Remembering Gratitude for My Privilege
Monday 9/26/22
First a housekeeping note: As these are early days for this newsletter, this is the third one I’ve sent out in three days. (Yes, I’m feeling enthusiastic 😁) However, going forward, I will send out one newsletter a week, and if that becomes too much, I will send out one a month. And now… the newsletter ☀️💃🤸♂️🧚🏻♀️🌷🌈🌼🌺☀️🌿🍃✨🌟💖🙏🕊
My intention is to remember:
“Every day, think as you wake up: Today I am fortunate to be alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it.” —The Dalai Lama
And yet the other morning I woke up feeling cranky.
When I’m feeling less than peaceful, I find it helpful to do Julia Cameron’s Morning Pages. Just putting pen to paper, hand writing out whatever thoughts may be flowing through my mind, gives me an opportunity to simply observe those thoughts and not be identified with them.
Observing thought chatter is a practice that gives back. Perhaps with the introduction of teaching mindfulness in schools, more human beings will become more skilled with this practice. And who knows, maybe that will add to the number of people able to remember the simple joy of being alive. (for more on joy, see my Brevity article here: https://brevity.wordpress.com/2022/03/18/joy-and-spiritual-practice/)
When I remember, I practice deep gratitude for having the space to experience the natural world with all of my senses—seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, feeling—the same senses that are also engaged in vivid writing and storytelling.
Those who know me, know that I’m intrigued by how we live this human experience as spiritual beings. This includes noticing how the mind works, which is perhaps what I enjoy most about our Buddhist monk neighbors across the road—their meditation practices are all about observing the mind.
In my forthcoming book, THE RISING OF THE DIVINE FEMININE AND THE BUDDHIST MONKS ACROSS THE ROAD: A Memoir, I tell this story:
Jamie was the Executive Director of systems architecture at JP Morgan, I was V.P. of subsidiary rights at Penguin Young Readers, and when hiking the Tour du Mont Blanc—a 100 mile walk around the massif that straddles parts of France, Italy and Switzerland—Jamie experienced his first symptoms of a debilitating illness.
In the wake of his diagnosis and treatment of a malignant tumor around his heart, we escaped our high-stress lives to a decades-old log-cabin in the woods of Southern New Hampshire, where, serendipitously I was led to study world religions for two years in a local interfaith seminary program. Then, just as we considered moving back to New York City, a group of Thai Forest Buddhist monks moved in across the road and we were forced to reckon with the cost of buying into the overarching culture’s demand for high productivity and endless consumerism. Simultaneously, I experienced the scarcity of Buddhist nuns in the patriarchal hierarchical structure of our neighbors’ faith tradition, which gave rise to a need within me to practice claiming my own inner divine feminine authority.
~
I first heard the call to write in 2013. Since then, I have taken a multitude of writing classes, earned an MFA, and this summer I completed Suzanne Kingsbury’s genius Gateless Writing Academy—and again I’m deeply grateful to have the privilege of being time rich so that I can practice the art and craft of writing.
And… it’s taken all this time and writing practice for me to get to the point where I now believe in myself and my writing.
May you never stop believing in yourself.
You were born knowing what it is you came here to do and to learn.
Perhaps it’s the patriarchal paradigm that has perpetrated the idea that a successful writer is one who is published by one of The Big Five publishing houses. But what if with The Rising of the Divine Feminine, Writing as a Spiritual Practice is more about building community? An online community of those who are interested in connecting with their inner Divine Feminine (both women and men!) and connecting with each other in love and support.
How do we get through this human experience together? Eckhart Tolle’s wisdom teaches us that whenever we feel superior or inferior to another human, that’s our ego. What if this new era of the Rising of the Divine Feminine is about connecting with each other with our souls rather than our egos? Simply recognizing we’re all human beings looking to love, laugh, and live together?
In the interests of building a community of people interested in The Rising of the Divine Feminine and Writing as a Spiritual Practice, I invite anyone who may be looking for feedback for their writing, to leave a comment below and I will reach out to you by email. And here I will set a healthy boundary that this first offer will be for no more than 10 pages. But I’m looking forward to reading your writing and offering you Gateless feedback which focuses on the craft you employ in your writing—so often feedback about craft is more useful than just opinion. (Please note my qualifications include an MFA and experience teaching Writing as a Spiritual Practice, and working as a memoir writing coach.)
And last but not least, if you may be interested in reading a few chapters of my book, which is now ready to burst forth into the world, please also let me know in the comments.
Thank you for reading! 💖🙏🕊