Please don't tell me it's been almost a year since I posted anything to my blog. That's no way to build a presence. Sorry, my friends. I was having a moment, or rather an entire year, in which I didn't want to BE a presence.
I just wanted to BE PRESENT!
To myself.
Even at that, it was still an incredibly full, vivid, active year for me. I don't know about you, but it sometimes seems that all of these time-saving, multiple messaging devices (like computers and cell phones and instant messages--and Facebook) are making it harder--not easier--to have significant conversations with people. It's even harder to have significant, important conversations with oneself to find a quiet, nurturing silence where one's true thoughts and feelings can be heard amid all the clamor for attention.
And let's not be an ostrich about it. There are plenty of things going on out there in the world to make a human being want to stand up and shout out, shout back, etc. It's all those voices though, out there and in here, you know, that make it harder and harder to do what is essential... Which is to Love Ourselves, to Heal Ourselves, and to Heal Our Planet.
It used to be that I often found that healing space inside the pages of my journal on a quiet morning, sitting on my front porch, listening to the wind in the trees and the birds in the branches. And I still do whenever I can. If you know the importance of these moments of sanity, you probably keep a journal too, and not a TO DO LIST instead of a journal. If you don't know it yet, it's not too late to learn how to hear yourself, how to hear your heart, how to listen to the most important conversations going on within you, around you, and inside your dreams.
And I've found over the years that having kept a journal going, I could go back and look up events of my life. What else was going on in my life that year that I was trying to write my first book and take care of a preschooler? What kinds of things did my father tell me during the last years of his life? Since I have kept these journals, I can return to them, dig through their treasures, their lessons, their gifts of spirit.Whether you keep a journal now, have kept one in the past, or want to begin to do so, I want to invite you to come to write with me. I will begin a year-long group writing project this January when we gather for the Annual Night of the Mothers Journal Writing Retrospective. Details are at the end of this blog. If you want to participate, shoot me an instant message on Facebook or email me. I only have room for 10 people this year.
What I hope to do throughout the year is to find a time and space to write in a similar fashion with other journalers in cafes and living rooms. Writing in groups is a wonderful way to not only say what you need to say, but to hear what you say when you read it out loud, and to surprise yourself by what you didn't know you felt until you said it. The group journal writing experience lends a kind of synergy to the experience of journaling.
Coffee and friendship are as good as it gets for journal writing. Saturday afternoons, or late nights... Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Egypt. Wherever I travel this year I will be somewhere sitting in a café or on a balcony writing. And I want you to join me. Physically if you can--and I'll let you know where I am. But certainly join me in the ethers if we are not in proximity. So here are the details for the first Journal event. Remember you do need to pre-register as there are only 10 spaces for this annual journal event.
So tell me, Where Have YOU Been?
Annual Night of the Mothers Journal Retrospective
NORMANDI WELCOMES YOU TO HER ANNUAL JOURNAL EVENT
THE NIGHT OF THE MOTHERS RETROSPECTIVE
THE NIGHT OF THE MOTHERS RETROSPECTIVE
Saturday Jan 6th 2018
@ Susan Caldwell's Home
Georgetown KY
Georgetown KY
9am - 5pm
Why is it called the Night of the Mothers? Because in nearly all sacred traditions, the great goddess births her holy child at winter solstice on the darkest night of the year, bringing forth the new light to a new season.
The Great Sky Mother wraps her arms around us, embraces us, and holds us and our dreams within her belly until we are reborn in the new year. All cultures are drawn to this inspiring vision of the night sky with its promised return of the light that celebrates the birth of the divine child. As we leave 2017 and herald in the changes of 2018, we usher in the light within us. Through journal practice we can focus in and bring this divine light into expression through us. Gather your 2017 journals, datebooks, checkbooks, calendars & spend a few of the dark hours of winter looking backward through the past year, gleaning its lessons and gifts, then carrying your intentions into 2018. This is a great way to share, write, learn and gain new inspiration and wisdom.Normandi Ellis 318 Eastern Drive Chesterfield IN 46017
Please let me know you are attending and sending the check. Questions? Call 765-606-7119
