Take Back Your Life!

Hey complex thinkers!

I intended to write about the Late, Great Penn Station. Then I picked up a greeting card with the quote, “Life is messy, wear a smock.” Can’t find attribution for it, so I’ll thank the company that designed the card for their genius: Seltzer Goods.

My childhood friend A. and I spent many summer days exploring the large stream in our neighborhood. I’ve mentioned it several times in essays. Although I was not familiar with the term “rebirth” as a small child, something about the clean, flowing water kept me coming back day after summer day. It fed my spirit, that’s all I can tell you. The other thing I can tell you is that I never left that river without falling in and getting my clothes “dirty.” Something about leaving dripping wet, covered in sand and dirt completed this rebirth process. If I didn’t fall in, I didn’t feel reinvigorated. (more…)

Hey wild things,

I’m curious how it came to be seen as normal for adult humans to be held captive in itty bitty work cubicles for eight+ hours a day. Do such bizarre conditions really promote workscapes conducive to thoughtful or innovative work?

Hardly. (more…)

Hey folks!

I’m going to be disobedient and start my post today with a shameless plug for my upcoming on-line essay writing class. To learn more about it, please click on “Secrets of Personal Essay Writing.” Once you learn the secrets, writing a publishable essay becomes a whole lot easier. My in-depth comments on your writing assignments are well worth the price of admission.

Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s talk about being a “grown up.” The title of this article is a quote by Andre Malraux, a french novelist. I found it in a fab book I’m reading called, “Last Child in the Woods.”  Real juicy if you like to hang out in forests, talk to animals or look at the stars. (more…)

Hey daring readers!

It’s interesting how we come into this world adventurous. Yet, over time become fearful due to societal conditioning. What’s the point of taking pretty fearless humans and fearasizing them? How does that make the world a better place?

I spent most of my childhood exploring the world within walking/biking distance. I waded in streams, climbed mountains, danced whenever I pleased, performed back flips of the diving board, galloped my horse through the woods, wrote creative stories, paddled down rivers, laughed constantly. My life was a daring adventure. I wanted to learn about everything. I wanted to experience everything. I wanted to wake up every morning and do something new. (more…)

Dear great idea folks,

I’m bombarded with great ideas. They flow freely through by brain and also freely out of my brain if I don’t write them down. So, I carry an “Aha” notebook around with me. Even wrote “Aha Notebook” on the front. I write essay ideas, column ideas, life shop ideas, recipe ideas, logo ideas, blog post ideas and anything else I want to remember, but know I’ll forget.

If you think about it, all the products you use and the songs you hear and the movies you see and the books you read, they all stared with someone’s “Aha” moment. The difference? That person acted on their “Aha” moment. (more…)

Hi all,

For today’s post, I decided to pick a random quote out of my quote book. Landed on some neat words from the psychologist and philosopher William James, “To change one’s life: Start immediately. Do it Flamboyantly. No Exceptions.”

Did some quick research. William is the brother of novelist Henry James (Turn of the Screw, Portrait of a Lady). What intrigues me is that William lived from 1842 to 1910, so even back then people wanted to wake up and change their lives. If you surf the Internet you may get the idea we are the first generation to be dissatisfied with the status quote. Clearly that isn’t the case. Feeling hemmed in by one’s circumstances has been around for a long time. We just like to think we are somehow more emotionally advanced.

Why is it so hard for humans to changes their lives, to live flamboyantly?

Interestingly enough, I got in trouble for dressing flamboyantly at my first job out of college. I wore big earrings and really bright orange and yellow floral patterns, purple, lime green, etc. My boss took me to breakfast one morning and said, “You dress too flamboyantly.” I knew right then I needed to find another job and that the conventional work arena was going to conflict with my personality.

Why are we supposed to tone ourselves down at work? Will that make us work better or make us more controllable? I never quite understood the “dressing down” philosophy.

I’m curious if this quote speaks to you. Are there ways you could live more flamboyantly or would you rather keep your life the way it is?

Muse thx, Giulietta

Hey out of the ordinary folks and wishcasters,

If you’ve got any kind of blogger’s block, Jamie Ridler’s Wednesday Wishcasting will take care of it. Sometimes it’s easier for writers to write when they’ve got a prompt. I’d like to learn how to see every situation from both sides, to have the superpower of empathy. The Free Dictionary defines empathy as, “the ability to sense and understand someone else’s feelings as if they were one’s own.”

Even as I write this it occurs to me that further developing this emotional superpower will aid me in my oil painting. At the moment, I’m painting a close in shot of several colorful carousel horses (like some other wishcasters, I grew up riding horses and have found them appearing in many of my paintings. Perhaps a longing to own a horse again?). What if I did a painting where I try to paint from the perspective of whatever I’m painting? What is the carousel horse thinking? Or is it me or some part of me? Am I the subject of everything I paint? Are you?

That ability to get inside of anything we do creatively, write, paint, sculpt, craft, collage might take us to a new level of artistic freedom. I’m going to give it a try … How about you?

Muse thx,

Giulietta

If you want to become a better writer, write as much as you can. It’s like any other endeavor: Practice, while it may not make perfect, makes a very good imperfect. And the best writing is imperfect.

Perfect writing never gets published or finished because there’s no such thing. Sometimes sending an essay or article to an editor is the best thing you can do for a piece of writing. Many times, I’ve hit the send button only to simultaneously realize as my essay hurtles through cyber space that the ending made no sense.

The editor usually shares my revelation by sending me a rejection. I toss the rejection into the virtual trash, bask in my newfound humility, rewrite the ending and send it somewhere else.

Sometimes you need to let go of a piece of writing to find it.

Happy writing to all of you!

Muse thx, G.

p.s. I’m teaching an essay writing class in August. Click here for more details!

Secrets of Essay Writing

I’m 3/4’s of the way through a writing class. It’s called The Art of Storytelling. Useful class for writers, storytellers, screen writers and even business owners who give talks. You’ll hold the attention of any audience if you can learn to tell a compelling story — a story where the central character changes in some way. This could a story you’re writing about a fictitious character or a story you’re telling about how one of your business clients benefited from your program.

It’s called the transformation. Without a transformation, your story will fall flat. No one will care. That’s a big problem with a lot of talks – the speaker leaves out the transformation. The audience has no idea how you can help them get from emotional point A to emotional point B.

Put together my first essay writing life shop: Secrets of Personal Essay Writing. Been taking classes myself for years, been published in some good publications, been thinking about doing this for awhile.

So, now it’s done.

At first I resisted writing essays until a friend described them as “conversations” with a friend. The best ones read and sound like an intimate talk, the kind where you reveal yourself, like you do with a good friend.

Holding back, being afraid of revealing yourself makes it impossible to write something worth reading. I like to get things off my chest, because if you keep them on your chest they weigh you down like a concrete block. Your soul just keeps sinking to the bottom of whatever your wallowing in.

What can you reveal today?