by jlouden | Jun 3, 2015 | Creativity, Self-Care & Comfort, Favorites
After yoga on Saturday, my lovely teacher, Jen, grinned at me and said, “So when are you moving?” At a book signing event that afternoon, my author friends joked to Bob, “You can’t take her,” and then listened as we explained that we haven’t found a house in...
by jlouden | May 28, 2015 | Creativity, Self-Care & Comfort, Favorites
“You must give up the life you planned in order to have the life that is waiting for you.” – Joseph Campbell I’ve always loved that quote because it appealed so strongly to 12-year-old me, the me who carried a copy of Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe...
by jlouden | Dec 3, 2014 | Creativity, Self-Care & Comfort, Favorites
I remember when my friend Mary owned her B&B in Inverness, California. I met her on my (first) honeymoon and we became friends after I read all her columns in Innkeeper Magazine while recouping from food poisoning. We had come to Mary’s inn because she called it...
by jlouden | Dec 1, 2014 | Creativity, Self-Care & Comfort, Favorites
I am writing this on a small plane, flying back from Santa Barbara to my home. I spent last week visiting a former life peopled with current friends. Isn’t it funny how the longer you live, the more it feels like you’ve lived several lifetimes? I lived one of my...
by jlouden | Nov 12, 2014 | Favorites, Retreats
Sometimes I wonder why I write this blog, why I lead writing retreats, why I’m spending time every day writing my new project. I regularly wonder, “Why are you doing this when the world is dying?!” (By dying I mean climate change.) “People are starving. Girls are...
by jlouden | Sep 14, 2014 | Creativity, Self-Care & Comfort, Favorites
I used to believe shaping a life that included more of what I wanted was something I could do only if everything was right. As in: if I wasn’t depressed, if my health wasn’t wobbly, if I wasn’t doubting myself, and everybody else was pretty happy – especially my...
