I am a recovering perfectionist, productivity chaser, and people pleaser, coaching women to disrupt old thought patterns, let go of behaviors that keep them stuck, and make their joy an everyday priority.
🦩 choosing choices 🦩
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Guten Tag, Reader, And now on to this week's letter: “I am not going to use this,” I mumbled to myself. “It is too banal,” I criticized the quote I had just handwritten on a piece of coffee fiber paper. “Only a man would even seek and get credit for something that I say in pretty much every single coaching session,” I dragged the patriarchy into my argument. But, I wanted a few extras and decided to put my trust in the universe once more: “If these are the right words for someone to read tonight, who am I to stand in their way of this message?” I was writing out scrolls for my Solstice Event. As the final invitation for the evening, I would pass around a basket of them, then send my participants off to sit or wander with the words they’d find. The quote that encountered the above resistance was by Sir John Lubbock, a 19th-century banker, politician, philanthropist, scientist, and polymath*: “Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass on a summer day listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is hardly a waste of time.” And here is what the person who did end up with this scroll shared later: “The words I read made me think of my past life choices and how those choices have kept me from lying on the grass and gazing at the clouds. I loved watching the clouds today. I am at a point where I am making decisions about my future. And I want to make sure that I consider grass lying and cloud gazing when I do.” Yesssss! Clearly, someone needed to ponder exactly those words that evening. And clearly, I was satisfied that I had gotten out of the universe’s way. ❓❓❓Here are a few questions for youWhen was the last time you... ❓...knew you were making a decision that would impact your freedom to lie on the grass and look at the clouds? ❓...considered your ability to lie in the grass and look at the clouds as a deciding factor? ❓... lay in the grass and looked at the clouds? What are you noticing as you are reading and answering the questions? You did answer them, didn’t you? If you haven’t yet, I invite you to take some time to reflect on the questions this week. And notice what you notice. I work with my clients to ask the right questions, consider the important variables, when they face big decisions: Change careers? Start a business? Move to Greece? Run for office? Go to clown school? I can help you figure it out. Let’s chat about how.​ I will see you back here in two weeks. If you liked this letter, please forward it to a friend. Always on your side, truly, p.s. If you got something from today's letter, why not buy me a coffee? I am keeping my writing AI-free, which means a lot of creativity goes into it. You can leave me a tip here. |
Welcome to my Joy Letters
I am a recovering perfectionist, productivity chaser, and people pleaser, coaching women to disrupt old thought patterns, let go of behaviors that keep them stuck, and make their joy an everyday priority.
Guten Tag, Reader, “Alright, you know what’s coming…” I say to my client, and a big grin appears on her face. She wasn’t always this keen on answering the question I ask at the beginning of every coaching session: “What are you celebrating about yourself? What have you been proud of since we last spoke?”* “My intuition and the fact that I followed it,” she says I won’t tell you what she intuited, but I will tell you that her intuition was right on point, and the results are positively...
Guten Tag, Reader, It’s an afternoon in August, and I just brought my writing outside. The unseasonable temperateness of the temperatures makes it possible. (Did you know that temperature used to be a synonym for mild weather?) There is a lot of unseasonable going on right now. I might even say an unreasonable amount of unseasonableness: The Halloween Decorations are coming out in the temples of capitalism and today (August 6!) I even saw a Thanksgiving display. Apparently, it's time to plan...
Guten Tag, Reader, The German word Vorfreude roughly translates into pre-joy, and I just felt it tingling through my body, walking through downtown Missoula on a Saturday morning and anticipating the pastry case at Morningbirds Bakery. In my mind, I could taste the cinnamon roll; I felt the spongy texture in my mouth, and I imagined licking the sticky icing off my fingers. In that moment, I wasn't thinking about my to-do list or worrying about my local public radio station. My thoughts had...