical coach and a book coach, contact me at info@carolineallen.com.
