Samhain & NaNo & Love

We are in the bosom of autumn! I think this is one of the most beautiful season changes I’ve seen! The leaves and their fiery bursts of colour are stunning to witness! The air smells like change and earth and leaf love. I am definitely sweater-ready, cozy-motivated and sipping more and more cups of hot tea and coffee. The full moon on the 30th was breathtaking! And it didn’t rain on Halloween! I don’t remember the last time it wasn’t raining on Halloween! I’m in my 46th year of life, and I think I’m finally getting the hang of these seasonal changes, anticipating them, learning from them, and accepting them. A friend said she’d love to live in a place that was like summer all year round…I’d love to visit her in mid-January when the winter feels extra difficult! But, I really love the seasonal changes we witness and experience here in Windsor. I find that my body follows these distinct seasonal changes too. My witchy, pagan parts deepen with each shift and very often my mind, heart and soul are held in the wisdom of the moon cycles, weather cycles, and light/darkness cycles. It feels much easier to go with the flow of the seasonal shifts rather than trying to ignore, deny or loathe them.

“Everything you need to make your success concrete is now at your disposal.”

Oracle card #48 – Poised

I’m not alone in feeling that this time of year is kinda perfect for diving into projects at any stage (dreaming, beginning, middle or ending). It’s National Novel Writing Month (November) and literally hundreds of thousands of people write thousands of words for their projects. Book festivals are happening all over. Book launches, theatre shows, night markets, crafting markets – our expressions of creative work and the sharing of it seems to fatten up in November. I want to do more creative work, but I also want to slack and snuggle and watch movies and read books…and by the miracle that is this gorgeous season, I figure out a way to do both!

“You much put in the time, exchange your experience and skills, and commit heart and soul to what you’re choosing to pursue. You can do it!”

Oracle card #27 – Exchanging Gifts

I want to put in the time to write the first draft of my novel. I want to put in the time for writerly gatherings and family film nights, for long walks in Ojibway and soup-sipping lazy lunches with friends…and I can do it with gentle discipline and time management.

National Novel Writing Month

I haven’t written for NaNo yet today – that’s coming right up after this blog post! I am committed to writing at least 50,000 words this month. I am managing my time but committing to writing during 9am and 3pm Monday to Friday, and in the evenings and on weekends if I’m inspired or compelled to do so. When I was on Pelee Island in July, I proved to myself that I can achieve the romantic, idyllic, dream-like life of a writer that is writing all day. I know it was for a short period of time and that being alone with my only myself to feed, clean, and take care of, changed the dynamics of time, space, energy and emotion…and even courage. But the fact that I did it – including writing 12,000 words in one sitting on a Thursday – remains a living entity inside me that continues to give me the stamina and hope to write.

Writing exerts a different kind of energy than other thing I do in my life. Sometimes it feels like a hard work-out, leaving my muscles and bones tense and tired. Other times, it’s like a slow jog, a bit sweaty, and lethargic, but still very pleasuring. Sometimes I can barely keep my fingers moving fast enough to match the words that are pouring out of me, in a very real, channelling-type expression that I’ve heard other writers speak about…

I started working on this project when I began my sabbatical back in January 2023. But the deep truth is that I think this project has been a part of me for much longer, I just needed to live through certain experiences in order for the telling of this story to be able to told in a way that feels divinely, purely inspired. Up until August 2023, the story was a memoir…and the voice of the story continues to be written in the pages of my journal, and in oral exchanges with people in my life who I connect with on a soul level.

I’d been feeling a kind of…askew-ness to the story. Like if I turned my head at a different angle, or looked behind me or beside me or just…paused at a certain point, that I’d catch the…parallel/side pocket/in-between story that was waiting to be seen…and let in. I could feel that there was another way to tell this story, but that it or I or ‘we’ – the idea and I – weren’t aligning yet to connect. It was kind of frustrating because I could really feel the opening to this…expansion of story growing in strength. I was feeling weighed down by the story I’d been telling myself, writing out of me all year.

And then in September…in a flurry of finger-typing – HAZZAH – the new story stepped into me. The characters – at that time, there were only a couple, including the main character – revealed themselves like they were waiting outside my door and I finally yelled “Come in already!” And their names came to me like we’d known each other for years. Names are always difficult for me…especially last names, but this time, even the last names flowed in. And I was told by the characters that I needed to tell their story in a way I’d never told a story before. That I should use a template, a storytelling structure because they knew their story, but they’d need a little guidance to get it out.

I’ve been existing with a crowd of characters in my mind since that amazing day. It’s quite an experience because my mind was already filled with Parts jostling to tell me what to do, think, feel…but most of them have quieted or gone on vacation or pulled up a chair to witness what’s happening.

These characters know my story. They know my memoir tellings and they are making sure I keep true to my truths which is very important to me. Writing is never wasted, never regrettable, never not useful. It has been, and always will be, one of the most important ways I live my Purpose, which is to know love, give love, receive love – always learn about and spread love.

I realized that last year I lost Hope. Or, I shut her out. Or I didn’t know how to include her in my story. That I was creatively censored in a way I’d never experienced before, caused a closure into Hope’s flow through me, into me. I didn’t realize that Hope was gone until I started writing poetry again, without the censor(s) invading my mind. I began to make the connections between creativity and Source (Love), and creativity and Hope (Love’s companion). I realized that they need each other, that Hope is the energy that opens the heart and mind and spirit to welcoming new ideas, new light…that Hope brings the Changes needed to learn, to grow, to forgive, and to release the censor(s), not to send it away, to negate it, to ignore it, but to recognize its purpose and to choose if that purpose is love-filled or not. To choose what truth(s) the censor is connected to or not. And how to create with it as a companion, a Part, like all the others, and still tell my story.

Writing is a tremendous act of freedom, of courage, of devotion, of humanity, of spirit, of Love. Isn’t that exciting? Exhilarating? Extraordinary?!

I’d really love to share this writing experience with you this month! Here are some opportunities for us to write together.

WRITERS’ ASSEMBLY SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2023

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I had a fantastic time at the Book Lover’s Luncheon, organized and beautifully executed at the Windsor Club by the May Court Club of Windsor. It was my first reading in a year! I was considerably nervous…and I wrote three new poems to share with the more-than-100 people gathered. I got to share the podium with Kim Conklin and Heidi LM Jacobs – amazing! It was wonderfully invigorating and fulfilling…and it helped my Hope fatten right up, and my Purpose zing.

Here’s another upcoming literary luncheon I’ll be going to! Perhaps you’ll join me?

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AND THIS HAPPENED!

Jett wrote, directed and editing his first 48-hour flick fest film in October, and last night was the screening and award ceremony. Jett worked with a stellar team of actors/friends/family to bring his story ‘Quantum Chocolate’ to life. There were 21 films that were screened to a packed house at the Capitol theatre downtown.

Jett won two major awards! Best Directorial Debut and Best Use of Prop. Um, yes, I cried! And cheered and clapped too! It was so exciting to witness our Goose’s art be shared and celebrated at WIFF. We are so grateful to be a part of Goose’s creative passions! (I hope he continues to cast me in his movies! Ha!) Thank you loads to all those who help Jett in his creative endeavours! And thanks to Vincent Giorgi, the late, great Mark Boscariol, and the spectacular team at WIFF for creating opportunities like the 48-hour flick fest for filmmakers! #proudmama

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Outside of managing my fitness and sugar-intake, remembering to take my medicine, reading and writing, joyous exchanges with family and friends…the thing I’m paying attention to is my worrying. Thank you, Tracey, for helping me see a different perspective on worry…on fears and death and the eternal soul.

I’m reading this on her recommendation:

“It is your life story which brought you here. It is your personal experience to which this material has relevance…”

pg. 2

Thanks, friends! Love on!