Think big

I have a plant that is to become a tree. It has outgrown its current pot. I know this because the leaves are turning brown at the edges and the new offshoots are not sustaining.

I must buy a new pot. The right pot. It must be able to hold everything this plant wants to become.

It is an ambitious plant.

Giving

I finished Bill Clinton's book called Giving today. Because of its approachable style and diverse profiles of generous people, it fueled my desire to find more ways to give in my life. And I read it at a time when I had already put some wheels in motion on that score.

It's about time I paid more attention to the world.

Rachael's Big Idea

I caught Rachael Ray on Big Idea the other night. It was a really good interview. When host Donny Deutsch asked her about tips for success, one of them was to "work hard." Not so illuminating, right? But then she qualified it. Some people work hard and complain all the time. Some just work hard.

Be the latter.

Autumn??

I'm attributing my feeling of lethargy all week to the oppressive humidity. I guess I'm really ready for fall weather, fall clothes, fall, fall, fall.

Bring me crisp air, apples, sweaters.

Pleeeeeeeeease.

Shoe fairy

Now this must be a fun thing to do when you have money:

Renee Zellweger has a big heart. Wendy Faracino, a Bobbi Brown makeup artist at Saks Fifth Avenue in Southampton, was on her break and looking at a pair of Manolo Blahniks when Zellweger strolled up and the two began talking about shoes. Barely 15 minutes after she went back to work, Faracino was approached by the shoe department's manager with a gift-wrapped box. "These are compliments of Renee Zellweger. She wanted you to have them," he said. Inside were the Manolos she's been admiring.
--Page Six, New York Post

Pipe down

My bathtub drain was clogged. I went to the supermarket and bought a bottle of Brand A to unclog it. The water went down, so I followed the directions and ran hot tap water to flush it. The water didn't go down the drain.

Back to the supermarket. They only have Brand B, as I had bought the last bottle of Brand A. The directions clearly say not to mix them for chemical reasons. So I head five blocks south to the drugstore. They, too, only have Brand B. Do I risk fumes? Uh, no.

So I come home. The water has receded. Problem solved, it seems.

Except I am who I am and I believe there's a reason. I refuse to entertain the notion of the clogged pipes metaphor. Too disconcerting. So I think and I realize the hour I spent searching for Brand A drain cleaner I would have been sitting in my apartment overthinking a meeting I have tomorrow. And so instead I went on a hunt that required me to walk briskly, breathe fresh air and decompress.

OK.

Marching on

I am in such a brainstorming mode. I'm working on some things that feel like a culmination of thoughts and ideas I've had for the last two years or so. As I review my notes from previous modes like this, I find recurring themes and I like the persistence of those things in my emerging life philosophy.

I have a surefootedness that is brisk and fresh.

Good things will flow from it.

Checking in

Talked to a former life coaching client today. She got up her courage, left her job working for a major film director, and is on location associate producing an independent film. She's letting things be, reviewing her life, embracing the change of scenery from Manhattan to a Northeast suburb.

She made invaluable contacts, watched a genius at work and gave herself the gift of working tirelessly to learn.

I'm so proud.

A la 'Moonstruck'

You know, sometimes the thing about horoscopes is that there are days you feel like you couldn't have written it better yourself:

Capricorn, September 20, 2007 -- You have been doing well for yourself of late but the more you gain, financially, professionally and romantically, the more worried you get that something might go wrong and you end up losing it all. Common sense should tell you that is not a healthy frame of mind to be in, so snap out of it.
-- New York Post

Uh huh.

Blessings all around

My life coaching biz is really starting to cook these days. I love the enthusiasm of new clients and the challenges they present.

It is such a gift to help someone see possibility.

Good cry

I shed some tears tonight.

I'm not even sure why.

But man, I needed that.

Study in grace

My new goal: I want to wear high heels as fabulously as Helen Mirren does!

A life moment

As I go into the last morning of this writing workshop, I realize the biggest revelation I've had this week is that I must make some decisive changes in my life. That means new, fabulous goals and a different focus.

I think I was a bit naive about how long it will take to write this book and the rest of my life needs to be shifted as a result. This excites me and challenges me.

I could not have imagined how much I would learn from this experience.

Voice choice

Like any good teacher, our instructor here at this intensive novel writing workshop suggests we especially pay attention to any exercises that make us feel particularly resistant. Today I was the Great Resister.

However, like the disgustingly good student, I pushed myself to rewrite the same scene over and over. Find a scene, he said. Take out the exposition, he said. Rewrite it as if from the point of view of your novel's worst critic. Adapt one of these voices and rewrite it again: slangy, sarcastic, embarrassed, shrill.

Hmmmm. Did this instructor just say 'sarcastic'? Oh yeah, that one spoke to the Great Resister. I rewrote the scene in a voice dripping with sarcasm. I found it came naturally. Too naturally. Oh, Jesus. It's my voice. The voice of this character. The missing voice of this character.

Now it must be incorporated throughout the manuscript. Mamma mia.

Brings to mind my earlier post about Gabriel Garcia Marquez vs. Janet Evanovich. That was just another example of the same message.

Embrace your voice, baby. It's real and it's spectacular.

Book snob

So when we introduced ourselves at this writing conference, we had to go around the room and state our name, where we're from, the kind of book we're writing, and the last good book we read.

I lied.

The last good book I read was by Janet Evanovich. But the last one (just days) before that was Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. My pretentious self said the latter.

Sorry, Janet. You still rock.

September 11, 2007

It was surreal to be sure that on this day I read aloud a scene from my book that takes place on September 11, 2001. It was for a critique group at the novel writing workshop I'm attending.

What are the odds of that? I don't know.

What does it mean? I don't know, although I believe synchronicity is powerful.

That day changed me for the better. That I do know.

So much so that I felt compelled to include it in my art.

Write stuff

So I've arrived at a novel writing workshop that promises to work my creative self to the bone. Bring it, baby.

Overheard at the meet and greet: What is your protagonist doing these days?

We are a breed unto ourselves all right.

Quotable

To let oneself be carried on passively is unthinkable.
-- Virginia Woolf

Paths

I went to a barbecue in the Jersey 'burbs today to celebrate a man who changed my life. His name is Dr. Robert Cole and he was my journalism professor. He put me on a success track that contributed heavily to me becoming the person I am proud to be today.

It was wonderful to catch up with people I knew and, perhaps more satisfying, with people I hardly knew. It was an event of storytelling and appreciation.

Interestingly, this morning I was on the treadmill at the gym and caught some of the PBS special featuring Dr. Wayne Dyer talking about his new book in which he reflects on the Tao Te Ching. It was so refreshing to hear someone talk about principles which I find to be an invaluable guide on how to live life.

It was a good day for pausing and immersing myself in that.

Observation

I see so much self-loathing in people.

Makes me feel sad and helpless.

Yes, indeed

Sometimes there is nothing like finishing a workday at about 8 p.m., lacing up the sneakers and hitting the promenade at the waterfront for a brisk walk. These days, it's already dark at that time, so the view of the Manhattan skyline is twinkling lights against the dark sky and water.

Tonight I needed to think about some things and it was the perfect backdrop.

I love where I live.

Reading repertoire

I just returned from a beach vacation. I read some Gabriel Garcia Marquez, some Janet Evanovich, some Vogue, some Elle, some Marie Claire. How's that for hitting the whole spectrum?

I have a friend who marveled that a woman with Octavio Paz on her bookshelf could read Janet Evanovich. His reaction made me laugh out loud. "I'm well-rounded," I said. The truth is, Evanovich's Stephanie Plum character is so Jersey, so in the thick of Trenton's Chambersburg, so sassy, so irreverent, that I can't resist her. Nor can I resist the plotline of the two men she lusts after.

I love the solitude of reading. I love the deep dive into someone else's story, the delicious ache of a last page.
-- Naomi Shihab Nye, from the September issue of O magazine

And I love that such a wide range of authors make me feel that way.

Food for thought

One of the things you learn when you go from city life to suburban life is how poorly Americans eat. Two trips to the grocery store on my beach vacation and I've started to feel like the healthiest human alive. Carts overflowing with processed junk, sugar, sodium. Piles of it. I've managed to stay on top of my eating despite lots of temptation.

It has been fun, but it will be good to get back to the land of portion control.