Janice MacLeod's Blog, page 4

It is March and there are hints of spring in the air. The ground is still frozen, snow everywhere, but the sun is warm mid-afternoon. This week, I found myself standing out at the bus stop waiting for my kid with my face toward the sun soaking up the rays.

My house is great in so many ways but it lacks one thing: a chair in a quiet corner with a view to the backyard. We don’t have a window facing the backyard at the right height so it would take a massive renovation to get a perfect perch by the window.

I find myself slinking away from the incessant TV sounds and looking for a place to sit quietly with my coffee, my notebook, and silence.

Hello silence, my old friend.

The roomies probably turn up the TV to drown out the sound of the typewriter.

Despite the HINTS of spring, we had another ice storm last night. This morning all is covered in a crust of ice. I don’t mind winter, but most of the joys come from cozy inside activities and looking out the window at the snow squalls, which makes my lust for a chair by a window all the more intense. Seeing the chaos outside makes the inside all the more indulgent.

I’m tired of wet socks.

Everyone who lives in a winter climate has to deal with stepping in a puddle of melted snow from shoes at the entrance of the house. A lifestyle choice… having wet socks. Rarely wet enough to change. Just wet enough to remind you of your lifestyle choices.

Santa Monica was a dream in this regard.

When I lived in Santa Monica, there was no getting ready to go outside. You just… walked out the door. Bare legs, exposed toes, forgetting your cardigan and shrugging… who cares.

I miss my outdoor seating zones. 

We have a fantastic front porch, excellent side porch, and wonderful backyard… but all are outdoor seating and no fun in winter for sitting, sipping, and staring off.

To distract ourselves, we have been discussing a vacation.

A possible trip to Paris. It has been way too long. There was a time I only dreamed of going to Paris. Now it is the obvious choice. The baby, the cancer, the surgeries thereafter, the stupid Lyme disease (honestly!?!?!), and pandemic have conspired to keep us huddled at home.

It is amazing how far one will go to get a chair by a window. 

Paris… a whole city devoted to chairs by windows with a view. Writing books in Paris is almost cliché, but it’s because of THE CHAIRS…. BY THE WINDOWS… ALL OVER THE PLACE. People think writing books is some grand mystical thing. It has a lot to do with chairs and windows.

If you set the scene and sit there long enough, ideas are more likely to waltz in.

Ideas are shy… they need coaxing.

I wonder to myself if I had a chair by a window what books would come from it?

My books started in journal writing in cafés in Paris. They were edited at my countertop. Best to avoid views whilst editing.

If you’re curious about improving writing, consider the environment. You can also get the ball rolling with one of my writing courses.

I popped a new bunch of Paris Letter bundle subscriptions over at the shop. Someone who had the original set wanted more so I curated the stack into six darling little 12-letter bundles.

If you can’t have that Paris view, you can slake your cravings with letters written while looking at it.

Who knows. The letters might inspire a trip to Paris and the search for that literary holy grail: the perfect window with a view.

Someone has already told you gratitude lists are a good idea. Seems gratitude lists are the ultimate solution to feel… well, to avoid feeling anything but popsicle saccharine fake feels.

(But if you want the one above, click here. I admit, it is quite clever and cute.)

Look, I don’t want to make waves, but hear me out.

Stop defending your little bedside table collection of gratitude journals.

The good part:

Gratitude lists have become a popular tool for boosting mood and improving mental health. The idea is simple: write down a list of things you are grateful for each day, and focus on the positive aspects of your life. You get a nice little dopamine hit before you sink back down to the doldrums. The idea is to keep up with the gratitude lists to raise your base level emotions from WORST DAY EVER to CHEERFUL or at least FINE.

Simple enough, and yet, not really.

Because… the bad part:

Gratitude feels like a lot of pressure to always be happy and content. Gratitude can disguise itself as the inner parent pointing at your face and saying “Put a smile on that face!” or “Stop crying!” or my personal fave “Stop crying or I’ll give you a real reason to cry.”

HIDE EMOTIONS, PRONTO. 

If you’re struggling with negative emotions, especially now during the February Blues where despondency and boredom and heaviness reign supreme, having someone hand you a gratitude journal is irritating and discounts your true emotions.

“Put a smile on that face!”

Which doesn’t make us feel better. It makes us not want to hang out with that person.

In conclusion, while gratitude lists can be a useful tool for some, it is important to remember that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to mental health and well-being, despite what your bossy friends tell you. And if it doesn’t work for you, you’re not defective or need to judge yourself for not doing it right.

You can do any of these 3 things:

Add that person to your Shit List for a time. They might be better as happy June friends. They just don’t excel at being February friends.Light a scented candle and use the flame to burn your gratitude journal.Try writing down or reviewing what is actually happening, not just the good stuff.I like to do the OLD MAN MEDITATION.

This is when I sit still and close my eyes. I imagine myself as an old man walking out of the house he has lived in for a very long time. By now, he’s figured out most things. He surveys his yard, his house. He’s content with it. He also sees projects that need to be done. He also sees the failed dreams, what didn’t work out. It’s not a cottage by the sea. There is not a fancy car in the driveway. He accepts it all. He breathes it all in.

Then he goes back in the house and gets on with it.

I also like writing in my journal while listening to The Wong Janice play cello on YouTube.

Let us gaze at the nice colour combination on her shirt that matches the cello so nicely. Lovely!

Leonard Cohen once said he liked feeling morose. That’s where all the good writing was lurking. Imagine what we wouldn’t have if he was handed a gratitude journal. No Hallelujah! 

Now is about the time we forget our resolutions for the year, which is why I thought I’d stop by your inbox to help you get back on track… not that we remember exactly what our resolutions were that we were so keen on.

Hint: It probably had something to do with health and/or wealth.

Those two juggernauts.

A juggernaut is a literal or metaphorical force regarded as merciless, destructive, and unstoppable.

Ain’t that the truth.

Now is when we think “Oh yeah, resolutions… pft… it was a trend back in… what… three weeks ago?”

Those old days, three weeks ago when we were so SURE that this year it would all work out. Just need a bit of grit, clarity, and resolution magic to get a jumpstart on health and wealth.

I’m definitely one of those “Do ya have a resolution yet? Do ya? Do ya? Do ya?!?!?!?”

hanging head in embarrassed self-awareness

I have been thinking about 2023 since November 2022 when I did a big clear and reshuffling of my journals from the year. You may recall at this time, I also was gifted a course called The Elegant Art of Feminine Confidence by Erin Kurt, which coincided with a book called You are a Badass by Jen Sincero.

Basically how to be a bad ass at the elegant art of feminine confidence.Or the elegant art of feminine bad assery.

I wasn’t expecting them to work so well together but they did. With both, I was meditating and reactivating my glow…. raising the ol’ frequency. In this process, I found that my real resolution for last year was about fixing broken things.

Not just my body from all the surgeries and diseases… I’m fine now, thanks. And glowing! But I started fixing all the other crap that was broken… the car brakes, the clock, the sluggish internet, the old computer. All the junk that collected and hung around my TO DO lists, thereby dragging me down like albatrosses around my neck.

I wasn’t creating as many courses, books, blogs, ANYTHING… because the computer was acting like it was in 1999. (though healing from surgery didn’t help either, especially the brain fog… what was I saying again?)

Once that list was done, it coincided with my trip to the doctor who gave me permission to go forth full steam ahead in all activities. Healed body… YES… healed car… YES… healed computer and Internet… YES and YES.

I had been hesitant to bounce or stretch or lift or move for fear of unraveling his handiwork but now I was free to YOGA my way through the day.

I warrior posed my way to the grocery store and came upon SEED PACKETS.

It’s January, people, in Canada, and there are SEED PACKETS for sale at the grocery store.

But those seed packets are the same as our New Year’s resolutions. They are full of promise. They are a handful of hope. They are little envelopes of determination. And that’s the same thing we feel on January 1st. Turns out, I had spent last year fixing all the things, and that set me up nicely to hunker down and create the burning desire projects. I think it will be an art journaling course.

So go get yourself some seed packets to remind yourself of why you are going to to THE THING this year. It is HAPPENING.

In the words of my wise friend Pete McCormack, “Let the seeds of love fall where they may. Let God take care of the rest.”

P.S. Two things… Pete’s YouTube channel is a very good acre of cyberspace.

P.P.S. Last chance for this beauty over at Amazon:

The post Last year’s resolution is this year’s secret sauce first appeared on Janice MacLeod.

I am often floored by the bad advice by English teachers about writing a book. They say this:

Come up with an ideaWrite an outlineWrite the first draftEdit it (aka the second draft)Done

If I actually followed this advice I would have taken all my writing dreams and packed them in the back of a deep, dark closet. Imagine sitting in a classroom and being asked to “Come up with an idea and write an outline.”

Hide!

Hide under a rock, in a closet… wherever… just run as far away from the page as you can!!!!

If you’ve ever considered the romantic notion of writing a book, here are a few tips that, shockingly, no one is talking about:

Journal writing. I know. I know. I go on about it. Yet one must get warmed up for the task. Journal writing warms up your inner narrator voice, plus the more you write, the more likely ideas will flow.

“But I have nothing to write about.”

I never NEVER NEEEEEVVVVVEEEEERRRRR have something to write about before I sit down to write in my journal. And I write books for a living. All the books start as journal entries about nothing much.

Journal writing warms you up and gets you started on creating a CONTENT LIBRARY.

Start a Content Library. This is a collection of:brilliant bits that come out of your journal entriesnice notions you’ve thought while reading other thingsinteresting things you’ve learned as you walk around this worldnice turns of phrase you’ve overheardjokes you’ve devised with your sinister mindRead read read. Our inner narrators like reading. Reading is like handing your inner narrator booze. They get chatty after they’ve had a few books to drink.Open a document on your computer. This seems obvious, but people think you don’t need a keyboard to write a book. You need a keyboard and screen. Don’t limit yourself by clicking along on your phone. Small device. Small ideas. Big screen. Bird’s eye view. Shuffling will be required. For an 80,000 word book, I’ve probably had to write around 110,000 words. Why do that on a phone? Why do that to yourself? (Also typewriters count. A full keyboard. People have written entire books on typewriters up until recent times, as most of us have forgotten.)Jot down the gems. Type the good bits from your journal writing and content library into the document. Link thoughts together.Open the document often. Make a practice of opening the document to sit in front of it and BOOM. Ideas will come. Your inner narrator will go quiet if all you do is futz about on your phone all day.Add more content. Keep the document alive by adding to it consistently. I’m finding that CONSISTENCY is the life skill we most need to get things done. Consistent exercise. Consistent vegetables. Consistent sleep. Think of your document as a garden. You can’t just plant a few seeds and expect much. You have to water, weed, add, maintain the document consistently.Keep rereading what you’ve written. Prune, pluck, add, rearrange.Link thoughts together. You start with a scene… it doesn’t have to be the first scene in the book. A scene. Then you build out from there. You write another scene. You build out from that scene. Then eventually you link scenes together.Try not to bore others. A book is actually an entertainment device. Even text books. The reader must get what they came for. Try to avoid boring them to tears. Add a lot of line breaks. Short chapters are nice. Dialogue is nice. Big blocks of text is… zzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Sure, there are professors that go on about making an outline, but who knows how to do that when they don’t even have much of an idea? For me, outlines have only happened after I’ve written over half the book. OVER HALF of the book… then I go, Ah, I see where this is going. So don’t tire yourself on coming up with an outline. Write the outline later, once you’ve written something to rearrange into an outline. See how that works?

If you’re serious about writing a book as part of your list of New Year’s Resolutions, I offer up my three writing courses:

A WRITING YEAR: Perfect for when you don’t know where to start. This course includes 52 writing prompts to get you warmed up. You can binge read them or do one a week.ORGANIZING CONTENT: Especially good if haven’t been able to move beyond journal writing or creating a content library. This course focuses on how to organize your writing and finish a project.BOOK WRITING: This is the big one. It takes all the steps outlined here and delves deep. Plus, it covers getting an agent, writing a book proposal, and the business of being an AUTHOR beyond being a WRITER.

This blurb below was created by an AI program.

I typed in “How to start writing a book” and this is the drivel it provided:

Starting to write a book can be a daunting task, but it can also be a rewarding experience. Here are some steps you can follow to get started:

Come up with an idea for your book. This can be something you’re passionate about, or a subject that you have a lot of knowledge about.Make an outline for your book. This will help you organize your thoughts and structure your story.Start writing! Don’t worry about making it perfect on the first try – just get your ideas down on paper.Take regular breaks. Writing a book can be mentally exhausting, so it’s important to take breaks and give your mind a rest.Keep revising and editing your work. As you write, you may realize that certain parts of your story need to be changed or improved. That’s okay – just keep working on it until you’re satisfied with the final result.

Overall, the most important thing is to just start writing. The more you do it, the better you’ll become at it. Good luck!

Overly chipper Artificial Intelligence. Lame. Write your own. 

Well that was an experience.

I just completed sorting through my journals for the year. I found this sweet spot in November to be a perfect time to sort through my journals… between the end of garden season and before Christmas season. Solid score.

Why it’s a good idea to review your journals each year:

Short answer: Grab the gems and good ideas before they are forgotten or stale.

Long answer:

Put the year behind you (sayonara bad bits!)Gain insights and learn lessons to plan better for the next yearCelebrate the wins

It’s a bit of a bugger to read a journal from last January to revisit the big hopefuls just to realize you didn’t do most of it. Conversely, it’s nice to look at what you DID do and pat yourself on the back.

Here’s a few highlights (and low lights) from my year to give you an idea of how to approach sort through your journals:

DID retrain my brain with certain mind madness.

I decided to actively change my mood when mulling over stressful topics.

Money angst to exhilaration Mess stress to peaceBody image to appreciation

Whenever I would catch myself stewing about money, messes, or my body, I would actively try to feel other feelings. It kind of worked! As long as I could catch it before it turned into belaboured brooding.

DID NOT end up being a YouTube superstar.

Not that I tried at first. I just wrote a heck of a lot ideas only to have them go stale on the page. That’s alright. That’s what our journals are for. Tossing out all the ideas, then picking up the one that sticks out and running with it. Then when I tried to make videos… ugh! It’s like learning another language. Harder than I thought. Boy oh boy I have learned what I am bad at. By the time I learn how to make a decent video, pre-teens everywhere will surpass me in the algorithm.

DID NOT end up blogging as much as I wanted. As usual.

I learned that I have one decent story a week. Those stories went out in the form of Typewriter Letters. (They are ending when the last letter goes out in early 2023 some time so you can get the last few if you want fun-type mail… pun intended, natch.) My core group of letter lovers got the best of the literary gems this year. Turns out, people really don’t care about typewriters. Nuts. I love them. (I have a delightful dozen. Most of them even work!)

DID discover people still love the Paris Letters.

My best seller in my Etsy shop by far was the 12 month subscription to the best selling Paris Letters that came out over the last decade. Turns out I still love sending them out, which was a nice surprise. I love setting them all out in a row, admiring them, then popping them in the envelopes. “Bye guys… have fun out there.”

DID publish a book: Spiritual Retreat from Home.

I made it because I wanted it. It’s funny to look back at the year to see those ideas become things. Like I’m sitting in the future right now and observing when the first nugget of an idea landed on the page.

DID publish a swanky 2023 Paris Planner. Pretty!

All due to diligent journal writing.

DID NOT add any new online courses.

But holy mackerel did I write a lot of ideas. Almost too many. I had a course for memoir writing. Another for selling your art online. Yet another on achieving your goals… in an ironic twist as I did NOT achieve my goal of creating the course. HA!

After I reviewed the journals, I tossed the lot of them.

*****record scratch*****

Yes, pulled out the half baked ideas to see if I can turn them into things, but chucked the rest, saving myself future time. All the good ideas are now on index cards awaiting reshuffling and implementation.

It’s a nice way to ponder the next year.

Because of my surgery and all the scars, I considered making next year The Year of The Lounge Pant.

Still thinking about it.

Some nerve endings are waking up and they are FRAZZLED.

However, I think I’ll just plug away at the crop of ideas I wrote down in 2022… and keep journaling in 2023 to see what other thoughts become things. We will see how it goes.

What about you? What do you think about sorting through your journals?

I admit, I get both a little excited and a little cringey when posting blatantly promo posts. I want to talk and tell you a story about something fantastic, then end with, oh by the way, the books are under three bucks today. Here’s the link.

But marketing and algorithms have other ideas.

And we don’t have time. It’s TODAY ONLY, hence the need big loud promo starbursts and BUY NOW buttons. I get it. As an email opener myself, the person emailing me has about one second of my attention before I move onto the next email. So, cringe as I do, I still need you to know that for today only, Kindle ebook versions of Paris Letters and Dear Paris are only $2.99 USD. 

I get so excited when my publishers email me with this information.

Even though I’ll only get about fifty cents in royalties per copy today. Harsh but true. Why I like the promo, besides saving you some cash which is nice these days when everything is pricey. These promos triggers the algorithm to place my books higher in search results for the next few months. This helps even more than the fifty cents I’ll get if you purchase one of my books today.

It is a little sad that writing has become CONTENT and playing the ALGORITHM.

Algorithm is such a yucky word. Like phlegm or whom.

I think this is another reason playing with my typewriters has been a joy for me. I’ve been able to write as a writer writes and not to trick the algorithm to trend my titles.

However, today is the only day the algorithm might be helpful. So even if you don’t want the books, or because you have them already (thank you) or if you prefer the print versions (which are not on sale), clicking the link is helpful. It’s free and it’s helpful. While you’re there, feel free to click on the other books just to tickle the algorithm.

Also because of a secret life I’ve been living this year.

I’ve been creating books on Amazon. Loads of books. Loads of books that are easy to make and buy and use. Workbooks and planners and such. I haven’t told you about it. I want to tell you about it once I’ve cracked the code so you can do it, too, if you are so compelled. These titles are under various noms de plum because enough with the fame already. I’m trying to figure out how to win at the Amazon algorithm, and I’d rather do it silently, without the big JANICE MACLEOD banner all over everything. Plus, I’ve been failing here and there and it’s always nice to fail silently. 

This is the art of testing.

When I was in advertising, we tested everything. We would put out two ads with slight differences. One would win. The next round, we would run that ad and test it against a new ad. One would win. And so on.

We tested everything.

The world is like a giant testing lab for an ad agency.

I bet you didn’t realize any of it when you sifted through your mail. But there it is. A society of guinea pigs, all of us, all the time, without even realizing it.

It felt like gamifying the job. Which ad will win this month? Which ad will win next month? Sometimes it was sad. We would test different ethnicities in photos and most of the time the ads with the white people would win. Then the next month, it was white vs white. And that is a sad truth. I hope the world gets better and sticks to their guns a little more with respect to change and kindness and skin tones.

Last week I ran a test with you. Did you know? Ew! Yes. I asked if you would prefer to read the whole post in an email or with a READ THE POST button to take you to the post. Most of you want to click through to the post. I prefer to read the whole post in the email, but hey, I’m clearly a bit old school… letters in the mail… typewriters for heaven sake! Getting with the times is a bit off brand for me.

However, the algorithm must be petted gently from time to time, so if you feel compelled to click through to the books Amazon, it might be good. I’m not sure yet. Testing, testing… is this thing on?

This picture almost makes me want to take up knitting. And yet…

I would love to WANT to get myself all up in some soft yarny-type knitting situation, but it’s just NOT ME.

My sister…. hell yesssssss. She is ALL ABOUT ALL OF IT.

I appreciate it. I wonder about it. I think it’s magical. But I don’t have enough wonder about it to do anything more than ask for knitting projects.

However, taking a picture of knitting and making stationery out of it… now that is MY JAM.

Oh yeah baby. Now we are experiencing some AUTUMNAL SPLENDOUR.

I’ve been popping these in the orders from my shop. Just a few freebies to go with the letters people have been ordering because it’s fun and I already cut them out. Plus I have a bit of an envelope situation in my office. The pile just never seems to go down.

Why yes, that is a dahlia from my garden… still blooming even though it’s November already. Is it global warming? Is it the mushroom compost? Is it the warm south wall the plant is growing against? Who knows but I am SUPER FINE with dahlias and pumpkins butting up against each other.

What makes a person want to do the knitting and another person want to make a note card of the photo of the kitting? 

For me, it is the image in my head that I have to get out of my head. The only way out is to go through the process of making the thing the only way I know how. So last week, instead of forging ahead with the enterprise of making a new course, making new things for the shop, making the needle move, I just made myself some pretty cards.

It coincided with a bad cold that has been going around…. This three-week lingering sniffle cough achy head business. Today was one of those days that I climbed back into the pjs after my morning shower. It made me so happy in my sniffly misery.

For more info on any of this:

Shop: Letters, aprons, art
Courses: Writing and organizing papers
Books: NEW 2023 Paris Planner, plus the usual Paris-themed goodness

I’ll be ending the Typewriter Letter series at the end of 2022… with a few for a few hangers on moving into January 2023. A mere twelve-ish letters to go to my solid, loyal, little list of subscribers. Click here if you want them. It really is now or never. 

Recap: I have been sending a lightly illustrated letter from the helm of one of my …. agrhm… 12 typewriters for the last year and a bit. What a delightful good time! Clickity-clack, stamp stamp, giggle giggle.

However, it seems people really don’t care about typewriters. I shouldn’t be surprised, and yet I’m kind of surprised.

Except… the few remaining typewriter repair shops have been seeing a resurgence of business. Watch this lovely 8 minute documentary:

Just look at these beautiful eyes.

They’ve been gazing inside the depths of typewriters for decades. Bet there were a lot of dead spiders in there.

Most of my typewriters had pencil shavings in them. Not surprising. Imagine the author reading over what she wrote while at the same time sharpening a pencil hovering above the keys. I found blood once. Not sure if it was related to the sharpening of a pencil…. or murder.

Oh Angela.

Seems my writerly self can’t write ALL THE THINGS. Something had to give. Since not many people have subscribed to the letters anyway… sigh… it was the logical choice.

It parallels the end of typewriters themselves.

Letters to emails… typewriters to computers… dial-up to fiber networks… cable to streaming… Mika to Harry Styles…

Sad, and yet… shoulder shrug. Can’t change change. 

I’ll still be typing… I’ll just be typing letters to friends, morning pages, poems, and fun stuff. Never a book. There is no way. Just so you know I haven’t completely regressed.

If you want in on the last dirty dozen, subscribe at the shop.

The Dirty Dozen refers to twelve of the most common human error preconditions, or conditions that can act as precursors, to accidents or incidents. These twelve elements influence people to make mistakes. Source: SKYbrary Aviation Safety

Typewriter Letters. Best mistake EVER.

 

If you’re still reading, here’s one of the letters:

Dear Reader,

Went to the fair. It is a whole different ballgame with a kid. You go through the poultry pavilion and show great enthusiasm while your kid holds her nose and says it stinks and let’s get out of here FAST.

Then you go on a kiddy ride. She is very enthusiastic in line, then white with terror as we spin around on the pink dragon. At the games zone, every kid is a winner. What the kid wins is based on what you are willing to spend. Ten bucks won us a stuffed chipmunk holding a nut. We call her Nutella. She is a girl… so Miss Nut Ella.

Acquired all the usual food items: cotton candy, fudge, caramel apple. Then we were blessed with rain, which meant no tears on the way to the car. Winning parent moment thanks to the weather.

Christophe cannot fake boredom. He is incapable of more than FINE… FINE JUST FINE face, while I am over compensating over farm animals… LOOK AT THE BUNNIESSSSSS… AMAZING!!!!!!!

Any other day of the week I wage war against bunnies in my garden, but caged up I am willing to pretend to admire them.

Writing to you on a Smith Corona Classic 12. The platen is extra wide for addressing big envelopes I suppose. This one arrived after my mom went to an antique barn. It sticks here and there, but otherwise decent, like a well-worn clutch. I have yet to un-stickify the keys with spritzes of cleaning products and scrubs with old toothbrushes. Hardly a pro clean, but hey, neither is my house. You make do with what you have. This machine comes with a QWERTZ keyboard instead of the usual QWERTY keyboard so there is always a mental leap when typing a Y or Z as thez… THEY switched places. Also includes some nifty accents and symbols so I am all set in any language… onlz… only a little trouble with English.

Back to the fair. When I was a kid, the fair was HUGE. A giant casino of bells, whistles, and fries. Now, I am amazed at how they put it together. It’s just a parking lot, and yet for a week each year it is the land of hopes and dreams. An oasis of ribbons and prize money. It is the sun and moon and stars. A glimmering galaxy of goodies. How does it happen? I suppose with a mix of lighting, layout, and a herd of over enthusiastic mommies to keep the illusion alive.

Janice

 

 

Now that most of the physical healing of my surgery and Lyme disease is behind me, I’m noticing EMOTIONAL TURMOIL bubbling up.

They tell me this is normal. 

When one is surgically opened up from side to side, when one has a parasitic virus roaming about in there, chances are s**t’s gonna get real.

Not to mention the brain fog. 

To pull myself out of the funk, I’m getting schooly. Rather than teaching writing courses this autumn, I’m taking a few courses to heal emotions, upping my business skills, and relieving my anxiety. A tall order. But doable since it’s easier to be in a class than create the class.

The perfect trifecta of courses: #1 Heal emotions with Erin Kurt

I’ve worked with Erin before. I know, I know… you think I have it all together. Heck no. I feel a little messed up these days after my crappy summer and I’m hoping to sort some of that mess out. She has a live round of her course starting on Monday October 10, 2022. It’s more intense than the regular course because you’re getting the personal coaching. This is all about upgrading your life physically, emotionally & spiritually. Solid score.

Basically, let’s release all the junk now so we can start 2023 as bright and shiny new versions of ourselves. I feel SO CLOSE to ME again, but stuff is bubbling and brewing beneath the surface. Example… a friend asked what the sequel to “Paris Letters” would be and I said “Angry in the Kitchen.” Soooooo I have to sort things out. Erin hasn’t offered the live round of her course for over a year. Starting on Monday we can all be on our way to looking, feeling, and living an upgraded life.

She has some free meditations and videos on her website if you want to get a feel for all she offers. Details on the course here.

Fascinating coincidence: We lived a 5 minute walk from each other in Calgary. I didn’t know her back then. She lives in another country now and I am in another part of Canada. We met in a Leonie Dawson class. Speaking of… the next course…

#2 Upping business skills with Leonie Dawson

I wish I could give this course to every parent on the playground who is searching for a way to make extra money from home. So many moms wonder how to even START. Back in 2010 or 2011 ish… something like that… a friend guided me toward Leonie Dawson. Every bit of my business is powered by Leonie wisdom and practical skills. Every course she offers is about $99. She offers a few a year. Now she’s offering all her courses (past, present, and future) for $99 a year. It’s kind of amazing. Please, even if you don’t need this course, steer a mom who wants to make more money from home toward Leonie’s courses. Pah-lease! Send them this link. 

#3 Calligraphy tracing to relieve anxiety

This isn’t actually a course, it’s a series of Calligraphy books. I am learning that adult colouring books bug me. They are all so BUSY and FRANTIC and IRRITATING. Opposite of what they actually say they will do. But Calligraphy… tracing fancy letters with a pen… seems to do the job of relieving anxiety splendidly. The books below is a series with loads with letter tracing. I’d much rather be a good letter writer anyway. See what I did there?

 

So that’s it. Fixing it all with courses.

I’ll be practically glowing by 2023. Take the courses with me and we will glow in unison, or at least we can email back and forth about progress. It’s always nice to have someone to take these rides together.

I’m a few apples short of a basket these days.

This morning I made it to the end of one of my writing journals. It took all summer. Now I have a book full of half baked ideas and hazy thoughts. Beaucoup de Brain Fog.

Brain fog is one of those terms people toss around a lot these days. It is almost a fad thanks to Covid long haulers and this article from The Atlantic.

Absent-mindedness is different from brain fog. That just means you have a lot on your mind. 

Searching for words when your brain has been learning something new is different from brain fog. That just means your brain is tired. Go ahead and try to speak English well after taking an intense French class. Not good. Pas bon.

Brain fog is “a disorder of executive function that makes basic cognitive tasks absurdly hard.” That’s from The Atlantic article

Brain fog also happens after you’ve been under for a long time during surgery. So I know a thing or two about brain fog, except I can’t quite remember what those things might be. The good news is that mine should be temporary and technically over soonish.

A few fun and irritating signs of brain fog:

Someone says something and, though I heard them, I didn’t understand what they said. As in, it sounded like a different language. *sometimes with Christophe it IS a different language*I’m telling a story and not just forgetting the point of the story, but forgetting the story mid-sentence. AKA “So yeah…” which is how the story ends prematurely. For a professional writer, this might be the most irritating of all.Needing quiet. More than usual for this introverted soul.Conversations are exhausting. Can’t follow along. “I’m sorry… what?”Short-term memory is weak so important details must be written down in agonizing detail. I remember writing it, I just don’t remember what I wrote and I have to reference it constantly.Long-term memory is fine so I know how to drive but I forget what I was there to buy.Routines are fine. Routines live in long-term memory so school pickups are always remembered but putting a load of laundry in the washing machine is forgotten. “Did I do that?”Details of conversations are lost. In some cases, depending on the person, this is a blessing.Relying on visuals becomes important… If I make stew, I can SEE that the carrots haven’t been added yet, but with baking… Did I put the baking soda in already?Best not to leave the kitchen when something is on the stove.Weirdness.

Though I can now bend and stretch and lift and go for walks after my surgery (and I won’t get lost on the walk because that lives in long-term memory), my brain is somewhat on hiatus. Yesterday I was home alone and took a shower with the garage door wide open and front door unlocked. Thankfully it was only my mom that walked in. “The garage is OPEN! You were in THE SHOWER?!”

Fear not, my typewriter cases were not stolen out of my garage. Laughable still there, towering above garden detritus.

So I’m a few apples short of a basket these days.

Reading through my writing journal of summer is fascinating. “I wrote this?” As you’ll learn from my Organizing Content course, it can be great fun going through your journal writing to mine for gems… even more when you have no recollection of writing any of it in the first place. Much of my half baked ideas are about workbooks and planners I want to make.

Speaking of, this one is up and out in the world:

It is a 2023 planner full of 12 Paris street scenes, one for each month. Softcover and hardcover. Both luxurious in their own way.

Plus, nice big squares because… basically I like a big squared calendar. “Be the change” and all that.

And SPACE to write all the things one week that I’ll likely forget the next:

I know… hope… doctor says… I should have my brain back to optimal strength soon… hence the three month recovery period.

No biggie. This past summer was definitely a one star review. I plan on making up for it inside the pages of my five star 2023 planner. YEAH! You should, too. Feel free to buy it for all your francophile friends and the french person you know you are deep in your soul.

In the meantime, I’ll be… stares off in middle distance I forget, but it will come back to me.