More Squam Art Workshops Goodness
[Book In A Day will be taught at Squam Art Workshops this September!]
I am thrilled – thrilled, I tell you – to announce that I will be teaching at Squam Art Workshops this September with the lovely and talented Marisa Haedike. Marisa and I have built a powerful friendship ever since we first met more than three years ago, and after saying things to each other like, "We should really think about teaching a class together," – hello! – the opportunity fell squarely in our laps. Although I know better than to think this is simply some kind of fluke – that this is the inevitable result of a shared commitment to our creative ideals – I am still in a state of giddy disbelief.
I have thought about teaching for a long time now, and over the past 18 months have taught workshops, led book discussions and spoken at events, each time asking myself if this might be something I want to pursue on a larger scale. What I find so interesting is that any events I've had this year have been opportunities that came to me unsolicited. Like a trail of bread crumps in a quiet forest, I have been following this trail with complete trust, knowing that I am being led to my most meaningful work.
The opportunity to teach at what I consider one of the most beautiful, powerful gatherings on the planet feels more like a giant leap than one small step, and I can't wait to meet all of you – whoever you are – who decide to join Marisa and I in our class this September. All the details are right here and here.
Five Things
1. To see more of these beautiful, sparkly photographs, visit y.Beth Retro Photography
2. The Urban Craft Center looks like my kind of playground…right here in Santa Monica.
3. Lovers, Dreamers and Me is a divine, inspiring haven of all things beautiful and creative.
4. Hands at Work: Portraits & Profiles of People Who Work With Their Hands.
5. Shop & make a difference over at Global Mamas.
100 Books Project :: Virginia Tech
[Book #19 left at Squires Student Center, Virginia Tech, June 1, 2009]
I couldn't resist leaving a couple of books on the campus of my alma mater, Virginia Tech, when I was there earlier this month. I was there speaking at an alumni event and conducting an Ordinary Sparkling Moments book discussion, so was a perfect fit for many reasons.
[Book #20 left at at a bus stop at Virginia Tech, June 1, 2009. Doesn't Melissa have a cute bum?]
I know I've jumped ahead in the book numbers here, but there are still quite a few books that are in the hands of my lovely Book Fairies, so they'll all get accounted for soon! I've also updated my 100 Books Project Flickr Page so you can see the progress all in one place.
Where will the next books be left? Stay tuned…
Grace
[Meet Grace: She's super cool.]
This is kind of how I'm feeling – reigning in a little bit (OK, a lot) of excitement, looking ahead to all that is possible. Strangely, there are also inklings of shyness and smallness swimming around in my heart right now. Perhaps that is because I just finished writing an essay about an experience I had when I was around Grace's age, a story that inspired me to pull out old photos of the year that story played itself out. The photos show me in red sneakers, the same haircut as Grace, a missing tooth, and a slightly shy smile. Lately it has been hard not to look at these photos of myself as a little girl without getting weepy, wishing so desperately I could go back to her, hug her and tell her how brave and strong and wonderful she is. At that age, when the first day of school was still a monumental event, I had already begun developing a certain stoicism, a certain guardedness. I was not an unhappy or brooding child, but I was cautious when it came to my emotions. I learned early on how to keep them in check, and how to unleash my energy through my imagination.
Now here I am, all these years later, and all these years ahead of Grace, yet still feeling the same kind of excited, sparkly energy that shines through this photo of her. And I can't help but stop and think about all the ways I have managed to bring astounding love and beauty in my life despite having had to learn how to protect my tiny beating heart at such a young age. Grace and I have a peculiar, sad story in common, and I can't help but want the same twinkling twists of fate to carry her to the kind of joy I now know in my own life (due in no small part to my friendship with her mom). I can't help but look at the way she smiles in all the photos I've taken of her and have tremendous hope that she, too, will learn that the choices of certain people in her life are no reflection on her and take nothing away from the fact that she is an extraordinary little girl. She smiles bigger than I did, laughs more for the camera than I did, and in this I see so much hope, so much promise that certain cards she was dealt will not prevent her from recognizing all that is good and beautiful inside of her.
I have exciting news that has to be kept quiet for a little bit longer, but I am savoring the goodness of today, the strange way things come to life, and all the ways the universe lets me know that my life is unfolding with perfect grace, balance and beauty.
Staying True to the Essence
[Taken in New Zealand earlier this year.]
"…as time goes on we not only remember specific things in relation to the people we have loved; their lives get built into our lives and finally the transference is complete. We are what we are because of them. When I am getting very dogmatic, I sometimes hear Jean-Do's amused voice saying very gently, 'Pourquoi avoir raison?' 'Why have to be right?' I am more aware now than I was during his life of how much Quig's friendship, his very existence even apart from our own relationship, did to help me forge out the position of these last years about my work. It is good for a professional to be reminded that her professionalism is only a husk, that the real person must remain an amateur, a lover of the work. Whatever we do well is done spontaneously for its own sake, in just the way Quig suddenly decided that he had to get up to the schoolhouse room and paint, or, equally spontaneously, had to make muffins! I am, I think, more of a poet than I was before I knew him, if to be a poet means allowing life to flow through one another rather than forcing it to a mold the will has shaped; if it means learning to let the day shape the work, not the work, the day, and so live toward essence as naturally as a bird or a flower."
~May Sarton, Plant Dreaming Deep
Five Things
1. I love Andrea Shear's "Little Boxes" series, one of which is shown above.
2. Creative Therapy is brilliant and I'm excited to be a guest artist for them this fall.
3. Mental Floss will keep your brain buzzing.
4. My friend Linda just celebrated the 10th Anniversary of her lovely ceramics studio Peach Tree Pottery. I cannot say enough about Linda's spirit, generosity, kindness and the magical swirl of creative goodness she has created at Peach Tree. Visit her site to learn about her classes, gallery shows and other projects.
5. My first entry as a regular columnist on This Ordinary Day is up! Monthly essays will be posted there from here on out. Thank you Jacky for inviting me to be a part of such an inspiring, beautiful blog.
6. I've posted some of my new wall art creations from Demdaco on my Etsy site…take a peek! {Note: I posted 12 pieces up yesterday, and only one is left! I'll let everyone know when my inventory is re-stocked and they are available agagin. Thank you!}
Staying Present
[A brand new desktop wallpaper! iPhone wallpapers are available today too. Links are below.]
It is funny – funny in that peculiar "Why do we humans torment ourselves so often" kind of way – that when monumental changes are potentially looming on the horizon I get very calm and loose. I might have an initial reaction that qualifies as flustered, but before too long I melt into this zone where my mind becomes incredibly focused and I do not allow myself to go down the road of "What if this?" or "What if that?" I learned this in 2001, when I filed for divorce in mid-October and my soon-to-be ex-husband was diagnosed with Stage Four Hodgkin's Lymphoma two weeks later. I simply could not let myself think about the worst case scenario, and I told myself there was no need to put myself through that torture in my mind because it might not ever happen, and what a waste of energy that would have been. And then…miracle of all miracles…less than four months later he received a clean bill of health. That is the short version of the story, but it contains the crux of the lesson I learned in those few months: Stay present, and deal with facts and information as they come rather than what they might be.
But I say it is funny that I can so immediately put these tools into practice in the big situations, when often times the very small ones make me totally nuts, as in, "How is the world going to continue to turn if I leave the clothes in the dryer overnight rather than fold them before I go to bed? What on earth will people think when I wear a wrinkly t-shirt out in public?" Little things sometimes create strange anxieties, but then when it really matters I become a Buddhist monk. At least a little bit.
There are a few conversations going on in our household that might very well amount to absolutely nothing, or they might turn things upside down. None of this involves health issues, so I suppose that right there is enough for me to take all of this in stride. On top of these conversations, I was just handed an unexpected end of July design deadline, which means The Summer of My Book Proposal just got a little more crowded. Part of my brain is actually saying, "Why aren't you freaking out? This is throwing a huge wrench in our plans!!" But deep down this seems so silly, not to mention that the increased pressure activity has given me an extra jolt of energy. I thrive on deadlines and know that this will only help me manage my time that much better. As they say, the more one has to do, the more one gets done.
If these possibilities turn into something real, I will definitely be writing about it here, but for now I'm letting them remain as they are: Ideas. As ideas, I'm going to let them float around my mind like tiny dandelion tufts for as long as they need to. If they manage to land somewhere, take root, and blossom, I can give them more attention then. For now, I'm going to get back to work and trust this current state of calm isn't just a fluke.
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I am transferring piles of photos from one computer to another, so the next 100 Books Project installment will be posted next week. In the meantime, here is a new desktop wallpaper and two iPhone wallpapers.
Today [pictured above]: 1024 x 768 :: 1280 x 1024 :: 1600 x 1200
Big News, Updates & Whatnot
At long last I can make this announcement! If you were at this month's Squam Art Workshops, you already got wind of this, but I can now shout from the rooftops that I have partnered up with Demdaco for a beautiful line of wall art: The Christine Mason Miller Collection. With images and sentiments taken from and inspired by Ordinary Sparkling Moments, the designers at Demdaco have brought together a line I am very excited to introduce. Full color, uplifting, ready to hang, with 24 images to choose from – many pictured here – these pieces will make meaningful gifts, for yourself and your loved ones. Contact Demdaco customer service at 888-336-3226 to locate a retailer near you with The Christine Mason Miller Collection pieces.
A few other tidbits: My June essay for In the Wish Studio is up and I've also given my website quite a few updates, including a new navigation bar. Two more desktop wallpapers will be posted this week, as well as the latest update on the 100 Books Project.
I'd also like to tell all you bloggers out there gearing up for Marisa Haedike's e-course In the Fish Bowl – which begins this Thursday – you are in for an inspiring treat. I've gotten a tiny sneak peek at what she has planned for you and I know none of you will be disappointed.
I Am Here
One of the things I learned about in the Personal Essay class I took earlier this year was the process of submitting my work for magazines, anthologies, contests, websites and other publications that accept personal essays. Our teacher explained that we should have a plan in place for the day a rejection comes in. In other words, as soon as one piece is rejected, we should already know where we want it to go next and get it in the mail immediately.
This is all still new to me, and for the moment I am working with a small number of finished pieces, but I have put my teacher’s advice into practice and am starting to develop my own small database of statistics. My spreadsheet shows which essay has been sent where, what the end result was and where everything is at any given time. I've submitted to magazines, essay contests, anthologies and websites. I've been published, I've been rejected, and I've received my first check for a published piece of writing. In other words, I've officially begun my journey as a writer, reached a couple of milestones, and see very clearly the wide open expanse before me. Some days that feels overwhelming, other days thrilling, but most of the time I try to stay right where I am.
Structuring my life around writing is still something I am figuring out, and I feel like a toddler just beginning to learn how to write her own name. I have, of course, set big goals for myself, which involve nothing less than my byline in The New Yorker, Sun magazine and the Modern Love column of The New York Times. Oh, right, and another book that someday ranks up there with May Sarton and Anne Lamott and enables me to participate in a book panel discussion with Elizabeth Gilbert and Dave Eggers.
So there you have it. My Big Dream List For What I’d Like To Accomplish As A Writer.
But as I said, I still feel like a toddler, and know it is going to take some time before The New Yorker comes calling and I’m sharing café au laits with Ms. Gilbert. More importantly, none of my big bold dreams might ever come to fruition, and then what am I to do with myself? As Nemo might say, “Just keep writing, just keep writing…”
I realized this weekend that I need to remember how precious this time is, this time as a toddler writer just beginning to find my way and figure out how to get where I want to go. There are so many steps between where I am now and all those big sparkly dreams, and I have to take special care of this little bud inside of me that has only begun to blossom. The New Yorker will always be there, and every rejection I receive is validation that I’m writing, I’m putting it out there, I’m doing the work writers do.
I also need to carefully manage the pressure I put on myself to submit, submit, submit. My goal for this summer is to create a beautiful book proposal, and maybe right now that means I don’t worry about where these essays of mine will go next. Maybe they need to take a summer hiatus until my proposal is on its way. Goals are good and deadlines motivate me, but too many at one time can muddy up the waters.
My mission, more than anything, is to become a good writer, and that has to be the foundation of everything I do as a writer. That has to be the driving force behind writing, editing, mailing out, getting published, and getting rejected. That is the part that needs to remain precious rather than the pursuit of lines on my resume and publishing contracts. Without that, my List of Big Dreams is hollow. Without that, it’s all for ego.
Five Things
1. F2's images are dreamy.
2. 10 Steps to Rocking Your Career Right Now, a great resource I found out about from…
3. …Jennifer Lee at ArtiZen Coaching, a rock star in her own right!
4. I met Maya from Maya*Made last week at Squam Art Workshops, and she is beautiful inside and out…get to know her right here!
5. The Madness and Delight of Van Gogh is a beautiful, thought-provoking book just released by Justin Davanzo. Here's a sneak peek:
"There is a man in my life who stares at me from my wall and tells me that I am ok…that I am not crazy and that I am an artist. He is a watchful and constant eye on my progress my procrastintaion, and my joy. It is something that I measure myself against…the joy of being able to create and share and live completely. He came before and there are many others out there like him…like me…we are in a tribe steeped in lore and awe and defeat and love. This tribe needs to hear a victory call….they need to know that the journey is not so lonely and death defying as they think." ~Justin Davis Davanzo
