Blog

I’m offering a free course, Choosing is the Ticket Price to Your Creative Life, starting September 10th - did you sign up yet? You have to sign up here  to be part of the challenge. *** In anticipation of our time together, I thought it would be useful to examine the...

Fear camouflages itself as confusion and keeps brilliant creative women from the pleasures and successes of a fully expressed life. And fear’s number one choice when trying to trip you up? Your inability to choose. Your refusal to take a seat at the table of desire....

It’s been a pretty good summer for reading. Backpacking and camping trips gave me extra time to read, and I worked less than normal in June and July. Also, when I lead retreats, I go to bed early and read. It’s how this introvert recharges. I read for pleasure, I read...

I came around the corner of the Mabel Dodge Luhan house Friday morning. I’d just finished my morning run to the cross and back. After I caught my breath, I noticed one of my lovely students Lisa sitting under the nearby pear tree. “Morning,” I said. “How are you?”...

After 11 years of failed books and ideas, I hit send on a book proposal I’m truly excited about. More than excited: committed. The plan was to send the book proposal to my agent during a live Facebook event because I wanted support and a dose of confidence from my...

There is an idea floating around certain corners of the internet that self-care should always feel delightful or be soulful or important somehow. Maybe involve scented candles and make you feel like a goddess. Or a unicorn. But I want to talk about when we don’t want...

Over tea with a friend I love and who lives far away, after catching up on our kids and partners and parents, we got to the yummy stuff of talking about our dreams, our “bright shinies” as we call them, the new creative inklings beckoning to our hearts. I sipped my...

Accept that there’s no right way to start because a trackless wonderland has no maps and not a single do not trespass sign to speak of. Gently tug your dutiful mind away from trying to begin at the beginning. Who knows what that is? Begin where there is energy or an...

I can get so darn sick of my writing voice. Too acid, too cheerleader, too dull, too… There are days when I want to never write another word. Sometimes this does mean I need a break, that I’ve been forcing myself to produce too many words without taking in enough of...

From time to time I’ll share what I’m learning from writing my new book. Not excerpts, at least not yet, but peeks into what I’m discovering. I have a lifetime habit of starting easily and strong - my first book remains my biggest seller, my first foray into art was...

I was doing pretty good limiting my news intake. Just enough to be informed on what to call my representatives about. Just enough to know where to give money this month. Then the zero tolerance border policy in my country took effect. Bam! I was back to obsessively...

Sometimes people come to my writing workshops and retreats because they need to write. To build their business, to share their ideas, for an important work assignment, or because they have a story they must get out and into the world. But they don’t like writing. They...

Steady as She Goes This month, I’ve been concentrating on surfing the sensation of steady. Not giving in to my ups and downs. My grand plans and fantasies. Or my worst case scenarios. I’ve long known equanimity is the best psychological and spiritual path for me;...

I sat down to write this post and my heart sank. What did I have to say that was worth your time? I write to you every week because the discipline forces me to learn, to think, to grapple with the ideas I want to be a stand for in this world. But most of all? Because...

I’m just back from leading a writing retreat in Taos where I’ve been hosting retreats for seventeen years. Seventeen years of learning what creates a strong and deep container for the work. Seventeen years of learning what women need to re-mojo their creative hearts....

Early this month, Bobby Mac (that’s my husband’s nickname) and I went to see Wes Anderson’s new movie Isle of Dogs (basically a slow-motion acid trip), and afterward we went out to dinner. I’d been grumpy for the last two days, an out-of-sorts rumpled around the heart...

The hardest thing for me about being self-employed is the aloneness. I don't mean being alone all day - my head is such an interesting place I don't feel alone  - but the aloneness of holding the whole kit and kaboodle by myself. I have a great support team but in the...