Susan Nunn's Blog
April 28, 2022
Just Some Thoughts
Okay, let’s discuss some things of interest for writers.
First of all, I want you all to know, there is a FREE Class online, something you all may find very interesting. Creating a Sustainable Writing Life. Someone asked the other day why I gave such a good class away for free? It just seemed logical to me, that if we are into writing, maybe we could use a little boost about how to do it in a more structured way that nurtures your creativity. Then, being a Feng Shui Consultant, I thought I would throw in some useful hints about our spaces, and I gifted you all my version of the Bagua, which is a download in the class. You can find the class at the bottom of the Home page at www.csusannunn.com.
Now to get on with our weekly blog. I have been tossing around the format of this, but for now, here are four writing thoughts, and then next week it will be one subject as we explore Should We Pay For Reviews and How To Get Our Readers To Write Reviews.
First, let’s talk about the archaic “Show, Don’t Tell” syndrome. It’s been around forever in all the MFA and other writing classes. Every professor I had, said, “show, don’t tell.” When asked exactly what that meant, there was never a response, other than, “Just do it!” I wanted someone to show me the difference, but that never happened.
Let’s discuss this for a moment. What is it exactly they wanted us to do?
I’m convinced after studying emotions and feelings and how they go onto the page for many years, that this is what they were trying to get across, although I don’t think the professors I had knew this at the time. They only knew that what their students were writing was not what they wanted. And, the easiest way to tell them so was the old standby, “show, don’t tell.”
Although I have classes that unravel this process in-depth, I want to share a bit with you. Have you ever read a book that felt as if you were being held at a distance, and not allowed to really be a part of the story? Did you feel as if the writer was writing from a distance? All of this tells you that the writer held himself/herself back for a reason. Maybe they were writing something too close to their heart and didn’t want to expose the rawness or maybe they just couldn’t. Maybe they were afraid of exposing themselves. Whatever it is/was, they are damn sure not letting you in, not letting you get too close. God forbid if you really got in there!
But “in there” is exactly where the reader needs to be. We must remember, readers are smart and they know when a writer is holding back.
You will also hear a lot about breaking down scenes. Do I break mine down? No, I am more of an organic writer, but one thing I do religiously is make sure I see and hear (listen) to everything up close and around the edges.
Did you know there is a very big difference between ‘hearing’ and ‘listening’ and if we don’t learn to listen as a writer, we are not going to make it work.
What about seeing? Do you think you ‘see’ everything there is to ‘see’? Don’t kid yourself, train yourself to focus and pay attention to the details in life.
I have had several writers coming to me lately about this. They say, “Really it is a memoir, but I am putting it out there as fiction…..”
How many writers claim a book to be fiction, but they really started out as memoirs? I know many who are doing this. I did it too. They have their reasons, and I had mine. Most believe that it is a way to protect them from wrongdoing or something that would make them look bad. That makes sense. It is also a way of protecting them from family issues, and so many other things. Maybe, just maybe they started writing it as a memoir until they realized that just maybe they weren’t prepared to say some of the things they had thought they could.
Let’s think about it for a minute. Writers have been doing this since time began. When we sit down to write, sometimes we think, hmmm, I can’t really say this because they will think I did something wrong, or maybe I say I did something, that I really didn’t do…it is now fiction.
Years ago, James Frey, wrote A Million Little Pieces. He wrote it as a memoir, a true account of his life. Oprah even jumped on it and interviewed him, only for us to find out that it was fictionalized. It was a hit until it was proven to be fraudulent. So, if we are writing something and saying it is true, we best be sure it is true, but if we are writing a true story and calling it fiction, no one will know nor will they care. Much fiction is written based on our lives, which is well documented.
So, how does creative nonfiction fit into this? We are still telling a factual account but helping it along a bit with our creativity to make it read more like a story. We don’t want it dry, but the facts are still the facts. Most memoir is considered creative nonfiction, whereas biography and autobiography are not, they are just the facts, ma’am, just the facts.
Recently I was reading a post in a fiction writers group discussion online, and someone said she quit reading because she didn’t want to unconsciously copy another writer’s style. She was a beginning writer. I jumped in, so unlike me on those threads, but I told her, “To be a good writer, you must be a good reader. Read everything you can get your hands on.”
Let’s close with a walk in the trees on this beautiful spring day. Until next week, stay well and enjoy writing. Susan
The post Just Some Thoughts appeared first on Susan Nunn Publishing.
April 11, 2022
I Believe In…
When I first typed I Believe In…. I thought, oh my, do I believe in magic? Maybe I do.
In reality, I believe in the magic of nature, the magic of words, and the magic of life.
Let’s first speak to nature. Is it infused with magic or does it offer something more concrete? Is it something we can put our finger on and say this is what nature is? For me, nature exudes the essence of life. The more time we spend in nature, the calmer we become, the more in sync we become with its energy. And this is really important.
What started in Japan in 1982, the business called “shinrin-yoku” or “forest bathing” has now become popular around the world. Japan spent millions on researching the effects the trees have on our health, but in all actuality, the positive effects of being in the forest among the trees were discovered long before. Some of the most profound writings came in the 1800s when John Muir, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman and many others extolled the power of being out in nature and wrote about it.
John Muri is quoted as saying, “I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.”
For those who discover its joys, they can feel nature’s embrace. As John Muir reflected on his time outside, many of us feel the same. But of course, there is a caveat. If you drop into its (the forest’s) glory and let yourself be nurtured by nature, you will reap the benefits quite easily, but then there are those who go into the forest and fight its soothing balm. They want to manipulate its energy. It takes nature much longer to calm a person with an agenda. There will always be those who really don’t want to ‘sink’ into the energy of nature but, if one stays out long enough, they too will fall under its spell.
As a writing coach, a writer, editor and online writing instructor, for me, nature is the salve that heals. Nature allows me to breathe and to settle in. In this space good writing and coaching take hold and it is in this space of calmness where I meet my clients.
We have all chosen a path of expression that is so much harder than others. Robert Olen Butler wrote in his book, From Where You Dream, “Every other art form is irreducibly sensual. Dancers move, composers work with sound, painters with color; even abstract art isn’t abstract at all – it’s color and form.” But not words. For us, life is different. We’ve chosen words.
Remember the paper dolls of our childhood, or maybe you remember younger siblings with their paper dolls out. If we asked them about the doll, they would tell us all about how they named her, what she does, where she is going, who her friends are, and it would go on and on. Their imagination filled the doll with life.
When we write, and build characters and story, our words can easily fall flat, no matter how hard we try. They are waiting to be infused with emotion and feeling. That is our job as writers.
By opening our Emotional Centers we can infuse our words with emotion, Without emotion, we have no feeling, and without feeling our characters are as flat as the paper dolls.
You have happened upon this blog, and I thank you for stopping by. I just wanted to take a moment to introduce you to my philosophy and yes, it is based in nature. Each writing, and I promise you there will be many will be about writing, and how to bring JOY back to your writing.
I love my work and I love words, and I love life. I hope you will join me as we explore into the depths of good writing.
Stay well, Susan
The post I Believe In… appeared first on Susan Nunn Publishing.
January 3, 2019
Let’s Focus on FOCUS
The Cougar, known as the Mountain Lion to many of us, has inspired me to write this blog. Yes, I’ve known the Cougar throughout my life, and had a few encounters. She is one wonderful teacher. She knows all about FOCUS and AWARENESS, she has mastered PATIENCE, she sometimes struggles with CHANGE, but soon adjusts never losing her sense of GRACE, and she is the ultimate when it comes to living in the NOW – the PRESENT.
Focus! How many times has someone told you to Focus? In school, parents, professors, writing coaches, and the list could go on forever. I’ve heard it most of my life, and now it is easier to understand the importance of it all. By addressing this, I am hoping it will help many of you who are as tired as I was of having projects in different stages of completion scattered throughout my office, my life, and never knowing where to go or what to do next.
Many writers and creative people struggle with FOCUS, our minds whirling in an unending dance of creating. To sit, with our ‘butt in the chair in front of the computer’ for hours and days at a time overwhelms that sense of creating. Focus is something most of us really have to work at. Watching football this past holiday season with my Dad, has also been an interesting study of FOCUS. It isn’t what plagues just writers, it plagues the whole of society. No one is immune to this. Watching receivers poised to catch a ball, then losing their focus and dropping the ball.
First, I realize that none of us can just work on one project from start to finish in this day and age. There is a lot to do, a lot going on and we have to do it all. The trick is that when you do sit down to work on something, being able to FOCUS for the time you can give that specific project is huge!
Let’s take a glance at what has caused us to lose FOCUS first.
I have always believed the idea of ‘multi-tasking’ has played a huge role in my inability to stick with anything very long. For years, I touted my prowess in ‘multi-tasking’ – employers loved this and every job description asked for someone with this capability. The bosses I had through the years took this to the extreme. Folders and files open, flipping from one to the next at a moment’s notice, and scattered from hell to breakfast! Just too much going on. Now I credit their version of ‘multi-tasking’ as the reason I am afflicted with this.
That, and Social Media, Texting, and the ‘Brain Games.’ I really fell for these games – causing me to focus intently for 1 or 2 minutes. It wasn’t long before I realized I couldn’t FOCUS on anything after the first couple of minutes. I quit the games and got really serious about expanding my ‘length of focus’ – I have found a way that works for me. Not that I have discovered it myself. I am sure others before me have probably come up with something similar, but it works and it allows me to FOCUS on each individual project and see it to completion. Here’s what I did.
I have a picture of the Cougar on my desk to remind me of her powers, which I take as my lessons in this process.I started back meditating. Yes, it took me some time before I could sit for a whole 20 minutes. That was a test of my wills for sure. Now I meditate not only in the morning, but before I tackle an editing project, it gives me such depth and focus.I make a list and lay it on my desk of each project that needs work. Yes, you heard me right. I’m still doing multi-tasking but focusing on the process. These lists are a lifesaver for me as I have this writing website where I offer classes (which I am updating and activating this month.) I edit manuscripts for others and if they are self publishing, I help them through that stage, and I have my own writing projects. Then I have www.ThunderMountainTea.com which is a retail format. I blend my own teas, hand-draw and water color my own labels, each individually, and ship. I also take care of my soon-to-be 92 year old father and my two canines.Let’s give the List one more ‘shout-out’ here. Very early each morning over a cup of tea and following my morning meditation, I sit and look at my list from the day before. My lists look like an outline. I put the projects onto the list in order of deadlines. So the first Line of the list may say: So and So’s Manuscript or that of the working title and the author’s name with final date due. Then indented under it, will read, (a) First Read Through with edits and that due date; (b) Send So and So an Email with all edits suggested and due date; (c) and then it continues on. I can then cross through each item I have completed and I am not looking at an entire manuscript and becoming overwhelmed, which has a tendency to dampen my FOCUS. (There is one caveat to all of this, and that is the other writer. Sometimes their responses are not as forthcoming as I would like, but I have to adjust – another lesson from the Cougar.) I find by breaking things down like this, it is easier for me to FOCUS and as we get towards the end of the project, I then put everything else on hold and finish it. As with my own writing, I may have several going at once, but the minute I feel one of them really taking hold, then I put the others aside and FOCUS entirely on this one project to get it completed.Since my list is a Word Document, which I print out, it is easy to go in and remove finished projects and add new ones. Then, reprint and add to the binder. I am big on binders. I need to have everything I need at my fingertips. I don’t enjoy reading a large amount of text on the computer. Prefer to hold the printed copy, and do my reading. When I don’t know how to do something, I remember the Cougar and her Patience, and I just work through it and it always comes together, whereas before I would get up and just walk away out of frustration.If I am interrupted or spending time with Dad, I then go back and sit in silence for a few minutes to regain my FOCUS.Now, the biggie. Because I no longer have to keep saying “I’m just too busy” – Because I have learned to FOCUS and get things done, I am now learning how to relax. That has never been part of my day. There’s nothing like knowing that I am up to date and not stressed over anything. It works beautifully.
Here’s to FOCUS and to all of you, Wishing you Peace – Truth – Wonder in 2019!
February 22, 2018
Journey of Discovery – Finding Peace Through Tea
I, like so many, have been all caught up in the chaos and ugliness that seems to have permeated our country, and maybe even the world, but I have had enough. I believe the sun is out there, maybe it is behind some thick, dark clouds right now, but they will dissipate soon and the light will fall on all of this. And, when it does, we will have changed. We will be more aware of how easily things can go awry. We will know how fragile our democracy really is, and the work that is required to keep it healthy and safe.
So, while we are waiting for the sun to come back out, I’ve asked myself what am I doing to make the world a more peaceful and safer place? I needed something bigger than myself. Before I could answer it, I had to search down deep and grab a hold of my passions, dust them off, and let their energies rise to the top, let them breathe again. I have several passions, but it seems they all weave together to make this human called me – me. I was lost there for awhile, just way too much being piled on. I was feeling the weight of responsibility for all of this. But, when I finally decided I had had enough and I better get busy, I discovered an inspiration that had been lying dormant for some time. While the powers that be are working to divide us, I am taking another path, the path to unite us. You see, I love tea! I love writing! and I love people! So the trick is to bring them all into one. I believe our power is in our neighborhoods and communities, and I wanted to do my part to strength them, and what better way than through tea.
I have writing classes online, and I spend a good deal of time editing manuscripts for others. I also have a tea company, ThunderMountainTea.com – and then there is the people aspect of all of this. This is where I came up with this new Initiative – Journey of Discovery – Finding Peace Through Tea. We can thank the chaos in our country for this, as the more I tried to deal with the chaos and dysfunction, the more I saw how divided we all were becoming. On January 1st, I started, one might call it a ‘soft-start,’ by sending out an extra bag of tea with every order of $30 or more. I am ‘gifting’ this bag of tea to the customer so they can in turn ‘gift’ it to another. It is my dream that people across the nation will be ‘gifting’ a bag of tea to someone who may be having a bad day, or maybe a neighbor of a different culture that you have never spoken to before. Maybe an elderly neighbor who always seems a bit out of sorts. Just to give them the tea, and to see one more smile. Tea is a universal commodity. Everyone loves tea, even those who think they don’t. So far, my customers have been loving this process. When I email them, explaining what I have packed into their shipment, they respond so favorably, already thinking of who they will ‘gift’ the tea to.
Packing the extra bag of tea in each order made me realize how many of my own neighbors I had never spoken to. I am trying to alleviate this issue. I try to give a bag of tea a week to one of my neighbors, and visit with them for a few minutes. In the near future, you will see a ‘go fund me’ page up, as I kick this process into high gear. I hope you will join in as we celebrate our neighborhoods, and build strong bonds among them. Wishing you peace, Susan
March 5, 2017
Taking the Leap!
I have one of my writing classes up and running, and have two more in the kiln, firing them so to speak – getting them ready for the world. Now I am talking to people about wholesaling my tea products in some of the stores, and also am making a presentation Monday night at the Farmers’ Market meeting to see if what I have to offer is something they want, and also to see if this is what I want. Talk about commitments, this would be a commitment. Here in Boise, it runs every Saturday from mid-April to mid-December.
The starting of a new business is not for the weak of heart or mind. It seems so easy just to roll along, with sales here and there, and not to struggle with any of it. Let it all come as it may. But, the time comes when we either have to jump over the crevice that is cut deep into the earth (our minds) and tell the world we are ready, or else just be happy with what little comes or let the business idea die. I’ve been told trying to bring two different businesses up at the same time is crazy. There are days I really believe it to be true. Literally crazy, but it is what it is, and now to see which one becomes most viable in the years to come.
Let’s talk about that crevice for a minute. We, as humans, can build up roadblocks (crevices) to stop us at every turn. It seems we like to stay in our comfort zones. Some of us expand those comfort zones, while others keep things really tight and close, and don’t look beyond for answers. I’m normally one of those that takes a leap about every other day, not giving the crevice that is growing in my mind a chance to take hold. Not saying that is always the right way, but it has mostly been my way.
So, why change now? I must say I have given all of this more thought than I normally do. Could it be that I am older and more mature now? Maybe – older for sure, the maturity is still a question to be mulled over.
But, the truth is, I have a vision and I want to make the right moves towards that vision. The next step seems to be the one I am taking. It’s kind of like climbing a mountain, and when the going gets steep, do we turn back and forget about how long we have wanted to do this, or do we move forward into the unknown?
Having this online tea shop and also online writing classes (www.csusannunn.com) doesn’t feed into my best attribute that I have to offer. You see, I am very much a people person. After years and years of working in hospitality, I’ve been told so many times that it’s my personality that brings out the best in all of those around me. I make people comfortable. My biggest issue with doing the online businesses has always been how can my personality come through in cyberspace? That’s hard.
I have the tea website up, www.ThunderMountainTea.com – but as with any site, it still needs work. Yes, it is beautiful, but is it me? Does it reflect my values and my desire? Does it show my personality? I don’t feel that it does. I think I have done much better with my writing site, in reflecting my personality.
You be the judge, as I am tired of judging myself. My vision about teas is and always has been, that tea should be enjoyed by the masses. It should not be burrowed down and steeped in traditional ways. Sure, those ways are fine and I love to explore them, but tea should be for all of us. Let us start our own traditions. It can be served in a mug with hot bread right out of the oven. We don’t need dainty tea cups and scones, although they are very nice, and I love the little tea sandwiches, but I also love it with homemade bread right out of the oven and a steaming bowl of soup.
I want the tea out there for all to enjoy, and I want us all to be able to start our own traditions. I want my readers and those consuming my teas to enjoy them in the early morning, or late at night by a fire out in the wilderness, or by the fireplace at home. A cup of tea in the morning as the snow drifts across the yard. Or, sipping and thinking, visualizing how your day will unfold. For me, as a writer, I don’t know what I would do without my tea. It seems to bring me to my center, it helps me to ‘calmly’ create, whether it be a new character in a novel, or a new class I am building.
The difference between tea and coffee is massive. Not just in the flavor, but in what it does – coffee gets me moving and I don’t stop, but it is more physical. Tea allows my mind to be quiet and let what I am ‘dreaming’ of come to life. A mental activity. Huge difference for me.
March 19, 2015
Discovering Passion
We don’t hang out in the shallows, we dive deep!” That’s what I say about the online classes I create. When I came up with this tagline, I had no idea how truly on target it would be. First of all, ‘creating’ is work, and it is one of the hardest jobs I’ve ever had, but also the most satisfying of all of them. In the process of writing one novel over a period of fifteen years and now the second one, which is moving along much faster, and creating and teaching online classes, I’ve learned a thing or two that I would like to share with you.
All of this ‘creating’ for others’ consumption is not only a lot of work, but it is the best teacher I have ever had. After a time of dreaming or manifesting a project, the real work, the ‘getting down in the trenches,’ so to speak and bringing it to life, comes into play. The process has been like a research project, but as I scoured books, and others’ research on different subjects, I found I was digging deeper into myself, finding out more about what made me tick at the rate I tick.
I used to be all over the place, and even up until these last couple of months I had entertained the idea of having a tea house, and a bookstore, and write novels and memoirs, and be a restaurant consultant (I figured that was the only way to get these restaurants to clean up their acts and give us ‘real’ food and loose leaf tea instead of those damn teabags,) and a teacher. I wanted to be and do all of these things, but I’ve already done so many different things. How much of me was left, I wondered.
Then, along came Feng Shui and the Nature of our Muse. While creating this online class, I started to notice how deep things were getting. I became my own student, learning more about myself as I went. I studied at the Western School of Feng Shui several years ago, but, like a photograph of a sunset, it reflects only what the photographer sees, the sensing – the feeling isn’t within the frame, and I had stashed that part of me away somewhere. Oh yes, I knew how Feng Shui worked, and had experienced its power when I arrived back home from the Feng Shui school and tried to put it all into being. It was then that I discovered how out of balance I was, and things began to change. So I got a glimpse then, and started to lose interest in my ‘job’ at the time, but where was I going? I had one foot in one world and one hanging back in the other. I then went off to care for my elderly parents. Immediately, instead of nurturing that side of ‘self’ – I got a full-time job and went to graduate school and earned my MFA, all while caring for mom and dad. I was busy, and I needed to be busy. That glimpse of a deeper self I experienced with my Feng Shui, I had now pushed to the back again.
But these past couple of months, as I settled into the quiet while creating this class, my life’s screen came before me. I watched as I bounced from one project to the next, one career to another, and I paid close attention to how I buried myself in the specific work of choice of the time. I flew around in a whirlwind, gathering momentum as I went. I watched as things and thoughts flew by me. I remembered how I just had to keep going, and when I felt as if I were to drop from the workload that I had laid upon myself, or felt bored because there wasn’t enough work to keep me moving, I would quit and move on to another more exciting place or position. There must be something else to all of this, I kept thinking.
Sitting in my silence, my life’s screen moved forward at a fast clip, but the story seemed to be the same. The jobs changed, but the spent energy on things that had no meaning kept pace. What am I missing? Thinking again of those options, all of which would keep me very busy, I realized I was running, running from my center, my passion. Had I ever really explored my passions? Sure, I would pull on some of my creativity to redecorate a lodge, or create new foods for the menu, but what lay deepest within me, that passion, I kept stuffed deep down. Was I afraid to explore something that I couldn’t really put my finger on?
Now, as I write this, knowing my passion for exploring ‘beneath the chaos and beneath the prejudices,’ whether it be in my teaching, on the Mexican border with the immigration issue, or on a Native American reservation, my purpose on this planet has been defined. I want to get beneath the chaos and explore the spirituality and the peaceful hearts of the people in this world. My passions can best be served through my writing and teaching, and it allows me to accept my work as my business, which is important. This is my job. I have to have a job. I feel relieved knowing it has been defined and I can quit this mad search.
Calling it a business creates new challenges, but facing these will be no different than any new business faces. Always my challenges will be how best to enlighten my readers as to the ‘realness’ behind the headlines, that which lies beneath the prejudices. To always be aware of my words, knowing they are there to help others see the light. It takes work, but when it’s my passion in life, I have noticed a new bounce in my step already.
It’s like holding an umbrella up in a driving rain. What parts can I hold ‘close to my center’ or ‘close to the vest’ and keep them healthy and strong, and dry? Sure, I could open up a bookstore and tea house combined, and have writing classes on property and do all these things, but it leaves me no time for what I have found at my core, the power within myself to write and teach. Knowing the type of person I am, I would be working and accommodating others at least 17 hours per day. If I tried to pull all these things in under my umbrella, those close to the edge would not get the care and attention they would need, and, it would undoubtedly be my writing.
Oprah, when asked in an interview if she ever got nervous about expanding out into different business ventures, said that she doesn’t get nervous because she stays in her own lane. In other words, all she creates is a part of her inner core. I used to use an analogy a lot about never stopping at a restaurant that advertises they have American, Mexican, Chinese, Japanese and Italian foods. Right there, the patron should know if someone is trying to be everything, they aren’t good at anything. It is all out of a box and deep fried. That’s not what I want to be known for, so I will stay in my lane, and move somewhere where they have a great tea house, a fabulous bookstore and lots of restaurants with great, vegetarian/vegan foods. Thanks to Feng Shui and the Nature of our Muse, I’m focused and working towards my passions. Are you?
Discovering Passion
“We don’t hang out in the shallows, we dive deep!” That’s what I say about the online classes I create. When I came up with this tagline, I had no idea how truly on target it would be. First of all, ‘creating’ is work, and it is one of the hardest jobs I’ve ever had, but also the most satisfying of all of them. In the process of writing one novel over a period of fifteen years and now the second one, which is moving along much faster, and creating and teaching online classes, I’ve learned a thing or two that I would like to share with you.
All of this ‘creating’ for others’ consumption is not only a lot of work, but it is the best teacher I have ever had. After a time of dreaming or manifesting a project, the real work, the ‘getting down in the trenches,’ so to speak and bringing it to life, comes into play. The process has been like a research project, but as I scoured books, and others’ research on different subjects, I found I was digging deeper into myself, finding out more about what made me tick at the rate I tick.
I used to be all over the place, and even up until these last couple of months I had entertained the idea of having a tea house, and a bookstore, and write novels and memoirs, and be a restaurant consultant (I figured that was the only way to get these restaurants to clean up their acts and give us ‘real’ food and loose leaf tea instead of those damn teabags,) and a teacher. I wanted to be and do all of these things, but I’ve already done so many different things. How much of me was left, I wondered.
Then, along came Feng Shui and the Nature of our Muse. While creating this online class, I started to notice how deep things were getting. I became my own student, learning more about myself as I went. I studied at the Western School of Feng Shui several years ago, but, like a photograph of a sunset, it reflects only what the photographer sees, the sensing – the feeling isn’t within the frame, and I had stashed that part of me away somewhere. Oh yes, I knew how Feng Shui worked, and had experienced its power when I arrived back home from the Feng Shui school and tried to put it all into being. It was then that I discovered how out of balance I was, and things began to change. So I got a glimpse then, and started to lose interest in my ‘job’ at the time, but where was I going? I had one foot in one world and one hanging back in the other. I then went off to care for my elderly parents. Immediately, instead of nurturing that side of ‘self’ – I got a full-time job and went to graduate school and earned my MFA, all while caring for mom and dad. I was busy, and I needed to be busy. That glimpse of a deeper self I experienced with my Feng Shui, I had now pushed to the back again.
But these past couple of months, as I settled into the quiet while creating this class, my life’s screen came before me. I watched as I bounced from one project to the next, one career to another, and I paid close attention to how I buried myself in the specific work of choice of the time. I flew around in a whirlwind, gathering momentum as I went. I watched as things and thoughts flew by me. I remembered how I just had to keep going, and when I felt as if I were to drop from the workload that I had laid upon myself, or felt bored because there wasn’t enough work to keep me moving, I would quit and move on to another more exciting place or position. There must be something else to all of this, I kept thinking.
Sitting in my silence, my life’s screen moved forward at a fast clip, but the story seemed to be the same. The jobs changed, but the spent energy on things that had no meaning kept pace. What am I missing? Thinking again of those options, all of which would keep me very busy, I realized I was running, running from my center, my passion. Had I ever really explored my passions? Sure, I would pull on some of my creativity to redecorate a lodge, or create new foods for the menu, but what lay deepest within me, that passion, I kept stuffed deep down. Was I afraid to explore something that I couldn’t really put my finger on?
Now, as I write this, knowing my passion for exploring ‘beneath the chaos and beneath the prejudices,’ whether it be in my teaching, on the Mexican border with the immigration issue, or on a Native American reservation, my purpose on this planet has been defined. I want to get beneath the chaos and explore the spirituality and the peaceful hearts of the people in this world. My passions can best be served through my writing and teaching, and it allows me to accept my work as my business, which is important. This is my job. I have to have a job. I feel relieved knowing it has been defined and I can quit this mad search.
Calling it a business creates new challenges, but facing these will be no different than any new business faces. Always my challenges will be how best to enlighten my readers as to the ‘realness’ behind the headlines, that which lies beneath the prejudices. To always be aware of my words, knowing they are there to help others see the light. It takes work, but when it’s my passion in life, I have noticed a new bounce in my step already.
It’s like holding an umbrella up in a driving rain. What parts can I hold ‘close to my center’ or ‘close to the vest’ and keep them healthy and strong, and dry? Sure, I could open up a bookstore and tea house combined, and have writing classes on property and do all these things, but it leaves me no time for what I have found at my core, the power within myself to write and teach. Knowing the type of person I am, I would be working and accommodating others at least 17 hours per day. If I tried to pull all these things in under my umbrella, those close to the edge would not get the care and attention they would need, and, it would undoubtedly be my writing.
Oprah, when asked in an interview if she ever got nervous about expanding out into different business ventures, said that she doesn’t get nervous because she stays in her own lane. In other words, all she creates is a part of her inner core. I used to use an analogy a lot about never stopping at a restaurant that advertises they have American, Mexican, Chinese, Japanese and Italian foods. Right there, the patron should know if someone is trying to be everything, they aren’t good at anything. It is all out of a box and deep fried. That’s not what I want to be known for, so I will stay in my lane, and move somewhere where they have a great tea house, a fabulous bookstore and lots of restaurants with great, vegetarian/vegan foods. Thanks to Feng Shui and the Nature of our Muse, I’m focused and working towards my passions. Are you?
January 1, 2015
A New Year’s Wish for our Country and our World
Video Blog – My Wish for our New Year!
A New Year’s Wish for our Country and our World
Check out the video: http://youtu.be/uItPPe7sTHs
I was sitting outside the other morning. It was the Solstice, that day when dark lingers near the edge of daylight just a touch longer. I watched the light as it nudged up against the darkness, urging it to move over and make room for the day. A bank of low lying clouds clung just above the horizon off to the east, and were illuminated with the most brilliant pink, a color that even a painter would lust for, all of it giving promise of a glorious morning. As the daylight spread through the trees, their bare branches naked in the cold morning light, the clouds softened to a delicate peach with a hint of gold glistening on their edges. Promise – that is what I felt, promise for a more peaceful country and world, and gratitude for all we have.
I thought of the earth and the sky that morning, and of our cosmic energy, that of the sun and the rain that nourish us, how just gazing into the heavens at night with the light of the moon bathing our skin and the stars sprinkling their magic across the sky, how it brings us to a deeper understanding of ourselves. I say ‘us’ meaning all on this planet, humans and animals, plants and trees, waterways and air. We all are one on this earth. Mother Earth, with all her gifts, doesn’t see color, nor hatred, nor ‘other.’
So, why do we? This seems to be a question I’ve pondered of late. Back in 1954, long before most of you were born, when I was in the 3rd or 4th grade, President Eisenhower convinced Congress to change our Pledge of Allegiance to include ‘under God.’ We all stammered and stuttered until we had it memorized again, to include God in this contract we were making with our country. So now, and ever since 1954, we have called ourselves one nation ‘under God,’ indivisible with liberty and justice for all. I see some issues with this phrase, and I wonder if we just say it, so we can mechanically move forward, pretending to be what we aren’t.
First of all, Congress passed this change in our law, acknowledging God. They didn’t specify any one God or the other, just God, assuming there to be one God. And we, as young impressionable children, embraced the concept, and as we grew into adulthood, we each searched for and found our own paths to God, some within ourselves, others outside themselves, but we never doubted that each path would unlock that door to this mystery. Embracing our own paths, we still recognize others’ paths. We have a country filled with churches of all sorts, and others who have chosen more non-traditional ways to worship. But if we have truly embraced our diversity, where did this hatred or maybe we should call it “fear of others and/or their beliefs” become so apparent? Is this the nation we proclaim to be?
Our country used to be so large, and isolated from the other parts of the world, but now it is so small and just a part of our world. When we should be reaching out to each other, holding hands and linking ourselves to Bali, Jakarta, London, Croatia, Leningrad, Berlin, Mexico City, Cairo, Riyadh, and every other place on this planet, why have we instead clung to “fear of others” and let it wreck such havoc in our world?
How can we possibly embrace the world, but not embrace their people and their differences? But then again, we haven’t even embraced many of our own people, with our differences, whether it be the path we’ve chosen to God, or our color. The wedge of fear has been hammered down between us.
Our forefathers wanted ‘one nation, indivisible,’ and then our more recent forefathers wanted “one nation under God, indivisible….” – what happened? How did we get so divided? I think back to the Native Americans who seem to be first to be labeled as ‘other.’ What were we thinking when we put these people, our brothers and sisters, onto reservations? Had we incorporated them into our society, we would all be one now. Sure it would have been hard, but nothing worthwhile is easy, but it would have been done. They consider themselves ‘other’ now because we made them that way. Then came the Chinese and the Irish, but although we treated them terrible, we finally embraced them into our society. Look what we did to the Japanese before welcoming them as a part of us, and the African Americans – we kept them from our schools, our lunch counters and tried to keep them at the back of the bus, and then 50 years ago, we said this wasn’t right. But our past is now front and center again. And this wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t speak to our treatment of our Hispanic neighbors. The way we treat our Hispanic immigrants is disgraceful. Compassion has flown out the window. What is all this ‘other’ stuff? What are we afraid of? Could it be that we still look at every nationality other than white as “others?” Aren’t we all Americans? The truth is we who are white are a blend of others, and no different than any of the others.
A few years ago, while managing a guest ranch in the Chiricahuas, I had a large family group from Connecticut in for Easter. I had had all their children out early to gather eggs for breakfast, and when they saw all the different colored eggs the hens had laid, some pale blue, some pale yellows, and greens, and light pinks, they all started arguing over which color they wanted. So I sat them all around the center island in the kitchen and put a large bowl out on the counter, and as I started to break the eggs and drop them into the bowl, their little mouths just dropped. I explained that although all the shells were different colors, the eggs themselves were all the same. I took it a step further, explaining that this was just like people, we all have different skin tones, but inside we are all the same. Children are not born with these prejudices, they are learned.
Right now our country seems in turmoil, injustices raining down, some true, some not, but because it has been the status quo for so long, the ‘others’ aren’t believing even on the rare occasions when the circumstances are legitimate, if we can ever call shooting another legitimate. We have started a conversation now. Conversation is good, we need to open our hearts to discover we are all brothers and sisters, and if our brothers are having issues, they are our issues, and we all need to join in to make this our ‘one nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.’ After all, we are Americans, first and foremost.
2015 is going to be a stellar year. Yes, the stock market will keep climbing, and President Obama, who no longer feels the need to placate our negative Congress, has great things planned for our nation. We are moving forward, and with each step we take, as painful as it may seem for some, will be a step towards a more promising future for America, and this world. It is my hope for the New Year that we all break free of our chains, accept our differences and know that these differences are what make America so great. That the word ‘other’ falls from our conversation and our hearts, as we embrace our diversity. That we join together as one, not Black, White, Hispanic, Asian, Middle Eastern, or any other, but American and become a society that holds such high moral standards, treating all people with compassion and equality, that the rest of the world will strive for the same standards. If not us, then who?
May your New Year be filled with peace, happiness and prosperity, and most of all, with promise of embracing each other and working towards a common good for all! That is my wish for our country, this is my wish for you. Happy New Year!
December 11, 2014
Guest Blog Post by Camille Faye, author of Voodoo Butterfly
Establishing a Writing Space that Fits You.
Since I’ve made the move to being a professional writer, I’ve lived in two houses. Each one had a basement office area where I worked if I needed to get away from the hustle and bustle of family life with young kiddos. For the most part, though, I like to work amidst people so I’ve also set up shop on the dining room table or put a desk in my family’s living area. If I need to get out, I go to the local library or to a coffee shop where I can eavesdrop on others’ conversations to get material for my writing or just fade away into the background of the busyness. For me, I need flexibility in my writing space, but these are the things that I have consciously created in my home work space.
The Desk
My writing desk resides in a corner of my living room. It is dark wood and L-shaped with a pull-out keyboard tray that is at the right height, ergonomically, for me. I have a big leather chair that moves up or down so I can sit with good posture. The desk is full of my supplies: writing instruments, computer accessories and software, pads of paper, printer ink and paper, stationery.
There’s a file cabinet built into one of the drawers, so I can keep all the papers I need handy and organized. For the most part, I keep my desktop clean. There may be a couple of piles, but I can work best when I have order on my desk instead of stacks of unfinished work and pages strewn across my workspace.
The Walls and Decor
The walls are a warm, comfortable sand color. Fittingly enough the paint color is called Nomadic Desert, which suits me because I am very much the traveler. Hanging above my desk are three wooden masks that I bought from Malaysia which are used to “scare demons away” or so the saleswoman said.
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The View
Currently, I can swivel around in my desk chair and see out the window to our backyard. There’s a River Birch with a flower bed at its base, so it gives me some scenery if my mind needs to wander.
Eventually I’d love to live someplace overlooking a beautiful landscape (a body of water or a mountain would be nice.) When I live in an environment like that, I’d love to have a bay window or picture window where I could gaze out, looking over the beauty and serenity of the natural world. I could warm myself in the sun and open the windows to the hush of tree limbs in the wind or the songs of birds and cicadas.
The Energy
Since my desk is in the living room, I choose to work when the kids are at school or at night when they are sleeping. If I really need to work while my kids are awake, hubby takes on babysitting duties and I move to my desk in the basement. I play meditation music or rock music depending on what I’m writing. I choose to ignore phone calls and text messages when I’m in the zone, so that I can concentrate.
Overall, my office space works for me. It is functional, clean, comfortable, and represents who I am. Here are a few questions to consider when establishing your own writing space:
Is your desk space free of clutter?
If not, consider buying organizational bins or a new desk to suit your needs. If you find yourself accumulating paperwork, establish a “clean up” session of 5-10 minutes into your writing routine.
Are you ergonomically comfortable when working at your desk?
You can buy a desk, chair, keyboard, and other accessories to make your space ergonomically correct for you. Take a quick break every 20-30 minutes so your muscles don’t get stiff. You can also do certain stretches during your writing time to alleviate pain and tightness in your neck, shoulders, and back.
Do you feel inspired by your writing space?
Ultimately, your space should be your own. Paint a wall, decorate with items that represent who you are, rearrange your space so it feels better energetically. Susan teaches about Feng Shui for your writing space if you would like more information about that, too.
About Voodoo Butterfly
When twenty-five-year old Sophie Nouveau inherits her grandmother’s voodoo shop she knows nothing about voodoo. Or her family’s history of Mind Changers who have the power to change evil people good. To complicate matters, someone doesn’t want Sophie in New Orleans and sends a series of death threats to scare her away from her new enchanted life.
Tipped off by her grandmother’s ghost, Sophie realizes her mind changing spell’s been missing one magic ingredient: true love. If Sophie cannot experience transformative love, she cannot make her spell work, and she will be powerless to fight back when confronted by the one who wants her dead.
About the Author
Camille Faye lives in Missouri, loves on her family, and writes during the baby’s nap time. She grew up in a haunted house, which sparked her fascination with the paranormal. Before becoming a writer, she reported for an NBC affiliate and taught writing at universities in Missouri and Illinois. She found the muse for her debut novel, Voodoo Butterfly, during a family trip to New Orleans where she dreamt of a woman who had the power to change evil people good. The Northwest Houston RWA named her novel, Voodoo Butterfly, a 2013 Lone Star Contest finalist. Camille’s stories are inspired by her travels to 27 countries and counting! Follow her journey at www.camillefaye.com.
Voodoo Butterfly is available on Amazon.com for $2.99. It’s free for some people, so check your Amazon membership perks (Kindle Unlimited and Amazon Prime.) Voodoo Butterfly will be on sale for .99 on Amazon from December 12-18, 2014.
Thank you Camille! Happy holidays everyone!
