Passionately Creating with Julie Jordan Scott

Discovery Under the Mystery of Being Unable to Post with Blogspot

2011-07-17T08:16:00.000-07:00

When I use my friend's computer, I mysteriously MAY post with blog spot. How odd.

If you are looking for a post of mine, you are more likely to find it at Julie Unplugged. I had literally given up on the google related blogs because they didn't let me comment or post. I still don't know what the problem is, but I did discover by sheer luck (and the use of my friend's computer) that I am able to post from here...

So, from here I will post to wishcast wishes, etc that I normally am unable to do due to weird incompatibilities.

love, love, love to you all....

I Wish

2011-05-30T13:39:00.000-07:00

someone could tell me why blogger is acting so weird and why I am not staying logged in so I can comment other people's blogs with ease.

Dear Blogger,

I AM FRUSTRATED with your commenting/logging in process!

Love,

Julie

Up for a Writing Challenge? Write Your Random Metaphor

2011-05-04T08:54:00.000-07:00

(I blog more regularly at Julie Unplugged, but typepad was being annoying yesterday so I decided to blog here, instead...

There is something both silly and sacred about what we randomly discover as we hopskotch through our everyday lives.

Some people see little, hear less and smell only frying bacon or perhaps the siren song of a fresh dollar bill.

And then there are those who share my love of the nuanced, the odd image caught from the corner of the eye or the synchronicity of seeing the color yellow at every turn.

Yesterday I received my daily photo taking prompt from Flickr Group Roulette which called me into nature for a photo. I immediately knew the where the who and almost the what. Last week when I arrived at San Miguel Commemorative Grove I followed an egret down an unusual to me path and at one point I saw a rabbit at the end of an unknown to me off-shoot path, taking a sip at one of the fingers of the river that didn't exist visibly until this season. The shadows and the leaf cover begged to be photographed.

I couldn't wait for the opportunity to visit and photograph in this space.

In the five days in between visits, my sacred morning spot turned into something of a grand central station late afternoon happy hour spot. There was trash and papers and I shook my head when I saw condom wrappers thrown about like popcorn on the floor of a movie theater following a bargain matinee. "This isn't what it looked like last time," I semi-apologized to the friend I invited on this photo taking adventure ~ my human tripod, so to speak.

I had my cobalt blue work-in-progress poetry duck in one hand and quickly manuevered into place. This was going to be a fast shoot, we had no time and I couldn't afford any messing around or cleaning up, we had to work with what was there. We took some quick shots and I gathered my things to go and then my friend noticed something in the river fingers. "Oh my gosh," he said, "condoms, used, floating."

Last Summer in Oakland I had photographed a purple used condom that found its resting place in the sidewalk in a very graceful heart shape.

I understand, when you notice a condom dancing in the water as if doing water ballet, it must be photographed. This is a necessity of a creative soul's life.

I wasn't expecting the random photography to continue into this morning, when I discovered some very old silver while seeking set-dressing for Stage Door. I was primarily looking for china and any random candy dishes or cut glass photo frames when I saw the small plastic bag along with a handwritten note from my mother. "Look at the date for Aunt Julie's fork." There, on the tiny fork emblazoned with "Juliette" was a '94. proudly proclaiming my Great Aunt and namesakes birth: 1894.

She would have been 103 years old when my Emma was born in 1997.

I took the spoons out of the bag and held them in my paint splotched hand, my breath held in amazement.

I turned the forks over, mine from 1962, hers from nearly 70 years before.

I never expected to find such a treasure in a box in my pantry closet. It had been sitting, waiting to be discovered, for years.

I sit on my writing porch, thinking of what I need to do in the next couple hours and I debate internally which metaphor to write.

I want to flaunt convention, like I bet my Great Aunt Julie did and like that condom did. Other condoms just disintegrate. That condom was a water ballet dancer and became art amongst worms, forever immortalized in the condom world. Great Aunt Julie left behind a curious fork, among other things. This is different, though, than the dishware and glassware I own that belonged to her. This fork was from the infant Aunt Julie. It is an intimate peek into her first family connections, not of the Aunt Julie who was of San Francisco society.

I want to leave it to you, instead.

What metaphors do you find in these very different, very random images stretched across more than a century?

What connections, memories, ideas spring up from within you, asking to be written?

Write them now.

Reverbing on Julie Unplugged

2010-12-19T09:24:00.000-08:00

Beloved friends -

If you clicked through here via Reverb, my posts are all happening on my JulieUnplugged Blog. I sincerely hope you will check them out there!

I have neglected this blog, which I created almost solely because it makes it easier to comment on blogger and blogspot when you HAVE a blogger or blogspot blog. So now I have several, because... that is the Julie-esque thing to do.

But the most common places to find me - and my Reverberations... is Julie Unplugged. :-)

Busy in the Middle of Art Every Day Month, Etc...

2010-11-11T07:29:00.000-08:00

Wow. This has been a nearly insane November. Complete, unadulterated insanity ~ and naturally I am loving it.

I have been busy, busy, busy with Art Everyday Month. My posts for that annual event may be found on my Julie Unplugged blog.

My poetry continues to be my life blood. In fact, I have two performances this month. So exciting! To read my poetry, visit my Poetry Blog.

And finally - I am going to link to a performance of a poem/anthem I wrote called "This November." I hope you enjoy it!

In this moment I hear ohmmmm....

2010-09-24T09:24:00.000-07:00

I was surprised to find myself writing along with the group during the freewriting time during "And Now You Write." This isn't my usual - normally as facilitator I just hold the space...but the power of the collaboration moved my pencil. I could not stop these words from being born if I tried!

So, that being said, here is what I heard and wrote today during the And Now You Write session:

I vote for the oh, the pitter patter of gloating jokes leave foam at the open mouth of the ugliest gnome. A sassy pants drone, he is. My heart's metronome calls, instead, for ohm. It invokes my soul home, and the round mouth bicycle tire spokes of bristle cone seeds taking root in my spoken truth woven in ohm.

In this moment, I hear ohm. Ohm. Ohm....

If you would like to experience the creative writing community of "And Now You Write" please join us for this, and other, writing prompts.

New Blessings I See: Free Writing From "And Now You Write"

2010-09-23T13:37:00.000-07:00

Today's focus: gratitude gratitude gratitude. I write on my porch and see so many blessings, but in the "I see many" it is a pureed soup, so instead, I will scoop blessings out, one by one, and revel in their specificities.

I see Samuel, my blessing, who is humming an unrecognizeable tune and I daren't ask him what it is. His thoughts make him smile which make me smile. Constance the Cat, my blessing, sits cuddled next to him. Constance is a cast off cat we have adopted and she and her rogue husband, Bob, reign over our yard, King and Queen. Samuel says, "Hi, Bob!" The scarred black tom cat is getting less and less frightened of us. This makes me smile. It is like blessing perfume, perfect in this morning.

I see a pumpkin, my blessing, the first of the season, sitting on the corner of my desk atop a Thomas Merton book, Echoing Silence. The pumpkin was named John by Emma, Samuel and me. Ostensibly he is named after Henry David Thoreau's brother John, fellow teacher and pencil-maker, but I know the truth. :-) I've started a play for Project Love about heaven and my brother John. This paragraph is like a trifecta or hat trick of blessings.

I see my weathered porch desk - another blessing - which needs replacement. By winter, three months from now, I should replace it. It has served me well. Many words have been written here. It has repaid its $10 ticket price many times over.

Samuel exclaims, "It's that same jeep again!" I look up, "Really?" He notices everything (another blessing) "What?" he says to Constance-the-Cat. "You want me to comfort you?" He reaches down, to cuddle with her.

I cry just a little. (A blessing). He has come so far. (a blessing!)

I take a sip of my coffee. A blessing that appears regularly on my gratitude lists. My morning compadre, simple pleasure, eye opener, subject of many love poems.

I see the blessing of my notes for today's And Now You Write. I read the words, "Writing is effortless when we are alive to the world." When we are alive to the world. I am blessed by words, my own and others, of notes and affirmations and blog posts and new voices. Returning voices. Multigenerations. A primary component of creativity camp is being manifested right here.

The chimes ring from inside. Hank (a blessing) must have sidled past them too closely. Samuel goes to his waiting spot after the "imposter bus" drives by. He cranes his neck and says, "I see my bus."

He's gone from cranky to contend in our first hour of the day together. I wave to his friends (blessing!) as the bus pulls away.

Morning by morning new mercies I see...

I fill the paper with the breathings of my heart....

2010-09-22T11:19:00.000-07:00

I fill the paper with the breathings of my heart and my intellect interferes, muttering about "What's the purpose?" and the I-twin scoffs, "Can you make money from putting the breathings of your heart on paper?"

My heart gives a not so gentle nudge and I feel "let's prove it" build, rumbling volcano pre-eruption like under my breath. The pulse, the movement of blood and life force is in teh PROVE it. The ROVE whats true the ignite the fire metaphor stew with seasonings from the heart. Whispers of "look up" so I do. Women in blue uniforms connected by formica, disconnected by cell phones.

The "look up" also ignites the honking of yesterday's geese from outside my window. I listen and wonder of the connection between these words I added to my notebook while out and about and this moment, here now. A pregnant woman in a pink shirt waddle-walks by. "Hold your moments close!" I want to shout. My heart does it silently yet vividly for me. My heart warms up, grateful for the acknowledgment.

A woman comes to me after she notices, hand raised to knock. She leaves her rapping-on-the-door to open me to more light, even though I don't think I need it, I gratefully receive her outpouring of service.

She had been on her way to clean the men's restrooms. Before her knuckles rapped, she diverted her attention to my writing heart. I am sure that is what called her. Her footsteps matched my heart beat. "More light" she said, then created it. SHe put the shades into their upright and locked positions with my heart-words, ready for lilft off.

My left hand completely relaxes, remembering heart-opening yoga, last night.

I hear a blue shirted woman say, "Vamos a ver" and I nod, "Let's go"...

We mirror love, what we love when we write, when we speak, when we pray when we paint when we listen and feel...

When we reach our hand up to knock and recognize love, we may leave the rapping knuckles and write what compels before moving back into the "supposed to do's" and settle into the simplest heart service of raising a blind, wiping a nose, making a phone call, writing a poem, a sentence, listening to a goose's honks and smiling.

I fill the paper with the breathings of my heart. And next up in my day is filling the painting paper with the breathings of my heart... I'll post here, too.

(I am grateful that even as I facilitate, I know I am as much of participant as everyone else.)

For those of you who don't know about And Now You Write, consider this your invitation to join us right now - you are here at the perfect time...

More of the Writing Adventure at Hart Park: Sometimes an Ugly Duck stays an Ugly Duck

2010-09-21T13:31:00.000-07:00

In today's session of And Now You Write I shared of my moments at Hart Park, a regional park not far from my home. I took myself there because although I attempted to write at home, I realized sometimes the best thing to do is switch up what we are doing and begin to write from someplace new.

I was lead to go to Hart Park, so I did.

I shared some of the story at the And Now You Write blog, but here is the missing excerpt from my sketch pad. I found it a lot of fun and thought I would offer it up to you, here.

I heard a duck sounding like a children's toy.

Not a quack, but something else. And then a gutteral grgrgrgrgrpip

The wood ducks noticed and came along, hautily, and swam in the way of these other, visiting country ducks and sang out the very quintessential duck "Quack quack quack quack!" The mallard joined in, pontificating "Quack quack QUACK!" which I think means something like "I am top duck, go make your grgrgrgrgrgrpip on some other pond."

The winter visiting country ducks pitch raises when they skitter-fly across the water, like Xena's shout changes when she gets excited and mobile.

I look at my attempt to draw the country-visitor-duck and I think Emily Dickinson would be so annoyed by me, so disappointed in my result.

The ugly ducks sound like a nerd choir, or a second, third or fourth string choir. The wood-duck-in-charge hates this and bellows at the country duck, "Shut up your choir, Jethro!"

Unlike the ugly duckling who grows into being a beautiful swan, these Jethro ducks are simply Jethro ducks. They are what they are, there is no changing the facts. I have seen them come to this pond and live here each fall and winter, year in and year out.

There will be no story of transformation from ugly Jethro to beautiful swan.

These ducks have been ugly Jethro and they will continue to be ugly Jethro.

Poor ugly Jethro ducks. As the saying goes, sometimes an ugly duck is just an ugly duck.

Join the Writing Community of "And Now You Write"

Sometimes lightning strikes sideways

2010-09-20T13:24:00.000-07:00

If I were open to lightning striking my writing... I get this image of me sitting at a picnic table at Songdog. Light was brand new them, just having cracked open along the line of the horizon. I wrote into that cracking of light.

I look at the previous pages. My hand wrote, rook notes, almost immediately post lightning strike yesterday when I got my idea for a script for Project: Love. If lightning strikes were measured on a richter scale like earthquakes, it would have been somewhere between 8.0 and 8.5. My writing is slightly sloppy, I notice. Still tingling then, still wobbly.

Keeping the lightning stike alive: this is a slightly different matter.

Notes alongside, remembering, poking the space of the strike. When I wrote my initial tears from the lightning were gone.

When I allow lightning to strike my writing I am open to emotion. I allow emotion to have the freedom to roam in my creativity. No cages on my emotion. If my creativity was an animal, well - for me it would be a menagerie - it would be a gazelle, an eagle, a domestic short hair cat like Constance and Bob. There would be a whittler: an old man sans teeth, whittling. His wife, Ida, plays the fiddle.

She is the creative whiz. He is the metronome. She is the one who does the jig. He is the one who walks in the pre-dawn. Their love shared is a given.

When I allow lightning to strike my writing, it doesn't bother me to hear Samuel's voice breaking through my words. "Mommy! Mommy!" he calls. I respond, knowing the page will be there waiting when I return.

Later, I took myself on an artist's date (a la Julia Cameron) because I was floundering and frustrated at home. The surefire cure for floundering and frustration is to change what you are doing rather than wallow in the mire.

I decided to get myself a drink along the way and just like that a poem and a sketch was born.

Sometimes lightning
strikes sideways
while doodling in
my drawing pad
behind a rogue carpet
installer, I copy the
rolled up carpets onto
my paper in swirled
flames of gratitude
I write that
1Bx6170
his license plate
I see
1 box 6
times removed
she drives her
SUV west on
I-70
I lamented the
writing didn't won't
can't seem to strike

And I picked up my
pencil
and the lightning
came, surprising me
by striking sideways

:-)

Life and the Writing life, is grand....

Be a part of our writing community at And Now You Write.
We meet daily via a telephone bridge line and/or via recorded teleconference so you may write alongside us and with us any time of day or night.

Check it out here.

So much love to each and all reading this -

Julie

What do I hold in my hand?

2010-09-16T11:59:00.000-07:00

I post this free flow writing, raw, unedited - to illustrate how far off course I go with my free writing and HOW RIGHT IT IS to do exactly that - I even noticed when I started to type this all for you that I wrote "write" instead of "right" at one point. And it is the perfect, just right, make me giggle writing "mistake". Please don't hesitate to share your writing. It is like sharing at a slumber party with our masks all over our faces, dry and crackling. Sometimes these make the best memories and the best, longest lasting connections.

When I witness my hands I see...

What do I hold in my hand?

Splatter words, on the page. My write hand holds my pencil. I feel the tension of this pencil holding all the way up my arm. I never noticed that before, the tension tumbles and skitters and scrapes the veins as it works my way up my right side. It is not the most comfortable tension, I notice.

Samuel and I wait for the bus, I write that - so my hand "holds" that, too. Samuel notices a dog bone in our garden, left abandoned deserted hidden? by one of the strange looking hounds that has been carousing about the neighborhood lately.

Yes, I went from writing about my hand and muscle tension to dog bones and my son.

Free writing isn't always tidy.. .and I love some of the word combinations I came up with because I followed the flow of the pencil into those images.

(Note I never tell myself I messed up by going off course. Neither do you! Please don't hesitate to share your writing!)

Big hugs,

Julie

Announcing Mission/Complete - Finally Finish that Writing Project!

2010-08-29T18:16:00.000-07:00

What is the number one challenge of people, like you, who are creatively inspired or
have a story to tell?

What plagues writers more than writing block or lack of ideas or not having
the time to write?

The biggest problem is Completion: birthing the book, launching the blog or filling it with content consistently.

Mission/Complete is a 12 Week program from Writing Camp with Julie Jordan Scott that will walk you step-by-step through completing your
big writing project: be it a book, a blog, an ecourse, screen play
or any other "word product".

We will meet weekly via teleconference (or if the timing isn't convenient
for you, you may "meet" via the session recordings) to walk, step-by-step
and build, brick-by-brick as you write, revise and complete that book you
have wanted to write forever but somehow never got to it.
We provide the context, the inspiration and the support so you will write
not on your own, but in community with other writers who are also completing
their own projects.
Why am I creating and facilitating this program? Because while I have a
solid track record of bringing informational products, teleclasses, workshops
and plays into the marketplace, I have had a challenge with taking my voluminous
files for books and turning them into completed works. Yes, I do have two
books under my belt but it has been a long while between projects and I
know myself well.
I do better - much better - when I have a group to whom I am accountable
AND filled with people who are walking alongside me, creating separately
yet creating together.
Here is what we will be covering, week-to-week, during our sessions:
Before Session One:
Registration open through September 19 thought space is limited:
We may need to close registration if it fills too quickly. It would be wise to register now to avoid being left out of this session.
Individualized Roadmap to Completion - Before we begin our meetings, we
will hold several group coaching sessions on Wednesday, September15 as well as audios to help you create your individualized roadmap to completion.
This is not a cookie cutter program so you will not have a cookie cutter
Roadmap. No generic applications here since we all have different projects
with different needs. This isn't a one size fits all approach, this is a
personalized approach created especially for you.
September 20: Week One: Passion Fuel for Your Project -
Mission/Completion: Cross the Finish Line with Purpose
September 27: Week Two: Build Your Framework -
Beyond the Outlines and Table of Contents + Managing Your Writing Time
October 4: Week Three: Nuts and Bolts of Completing Your Work
What "Hardware" is necessary to bring your product to market?
Who is your best audience and what does that mean as you bring
your book into completion?
October 11: Week Four: Lighting (and Keeping) the
Writing Fire Burning Bright + Gathering resources
and bridging the gaps in your writing.
October 18: Week Five: Beginning Your Marketing Plan
as You Complete Your Book + The Joy of Juggling
without crashing into overwhelm
October 25: Week Six: Staying the Course: When the
Going Gets Tough (or dull, or uninspired, or seems
too steep) the writers get tougher.
November 1: Week Seven: Revision, Redefinition,
Really Quality Material and not falling off
at the Idea Junkie Rest Stop
November 8: Week Eight: Staying Present when the
GPS system gives you the wrong driving instructions
To market, to market, to market with passion
November 15: Week Nine: The Value of Networking
and Inspired Focus Group Participation.
November 22: Week Ten: Confidence, Charisma and
Creating Content in these "last ten pounds" or
"last ten pages"... Be the Little Writer That
Could (and then some!)
November 29: Week Eleven: The art of Polishing
with Passion and Panache.
December 6: Week Twelve: Celebrate!! Bring your
finished product to our closing celebration and
dive headlong into joyful, passionate marketing.
Share successes, wins, lessons learned and know
the world is a better place because you completed
your work!

Meeting times:

3:30 to 4:30 PM Pacific time on Monday Nights

Final note before you register or shrug and say,

"Next time" - if you have the desire to be a part

of this unique group of forward thinking writers,

I want you to join us. It is as pure and simple

as that. Please strongly consider registering as

soon as you can simply because I need to end

registration before the group gets too large

or unmaneagable.

If you have any questions or concerns, please

call me at 661.444.2735 or send me a

note: juliejordanscott at gmail.com

Begin: September 20 and end: December 6

Please check out the "And Now You Write" program: a community of writers, collaborating to create word fire and flow worldwide.

I wrote in a Conservation Habitat on Sunday...

2010-07-26T21:00:00.000-07:00

I started writing today at a little bit after 7 AM. I was in the Dana Point habitat conservation area and will write, now, directly from my notebook so I am not sure if it is in first person or what person.

There is a slate grey wall of fog and tumbleweeds like I remember from 1977 when we first moved here. I hear a fog horn. I see a buoy and boats. It is chillier here than my dress looks. We don't match. I don't care.

A train whistle sounds as two women (more appropriately dressed than me) amble up and peer into the windows at the interpretive center. They are runners. One of them sounds British. Carol Carter floats into my mind. "We'll figure it out" says an American voice. I wonder what is to figure. I scope out WritingCamp locations. That is what I am to figure. Anything else sort of drops away.

They built a spot here for sitting which I use to sit and write. It is perfect for that love writing amist the shrubs and bunnies and birds. They are restoring the habitat which, for today, is still grey and not quite awakened. I scan for spots to sit and write and perhaps get a photo of myself sitting and writing. As so often happens, I wish I had a remote control so I could get comfortable and then set the timer. (Some day.) There amidst the black eyed susans I attempt to take a photo but only my knees are victorious.

I hear a bird or a rodent, very staccato rat a tat tat and a sea lion calls. People talk along the path. A sole runner moves. A man tells the trail story to three friends who listen, attentively. They discuss knee surgery. Perhaps two generations, both women with sensible ponytails refusing to give their different shades of brown over to grey. The elder man continues to offer head land narrative.

A muscular woman in pink tank top puffs and pants as she jogs uphill, her devotion to running apparent by the triangular patch of sweat on the small of her backl. I want to move forward but find I enjoy it too much when people fall out of my direct line of view and I have the momentary delusion that it is only I, the fog horn, and the sea lion enjoying this sanctuary this early on this final Sunday morning in July.

Still more voices come and then don't. I hear car doors open, and close. I wish the staccato rodent voice would speak again and only another runner's feet respond but her, I find myself admiring. Silver toned long hair, pulled back, burnished skin. Quite lovely. Maybe a year from now I will be brave enough to look like that.

Writing Camp: Summer 2010 Session....8:30 Campfire Writing....

2010-07-22T09:19:00.000-07:00

When I open my eyes to writing camp, I see pine. I see height and weight and brown and green. I see these trees which long for my touch as much as I long for their shade in the Bakersfield heat. I feel the smile on my face stretch.

I see light, dappled and holy not unlike the light in a cathedral. These pines are my stained glass, tiffany inspired windows.

I come to writing camp today to discover what is next for me. The more I mention camp and just flow with it, the more it grows. This last writing camp with Kat in the home feels freeing and sad, holy and frustrating. I long to walk alongside people on hikes, exploring rocks and nooks and crannies of the wilderness of camp and the wilderness of their souls. I want more of this….

Movement....

2010-05-18T19:58:00.000-07:00

Wow. I have missed being here, hanging out almost exclusively on my typepad blogs or else on what I call "My Dailies" - the place where I share my daily practices, verbatim - unedited, raw "here it is" the unshowered, unkempt take me for what I am me....

It is also a blogger blog... if you are interested in ramblings and poetry and sentence journals and photography... and whatever other daily goals I may set up
from time-to-time, look here.

I have continued to write poetry almost daily as well - today I wrote a couple haiku... and I realized how long it has been since I had written any haiku! So odd!

Here is a link to today's haiku duet on my typepad poetry page.

I am grateful you are here, reading.

Mottled Purple Bottle

2010-04-21T09:19:00.000-07:00

I have been working my way through NaPoWriMo, using my poetry blog almost exclusively.

The last two poems have been pretty respectable. I would love if you would take a moment to visit by clicking here.

I have also been busily at work with The Artistic Mother's Group, which I document on Julie Unplugged.

I hope to see you around....

Buckets of love.....

Wish? Yes, WISH!

2010-04-07T07:41:00.001-07:00

and please read my Wishcasting Blossoming wish on my Julie Unplugged Blog today, beloved Wish casters....

Creating, Loving, Creating, Loving, Repeat

2010-04-05T11:33:00.000-07:00

It has been a phenomenal time with last week's trip to New England to visit Smith College, where Katherine will be attending in the Fall. Today is the final day of Spring Break here, I think traditionally a travel day or "Easter Monday."

I have been posting up a storm on Julie Unplugged today and yesterday, so friends from The Artistic Mother group, please visit over there....

Or poetry lovers, see what I have been working on through NaPoWriMo.... today I am working on a prompt from ReadWritePoem, personifying my poetry. I am naming her "Chiara"....

THANK YOU, as always, for reading!

My Creative Hop Scotch This Week

2010-03-25T05:46:00.000-07:00

Let's see - I created this blog primarily as a stand-in when the Typepad blog poofs itself up AND for when my Blogspot and Blogger friends, for whatever reason, have an issue with me making comments. This year is about, among other things, commenting for connection so therefore a Blogspot blog became necessary.

That said, oftentimes people may land here and wonder where is the words which match the comment theme?

So - some of my tip toes on typepad this week include:

My Wishcasting Wednesday Post

My Creative Every Day Post

My Wordless Wednesday Post

Lots of breakthroughs are happening here... which is exciting. I have had more time off from rehearsals so I have been chasing sunsets and singing karaoke and fixing three hot meals a day for my kids. I am feeling rather June Cleaver-ish, so if I break out pearls and heels simultaneously, someone stop me!

Next week I will find myself in Massachusetts... which makes me very excited.

So much love to YOU!

Julie

My CED2010 Weekly Update Post

2010-03-16T12:26:00.001-07:00

Read My Film Making Story...

Warning....

Brave leaps ahead...

Writing My Way to Completion

2010-03-10T12:31:00.000-08:00

The highlight of this past week was a trip to Tucson, ostensibly to see Katherine sing in the Western Regional Honor Choir with her buddies from East Bakersfield High School Chamber Singers, but beyond that - I went... again, supposedly, to regroup and regenerate after the closing of First Kisses.

As is so often the case, I hit the ground running and had a-ha after a-ha, soulful moment after soulful moment and not that much time just refreshing myself except sometimes, for me, that hub bub of activity IS regenerative.

I am back at my desk now and writing like crazy -

My Wordful Wednesday entry is to be found here....

My Three Word Wedneday entry may be found here....

And my Wordless Wednesday, again - homage to Tucson, may be found here....

Life continues to move forward with a rock-n-roll pace. Before I know it, I will be in Massachusetts with Katherine for Spring break and then it will be graduation and then it will be the East Coast again and then?

Katherine will be at Smith, I will be left with two children at home for the first time in... well, since Emma was born when it was just Bianca and Katherine.

I am writing, and oh, I am loving writing. And my Writing Camp is going exceptionally well. So well, I am going to offer another soon.

Life is wondrous.

Read Write Poem PLUS Wednesday's Offerings

2010-03-04T02:30:00.000-08:00

Dear Readers,

I have been writing to prompts for a while, but lately I am upping the ante in hopes of increasing my effectiveness with words.

Once can never practice writing too much....

Here is a link to this week's ReadWritePoem Prompt.. I call it

IT IS

My offering from 3 Word Wednesday:

AMAZE

and then there was Carry On, Tuesday - perhaps my strongest writing in a while:

Needs a new title

ENJOY!

and thank you for reading.

It us Thursday which means... Read Write Poem

2010-02-25T08:47:00.001-08:00

though I loved Katherine's response when I told her Thursday is poem writing day.....

"But you write poetry every day, Mom."

She has a point there....

Here is the poem for ReadWritePoem:

With Universal Tags

Creating/Creating/Creating

2010-02-24T09:40:00.000-08:00

Wow. I have been up to a LOT of creating, though not much posting on this particular blog.

Just wanted to update you so you may find out and tap into what I have been up to lately.

Today, alone:

Wordless Wednesday - my first "Photo and minimal words" posting ever. This is a popular weekly event.. .I found more than 200 blogs listed in the Mr. Linky widget and had a comment almost immediately.

Three Word Wednesday: I didn't write a poem today, I wrote a Rilke-inspired question....

I have been publishing Daily Passion Activator daily for the past... oh, is it seven weekdays? Something crazy and lovely. You really ought to subscribe if you aren't yet. Here is a link to yesterday's article.

I even posted about Home in Creative Every Day. I have more to write and post, sometimes my time runs out at the end of the day and I can't possibly post more of my stuff, but here is what I had!

And I am, naturally - deep in the "First Kisses" run at the Empty Space. This weekend is our final weekend, which makes me incredibly sad. It has been a marvelous time. I hate to see it end, though rehearsals for VDay are also a blast...

So there is the briefest of check ins with as much possible here as well. :-)

Julie publishes her ezine, the Daily Passion Activator, which includes an Essay and a Poem every week day - inspiration delivered directly into your email box. Why not Subscribe today? It's free.

Last Week's Therapeutic Writing Spa

2010-02-16T07:38:00.000-08:00

I wrote a poem for the ReadWritePoem prompt.

Felt like it took forever to get off the ground... which it did!

Check it out at my Poetry Blog.

Read Write Poem Mini-Challenge links

2010-02-08T06:18:00.000-08:00

I have been working on (well, it is hardly working) on falling in love with Denise Levertov through writing Cento - patchwork poems - featuring her work as prompted by my friends at ReadWritePoem.Org. The first in the series is in this blog, the others are on my typepad poetry blog.

Here are the links - Cento #2 - Conversations.

Cento #3 - The Amaryllis

My Poem in Homage to My Love: February 7, 2010 - Tech Week Begins

rooted: cryptic messages

2010-02-07T10:36:00.000-08:00

beautiful. Makes me pause and wonder how many cryptic messages I take at face value. simply because I don't like to play "the cryptic message game"

I wrote a long blabbering Sunday Scribble. (Never done this before.)

Now I want to write a poem.

Poetry Mini Challenge, Poem #1

2010-02-04T08:46:00.000-08:00

I posted this on my type-pad blog but the font kept coming out funky, so I am attempting it here to see if it is more visually appealing.

I am falling in deep love with Denise Levertov, chosen for more reasons than I can count. This first patch work was almost too easy.

She is that good, it all works. It all works.

The first collection of hers I bought was her last collection, a compilation of poems found neatly typed and compiled in a binder. I loved that I can see her last poem.

My fervent wish is when I die, some one is delighted to see, to experience, to know my last poem, too.

This poem is a patchwork of the following poems:

Looking, Walking, Being
From the Roof
On a Theme by Thomas Merton
Talking to Grief

Looking's a way of being: one becomes.
You long for your real place to be readied
palpate darkness, the void
hidden river, who can say which it is we see, we see

This wild night, gathering the washing as if it were flowers
Fragmented Adam stares.
sometimes, a pair of eyes walking
walking in the dark and the wind over broken earth

You think I don't know you've been living -
You are not present to yourself. God
I should trust you.
My arms full of playful rebellious linen, a freighter

Breathing to sustain
I recall out of my joy a night of misery
And language? Rhythms
suffers the void that is his absence

Read Write Poem - Get Your Poem On #112

2010-02-04T06:20:00.001-08:00

My weekly poem for ReadWritePoem has been birthed.

There is a lot more juice from this week's prompt, perhaps from any other I have shared in the past.

Enjoy!

(Photo credit - John Lee - the spot is "The Glen" in Glen Ridge, a favored haven in the town I grew up and is one of the featured spaces in "Before me")

Monday, February 1 - And I am Busy, Creatively

2010-02-01T13:35:00.000-08:00

I posted an entry at Julie Unplugged about my Writing - Anchor Art which was written toward the Creative Every Day theme of HOME. Check it out by clicking here.

My first attempt at writing an American Sandwich poem reads like this...

And let's not forget my first ride on the Poetry Train!

And yes, my 365 photos continue. It has been a wild and wonderful ride so far.

Unseen

2010-01-28T09:45:00.000-08:00

These visual prompts from ReadWritePoem continually work me. I don't know how each one is just the right balm for me... usually they look like just the right torture, actually - but when I meet the prompt and allow it to make its presence known... I tend to be grateful for what appears.

This poem was like stitching a quilt together. I gathered memories and words from the past... sought out a poem I wrote when this incident happened - one too painful to remember... and found some journaling from a month or so ago and brewed the pieces together and here you have it.
(Visual Prompt Image from Sepultre
at Flickr)

A Crooked "Handle-with-care"
Sign - Hand painted in
purple, girly-lettering
Hangs across her throat

Unseen

much like the invisible
to some fourth leg of
her chair: if he
had only reached with his
heart laced fingers
instead of the intellect
of a shattered other
He would have felt it

Unseen

There, right there
In the space between
his quoted "bullshit"
declaration and her
imploding eyebrows
and belly, he would have
felt that leg, piercing
through her core and

Unseen

He would have known that
in one single moment the
breath left their love
behind in its scent, not
its form: The Coyote smelled it,
the howl crying it into
the darkness

Unseen

Shadows, alone in mere traces of
shale-shell-locks-of-her-
hair-sewn-into-rosemary-
laced-gift-envelopes
for the now absent fourth
leg of their connection

There was nothing left
to teeter upon

Unseen

Vision Board - Collage, Art, Writing all Whipped Up

2010-01-27T13:09:00.000-08:00

I am working on Day 4 of 21 in The Whole Self's Creative Divine created by my friend, Nicola Warwick.

I am taking many more than 21 days! Oh, well. The 21 days started the day Mercury Retrograde ended and I am still shaking it off, apparently.

Today our task was to create a vision board.

How I am working this 21 Day Project is to read the prompt and let it ruminate for a bit before plunging into the task which accompanies each day.

Today, it is very image rich with fewer words, although there are plentiful a-ha's brewing... from the poetry I am blossoming to my theme and intention for the year - Tangible Soul - to my family and my business... this vision board is rocking me.

Here is some of the process for you to see, visually.

The process begins with cutting and for me, writing, collecting, and listening to the intuitive call to choose, to cut, to place and glue. I almost always start with writing. Not a surprise, I am thinking...

The left hand side of the journal - vision board. Can you see some famous faces, sans hair, bodies, etc?

They inspire me - and are reminding me of utilizing my senses to bring tangible soul to... tangibility. I also had an a-ha which I will relate to the music in this collage and the photo of Charles Bukowski (do you see him?)

Music is an intangible, when experienced... primarily.

And it creates an intangible which often brings things tangible. People create to music, people relate to music, people are inspired and motivated by music... yet it floats through the ethers.

It is the physical human making an intangible and then remixing or recirculating with the tangible. Still need to journal more on that - this is a PROCESS post after all.

This is the right hand side of the collage.

What strikes you about it?

I also gleaned from some of my folders and drawers of unused stuff which included some photos of me and my children. The childhood Julie with the dirty knees is a photo I especially love.

Tangible Soul.

Love that, love what this Vision Board is bringing out so far.

How Three Simple Words Impact, Inspire and Ignite

2010-01-27T08:37:00.000-08:00

Three word Wednesday: beacon, grieve, kindred.

These three words made me angry.

It felt like the 3WW had been poking around in my carefully guarded lingerie drawer, digging for fertile secrets amidst the not-well-worn silky blacks and lacy pinks.

How long ago was it I sat in a support group for parents who had lost babies and I found the women who were still grieving many years later pitiful, as a group. "I won't be like that" I sneered on the inside while my face wore a compassionate sorrowful mask.

I have become one of them and today, with this prompt, it pisses me off.

So I wrote a haiku.

Her words, a beacon

"You don't have to grieve alone"

Kindred, at long last....

Remind Me Why I Set Certain Goals, Please?

2010-01-25T11:52:00.000-08:00

"Write in recollection and amazement for yourself."

Jack Kerouac

Four years ago I would have thought I had fallen into a huge vat of self-indulgence-syrup if you had told me I would be beginning not my first, not my second but my third year of taking daily self portraits. I can hear my self-righteous indignation, "Come on, look at yourself, you are nothing special... you keep getting older, you never lose that weight you think about losing - why on Earth would you choose you to be a subject of anything looking remotely artistic?"

I don't even like looking at photos of myself. Looking at images of me staring back makes me nervous. I don't like doing it.

I can hear you now, muttering, "That makes no sense." A caveat in response to you - I never claim to make sense, by the way.

I knew when I started down this self-portrait road that devotion to my image would somehow help me grow. It has.

When I look at my first attempts at Flickr, I see one person.

When I look at my second, half-hearted and incomplete attempts, I see another person.

And in this third set, which I call "365X3" I see the me I am now: the me I am most comfortable with and whom I think is by far the most multi-faceted and interesting.

Then I think about my upcoming theater project. What was I thinking, exactly? I could not have possibly come up with something more different than "First Kisses", the show I am directing right now which opens in February.

Then I remember, "Oh, yes. Stretch as an artist. Don't be limited by societal standards."

And then there was that pesky, Goal Number 101 for 2010. Here's what I wrote:

101. Stretch cultural view of beauty in older and/or “imperfect” women… taking Dove’s campaign to the grassroots.

I prepared for read through and was nervous beyond words, nervous. Those pesky rambling words were at it again: "Who did I think I was, Colette?"

I knew what the script contained. Besides stretching creatively, I was going to experience several of my friends in different ways.

I should be at least somewhat used to this.

After all, I am known for being comfortable with who I am, in all stages and places and showing up... as a playful and "hippie-ish" person.

But when I show up as a hippie-ish person at the hot springs or with a photographer in Echo Park, I am creating solely for me.

I am not thinking "What will people think? Will this be horrid for my collaborators? Will they want to run, screaming, pushing me off the cliff labeled " this project?"

I need to return to my poetry. Curvy Truth, for example, which I wrote in response to these photos and others, taken shortly before a beloved friend's birthday. I had them taken by a complete stranger who was willing to create "ethereal, gritty" photos with me.

I never considered myself the least bit modelesque, but this was my body and I was creating this, for me. So that I could write, primarily.

The poem This is My Body, performed this Summer at Fishlips in the event Two Hours Inside was very well received and could only have been written after all this exploration I have done.

I just didn't ever realize an opportunity like this would come up.

Reminds me of what happens when goal-setting meets divinity - situations that seem completely remote wait, restlessly, for you to step into them, and when you do, everyone is rewarded in ways that reach beyond what you might know when you start.

I think I will hold onto that thought, and remember this moment perched on a rock at Remington.

Lessons from the Porch Desk: The Power Cords Teach Us

2010-01-25T10:14:00.000-08:00

Before today, when I looked in my photo frame and saw them taking up space in what I was attempting to photograph, I grimaced. "They are ruining my shot!" I lamented. "Why are they still there? New neighborhoods don't have power lines running through their skies, cluttering up the view"....

This morning, something shifted as I stepped through the door at sunrise to take my daily photo.

The power lines were still there, hovering in the horizon of the shot I used to think I wanted. Today, I saw the power lines as perfect. Instead of wishing them away, I focused upon them. I saw their beauty, their symmetry. I saw how they sliced through the sky, separating colors as if they were put in exaclty that spot divinely, like the towering linden tree or the low-to-the ground dandelions.

I sat at my porch desk and wrote along the blue lines in my notebook:

"What power do those lines carry on their metal corded backs?

"Is it the zap of electricity bringing light to Robert's calculus problem or Sally's aquarium as she looks in shocked disbelief that her favorite fish, Nemo, needs to be buried. Or, do those cords carry the voices of Uncle Barry pontificating or Katie hearing the bad news about Tim?

"Don't voices leap from tower to tower, instead?

"They don't need power lines anymore, I don't think, just like I don't need to have the strength to dangle upside down, hanging from my bent knees on the metal cord of the Carteret Park jungle gym, my ponytails grazing the sandy playground floor."

I looked up, wondering what notivated the Carteret Park, hanging-from-knees image, wondered why it popped up.

"When did these things change?"

I know I turned away at some point, stopped noticing the sunrise, stopped noticing the inexplicably poignant blue of the sky before many have seen it yet, so fresh and optimistic, my breath slows and my eye lids hold the tears which arise without warning. I turned again to see new beginnings and realized in that moment, the poignant blue sky matched the poignant blue in my eyes and my perspective.

I looked up and smiled into the ever-changing morning sky, grateful I took the time to watch it. Grateful I sat in the audience of the power lines, of memory, of the sunrise - an everyday miracle.

And Now You: Be open to everyday miracles today, waiting for your attention, your awareness, your gentle awakening.

What do you see out your window?

Give it the space to astonish you.

One Word - January 25, 2009 - YOGA

2010-01-25T09:07:00.000-08:00

My one minute timed writing today went like this:

WORD OF TODAY: YOGA

I wish I spent more time learning yoga. doing yoga. practicing yoga. Allowing myself to stretch and move, gracefully, moving in and out and around rather than sitting here, typing into the keyboard I should be sitting serenely, a single sunflower by my side, gazing and feeling my muscles, lengthier, surrendering.

Poetic Meanderings

2010-01-21T08:32:00.001-08:00

I have been haphazardly and somewhat half-assedly responding to poetry prompts this week.

I have surged past cranky and may soon land in the sea of diabolical.

My poem for "Three Word Wednesday"

My excuse for a poem in Get Your Poem On #110, ReadWritePoem.Org

Weekly Check in with Creative Every Day

2010-01-18T06:31:00.000-08:00

It has been an odd week but yesterday alone packed in enough creativity to stir my soul several times over.

I wrote a synopsis on Julie Unplugged.

Please check it out here

Duh Duh Duh Duh

2010-01-14T05:28:00.000-08:00

My contribution to this week's GET
YOUR POEM ON at READWRITEPOEM
may be found on my main poetry page:

Poetry from Julie Jordan Scott.

Thank you for reading!

So Much Creativity - Oh, for more focused time!

2010-01-13T07:55:00.000-08:00

My inspiration has been drawn from many sources lately - my Project365 (I am doing three of them!), Three Word Wednesdays, Creative Every Day, ReadWritePoem, and my brand new friends from One Word.

While I love it, I also am aware of my time limitations given the book projects and creative endeavors I am seeking to complete.

My challenge now? Completion while weaving in these creative bursts as well.

Please read some of the posts at JulieUnplugged to see what I mean.

Get Your Poem On #108

2010-01-07T06:20:00.001-08:00

Thursday has become, for me, "Get Your Poem On" day...

Which was, in fact, the genesis of this blog.

Here is the link to today's poem:

"Note to Soul"

Apparently I am meant to write poetry today

2010-01-06T10:13:00.000-08:00

I went to bed last night with three poems battling it out in my head.

I don't mind, most of the time, though this morning when a third word warrior (what is the female version of warrior, is there one?) appeared, I almost scoffed...

Until I wrote.

You may read my First Ever Three Word Wednesday Poem on my Poetry from Julie Jordan Scott blog.... by clicking here.

I have been a busy little creative bee

2010-01-05T12:25:00.000-08:00

And most of my creative play can be found on my Julie Unplugged Blog, which is housed here - at typepad.

I created this blog for content and even more for connection.

I value connecting with you... so I hope you will wander over to typepad and/or subscribe to my ezine or follow me on twitter. So many ways to stay connected... and my wish for 2010 is to be connected with more like-souled people...

2010 has been phenomenal so far. The well mannered me says "Don't brag about your Best Supporting Actress Award and the party and the trip to San Francisco and all those comments on your poems. Cut that out..." but I trust you have shown up here because you want to be inspired and know I am just an EverydayJulie like you are an EveryDayYou.

So glad you found me and are reading.

My Final Poem of 2009 - Thank you, Read Write Poem Folks

2009-12-31T14:54:00.001-08:00

I just posted my final poem of 2009.

I am completely satisfied.

I can't remember feeling quite
this at peace.

Blessed. Blessed. Blessed.

The photo at right is me, in the act of writing the poem.

To see the poem, go to the Poetry from Julie Jordan Scott blog - it is below these words.

New Painting In Progress

2009-12-30T11:15:00.000-08:00

For Creativity Every Day, 2010.

Read about its movement toward completion at the Julie Unplugged Blog.

Inspired by the Question from #Conscious 2010 :"What Roles Did I Play in 2009""

2009-12-30T05:47:00.000-08:00

What roles have I played in 2009? That photo to the right here shows me in costume to play the last role I played in 2009. Sister Veronica. to be precise. On stage - but I don't think this question is concerning herself with fiction, so I will try a different approach.

Well, overnight – from midnightish… 12:44 am to be exact until about 3:35 I played the role of the trusted, service oriented friend. Did I want to be there? Was my dream coming true in being there? No. And Yes.

How long has it been since I have been comfortable calling a friend up and out of bed in the middle of the night to take on a three hour long chore to take care of me? Never. I have never done that, made that request on someone’s behalf.

Well, unless you count Cornell rescuing us from Chamberlain this Summer, which wasn't in the middle of the night and was, sort of, pre-planned.

So I have played rescuer and a rescuee.

I have been a creator and a model.

An artist and a subject.

“You are such a hippie!” said Parker and Emma in a giggling duet.

“No, I am not a Hippie, I am just me.” I quietly explained, Hippie-Buddha like.

Roles are the things other people put on me and say, “Wow, that role looks great on you.” To which I choose to say “Thank you!” and keep humming my song.

I play roles on stage: characters, time periods, archetypes, sometimes comedic relief.

The rest of the time, I am just tangibly, whole-hearted and whole-souledly…. Me.

Please help me choose the just-right-photo...

2009-12-29T12:19:00.000-08:00

I participate in the festivities in Flickr Group Roulette - and I have posted the selections on my Julie Unplugged Blog (the blog where I normally do my creative play.)

Check it out and please, please, please vote... let me know there or here which makes you smile or giggle or think or feel the most....

Best09 Blog Challenge: Stationery, Anyone?

2009-12-28T08:04:00.000-08:00

Gwen Bell wants to know our Best09 ….Stationery on December 28.

When you touch the paper, your heart melts. The ink flows from the pen. What was your stationery find of the year?

I enjoy the simple things in life. It started unconsciously and then moved into necessity and now, it is by choice.

I love stationery stores, office supply stuff – back to school sales make me salivate and it takes everything in me not to go berserk for the new stuff, the new stuff, the new stuff!

This year, 2009, I returned to the old fashioned composition book as my favored journal. I found them for something like 49 cents at a discount store at a back-to-school sale in July and bought a whole bunch.

They have been my faithful companion ever since with part of my process being creating fanciful covers for them… well, painting and collaging their covers – which you see in the images here.

I thought a final punctuation mark on this particular #Best09 Blog entry would be to share the first sentence in each book.

The date on the first one says “December, no…JULY 26, 2009.”

“I am looking into the future, to the day after Katherine turns 18.”

August 15, 2009

“It is Saturday morning.”

October 1, 2009

“Welcome to October.”

November 21, 2009

“It is almost noon at my cluttered kitchen table and I return to the page, my pencil leaving its non-xeroxable faces against the paper: truths which refuse to be replicated.”

Mindfully Coming Home to Myself

2009-12-28T07:13:00.000-08:00

2009 has been an extraordinary year... on so many levels... perhaps even more than I am aware of as I type on this chilly end-of-December grey morning.

Yesterday I created a watercolor art journal cover for January, 2010. I imagine this particular journal will be more goal-sy with some art thrown in, more a mish-mash of work around the goals I set forth for this month, many of which include physical awareness of my body, which fits the Creative Every Day Theme.

Interesting, I was thinking this morning as I prepared to write this - how the Body and the Home - are so often interconnected. Maybe it is subconscious, but I definitely feel them, connected. Like my home is my body, my body is my home, and finding the core of my body is the same as finding my home and being in my home.

(A little existentialism as 2009 comes to its conclusion, eh?)

In case the words on the art aren't clear enough, they say:

Top left corner:

"Whoever you are, some evening take a step out of your house which you know so well."

~ Rainer Rilke

Bottom right, around the burned corner:

"Your eyes find it hard to tear themselves from the sloping threshold"

~ Rainer Rilke

Next to the tree:

"This is the year I am choosing to step, live, question and love differently."

~ Julie Jordan Scott (and)

above the second story windows on the house:

"Love the Question <3 Live the Question <3 Love the Question"

~ Julie Jordan Scott interpretation of Rilke

and the stepping stones to the front door of my childlike, ever present in my little girl art, complete with the smoke from the chimney....

They all bare the years of this decade... leading to the house marked 2010...

Oh, and along the outside of the house are the house numbers I have lived in...

2912 (Alta Vista Dr) 56 (Hawthorne Ave.) 33062 (De Soto Way) 1716-B (Argyle Ave) 229 (S. Kenmore)....

10 X 10 in January 2010

2009-12-27T13:08:00.000-08:00

One of my goals at 43things.com includes 10 successes and I took it out, exponentially.

I created an art journal cover to keep track of all my successes, which I am including here - both the "in process" and the "calling it finished version" and... finally... my list of 10.

1. 10 Walks of at least 10 Minutes in length

2. 10 Intentional Conversations with 10 Different people I love

3. 10 Days of Food Diary entries

4. 10 Sessions of Mindful Decluttering

5. 10 Days of the 5 Tibetans

6. 10 Days of 10 Minute Stretching

7. 10 Poems selected for publications

8. 10 Chapters edited

9. 10 New Works of Art

10. 10 Handwritten notes

Best09 Blog Challenge: Best Social Web Moment

2009-12-27T07:27:00.000-08:00

December 27: From Gwen Bell's Best09 Blog Challenge: Social web moment. Did you meet someone you used to only know from her blog? Did you discover Twitter?

The photos are: Jodi and I (in the belfry at John Muir's home! laughter!), Ti and I and Jan and I.

This Summer I met two women I had only known via the teleclasses I lead and the Yahoogroups we have been in as a result of those teleclasses. I have known these women for several years and yet meeting them, face-to-face, was so ultra cool.

I also met a friend from the social networking website 43things.com.

All the formalities were dropped and we dove immediately into the good stuff, you know?

First, I met Jodi. We decided to spend the morning at the John Muir home in Martinez, California. We have been writing together for years, so it seemed fitting that the place we would meet is the place John Muir wrote all his books.

Since I had the children with me (we were on our road trip, remember) I wanted to schedule moving-and-learning activities when I met friends rather than “lets sit in a Starbucks and chat” sort of moments. The John Muir home was the perfect place and we had a blast laughing and talking and photographing… we fell right into a delicious groove. She felt a little weird at first (surreal is probably a better word) but I was so close to heaven by that point, it was no big deal.

The night before, after all, I had met one of my friends from 43things.com. She had been a beloved for a long time and when I pulled into her driveway (again, with all three children) she was jumping up and down with glee. During that same day I had been to the college my Granny attended nearly eighty years ago and now, I was in the town where I first lived, as a baby, which just happened to be the town she lives in now.

I was on an emotional high that didn’t go away.

My children thought this was such fun, meeting these people who adored their Mommy and knew way too much about them… hey, I am a writer and they are some of my favorite subjects so naturally these “strangers to them” knew oodles about their lives. *Giggle*

It was two days later we arrived at a park for lunch where we met another friend from my writing life. Jan had prepared an outdoor lunch for us to munch on alongside her favorite river (she knew I am a river rat here in Bakersfield.) I think it was the Williamette River. We were late arriving there since we had to stop in Springfield, Oregon, to visit with anything Simpsons related (for Samuel).

Jan was a gracious host in her favorite park and once again, photos were brought out and pictures were taken, giggles were shared like little girls.

My daughter Katherine recalls those early days of our roadtrip with delight. “I loved meeting your friends and seeing how you responded to each other. You were all like little girls!”

A very high compliment, indeed.

A-Ha - The End of This Beginning - and Meaning It

2009-12-26T09:17:00.000-08:00

Today, from Gwen Bell's Best09 Blog Challenge:

December 26 Insight or aha! moment. What was your epiphany of the year?

It happened as I was in the midst of a Middle-of-the-Night texting session with my friend, Julia. I was pacing in front of the home of our couch surfing host, Cornell, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. (The photo I have included has Cornell and his girlfriend, Christa, along with my children - I fell in love with Sioux Falls during our visit. And Cornell and Christa, too.)

In the texting with Julia, as I paced and frowned and wondered, I wrote, “I feel like this year, 2009, is about completion for me. So much of my life has been about unfinished stuff – so close but so far – like stillbirth. I feel like this unfinished dream is the culmination of that and this year, 2009, is the end of that cycle.”

2009 continued with a different weight for me and has continued to be a bit of a roller coaster but more of a mindful roller coaster. I have never been so calm about whatever happens, happening, and when I say things like “It isn’t good or bad, it just is” I actually mean it.

They aren’t just words anymore.

December 25 of this and that

2009-12-25T20:01:00.000-08:00

I am behind on my best09 blog posts... and I am behind on my "Get Your Poem On" writing....

Here is a link to my most recent poem...

And I WILL catch up with my Best09 Blog Challenge posts, truly I will....

Read My #Best09 at Julie Unplugged

2009-12-18T09:36:00.000-08:00

I continue to SLOG away at Gwen Bells Best09 Blog Challenge.

I enjoyed yesterday's blogging (which just got done today) because... well, it had been challenging to me until I finally decided to turn to my favorite people for help and guidance:

My readers.

Help me out, please...

Get Your Poem On #105

2009-12-17T07:27:00.001-08:00

My motivation is flagging today YET I managed to pull together a poem I don't completely despise.

Read it here.

ReadWritePoem.Org Prompts Trudge Me Along

2009-12-10T05:47:00.000-08:00

I wrote from this week's prompt, again grudgingly:

Here it is. Be warned, photo of an adult nature is there.

This collage (the one in the photo) helped the writing process along.

Hooray - White Canvas Monday!

2009-12-07T08:38:00.001-08:00

It has been a rockin' roller coaster week of creativity.

I write a "this week in creativity" post over at Julie Unplugged.

I have posted my favorite photo of the week here, too.

Now I get to create all over again... woo hoo....

After a week of quasi-resting... yes yes yes....

Pomegranate Clackety Clack

2009-12-03T06:19:00.000-08:00

Today's offering due to the Poetics at ReadWritePoem.Org...

And the Mini-Challenge offering today (a short, grouchy Senryu....)

Hear me grumble and yes, see me write.

Mini Challenge from Read Write Poem... and Best Blog Challenge

2009-12-02T12:09:00.000-08:00

I did Art Every Day Month and thought "oh, no, what next?" and naturally fell right into the Best Blog 2009 Challenge.

I also have a new Poetry Mini-Challenge from ReadWritePoem.Org to deal with as well.

Not so wild about the topic, but am writing because that is what helps me to keep my knife sharpened, always.

Today's poem is "Remember to Forget"

Art Every Day Month Ends - Creavity Continues

2009-11-30T13:12:00.000-08:00

I have had a busy busy time this month, creating like crazy. I barely even mentioned my primary art forms - performing and prose writing. I am thrilled to report, though, this week I am in tech week for my final play of the year - and after that, I am going to be directing a play in February and then focusing on my daughter, Katherine, who is leaving for college in the Fall.

There will be roles when I elect to act again. I just need time to be with her.

So - this art every day month awakened my visual art self. On this last day, I focused on photography and a bit of poetry.

I added favorite couple photos, and remember to go to Julie Unplugged for the whole story.

Thank you for reading!

Phew on November 29

2009-11-29T13:02:00.000-08:00

Closing night for "Beyond Therapy" went great, even though I was running like a headless chicken for much of the hours preceding our final curtain.

I will miss this cast very much. It was truly a fine experience.

AND I created throughout the day. My favorite photos of the day are featured here, for you... and to read my musings on the Julie Unplugged blog, please take a moment to visit.

Have you ever made a leaf angel?

2009-11-28T09:33:00.000-08:00

Samuel did, yesterday - with a little bit of Mommy coaxing-coaching.

(He is such a good sport!)

Read all about my artful day yesterday - we are on our 28th day! by visiting here:

The Artful Life....

Day 27: Grateful for Art with Samuel and Dinner with Friends-Like-Family

2009-11-27T07:10:00.000-08:00

Beloved Ones:

I continue to be humbled by the comments on the poem I shared yesterday as a part of ReadWritePoem.Org's "Get Your Poem On" prompt. Thank you for those of you would read and commented and if you haven't had the chance and would like to read, please visit here now.

Today's Art Every Day post... oh, it made me smile. Making hand art with Samuel. Sweet moments like this don't come along everyday... or maybe, with intention, they do and they will.

Something to think about and "create my way into" today... and tomorrow... and the next and the next and the next....

I am grateful you are here and you are reading.....

Memory Showers bring new Art

2009-11-26T07:25:00.000-08:00

I spent much of yesterday and most of this morning bathed in recollection. I am grateful I have learned how to take what could be debilitating sadness and turn it into art, instead.

Check out what I did on my Julie Unplugged Blog

and my Julie Jordan Scott Poetry Blog....

Enjoy your holiday! Be blessed and be a blessing!

Day 25: It was Sludgy. Beyond Sludgy at times.

2009-11-25T06:41:00.000-08:00

But I did manage to create another piece of hand art, anyway.

Read about my adventures in sludge turned to cuddles on my Julie Unplugged blog.

I just wrote, just now, a modernized haiku, more on the sludge so I will "premiere" it here:

Grey. Sludge. Not. Today.

Did. You. Get. to. Work. On. Time?

Love. Amidst. Rubble.

Today's Morning Pages: Tomorrow

2009-11-24T07:42:00.001-08:00

Two haiku flowed off my pen and onto my morning pages notebook this morning.

hand held wheel barrow
Empty the tears she's crying
Salt stains the dry soil

Nudge Samuel from bed
"The bus will be here real soon!"
Sleep rubs off his eyes

I uploaded today's Art Every Day Month post, miracles abounding. I am so grateful I took on this challenge.

Want to see? Visit here.

I am trying to learn how this blog works, but its primary function is to link you back to my usual blogs while making it easier for me to post at BlogSpot, which always freaked out when I tried to leave comments in the past.

You know the saying from Einstein about insanity. I decided, "Awww, heck, create a simple blog presence and link back to the "Real!" stuff... or the "other" real stuff.

Have a glorious day.

After the Weekend...

2009-11-23T08:35:00.000-08:00

I am having a challenge getting started on this Monday Morning.

I am going to use my sure fire method for change - some movement, some music, some cinnamon and sugar toast. :-)

I love this self portrait I took yesterday - what do you think?

And finally - for my Art Every Day meanderings, this is the link to my Day 23 Meanderings.

I created this Blog to be a Portal to my other blogs, especially for Blogger Users

2009-11-21T08:10:00.000-08:00

I have had a sort of difficult time negotiating the comment posting on Blogger and Blogspot. Instead of fighting it, I decided to create this blog in order to link to my other blogs... and places of creativity - in hopes people will have an easier way to find my work.

So, without any further ado:

Today, I created some Zentangle Hand Art.

Read all about it on my JulieUnplugged Blog.