Inspirational Cards

The box cover for my first deck of oracle cards – Inspirational Cards.

I just finished creating a deck of Inspirational Cards. I am a huge fan of card decks, like tarot or angel cards. I have an ever growing collection of them, to be honest. So it is only natural that at some point I would create my own deck.

I found a very cool printing company, moo.com, that easily lets you upload different images for business cards. The paper the cards are printed on is sustainable as are the card boxes, which further adds to the warm fuzzy factor! The cards are printed on paper sourced from sustainable forests and are elemental chlorine free and wood free. The card box is made from recycled pulp board. And so, I had an easy way of self-publishing my own cards.

The front and back of one of the cards. The card dimensions are 70mm x 28mm (2.75″ x 1.10″).

One hundred designs later, I have a prototype deck of cards of my own! All of the card content is my own original writing and design. The illustration for the box lid and the card back is an excerpt from an istock photo illustration designed by Victor Tongdee.

I am so completely thrilled by this process and I am so excited to share them with anyone else who might benefit from a little dose of inspiration. I find cards are a great way of accessing our intuition and the wisdom of our higher self. I have already found that these cards are just bang on, accurately hitting the intuitive mark. Happy!

One hundred cards with unique messages of heartfelt inspiration.

If you might be one of those people who are also a card deck collector, or are looking for an uplifting set of positive messages for your well-being, please contact me (geneva@lunaholistic.com) to place an order. I will be sending an order into the printer by November 19, 2012 to get cards delivered by early December to my home in Calgary, AB, Canada. The card decks are $30 CAD each. Email me if you have any questions or want more detail about the card content.

So excited to launch a new creative project!!!

Tiny Writing Windows

Writing (Photo credit: jjpacres)

 

I have been playing hooky from posting. Deliberately so. There has been an expansion in other areas of my creative and professional life which has accompanied the ebb of blogging. A flow of creativity towards novel writing, setting up a new office space, writing and designing inspirational cards and just generally enjoying the glorious summer, have sprung from this brief break.

 

I took a writing class offered by SARK called Write it Now with SARK (WINS) Just phenomenal. The results with my writing and my life were amazing. I highly recommend it to anyone drawn to pen and paper (or fingers to keys).  The support from the community of fellow writers was wonderful. Plus the fact that you get to ask SARK questions and receive support directly from a pure laser beam of love.

 

I am writing my novel in gathered minutes I gleaned while waiting for my son at the playground or over a morning coffee. So far I have over 3000 words written all from little slivers of time that have become tiny windows into this creative journey I am on with my characters.

 

Lotus HKU 2011 (Photo credit: yuen_long)

 

The beauty of stepping back from the daily commitment of blogging has been as wonderful a process as the initial process of writing publicly daily. Ultimately both have been about side-stepping the inner critics which stall the flow of words and creative ideas. This is what I learned:

 

• Make friends with your inner saboteur;
• Fall in love with your own words;
• Open up to the flow of words and let yourself be surprised;
• Appreciation launches dreams, criticism crushes them;
• Be unfailingly devoted to the spirit of the work;
• Be willing to set aside your own need for approval to write that which wishes to be written;
• Give yourself permission to fail, spectacularly;
• Every work has an audience, honour your fans by keeping the pen moving;
• Write from the heart and write often;
•  Tiny pieces of time are profound moments of writing.

 

Answering the creative call

When I sit to write I feel a curious sensation fill me. I have pondered how to describe this feeling for quite some time now. It is a combination of plunging into cold water and the weightless lift at the top of a roller coaster. There is a twin pull and push on my centre than is at once motionless, yet full of movement, full of power. This is all before words fill me, or even a topic. Some days I wait there, poised, waiting, full of this powerful feeling, yet with no clear direction.

This is likely why writing bursts and writing prompts and free writes are all so beneficial. These are all techniques to get the wheels moving, to cause flow in an otherwise still process. Although there is also great joy to be found sitting in this stillness, this moving/ not-moving place. Letting the impulse to write arrive, knock, and knock once more.

There is great trust in this process, that the creative process can become stronger by not writing, not creating, but by waiting. It is like a deeply drawn breath, nourishing and clarifying. The out breath is the creation set in motion, full and vibrant. Both energies are needed, yin and yang, just as listening is required to craft a conversation.

Tea time

 

Cakes for tea?? (Photo credit: joanneteh_32(loving Laduree))

 

I was reminded today of how much I loved teatime as a kid. Full with tiny cups and saucers and air for tea. I still love it. Though now I use actual tea and hot water instead of imagination. Today though, I used the playtime teatime to bring my imagination to my writing. Huzzah!

 

I often wonder if we are at our most creative when we are four or five. We would be old enough to have some pithy experiences in life, but young enough to not be ‘schooled’ out of our inherent imaginative play. Perhaps creativity as an adult is only based on tapping into the imaginative youngster you used to be.

 

Writer’s fuel

 

Body Mind (Photo credit: DanAllison)

 

Words.

 

Words fuel writers.

 

More than that, it is the direction of creative energy through the body mind of the writer to the page (or screen). Writing ‘in the flow’ is a blissful thing. Hooking into this transcendent state is the drug that a writer joneses over when they get ‘blocked’. The process of writing, any kind of writing, is the primer for the pump to get that flow going. Writing keeps you writing.

 

Finding the freedom from having to be perfect or pleasing or any other conformity is a primary process in generating a mind that can plug into this ethereal ‘flow’. Surrendering to the process of writing in its most simple form, pen and paper, and letting go of everything else can open you and sweep you toward the page, now filled, with juicy sentences and luscious paragraphs.

 

Writing life – consistent commitment

I took a tiny break from posting, thinking that I needed some relaxation/vacation time to recharge my writing muscles. It felt like I was skipping on brushing my teeth. I have been playing around with a writer’s identity for a while now. Trying on the archetypal clothes of what I think a writer is, what they do, how they think. I realize now that anyone who is literate is a writer. Everyone has a story. I crave these remarkable tales. I am curious about who people are and where they have been, even more, where they are going.

I am a writer. It fulfills a need within me to connect and express. I can document my experiences and perspective. I now know that if I crave the stories of others, the. Others crave my stories.

The Dot and The Outsider

I read two distinctly different books this week that are the opposite ends of one spectrum. “The Outsider” by Albert Camus and “The Dot” by Peter H. Reynolds are, on the surface, completely unconnected, one being a short novel about a condemned man and the other a children’s story about creativity. For me, these two books hold a different gaze on the same subject, being different.

In “The Outsider”, the main character is unapologetically odd, which leads to his fate, being condemned by society. In “The Dot”, the main character is encouraged to create her original art, a dot, by a teacher, which leads to acclaim. On one end, being different is despised, on the other it is praised.

What these two books capture, in altogether contrasting mediums, is the influence of perspective in telling the story of our lives. In “The Dot”, a teacher’s praise of an early art attempt, leads the character to define herself as an artist and continue creating works of art. The teacher could have just as easily said the dot was ‘not art’ and the story would have reached a dismal conclusion. Not a typical move in a children’s book, granted. In “The Outsider”, the character is on trial, two portraits of his personality are presented to the jury. On one hand he could be an amoral, cold-blooded killer, on the other he could be a confused, weird man caught in a bad situation. The story that is believed is the one that seals his fate, but is it true?

A story can uplift, a story can kill. Words are powerful. Words are more than description of a fixed reality. Words and stories sculpt life itself. So, I wonder, what story are you telling about yourself? Is it the one you want to be true? This is the role of affirmations; they are specifically designed to counter unhelpful stories that we may have heard about ourselves. It takes a strong character to withstand a negative culture. Deliberately telling a different story about ourselves, as these two works show, can completely change our lives.

Tell a better story.

Nurturing Creativity

Elizabeth Gilbert. She rocks. I hope she always keeps writing. I hope she always lets the magic fairies that live in her walls sneeze their fairy snot all over her.

Watch.

 

Deliberate Insanity

Writing (Photo credit: jjpacres)

I’m writing a novel. There. I said it. Now I have to follow through. Along with everything else. I have decided to write not just one book, but two. One novel, one non-fiction book. Before I’m 40. That gives me a year and a bit. Two drafts, one year. Hrmm.

Ok. That is not (yet) the crazy part. The crazy part is the exercise that my friend and writing mentor Samantha encouraged me to do as a way to connect to my main character. She suggested that I set aside, for a moment, working on the structure of the novel (which is essentially done anyway), and begin writing to the main character. An introduction. A discussion. Let her speak.

I did. What an odd experience. To have a character emerge from the shadows of my mind. Fully realized and feisty. It feels like deliberately choosing to have voices in your head that are from someone ‘not real’. Weird. Fun, but weird.

This character is not someone I like or would even want to meet. She is sullen, neurotic, foul. Easily angered she launched into berating me for the inexpensive journal I was writing her in. At least, for my first novel, I have a character that is demanding and loud. There is no mistaking her. Clear.

Also in the mix of impressions, of where she is taking me on this writing adventure, I got a peek of her shattered vulnerability and her wit. This will be interesting.

I have no plans for what will happen to these books once they are done. I guess the point is usually to publish. How that will happen. Who knows. First, write. Second, write. Third, write more. Then, maybe, I will figure the rest out. It is fun. Knitting with words.

Shadow and light, goodnight

I rhyme. Well, at least some of the time. At first, when I started, I found it really hard. It just took a bit of time, and now I can’t stop.

Well I can of course, stop rhyming. But should I? It is surprisingly difficult to form complex rhymes that are more creative than cat, bat, hat, sat. Right now I think spontaneously in rhyme. It is weird.

The rhyming is one thing, but it is not consistent. It is stopping, starting, halting, like the wheels of a bike hitting mud. A rhythm forms and breaks, hitting the brakes I fly over the handle bars, and splat!

At this point I’m not sure if I want it to stop or start. Or just continue and hold on for the staccato ride. I do have immense compassion for Seuss; he must have had rhymes swimming through his head all day long. Fun, but difficult to have an adult-sized conversation.

Or perhaps not an affliction
More like and addiction
To the sing song of words
The love of the worlds.
The resonance
Of your consonants
Make my vowels
Wet their pants.

Ah ha hee ha ha

I’m done.

Cockney time
Goodbye rhyme.

Mmm maybe one more time.