Notes on the Harvest (Plus, Cool Stuff Offered By My Friends)

I realize that I often mention what's happening outside my window when I sit down to write a newsletter. Perhaps it's simply easier to begin a conversation by talking about the weather. I think there's more to it than that, though...

Telling you that the trees at the five-way crossroads where we live are whispering about the coming October with gold-flecked tongues seems important. I want to set the scene because strong stories depend on generating a sense of place. In fact, I think the land and the elements are actually characters in my daily writing, especially when I'm writing in my own voice and sharing what is on my mind.

And then there's the fact that I believe in the practice of land acknowledgement and naming the people who lived here before colonization.

The Esopus tribe, part of the Lenape nation, thrived upon this land before the French and Dutch settlers arrived. They spoke the Munsee language, but their name is all that is left here now. Those native peoples who survived wars and dislocation were forced to take their language, culture, and stories to Wisconsin and Ontario, far from the Hudson River they knew to be Mahicannituck. 

In light of this, it's interesting to think that my family actually lives in the town of Esopus, but the vagaries of mailing addresses and school districts cause us to tell folks that we live in New Paltz. The story of the colonizers shapes the story in one more small way.

The little that I do know of the people who would have hunted, gathered, and planted in the Hudson Valley comes from school field trips with my kids. It seems we always enter the replica wigwams and longhouses when the corn and gourds are being harvested.

There's a shared fascination with harvest time. There's an earthy truth that we need to acknowledge and celebrate (even if the modern harvest in the Hudson Valley looks like traffic jams caused by apple picking day trippers). We are creatures of the turning seasons, even if our pumpkin spice comes with orange dyed sprinkles.

A Rich Harvest of Ideas and Innovation

I'm so grateful to be standing in the midst of so many creative beings whose visions are coming to fruition right now.

Yesterday, we began a thirteen-week journey in the Sovereign Writers’ Knot.

As one writer put it after our group's first writing session (paired with art by Theresa Vee):  

Feeling EXACTLY like this painting after our session today!

And, as this special group of nine writers begins new projects or deepen their relationship with existing, in-process work, I'm so happy to watch other friends, colleagues, coaches, and clients out their creations into the world:

• Biz Cush, an alumna of my Sovereign Writers' community, is rebranding and relaunching her podcast. Perhaps hanging out with women who speak of the princess, queen, and wise woman had an influence on the new name?
  
  Awaken Your Wise Woman promises to be a great new show from this veteran podcaster, psychotherapist, and women's life coach. I had the honor of turning the tables on Biz and I got to interview her for her first episode. Listen to our episode and subscribe to the show!

• My former coach, KC Carter of This Epic Life is releasing his first book, Permission to Glow: A Spiritual Guide to Epic Leadership.
  
  I had a chance to reconnect with KC and soak up a few thousand jolts of inspiration this weekend. I'm excited to get my copy this Tuesday. And don't just take my word for it. Ani Difranco (yes, the singer who created her own label and is the voice of a generation of feminists) calls it: "Freakin' EPIC! This book teaches many of us how to lead, and all of us how to truly live."
  

• And finally, my current coach Jeffrey Davis is also releasing a book this week: Tracking Wonder: Reclaiming a Life of Meaning and Possibility in a World Obsessed with Productivity. 
  
  On Satuday, Jeffrey is hosting a free half-day online event this Saturday, 10/2 called The Wonder Summit. His guests include Rev. angel Kyodo williams and Danielle LaPorte. It would be wonderful to see you there. Register today.

To your harvest, to your stories, to your sacred relationship with the land on which you dwell,

Marisa

Untethered and (Dis)Connected: How to Return to Your Creative Path On Your Own Time

That crunch.

You know it. I know it. Everyone who has owned a ridiculously fragile electronic device that goes everywhere and is relied upon to do almost everything knows it.

The crunch that you hear when the screen hits the floor.

On Labor Day Monday Monday, I felt that sinking dread when my Apple Watch slipped from my fingers and fell face down on the tile.

For over two years, that little piece of wildly powerful technology has been securely fastened to my body. It’s own tracking data will show you that I would wear it for well over 12 hours per day. And, if you don’t have access to the app, you can see it in the pale strip on my arm where the freckles have faded after years under cover.

Now it’s Thursday, and though I am fully clothed, I feel naked. 

I have no idea how many calories I have burned, whether I got a text in the three minutes since I picked up my phone, or what the temperature is outside. It will take me more than two taps to figure out exactly when my next menstrual cycle begins. If you call me and I don’t have my phone on me, I will not be able to answer you by talking to my wrist like Penny in Inspector Gadget.

I am realizing the depth of my addiction to that tiny glass square. Well, the glass was just the vehicle. My real addiction was to quantifying the success of each day based on my move goals and the illusion of constant connectivity.

At this point, I am not sure if I am uncomfortable because I feel so disconnected or if I’m uncomfortable because I have to reckon with being so addicted to machine that monitored my every move.

Either way, this is not how I planned to land post-Labor Day.

I am untethered. I am lost. I am free.

Of course, I am more than my history of shattered Apple products. It’s also the first week of school. And I am suddenly realizing that after eighteen months of certain uncertainty, the prospect of five days a week of school is immensely challenging.

This return to “normal” is what we’ve been yearning for. Why is this so hard?

Sure, there’s the chance that schools will close or either of the kids could be quarantined for weeks. There’s a chance that Covid could be more than a mere inconvenience as we see infections rise in children. It’s hard to get excited about the new routine when a stray cough could bring the whole fragile arrangement crashing down.

I am so dazed and unfocused. I can’t seem to shake the “I need more tea and then some chocolate and then some pretzels before I answer this next email” state of mind.

It’s more than vicarious first day of school jitters, though. 

Instead, I realize it’s immense pressure that comes with “Psst, Mom! It’s finally quiet. Go be outrageously successful and accomplish every single one of the professional and creative things right now so you don’t fail at post-pandemic reentry!”

Back in the old days (like over the weekend), my watch could help me track when anxiety would set my heart racing. I don’t need the heart rate monitor to tell you that there are too many stress hormones in my system right now. (Oh, hey, maybe I’m already learning to live without that device!)

There are too many stress hormones in our collective emotional system right now. While we have a lot to be stressed about, some of that pressure is self-imposed and truly is optional. Like the pressure everyone puts on themselves during new beginning moments, like the end of summer and the return to school.

So, if you’re a parent and are feeling the press of “I should get my business/creative practice/self care routine up to 117% because the kids are finally back where they belong,” I see you. I feel you.

Regardless of whether we have kids in school or are going to class ourselves, September is a chance for many of us to begin again. We can all use a little more self-compassion right now since it’s far from easy to get back into the post-Labor Day routine.

I’m holding hands with all of the writers, creatives, and entrepreneurs who are staring into the next season wondering how on earth you’re going to find the energy, focus, and confidence to get out there and make the next thing.

Here’s what we’ve learned (since March of 2020 and throughout our lifetime as sovereignty seekers, word witches, and all around weirdos):

• The old rules don’t apply any more.

• The old structures cannot support us.

• The old routine can’t be revived in the same old way.

If the timepiece that used to help us make sense of the world cracks, we need to find a new way to navigate our lives. 

In this early September moment if you can’t quite find your center, find your muse, or find your pen, remember this: your lack of inspiration, motivation, or imagination is not the problem.

What if it’s the relentless press to be productive and commodify every free moment that’s the problem? What if it’s the equation of busyness and self-worth? What if we must finally, once and for all, smash the foolish belief that everything is going to feel “normal” again just because we landed on a certain date or reached some artificial milestone?

What if you didn’t have to start today, but you trusted yourself and believed that in your own time, you’d settle into a new cycle of being, making, doing, and creating?

---

When it is time to set off on your own creative path — as a writer, as an entrepreneur, as a seeker looking to understand your own story in a new way — I’d love to help.

The Sovereign Writers’ Knot, the new iteration of my online writing community, opens again on September 27.

The Story Illuminations Sessions are a great 1:1 option if you’re trying to figure out just where to start and need to heal some of the old wounds that hold you back from stepping forth on your creative path.

When Mercury Retrograde Magic Exposes Your Biggest Business Mistakes

Every once in a while, when you’re not cursing the tech issues and the travel delays, Mercury Retrograde offers near unimaginable gifts.

You might not be familiar with the planetary event that’s something like an astrological starter drug because its effect is so clear and ubiquitous that it turns skeptics into believers. Here are the basics: about three times a year for over three weeks at a time the planet that rules communication and travel, Mercury, appears to be going backwards in the sky. This latest round runs from March 5 - 28, but some say you can feel the echoes for weeks before and after.

During Mercury Retrograde all sorts of misunderstandings can happen if you’re not extra impeccable with your word. Some say you should never launch a new venture or sign a contract during this period. It’s also that time of the year when a certain type of people (my people) say things like “of course Instagram and Facebook are down.”

Mercury Retrograde is also a time to review, revise, and re-envision choices you’ve made. (This is when the magic comes in.)

This particular Retrograde has been a cruel one in many ways, but I also am hearing powerful stories of looking back in order to look forward. I have my own “turn back to move forward” story for you, and I am almost certain it’s going to have a happy ending.

Let’s Consider the Progress Paradox

Transformation. Evolution. Growth.

These are powerful potent words. These are especially potent truths for us Transformation Professionals - the healers, coaches, and therapists who are here to support individual (and, by extension collective) growth.

And yet, we know that night always follows day, death always follows birth, and even planets move backwards from time to time. Perpetual forward motion isn’t actually a thing supported by the laws of the universe.

Plus, we know that this obsession with progress and the blind need to constantly expand can have dire consequences.

Think of the environmental degradation caused by the perpetual quest for cheap fossil fuels. Think of what we know about burst economic bubbles and the inevitability of recession (even if we’ve been taught to be terrified of it). Think of the stories of burn-out, anxiety, depression, and collapse you hear from entrepreneurs who felt they could never stop playing the game.

The constant need to push to adopt the next innovation and to hit the next income bracket has untold costs.

But it’s all so seductive…

Spiritual and emotional growth feel so good! It’s so easy to think we must translate our own internal evolutionary processes into “I need to share this with the world! Right now.”

But let me get back to my own story of accidental over-evolution

A Sovereign Tangle of Change, Growth, and Passion

Last year was a year of intense and gorgeous growth for me. (It’s nothing compared to the terrible beauty that is emerging in 2019, but that story is still being lived right now and isn’t quite ready to be told.)

In 2018, I launched the Sovereign Writers Circle. This same year I finally manifested the freedom to go back to visit Ireland for the first time in fourteen years. The relationship that’s most fundamental to my sense of happiness and security - my marriage - got stronger and more sure. My business felt more real and sustainable than it ever had.

All the while, I was working on my book about personal and creative Sovereignty. I was learning to use that word in conversation and how to live in as I moved through the world.

Everything seemed to be showing me that I need to consciously grow toward putting Sovereignty at the heart of all my work. Lots of wise people who know more about scaling businesses and being brave encouraged me to lead with the stuff that I talked about with such fire and passion.

So I rode the swells of Sovereignty as far as I could.

For a Few Months, The Sovereign Writers Circle Went By Another Name

Sometime in November I decided to change the name of my beloved online membership community from The Sovereign Writer Circle to The Sovereignty Circle.

The decision must have been a long time coming for me, but it emerged in a unilateral sort of rush. Sovereign businesswoman that I am, there’s no authority to ask for approval, of course, but I never even thought to call on the insight of the nearly twenty group members who had helped co-create this magical space.

Since I was keeping our powerful, effective structure the same (four writing practice sessions, one guest expert workshop, and one writing coaching and story healing call per month), the change wasn’t all that big of a deal.

Or was it?

Personal Growth Is Supposed to Become Professional Growth, Right?

Membership growth in the Circle essentially ground to a halt.

Why? I hadn’t let up on my marketing efforts or my passion for the group. In fact, I was throwing myself into the new year with big goals. I was wall papering Instagram with all kinds of magical sovereign awesome. I was spreading my seasonal 7MagicWords Challenge everywhere. I was offering free community writing practice sessions. I was shouting about the Sovereignty Circle from the digital rooftops.

And… crickets. (Ok, so it was the middle of a New York winter. Let’s say it was as silent as a nighttime snowfall in my new member applicants in box.)

But I kept going telling myself it was a temporary lull… This was growth. This was evolution. This was paying my dues to the gods of change.  This was also exhaustion, confusion, and an entrepreneurial breakdown to breakthrough bound to happen.

Of course, it doesn’t take divine omniscience to know why the group had virtually stopped growing. It just required some perspectacles that weren’t clouded with the dust from the road name “I Must Evolve, Grow, and Change Right Now In a Very Public Way.”

Along with the name, I also adjusted the group’s sales page considerably, bringing in new images and talking to slightly different clients in a whole new way.  

Without realizing it, I revamped the invitation a group that meets once a week to write, that uses writing as our primary discovery tool and medium to be seen in the world, and I didn’t actually say the word “writing” until about halfway through.

And, instead of talking to the people I know I am born to support - the healers, coaches, and therapists who have been the vast majority of my clients for years - I just started talking to a general woman wandering through her middle years in search of sovereignty.

I was so preoccupied with trying to embody and convey my new messages about sovereignty that I forgot to stand sovereign in the very thing that I’m known for, the very thing that I most wanted to offer to people, the very thing that people are asking me to provide.

The Biggest Mistake: I Accidentally Stole My Beloved Writers’ Collective Identity

One of the most powerful affirmations that guides my work in these days is “May I have the heart of a servant and the vision of a leader.” Creating space for the healer-writers in this online group of mine has been the single greatest privilege of my professional life.

But when I shifted the name of their group without even a casual “whatcha think?” to my members, I showed I was neither a confident nor a conscious leader. I was too busy leading us in a new direction to see how I was being called to serve.

Only when I started to look at the first quarter of the year and all the growth that hadn’t manifested the way I’d imagined did I realize I might have made a mistake when I renamed the group.

That’s when I asked my members how they’d feel about reverting back to the original name.

They were unanimous. In their hearts, this always was and always would be The Sovereign Writers Circle.

I’d accidentally taken something important from them when I deleted “writing” from our name.

As one member says, “I describe this group to people I know as: "my writing group for therapists who have their own story to tell.’”

And So, Thanks to Mercury Retrograde, Retrospection, and the Courage to Ask for Input… The Sovereign Writers Circle is BACK. (And stronger than ever.)

Right now I’m accepting applications from transformation professionals who are ready to write and live and more powerful story and who want to learn and grow with a like-hearted community of writer-healers.

Are you ready to discover more about yourself, your work, and the people you’re here to serve and finally put that into words with the help of a fabulous community and a leader who learns from her mistakes? We’re accepting new members through April 1.