Here we are notebooks in hand, pencils freshly sharpened and a new pack of 24 Crayola Crayons ready to face the classroom again. I know, I know many of us haven’t seen the inside of a classroom in quite some time. But doesn’t the calendar page turning from August to September automatically take you back to getting ready for school? With the weather we’ve been having on the Coastside I’ve defintely been thinking Indian Summer - without the glorious oranges and reds of the Fall leaves, but with lots of unsually warm temperatures.

The air is deliciously full of possibility this time of year; a pre-schooler is suddenly entering elementary school, a shy child has discovered her peers and bounds into middle school, an awkward adolescent has blossomed overnight into a high school student who will soon disappear into the “real world!”  And it occurred to me that we are all those individuals every time we step out to try something new as “students of life.”

I am so grateful that I have the ability to tap into my creativity to help me cope with the challenges I encounter along the way. Being able to dream, to hunger for something more, to risk falling by reaching beyond my grasp for new experiences and stepping into the unknown. What shall I be today? The options are just too exquisite and I’m hugging myself in anticipation.

I wish you freshly sharpened pencils, pages of unblemished paper, a wild pallet of pigments and time to create a splendidly educational opportunitity for yourself - as only you can…

I attended a workshop recently where we were asked to tell as many people as we could what we were passionate about in five minutes. There were 60 of us in that hotel ballroom, but I only managed to talk to two people. The first woman I spoke with nodded in agreement and said “Cool,” when I recited my line: I’m passionate about encouraging women to use Creativity as a healing tool. She said she was passionate about going to a game in Yankee Stadium before it gets torn down. She was quite serious.

The next woman I spoke with said she was passionate about her 2-year-old son. I said it must be hard to leave him for our five day conference. She said “yes, I miss him so much!” and asked what my passion was. I told her and her immediate response was, “I don’t have a creative bone in my body.” To which I immediately launched into my usual line of questions.

Do you like to cook?

No, I don’t know where my kitchen is!

Do you like to garden?

I live in an apartment and I have a black thumb.

Do you ever read a map and choose a different route to travel?

Do you try new things?

Do you take risks?

Are you adventurous?

Well, that I can say I do, she said warily. But, I’m not creative. I don’t paint and I’m not crafty.

OK, she conceded, then I guess I am Creative!

What about you? After all this discussion you have to consider yourself Creative too!

It was a gorgeous summer day today and I found myself needing to be outside. I took a blanket, a cup of tea and settled on the deck chair to see what the afternoon would bring me. Soon all my senses were engaged. I was entertained by the gentle breeze making the leaves on the trees dance and the birds playing tag in the branches of the lemon tree heavy with ripe fruit. The sweet scent of spent roses greeted me as I buried my nose in the flower and the soft velvet of the falling petals brushed against my skin. My tea has never tasted more delicious than this afternoon while I was being lavished with Nature’s affection.It was very, very pleasant to sit in the garden without an agenda or specific task to accomplish. Lately, I’ve been consumed with some very ambitious projects and while I have accomplished a great deal, there are other tasks I have not been successful in completing. I have been letting myself become caught up in a cycle of overwhelm and disappointment. I have to remember that every morning is a brand new day and all I have to do is to just keep showing up with gratitude, love and joy in my heart and remember: All I have is all I need.

I hope you have a chance to stop and smell the roses, sit in the garden, or watch the waves roll in, and consider how with tapping into our Creativity we have more than enough to handle whatever life has in store for us. See you in the garden…

Since my last dispatch I have had numerous incidents to write about, yet I have not. My reasons are frustrating, exciting, tedious, and just plain boring. Life happened and I’ve been running from one project to another at warp speed. Here are some of the occasions which have consumed my attention:

1. Launching is the Simple Abundance Close-to-Home Workshops:  Overcoming the stress factor  is my motivating argument to encourage women to sign up for the workshops. However, this has not been the case and despite my best positive thinking approach and the  encouraging advice of “just set a date and people will sign up,” to my disappointment, I have not had anyone sign up for a workshop - as yet.

2.  WNBA-SF Gala and the WNBA National meeting:  The flury of activity of preparations and overseeing that long-anticipated weekend consumed my thoughts for almost a year. When the time finally arrived, I was amazed at how calm I was and delighted in the fact I could step up to the microphone without notes and welcome 87 people for dinner as if I did it all the time. It ultimately was a fun evening, but I’m so glad it’s over!

3. The Journal Writing Conference in Denver immediately followed the WNBA weekend and I got to spend time with my sweet friend Cindy and get reacquainted with my first writing teacher, Christina Baldwin.

4. I was the subject of an interview, instead of the other way around, and it was a very heady experience. I liked it. Now, in addition to my writing samples I have a file of stories about me!

5.  I’ve been invited to write a column for an on-line magazine and to choose the subject matter I wanted to write about. Of course, it will be about Creativity and it’s healing properties.

Well, it seems I have lots of material to keep writing about here so stay tuned, Dear Readers. I’ll be back… 

It would seem a farmer’s daughter would have more affinity with the earth, but alas that has never been my story. Planting a garden full of vegetables has never appealed to me and having dozens of thriving house plants has not been my good fortune. My mother used to refer to the tangles of indistinguishable green vines which lived on a chrome utility cart as her “jungle.” It subsisted on intermittent watering so that it was either a rain forest or desert and absolutely no plant food of any kind. I guess I’ve taken after her in that respect because plants that come into my home have little chance of survival if they do not possess a strong sense self-preservation. But I do believe the house, indeed everyone in our home, is happier when there are healthy green plants. Consequently, I am a very good customer of the local nurseries. I have very good intentions when I purchase plants for inside and outside my home. However, I did not inherit the “farmer” gene. (Thankfully, my brother did inherit it as the family farm is his livelihood.)

I took myself to the local nursery not too long ago to refresh the plants in the house and change the landscape in the pots by the front door. I took my time wandering the aisles of scented lavender, sprawling hydrangeas, scented geraniums and tailing ivy. Enjoying fantasies about all the wonderful combinations of plants I’d like to see in my surroundings made me smile and sigh. Some day I would love to have a trellis loaded with sweet jasmine in my garden so the heavy perfume would penetrate every cell of my being as a lie in the sun in a hammock, sipping lemonade and reading something wonderful. Turning the earth in big clay pots gives me a sense of of connection with my Minnesota roots. Right now I’m content having Martha Washington Pink Geraniums greeting me when I approach my front door.

A visit to your local nursery may start you on a Creative journey as well. What about lingering in the floral department at the grocery store, sitting on a park bench enjoying the sun on your face, or stopping to smell the roses..what will be your first step towards a getting next to Nature Creative excursion be?

I am a Change Agent. Last weekend I attended the Women on Writng Conference at Skyline College. By the way, if you’ve never had the opportunity to attend the conference, mark your calendar for the first Saturday in March 2009 and you’ll be glad you did. They have fantastic speakers as well as giving you access to dozens of talented writers and authors. The break out sessions offer hands-on writing experience for the benefit of not only aspiring writers and also thoughtful discussion for the most sophisticated reader as well. This year’s keynote speaker,  Rachel Naomi Remen used the term  ”Change Agent” and I immediately recognized my mission…my passion…to create conditions of discovery thru my workshops. Rachel is the author of wonderful books of magical stories of healing such as Kitchen Table Wisdom. Her words reminded me that as a Creativity Mentor I am also a Collaborator of Dreams. I am in a unique position to collaborate with people by supplying an environment where they may allow themselves to dream. My intention is to offer women a chance to slow down and catch their breath, and yes, even dream a little through Creativity Workshops and the Simple Abundance Workshops. Rachel also said, “we are more than our Physiology and we can heal even though we may not be cured.”  That just gave me goose bumps. It was further confirmation of my message we all can benefit from using Creativity as a Healing Tool. Collage, writing, gardening, painting, cooking, knitting, even stamp collecting - they all contribute to our well-being.  The healing efforts that we make on our own behalf are much more powerful prescriptions than any medicine from a conventional pharmacy. To be honest, we are all Change Agents.I know the title sounds a bit daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. The changes I’m suggesting don’t have to be huge. It can be starting a meditation practice one minute at a time, or stopping to admire a budding tree instead of rushing past from the parking lot into the office. A simple gesture with tremendous impact. What will you choose to be the slight alteration to your norm?…