Every now and then I manage to do something that is life changing.  I don’t always go into it expecting that – sometimes it is just in response to intuition that says:  go!  I shouldn’t say “just” – being in touch with my intuition has never done me wrong.

Fall of 2014 I first attended Patti Digh’s Life is a Verb Camp, in Hendersonville, North Carolina (where it will be held again this year).  The great thing about Camp is that it keeps on giving as we all stay in touch on a private FB page and through FaceBook public pages.

I met Mary Anne Rachmacher that first year, attending her “Make Your Own Symbol” workshop.  I did, indeed, make my own symbol and it continues to inform my creativity.  Recently, she posted an interesting creation of words – as in word(s) for the year) – only she added color.  She got such an amazing response to that, she did a quick video on how to (I want to learn quick how to videos!).  She responded on my FB page to my question about the process by saying it is mostly intuitive.  Invitation to play in my world!

At this year’s Life Is A Verb Camp in Monterey, CA, I took a workshop with Danna Schmidt on “verbing” the word “compassion” (one of the Camp themes). Danna teaches and for this exercise I followed intuitively picking verbs for each letter of my two words, courage and persistence.   In a private correspondence about words for the year, Danna notes:

 The way to keep your word alive is to art it, chart it, smart it and heart it. Seriously, my words become necklaces (Liz Lamoureux makes mine each year), I decorate garden stakes but you could make a spirit stick. This year I’ll be creating a larger talking stick. And I do my soundtracks, my vision boards, you name it. All powerful ways to help keep the word alive. This year for the first time, I’ve tacked an element onto it. Powerful stuff. I encourage you to stick with it.

So I was reminded to choose a soundtrack for my year, and decided to go with “Gimme Shelter” as done by Playing

for Change.  And so I downloaded it to my IPod too.   I think I want to explore this life “soundtrack” idea further.  And it certainly doens’t hurt to have ideas for vision boards throughout the year.  Why this soundtrack?  Because I love that it is a world wide get together and it is an amazing version.  And because the lyrics are so pertinent to today’s world.

I love that I have so many creative people in my life, near ( the amazing artgalpals) and far.  My life is so much richer and deeper and vibrant for all of them.

So I have words – the main ones and components of the main ones, music, vision board inspiration and now on to quotes.  If you have visited here for years, you know I once did Wylde Women Quotes for every blog (which I was doing daily then).  I’m going to reintroduce that habit to my writing this year, as I love all the quotes I have, and have gathered many more excellent ones since I stopped that practice.  Tho I don’t plan on blogging every day!

And why stop there, why not a book?  I started the year off with David Whyte’s Consolations, after just finishing Jack Kornfield’s After the Ecstasy, the Laundry.  The latter has had a huge impact on me and I want to go back and work through it slowly.  But then I received my (second – my first has gone missing) copy of Life Is A Verb by Patti Digh and I also want to work back through that.  So much good stuff (and it will all inform my Wylde Women’s Wisdom quotes, you can be sure) and so little time.

How have you started 2016?  What are your hopes for the year?  And isn’t it lovely to have a whole weekend to think of these things!

Wylde Women’s Wisdom

“…you will never be able to create anything interesting out of your life if you don’t believe that you’re entitled to at least try.  Creative entitlement doesn’t mean behaving like a princess, or acting as though the world owes you anything whatsoever.  No, creative entitlement simply means believing that you are allowed to be here, and that – merely by being here – you are allowed to have a voice and a vision of your own.  Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic:  Creative Living Beyond Fear