Project 365 ~ Week 18

This week we added a beautiful white lilac to our garden. I fell in love with it instantaneously and Justin came and helped me pick it up from the garden centre.

And speaking of gardening, that love comes from my Mom. We spent Mother's Day planting her garden.

I went to Nia class on Monday. It's such a great way to start the week.

I am consciously and with purpose inviting beauty into our home.

On Wednesday night, our focus in Nia was our hands. I extended that focus here, inviting your hands to dance.

I had the pleasure of going to a friend's for dinner. Besides an exquisite meal and awesome company, one of the treats was connecting with her cats. I miss Bascha so much. Each time a cat comes for a cuddle, I feel like they're healing a bit of my loss.

Friday night with Shannon - the best way to end off the week!

Invitation to Dance

On Wednesday nights I teach Nia. Today I was wishing you could all come out and join in the dance and then I had an idea. I could share our class focus and perhaps you could find your own way to join in.

Tonight our focus is our hands. Every day our hands do such great work for us - they type, they write, they greet others with a wave or a handshake. Maybe, like me, you've experienced what it's like to overwork your hands and they need some love and healing. In Nia we believe that pleasurable movement invites healing into our bodies.

When was the last time you invited your hands to dance? You could do it right now. Your movements can be as larger or small as feels good to you. Maybe you just tap your fingers. Maybe you conduct an orchestra. You don't even need music though that's certainly a treat. Just take your hands away from the keyboard and give them a moment to discover how they like to move. Do they express your flow? your agitation? your curiosity? your sense of play?

What do you notice when your hands dance?

My Mother's Garden

Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there.

This morning we had the treat of celebrating with Mom over brunch and then heading to her place and helping to plant her garden.

My love of the garden comes from my mom.

I still remember being a kid and trying to pronounce forsythia. Today it was a treat to bring her an artemisa, which we always had in our garden, and see her plant it, pronouncing, "Artemisia always goes in a corner." I remember living at home and gently touch the soft, soft artemisia with the soles of my bare feet - bliss. Now I have one in my garden too.

It was a joy to see Mom so happy today.

Project 365 ~ Week 13

Shopping for new clothes - I feel so like me in this outfit.

Sunday afternoon with my Expressive Arts friends.

This is what I created with clay while we talked and imagined.

Meeting with a potential new client.

Fully enjoying the day.

The garden centre is open - yippeee!!

Justin snuck a picture of me in my studio.

Meeting my dad for coffee, this painting completely caught my eye.

Friday nights with Shannon!

Project 365 is my attempt to capture a year in my life through a photograph a day. On Saturday's I'll post the week's pics. At the end of the year, I'll create a video of all these precious moments. Feel free to participate at any time. Yours can be Project 347 or Project 292. It's up to you.

Inspiration... from Shaun McNiff

"Creativity exists everywhere as potential energy, always inviting us to participate. Yet most people stand on the sidelines while only a few participate. The more we watch, the further removed we become. Contemplation without action breeds paralysis. Ours is a culture of onlookers, spectators who are keenly observant and full of critique but removed from action. We think in terms of the 'creative few' as contrasted to the rest of us... It is safer to blend in. Creative types are all too often seen as living on the fringes of life and this perception threatens our universal desire to be socially accepted and included.

A change in the general perception of creativity may be the most viable way of expanding participation. Rather than focusing on what you do not have or what you are not capable of doing, concentrate on what is uniquely yours. Find the creative vitality and opportunities in the community were you live, the school you attend or the place that you work and do something about it. Creativity is everywhere, ready to be engaged."

Shaun McNiff

Creating with Others

Recent Ahas

So much has been going on lately. My business is growing, and so am I. Every day it becomes clearer how much building a business is a creative act. Perhaps you start with an inspiration or something that grabs your attention and you follow the energy. Before you know it, you're building something, spontaneously responding to challenges and insights. Maybe you start developing a vision, a dream of where you'd like this venture to take you. Before you know it, the work is both an expression of you and takes on a life of its own.

Last night I attended a monthly meeting of a group I'm in that supports each other in moving forward towards our dreams. Generally we set our vision for the month and also for each week and our accountability helps move us forward. I really encourage you to get together a group of friends or colleagues and create a structure that supports you all. If you want more information about how we've structured our group, just email me and I'd be happy to share. If you'd like a more formal structure or to connect to other creative bloggers, consider signing up for my June Circe's Circle. There was huge growth, learning and connection for the last group, and I know there would be for you too.

One of the great things about a group like this is that it creates a space and time to acknowledg all that you've achieved and also to lock in the learning and growing that you've done. This month has been full of ahas for me, so I thought I would share them in case they would be helpful on your journey too.

Jamie's Recent Ahas

• As I've come to know that what I do has deep value for my right client, I do not take it personally at all when someone isn't interested. I simply know they aren't my right client.


• I so deeply love working with my right client that I don't have space in my practice for people that aren't a good fit. I hope they find the absolute right coach or Nia teacher or tarot reader for them and I make way for the people whom my skills are truly meant to serve.


• When I dress like my best me, it amps up my confidence and supports me in rocking it out.


• I love rocking it out.


• A lot of business goals like defining what you do or writing promotional material are much easier for me when they have a purpose as opposed to being an exercise. I recently updated my profiles on LinkedIn and BizNik and was suddenly motivated to write well about what I do.


• How you represent yourself and your company will evolve and take time to perfect. Unfortunately they don't grow as strong or as quickly in the privacy of your own office/basement/journal as they do when you put them out there.


• Sometimes you only have to have a general idea of what you want. The Universe can fill in the details (maybe even better than you could have on your own!)


• If you absolutely loved a particular craft fair, a particular client, a particular way something was presented, ask yourself what it is about it that you loved - and voila, you've learned something about what's important to you. Through this process I realized my ideal clients are smart, creative and stuck.


• You can tweak an opportunity to suit you.


• My new money mantra: As I invest my money in my life, even more money flows back to me.

Thinking about... achievement

As the year turned, I made vision cards to serve as touchstones for my goals for this year. Recently I've been inspired to create similar cards to express my values. When I was working on them, I had the most interesting experience. A certain value kept popping its head into the process, one that is not on my top 10 value list. It kept pulling at my sleeve and tapping on my shoulder. Just like my cat it would just step on whatever I was doing and insist on being seen.

So, yes, I have to acknowledge Value #11: Achievement.

One of my values is Creating/Building and I had thought it encompassed achievement, but it doesn't. What's probably more true is I thought I could hide Achievement in there where no one would notice and judge me, but I could still have it. It's very clear out there that it's not okay to want to achieve. (Suzie wrote about this powerfully in her reaction to A New Earth). It's seen as negative, ego-driven and selfish to want to achieve, and this seems particularly so if you're female.

The first person I mentioned this secret value to is a really supportive, kind person and she said, "Well, society does program us to want to achieve." I love that she said that for so many reasons. One it demonstrated how in my beautiful circle of independent-minded, creative-thinking people, achievement is thought of something that those other people do. You know, those conforming, materialistic, driven achievers. Those people who don't understand it's about process and the now and meaning, not money, recognition, fame and power. And also, she expressed a view that a desire for achievement is somehow inauthentic, something programmed in, something external.

So, here's the thing. I hearby fully claim my value of achievement. This isn't society or corporations or my dad or anyone else talking. This is me. I care if I do well. I care if I make a contribution, and it is recognized - by others and financially. I am committed to being top-notch at what I do. AND, I am deeply committed to process, to the way of seeing that is only possible when you let yourself be here, now. These two things are not mutually exclusive. There is room for both of these energies in your life - the yin and the yang, the God and the Goddess - if you want there to be.

What's your take on achievement?