A New Welcome Page

Good morning beloved reader and welcome new subscribers,

Just for fun, I’m thinking that every so often I’ll create a new Welcome Page along with a variation on the theme of the Rising and Re-claiming of the Divine Feminine in both interior and exterior realms, and this time I’m doing so in a way I hope may make you smile. Starting with including this image below to evoke your inner wild and free, Divine Feminine joy🤩

And perhaps the theme for this new Welcome page is also about cultivating the courage to be who you are, even if that does not meet with everyone else’s approval.

A writer, to whose Substack I recently subscribed, reached out to me on email to introduce herself. She wrote:

“It was the description of your stack that got me:

“A writer and ordained interfaith irreverent-reverend; embracing the paradoxes in our human experience, while subversively re-claiming the divine feminine to bring back the balance, and recognize the spiritual perspective of our ecological crisis."

She went on to praise what she had read of my Substack and I was hooked. I also love my above description😂 and her note appealed to my ego😁

We exchanged emails, then a few days later she wrote to tell me about a small independent press with whom an author she knew had published. I thanked her, and she asked for my thoughts about getting one’s writing out there in the world, and living the writer’s life.

Perhaps my response below may be of benefit in this community too:

Thank you for asking for my thoughts. My sense is that each and every writer will live their own version of the writer’s life, and what may be right for one, may not be right for another. I’m a proponent for trusting your gut and following your instincts. As a writer I believe we are simply conduits for whatever Life/ the Universe/ Consciousness/ the Force — whatever words you may choose to point towards that power and stillness that is greater than ourselves — as writers, we’re simply finely-tuned conduits for this energy to flow through.

And I believe in divine guidance; that the book knows what it wants to be; and that the writing will reach the readers it needs to reach.

Having said all of that, my own ego still pops up sometimes and wants my writing to reach millions of readers. And that’s okay too. I was given a healthy and strong ego for a reason 😉 but I do try to remain aware of it and not identified with it.

And because I have this healthy and strong ego, that likes to quote myself 😆 to try to make sure that neither I, nor others, are subjected to the shadow and tyranny of my ego (which includes the Inner Critic) I’ve investigated and explored in-depth, the spiritual principle of witnessing, not identifying with ego, also known as observing your humanity from your divinity. You can read about this in THE BOOK, especially in Chapter 17. The Bhagavad Gita and Healing, New Hampshire, May 2013.

You may also find this section of my 2016 MFA critical thesis to be of benefit: The Spiritual Aspect of Writing Memoir: How We Find Stories in Our Quest to Find Meaning. And please don’t hesitate to peruse other sections of this Substack, including my 2017 MFA Graduating Lecture: How We Find Stories in Our Quest to Find Meaning.

~

And one more note.

To all female readers: below is a video I want to share that may light you up and bring you joy, and to me, speaks to that energy of the Divine Feminine we all embodied as little girls, which may have been suppressed somewhere along the way when we were culturally conditioned by the patriarchy. But now let’s celebrate the Rising and Re-claiming of the Divine Feminine, and remember that little one who is still within each one of us.

To all male readers: May you also celebrate this Rising and Re-claiming of the Divine Feminine energies within your own being, which will help to address the spiritual aspect of our ecological crisis. By you also tuning into the Divine Feminine, especially by honoring our beautiful Mother Earth, together we will ultimately bring back a harmonious balance to our amazing planet.

Here’s to connecting with our inner joy🤩✨🦌✨🧚‍♀️🤸‍♀️🌼🌷🌈🌺🪷💕☀️😎💃🕺☯️🥰✨🌟💖🙏🕊️

~

If you’d like a more detailed description of what this Substack is about, please read my About Page here.

Thanks for reading, and for walking with me on this writing journey, and the journey of having a human experience as a spiritual being.

And for “Dreaming into Being the More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know is Possible” (I have such adoration for this title of Charles Eisenstein’s book.)

p.s. Jamie just brought up the mail from our post box at the bottom of our long and steep driveway, which included a royalty statement for The Mini Book of Mindfulness by yours truly. I feel compelled to share my enthusiasm for how many readers’ hearts this little book continues to touch.

Since its publication by Running Press/Hachette in 2016, as of December 31, 2023, it has now sold more than 52,000 copies!

Thank you to all readers who invest your time and energy to learn and practice spiritual principles that help to ease suffering — both your own suffering, and that of others.

The Mini Book of Mindfulness — literally 3” x 3.5” — is available for purchase here.