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?