The Mystery of Grace

I do not at all understand the mystery of grace - only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it founds us ~ Anne Lamott

I like this quote so much today, I'm going to leave it at that.  I hope your dream journey is providing you all the grace you deserve in life.

Burst Apart, Spring Forth

It is alone, truly alone, that one burst apart, springs forth ~ Maria Isabel Barreno

No matter how many "buddies" you find along your dream journey or how many other people have gone before you, your dream journey really is up to you.

I am the first one that will tell you to find a buddy to help you along your dream, but it is also important to understand that your dream is yours and your alone.  Only you can stick to the routines you develop.  Only you can create the timelines to make your goals work for you.  When it all comes down to it, only you can be responsible for your own dreams coming true.

What is task on your dream journey that you prefer to do alone?

What Might Never Have Been Seen

Make visible what, without you, might perhaps never have been seen ~ Robert Bresson

No matter what your dream journey, you can always make visible what may have been missed by others.  It's inevitable.  No matter how many people made the journey before you, yours will always be a unique story.

If you've had the weekend off or taken the weekend off, I hope you're enjoying it.  This has been the first four day weekend I've had off probably since March and I am so enjoying it.

What mark are you making within your dream journey tribe?

Happy Thanksgiving!

All we have is all we need.  All we need is the awareness of how blessed we really are ~ Sara Ban Breathnach

It's Thanksgiving Day in the U.S.  Happy Thanksgiving!  I hope this day brings you joy, however you celebrate, what ever you do.

I feel really blessed this year to have my writing on track where it needs to be, to have a job that absolutely enjoy.  I have a schedule that allows me the time in the morning to work on my writing when I am at my best and I have bosses that allow me the time off on Friday so I can enjoy a nice long weekend.

Whether it's Thanksgiving or not where you are, what are you thankful for this year?

A Calm White Page

[Writing is] being able to take something whole and fiercely alive that exists inside you in some unknowable combination of thought, feeling, physicality, and spirit, and to then store it like a genie in tense, tiny black symbols on a calm white page ~ Mary Gaitskill

Being a dreamer is also like taking your thoughts, feelings, physicality, and spirit and storing it in your work.

There are about six weeks left of the year.  For some, you've met your goals and you can glide through the holidays pretty easily.  For others, Thanksgiving is the time that the busy season begins through the end of the year.

Whatever the season brings for you, I hope you make the most of it.  If there is still time for you to meet your goals, I wish you the best of the luck.  I feel very fortunate and humble to have exceeded my goals for 2012.  I finished my first novel, A Place to Call Their Own.  After some editing and feedback I am ready to send it to an editor. 

But I exceeded even my own expectations by completing the first draft of a second novel, Disappear With Me.  I am ready to start my own round of self editing and then it should be ready for submissions or self publication next year as well. 

I haven't figured out my goals exactly for 2013, you'll have to keep in tune.  I am very happy with what I've accomplished this year.

Did your 2012 go as planned?

Whispers

I bet you thought I forgot about you today?  Not at all, I just had an announcement I wanted to make and reflect upon, but had to wait until today to write about it.

I was nominated and elected to my church's Board of Elders this morning at church.  I am honored and humbled to have been nominated in the first place, let alone elected to serve a term of three years on the church's governing board.

Earlier this week, I saw a slide show on Oprah's website that was a list of opportunities you should never turn down.  The list includes things such as a godchild's plea, garlic, an invitation to Sunday dinner.  When I was notified that my name was nominated by the committee at church, I had an overwhelming feeling that I needed to accept this nomination. 

This feeling is very much like my journey as a writer.  I feel very much that same:  that is a calling which I must answer.  Your dream journey should call to you just the same.  I believe Oprah calls it a whisper. 

What whisper have you  heard in your life lately?

Start From Scratch

No matter how long you've been at it, you always start from scratch ~ Jeffrey Eugenides

You always start from scratch.  Each time I get a new idea for another novel, I always start from scratch.  When I was in direct sales, we started from scratch on each new promotion. 

So this quote has two lessons.  The first lesson, is even if you're just starting and it feels like you are plowing new ground, remember, even people who have been doing what you're trying to accomplish start from scratch.  The second lesson I garnered from this quote is that even after you've accomplished a goal (i.e. writing one novel), you always start from scratch on the next step or the next repeat of your goal (i.e., writing a second novel).

After you reach a goal, do you feel like you always start from scratch? 

The Stories You Have to Tell

Don't forget, no one sees the world the way you do, so no one else can tell the stories you have to tell ~ Charles de Lint

No matter what your dream journey, it is all your own.  Only you will endure the obstacles your way, only you will accomplish your goal in your way and in your own time.  And no one else will be able to tell the stories that you will tell others.

Although this quote is meant specifically for writers, it really is for any dreamer on a journey.  In the end, no one else will be able to tell your stories like you do.

Have you started telling your story yet?

Dream While You're Awake

As a writer you ask yourself to dream while awake ~ Aimee Bender

As a dreamer, I think we dream when we're awake. Whenever I run across a new catalog, or see something for the house I'd like to get, I always bookmark or Pin it so I have it for future reference.  That's what I love about Pinterest, it's a big dream board (and recipe exchange!).

Do you have a dream board or file?  Whether it's an actual bulletin board above your desk or a file that you keep things in, it's important to keep those goals in front of you.  If I've been disappointed for frustrated, all I have to do is look at my dream boards (most of it is Pinterest)and that reminds me about the big picture.

Do you keep a dream board or file?  When do you access it?

A Dreamer's Soul

Every secret of a writer's soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind, is written large in his works ~ Virginia Woolfe

You could exchange the word "writer" with the word dream and this quote will still be applicable to thousands of dreamers out there working on their dream goals.  Instead of written you might say is seen large in his/her works.

Your actions and work really are a reflection of your soul and experience.  I had to dig deep down and remember that this week in light of recent feedback I received on my manuscript.  I'm going to check a couple of facts, add some imagery, and then it will be time to send the manuscript to an editor and start working on the self publishing route.

Is your dream journey a true reflection of your soul, experience, and mind?

The Ability of Dreamers

The ability of writers to imagine what is self, to familiarize the strange and mystify familiar, is the test of their power ~ Toni Morrison

It's the ability of dreamers to imagine what is self that is this test of their power.

Can you believe the end of the year is almost upon us?  For my friends participating in NaNoWriMo, they are busy at work this month.  I continue to support them with Facebook messages and Twitter replies.  I reached my goal for the year, which was to finish the first draft of A Place to Call Their Own.  That was a goal four years in the making.

I hope your 2012 has been everything you wanted it to be.  You still have seven weeks to make a dent in your goal, if not achieve it.

What goal are you finishing up in the next seven weeks?

Change the World into Words

True alchemists do not change lead into gold; they change the world into words ~ William H. Gaas

We are truly living in historic times.  On Tuesday night, President Obama was re-elected.  The state of Wisconsin not only didn't vote for their home-state candidate, but also elected the first openly gay senator.  Three states approved marriage equality laws, striking down a conservative belief that marriage equality in other states was the result of liberal bias in state legislatures and courts.

I remember reading history books and stories as a kid and wondering if I would ever experience the wonderful things that I was reading about:  the westward expansion, the rise of the millionaires during the Gilded Age, Prohibition, wars, sweeping social change.  It pleases me to report to you that I, indeed, feel like I am living during wonderful times as well.

I hope you feel the same way and I hope you are pursuing a career or other goal that attributes somehow to a legacy that most of us want to leave behind.  Then you, too, can leave behind a piece of yourself to be remembered about the historic times in which we are living.

The Middle of Difficulty

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity ~ Albert Einstein

So it's been another week of some disappointing rejection emails.  I know that it goes with the territory, but I wonder what kind of response I might get if I told everyone who I was querying that I would be publishing their responses on my blog or in a compilation of some sort?  No worries, I'm fine, I didn't even read the whole email because it was so unhelpful.

And then a Twitter follower suggest I read a book about self-publishing, and I'm hooked.  I've finally been pushed over the edge and I think I'm going to self-publish my first few books.  It will get my work out there quicker, I'll have more control, and make more money.  And like a fellow indie author told me not too long ago, the manuscript won't make me any money sitting in the slush pile.  I'd planned to do a bunch of my own marketing anyway, so why not reap a bigger commission per unit?

So even though I'm not devastated over the rejection email, just a bit let down, I've found a better path anyway.  The universe works in mysterious ways and on its own time. 

How has the universe worked mysteriously for you lately?

The Aim of Life

The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely, aware ~ Henry Miller

I hope 2012 is everything you've expected it to be.  If not, it's not too early to think about your goals for 2013.  If you start thinking about them now, you'll have yourself psyched up to start working on them come January 1 or 2 (depending on the nature of the goal).

I hope you're enjoying the weekend!  Have a great week!

Sunshine Award

I've been blessed with another award!  First I must link back with Sharon and then answer some questions and nominate ten more people/blogs.  Here goes:

Sharon Jones

1.  What is your favorite Christmas/Festive movie?

A Christmas Story holds some special memories from growing up and seeing that movie with my brothers.  I still watch it as much as I can during the holidays.  A close second is Christmas Vacation just because we have become Clark Griswold with our indoor decorations.

2.  What is your favorite flower?

My favorite flower is the zinnia.  I wish I could get them to grow better in the pots on my patio.

3.  What is your favorite non-alcoholic beverage?

Coke with a bit of limeade.

4.  What is your passion?

My passion is writing and helping people.

5.  What is your favorite time of year?

My favorite time of year is Christmas.  For us that starts on Nov 1 and last until Jan 6.

6.  What is your favorite time of day?

I guess my favorite time of day is when I work on writing, that is in the morning after I do my workout.

7.  What is your favorite physical activity?

Taking walks with my partner, Thomas.

8.  What is your favorite vacation?

Our favorite getaway spots is Eureka Springs, AR or Branson, MO.

And the nominees are....

Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Linda Jenkins

Christine Locke

SC Harrison

Jilly Andersen

Hemmie Martin

AV Barber

Jimin Han

David R. Slayton

Virgina McKevitt

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Preview of 2013

Imagination is everything.  It is the preview of life's coming attractions ~ Albert Einstein

I hope your 2012 is going well and you're finishing the year off strong.  It's not too early to start thinking about where you want to be at the end of 2013.  As Albert Einstein says, imagination is the preview of the future.

When I made my goals to quit smoking and to finish my bachelor's degree, I made both of those goals between Christmas and New Years and then it took four to five months to get going on both goals.  If you start thinking about your goals now, you'll be excited by January to start working on them. 

What's in store for you in 2013?  I'd love to hear!