This Week
This is an especially fun-filled week on the Desire to Inspire Blogosphere Book Tour! Yesterday I stopped by Kelly Barton’s colorful online studio, and today I’m sharing my thoughts on Trust with Karen Maezen Miller. This is also the day all the 2012 workshops are being announced for 21 Secrets. Mine is called Word Play. All the details and links to where I’m headed next are right here. There are Give Aways all over the place, so be sure to join the fun!
Tuesday Update: I’m talking about the fire within over at Do What You Love today.
Wednesday Update: An especially fun guest post and give away with Traci Bautista.
Thursday Update: A Skype interview is up with contributor Kate Swoboda!
Friday Update: Contributor love from Christine Castro-Hughes and Carmen Torbus
Full Circle
{Photo taken in 2001 in Santa Barbara from the inside of the Swirly headquarters.}
I have been spending quite a bit of time in Santa Barbara lately, and can’t get over the fact that every square inch of this city holds a memory. I wrote about one aspect of this here, and that is but one layer that makes itself known everywhere I go. Like steam rising from the grates of a big city in winter, memories drift up and play out in my mind whether I am walking near the Mission, riding my bike along Shoreline Park, or grocery shopping near my old home. I tell myself that this is normal, and that I am creating new memories now, which won’t make the others disappear, but that will (hopefully) loosen their grip. At times I feel like I am still hovering between two worlds – between the before and the after of that series of sliding doors that propelled my life into an entirely new and unexpected direction more than a decade ago.
I was thinking this morning about the studio space I had on State Street next to the Arlington Theater for two years. It was an 1100 square foot office that held tens of thousands of greeting cards, notecards, envelopes, shipping supplies, and all the other details that kept Swirly going. It was my dream space – with hardwood floors and five rooms, each of which was painted a different color, and a tiny balcony that was a perfect spot to watch the Solstice Parade. When I signed the lease on that space, I felt like I had made it, and the surprising twist of the studio was that it not only helped me grow my business in all the ways I’d dreamed of, it also held me through some of the most difficult moments of my life. And it ended up being the liftoff point for a time of tremendous personal transformation (which included, ironically, my decision to let Swirly go.)
When I look at the picture above (that is me on the left), I imagine all of us just beginning to get a glimpse of what might be ahead of us, yet having absolutely no idea what was coming (which is true for all of us every single day, but seems more poignant and powerful in hindsight.) I had so much growing up to do the day this photo was taken, and so much work ahead of me. I sometimes look at those years of my adult life that I consider the “before” and have a hard time understanding who I was. Perhaps as a way to “prove” to myself how serious I took the opportunities I had for growth (i.e. to become a grown up) during the in-between time, I have distanced myself from her. But in Santa Barbara, where traces of her linger everywhere, it is not possible to do that. So I am now beginning to appreciate that I am not only creating new memories here, but doing a better job of embracing who I was, and appreciating all the ways I had built a foundation upon which I was then able to construct, in many ways, an entirely new life – a life that led me here, right back where I started, continuing to give it my all, still trying to do my best.
Six Things
Today’s Five Six Things list is to provide you with a one-stop shopping list of everyone I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing for Global Inspirations ~ my bi-weekly column over at Create Mixed Media ~ ever since we kicked it off in September. There are more interviews lined up and ready to go for the end of the year and beyond from all over the world. Get ready to meet some amazing souls…
1. Susannah Conway, reporting from Marrakech. Read her interview here. Follow her here.
2. Tara Bradford, reporting from Nepal. Read her interview here. Follow her here.
3. Halle Butvin, reporting from Uganda. Read her interview here. Follow her here.
4. Clare Mulvany, reporting from Ireland. Read her interview here. Follow her here.
5. Beth Nicholls, reporting from the United Kingdom. Read her interview here. Follow her here.
6. Lisa Field-Elliott, reporting from Uganda. Read her interview here. Follow her here.
Midway
{Interior of Desire to Inspire, with photos by Tracey Clark}
We are pretty much smack-dab in the middle of the Desire to Inspire Virtual Book Tour, so there are still plenty of guest posts, chapter snippets, give aways, and interviews happening all over the blogosphere through mid-December. Here’s a quick re-cap of what’s been going on ever since things got started ~
Scoutie Girl ~ Where I shared a chapter excerpt
Gypsy Girl’s Guide ~ Where I am proud to be a monthly contributor
Roots of She ~ Where I wrote an essay in honor of a very dear friend.
Shutter Sisters ~ Where a Five-Question Interview was posted along with the very first book give away!
Stories of Conflict and Love ~ Where I wrote a guest post about finding my life’s work
Maya*Made ~ Where I shared a 60-Second Chapter Snippet and offered a book give away
This Every Moment ~ Where readers got a visual tour of the book’s contributors in addition to a guest post
The Wish Studio ~ Where I am also a proud monthly contributor (at least through the end of 2011) and we offered a journal give away.
Creative Mojo ~ Where I was interviewed by the lovely Mark Lipinski.
Simply Celebrate ~ Where I share a guest post and another journal give away (there’s still time to enter this one!)
Jennifer Louden ~ Where I gave a fun Savor & Serve interview.
Creative Thursday ~ Where I share another 60-Second Chapter Snippet and a give away!
Many thanks and heaps of gratitude to everyone who offered their virtual living rooms to me to share Desire to Inspire! For all the details on what’s still to come and links to everything posted so far, head right here to the Desire to Inspire Happenings page.
