little boy big dog

next up... stud farm

as i've mentioned earlier, one of my goals for the rest of the year - the solar year, anyways - is to work through ALL of the ideas i've had kicking around in my brain and my computer for the last ten or twelve years - yes, it really has been that long - and send them off, one at a time, in as decent a form as i am capable of making them, to my agent.

so far, i've sent two already. next up is stud farm, a story about a planet where only women are allowed to make decisions that affect others and unattached men are relegated to places euphemistically referred to by the heroine as "stud farms."

for the last couple days, although ideas about the story are percolating merrily in my head, im having a hard time actually working on the manuscript. this frequently happens to me as the moon grows full. unlike other kinds of work, i find this is the time when i have to turn my attention away from writing, and pay attention to Other Things.

and in more than one way, that's a good thing, because for the next three days, i have a Writing Retreat to plan for... fifteen women are gathering here on sunday.

all her bags are packed

libby leaves today, courtesy of a friend's family who are taking her with them on their trip to a lake in new york state. i must be a nice kid, said libby when we were out yesterday, trolling for last minute supplies like Bug Stuff.

of course you're a nice kid, i answered. but what makes you say that?

im the go-to friend to take on vacations, said libby. and we laughed because it's true.

and furthermore, the war will end. blessed be.

cancer new moon collage

part of my online course includes making collages as a way of focusing one's energies and intentions. as one of my favorite mentors and teachers, Vicki Noble, says,
"The making of shamanic art is a way of ritually coming into contact with the spirits of the unseen world and enlisting their support in our lives." and as the mentor for this particular course, Kathy Crabbe, says, "Collaging can be remarkably helpful in many ways. It can help you strengthen and awaken the intuitive, playful side of yourself in concrete and visual ways."

the assignment is to create a collage for each moon cycle from new through waning. however, because this is the first moon cycle i've done this for, i decided to do a full size collage for each phase of the moon. this isn't too difficult - i have lots of images and as i culled through them the other day, i was surprised to see how easily many fit into the various phases.

for the past few days, as i've been ruminating on the newest version of Stud Farm - oh, i'm so happy with the new direction - i've been working on my new moon collage. each image speaks to me of some aspect of the new moon:

the bleeding yoni at the center and the empty, blood-colored sky and the empty chair overlooking the water reminds me of the time when women bled together, frequently under the dark of the moon. cancer is also a watery sign, and i wanted to include an image of water. the racoon to me is a creature of the night, and her sharp, beady little eyes see directly into the Dark. the two little boys on their potties remind me (as i so frequently need to be reminded especially when it comes to writing) that what comes out first is usually pretty stinky. the butterfly reminds me of the power of transformation. the young woman emerging from the cleft in the rock reminds me of the sacredness of the Divine Feminine, Her connection to the earth. the eggs and the baby and the archway, which could also be a fireplace mantel, seem to speak for themselves.

today i plan to write an intention on each of those eggs.

what about you, Gentle Reader?

and furthermore, the war will end. blessed be.

what do the words "Divine Feminine" mean to YOU?

one of my first assignments as part of the online course im taking at the WiseWomanUniversity was to write an essay on what the words "Divine Feminine" mean to me. while i'm accustomed at putting such a concept into an image - Pele, the Blessed Mother, Kali-Ma or Kwan Yin are all images that spring readily to mind when asked to consider the Divine Feminine - to verbalize what those images to mean, to me and for my life, was quite an interesting challenge.

here's my answer. Gentle Reader, what's yours?

For me, the Divine Feminine is the Image of the God-Goddess-Source that I, in this present incarnation, most closely manifest. I have this understood about myself – and every other woman - for a long time, mostly because from the time I was very small, I had a Little Voice that “corrected” whatever spiritual teachings I was taught with a kind of running commentary if I dared to pay attention.

The Divine Feminine is a “whole” Feminine. It is the energy of being comfortable with who you are every moment of your life, magnified to an infinite degree. My connection to the Divine Feminine has at various times infused and informed my life with a grace and power I am not always humble enough to tap into. But it is Her energy that allowed me to stop coloring my hair when I turned 40, it was Her energy that allowed me to birth four babies without so much as a bullet to bite on, and it's Her energy that infuses my approach to sexuality.

There is also a “dark” side to the Divine Feminine which I feel is mostly either ignored and misunderstood by our culture and unfairly labeled as “negative.” Sometimes you have to draw boundaries. Sometimes you have to end things. Sometimes you have to let things go in order to have other things. I know it was that energy that I drew on when I left my abusive ex-husband, and it’s that energy that helped me raise my four children as a single mother. It’s that energy that enabled me to survive three lay-offs in five years, and to find other work far more satisfying to my soul. It's that energy that allowed me to sever the relationship i had with my former business associate when she became abusive.

The Divine Feminine as manifested by the Moon speaks to me of being comfortable with transitions and transformations, to ride the tides of all of life’s changes, and to finally, gracefully, sink into her last embrace. Even when I don’t consciously align my energy to the moon’s I am aware of her influence upon me – I never write very well under a Full Moon, for example, and the time of the New Moon is usually the easiest moon for me to write under.

and furthermore, the war will end. blessed be.

go me

i finished another proposal this morning - the working title of this one is now The House on Somers' Point. after a long drought, i now have three proposals for my agent to consider. im not exactly sure which Idea i will turn to next, but today and tomorrow my plan is to muck out my writing room.

i made a list of the four ideas left and contemplated them all at the gym. there are two in particular that seem to be vying for my attention - but one is just a paragraph and an idea, and the other is a trilogy (or more); neither of which i think i can put together in a month.

and then i think to myself, well, why can't i?

and furthermore, the war will end. blessed be.

poor bristol

no, not palin. im talking about bristol, connecticut.

apparently, Money Magazine named bristol one of the top 100 places to live in connecticut and this has sent the town into a tailspin. the people who live there appear to be, from all reports, bewildered by the distinction. gee, they all seem to say when asked, who'd want to live in BRISTOL?

i think it really says something about the zeitgeist of a town when its singled out for an honor and all the residents either react in disbelief or demand to know why. i haven't seen anyone suggest that bribery might be involved, but i guess that's a possibility.

i've driven through bristol and while it seems a lot more congested than i prefer, it seems like a reasonable enough place to live to me. i knew a lady who lived in bristol and she was absolutely lovely and so was her neighborhood. (i got lost in it often enough to know.) and after all, connecticut only has something like 167 places to live. to get the top one hundred, you have to reach almost two thirds down the list.

so congratulations to the town of bristol, connecticut. you're better than you think you are.

and furthermore, the war will end. blessed be.

moon musings

today's new moon is in cancer ... a watery sign that always evokes images of the ocean and the shore, and the sand crabs my aunt katherine used to dig for me out of the beach.

today marks the start of new e-course im doing at the Wise Woman University. it's a course called Awaken Your Divine Feminine Soul and the facilitator is a person whose art and writing attracted me a few months ago. part of the course involves working closely with the energies and images of the moon.

my first assignment is to jot down intentions for the coming month in my Moon Musings Journal. so here they go...

1. send one 50-page proposal and synopsis to my agent
2. read through the new book on creating small business my friend carla the lifecoach recommended to me.
3. complete the assignments and participate in the class.

so far... so good.

and furthermore, the war will end. blessed be.