This week, I spent another lovely 5 days listening to the Right Brainers in Business Summit, and again, was incredibly inspired. I’ve found so many books I want to read, so many people to follow on Facebook, so many people who inspire me, and so much has blossomed in my mind. It’s definitely a needed perker-upper while I wait for the daily inspiration-injection of The Writer’s Track at Dragon*Con.

I also:

* Finished editing Air, the third section of Altar of Change. When I say I edited it, what I’m doing in my first pass is going back through and re-reading it, and creating my outline after-the-fact. I’m keeping a spreadsheet where I write down the main events in each scene, and then examine what they bring to the story. I’ve found a few scenes that can be shortened or revised this way, and that will be my second pass. Then my third pass will be reading it aloud to my husbear, and taking notes on things we notice. Then another rewrite. Then all the easy grammar, word repitition, etc. Doesn’t it sound overwhelming? It sure does to me. It will take a while, but Dragon*Con is my deadline.

* Re-examined Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way, and decided to take it seriously this time. I stared working on my morning pages sporadically, and hope to make it as much of a daily practice as my morning card pull has been. I have a lot of routines and rituals in my morning, and it’s been helping me distract myself from pain. (The mornings are usually the worst for fibromites.) I’ve written them for 2 mornings so far, and I’m trying to decide where to take myself for my Artist’s Date on Monday.

* Watched Sam Bennet’s webinar called Deep Clarity: Instantly Overcome Overwhelm & Get Your Creative Mojo. I love watching her SO much. She really speaks my language, and her way of breaking down the ways we get overwhelmed really spoke to me. Out of 10 ways people can get overwhelmed, I can check off 7. Her advice to just dive in is invaluable.

* Signed up for Camp NaNoWriMo. I have a terrible record of not finishing NNWM or CNNWM, but I keep trying. Even if I miss the mark and write 20K words, then that’s still 20K words ahead of where I was. I’m OK with that. I’m a little worried it will take away from my editing time, but the truth is that I’m so focused on editing these days that I’m not writing, and a writer WRITES.

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Again, I haven’t gotten a ton of actual WRITING done, but these last two weeks have been an important time of learning and reframing for me. I feel richer, like I have more to bring to my writing/editing. 🙂

That being said, I’ve swung way over here to the manic side of creativity where I have so many ideas I can’t contain them. It’s frustrating when that happens, because any focus I may have had to work on or finish something I’m already doing is completely blown. Last night, my mind was racing, so I decided to watch ‘The Institute’ on Netflix. BAD FUCKIN’ IDEA. If you haven’t seen this movie, you need to. So I spent the rest of the night gushing to husbear and friend C about a North Atlanta Pagan scavenger hunt/tribe-building game I want to create. Is it a great idea? Fuck yeah. Is it a distraction from doing the things I want to do? Fuck yeah.

I’ll probably write the idea out, and then revisit later. Maybe after I’ve finished the third book in the Altars series. But I know that as excited as I get, I need to focus on the books and short stories. Those are the projects I need to dedicate my time to.

Aaannnddddd…. Wow. I just realized that maybe the scavenger hunt would be a good novella. This is how my focus is BLOWN. 😀

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My spiritual life:

We’re in the swing of Ostara right now, and this is kind of my Pagan birthday. I dedicated myself to my path when I was 17 on Ostara. I took a glass of wine outside, gazed at the moon, and had a chat with the Goddess about what I wanted to do to serve her and how I wanted to express my spirituality. My spirituality has shifted with the changes in my life, but overall this is my 22nd anniversary. Happy anniversary to me. 🙂

I have a tradition that I follow every year of fasting before Ostara. I’ve done 5 day fasts on nothing but lemon water, but I’ve calmed down on that for the last few years. These days, I tend to do smoothie fasts instead, and usually for 3 days. This year, it’s been particularly challenging, since I’m on diabetes meds now, and they kind of work best when you have food to buffer your stomach. So I intended to do 3 days of smoothies, but I’ve been sneaking in solid food (roasted veggies that the husbear has been making), and tonight I’m going to finish up with a big, beautiful salad. Fibro has taught me nothing if not to work WITH my body rather than to fight what it’s trying to tell me.

I had also intended to attend a group ritual tomorrow with the same group that I celebrated Yule and Ostara with, but we’re going to drive down to the place where I set Willowisp instead. I’ve been there in the summer and early autumn, now I want to see it in the Spring. Last time I was there, I left an offering, and was bitten by an ant. Hopefully this time will go better. 🙂

Last night, I woke from a dream. My heart was racing and my necklaces were tangled up around my neck, choking me. So I woke, extricated myself from the silver chains, and decided to look up what time the eclipse would be happening. I found a live stream of it happening, and found that it was at its peak right then. The eclipse is thought to symbolize death and rebirth, and something about that energy woke me up. I’m grateful, because I was able to enjoy the show and go back to sleep with a sense of peace.