Have you read the The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles?  I highly recommend it.   For the artist living the life they love, it is a great confirmation that you’re doing the right thing and a great hooohaaa to keep going.  For those working to find their artistic side, dedicate themselves to their craft or take their art-work seriously – it is a great slap in the face.

Steven talks about Resistance being the reason that so many do not follow through with their dreams.  It is Resistance that keeps you from sitting down to write or from finishing that book or putting the first stroke of color on a blank canvas.

I’ve been asked many times how in the world I can do so much. How do you write a three hundred page book and also keep your Facebook page going? How did you write that comedy screenplay and that drama in the same year?  How can you travel and speak on stage and still get that book to the editor in time?   After reading this book I can happily say:

Resistance is my bitch.  BITCH = Being In Total Control of Herself

I love seeing people conquer Resistance and boy have I seen it.  I love what Sunni Brown created here:

Image from SunniBrown.com

Today I’m going to go write the last ten pages on the screenplay I’m working on, then I’m going to tweet, then read a chapter in the book I’m reading at the moment, then tweet and FB, then reread the screenplay from the beginning and start to rewrite it.  Writing is rewriting.

What are you doing that you love?

How to slap Resistance upside its head and do what you love?

I am so in love with this song that I just had to share it.  The words She dances in the middle of the forests she draws are edible they are so lovely to me.  Plus, I lived in Paris for a year and miss it terribly. I hope to go back for an extended amount of time again some day.   In the meantime, I can practice my French by listening to Francis on repeat.  Sigh…

Je l’aime à mourir

By Francis Cabrel

French to English Translation from LyricsTranslate.com

I love her to death

Me I was nothing
But today
I am the keeper
Of her nights’ sleep
I love her to death

You can destroy
Anything you’d like
She will only need to open
Her arms
To rebuild everything
To rebuild everything

I love her to death

She erased the numbers
From the area’s clocks
She transformed my life into
Paper hens
Bursts of laughter

She built bridges
Between us and the sky
And we cross them
Everytime she
Doesn’t want to sleep
Doesn’t want to sleep

I love her to death

She must have been part of every war
To be so strong today
She must have been part of every war
Life’s and love’s also

She lives as well as she can
Her opalin dream
She dances in the middle
Of the forests she draws

I love her to death

She wears ribbons
That she let’s fly away
She often sings to me
That I am wrong to try
To hold them back
To hold them back

I love her to death

To come up to her cave
Hidden beneath the roofs
I have to nail notes
To my wooden clogs

I love her to death

I must only sit
I must not talk
I must not want anything
I must only try
To belong to her
To belong to her

I love her to death

Translated into English from French

*****

For the lovers of the French language:

Je l’aime à mourir

Moi je n’étais rien
Mais voilà qu’aujourd’hui
Je suis le gardien
Du sommeil de ses nuits
Je l’aime à mourir

Vous pouvez détruire
Tout ce qu’il vous plaira
Elle n’aura qu’à ouvrir
L’espace de ses bras
Pour tout reconstruire
Pour tout reconstruire

Je l’aime à mourir

Elle a gommé les chiffres
Des horloges du quartier
Elle a fait de ma vie
Des cocottes en papier
Des éclats de rires

Elle a bâti des ponts
Entre nous et le ciel
Et nous les traversons
A chaque fois qu’elle
Ne veut pas dormir
Ne veut pas dormir

Je l’aime à mourir

Elle a dû faire toutes les guerres
Pour être si forte aujourd’hui
Elle a dû faire toutes les guerres
De la vie, et l’amour aussi

Elle vit de son mieux
Son rêve d’opaline
Elle danse au milieu
des forêts qu’elle dessine

Je l’aime à mourir

Elle porte des rubans
qu’elle laisse s’envoler
Elle me chante souvent
que j’ai tort d’essayer
De les retenir
De les retenir

Je l’aime à mourir

Pour monter dans sa grotte
Cachée sous les toits
Je dois clouer des notes
A mes sabots de bois

Je l’aime à mourir

Je dois juste m’asseoir
Je ne dois pas parler
Je ne dois rien vouloir
Je dois juste essayer
De lui appartenir
De lui appartenir

Je l’aime à mourir

Sometimes I get sad, sometimes I get depressed or mad and when I do I like read The Book of Bunny Suicides

Whether it’s because I’m on DSL cable instead of high speed internet, or if my feet are cold or I hear one more sad story where the innocent are falsely accused or abused sometimes I need to just stop and have a laugh.  Especially if it’s one of those I give up and quit days, the bunny makes it all funny.

PS:  that tape he’s putting in is Fatal Attraction.

Daily Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey can also bring a giggle or jiggle to my gut.

Warm Whiskers are also toasty and roasty and I wish I had a whole collection!

Sometimes you just have to laugh.

So the humor begins… My mother just forwarded this to me.  Oh lord.  Please follow her on Twitter @fourletterwords

Related posts:

1. Your Body Reveals The Truth
2. Triggering Trauma with TSA Scans & Pat Downs

What is your life soundtrack? While watching Ohdoctah on his Wednesday show, this question came up too. It got me pondering what music makes my heart sing, brings up an old lovely memory, inspires joy, a broad smile or spontaneous dance moves. I have an extremely eclectic taste in music and there is not much that I dislike.

If I was deserted on a desert island

and I could only have one collection it would without a doubt be Led Zeppelin:

When I need some inspiration I listen to Yolanda

My teens were formed around goth music

I love the Sisters of Mercy, Joy Division, Bauhaus, Love and Rockets and my favorite Tones on Tail:

At anytime of day, I’m game for Whiskeytown

I super duper adore Jeff Buckley

And of course the classic Pure Imagination!

will always get me dancing.

What’s your life soundtrack?

Related posts:

1. The Soundtrack to Searching for Angela Shelton
2. Into My Arms

I was working with a consulting client on a creative project she’s putting together and something wonderful came up that I had to share.  I was sharing meditation techniques to use and mentioned the importance of her writing down all that was going on with her during her process even though she may not use it in the final product.

She mentioned not being able to talk about her past since it involved abuse and I told her that I wasn’t interested in her past; I was interested in the future glimpes she got of her future in her past.  I think it’s important to not stay focused on the past trauma, but rather  remember and acknowledge the glimpses of light in the painting of your life to help you move forward. I believe much of the creativity we receive is by reconnecting with our inner child and even if that child was abused, neglected or perpetrated on, there are still flashes of light, awareness and reassurance that happened along the way if you look for them.

I asked her to write about whatever glimpes of reassurance she had received and she suddenly had the memory of climbing to the top of a massive tree when she was a wee tyke of four.  If was a huge accomplishment for her that had stayed in her mind for years.  That experience had taught her that she could do anything. She’d even written about it before.  Ah ha!  I told her to gather up those writings and read them again.

After working in the trauma and recovery field for so long, it’s amazing how much time is spent on the trauma itself.  When you step back for the story of the trauma for a moment and look at the full picture, sometimes you can see that you actually climbed the tree!

If you climbed it then, you can climb it now.  Climb that tree and be sure to go to the top and enjoy the view.

I love it when stories of intensity lead to happy endings. I’m excited to share this one and it’s an honor to be able to consult on creative projects that I support and care about.  Keep creating!

Julie Clark started a little company from her basement called Baby Einstein. She also started a company called The Safe Side, which makes stuff that helps kids understand how to stay smart and strong. As most of you who know me know – I play Safe Side Superchick. I get recognized all the time by little kids and it is such a joy. We shot only two videos though and were meant to shoot ten or twelve. There was a whole plan for more but as it does sometimes, life through the whole crew a curve ball when Julie Clark was diagnosed with breast cancer.

True to her personality, she took her role as a mother to the drawing board again and has written a book called You Are the Best Medicine.

Watching a parent go through cancer treatment is very scary for kids.  Julie created Baby Einstein to teach her kids to be smarter, Safe Side to keep them safe, and now her new book helps them to be strong and nurturing when their mommy (or daddy) is in pain.  It brings tears to my eyes, especially since I personally know this family.  So sweet.

Please support her and get a copy – also true to her nature – she’s giving proceeds to organizations involved in cancer research.

Related posts:

1. The Balancing Act
2. Julie Clark from The Safe Side!
3. 7 Courses to Living Fully

Arizona Dream is another great film that I discovered while living in Paris in addition to Until the End of the World.

Wow, do I love this film.  The soundtrack is also amazing with Iggy Pop.

Johnny Depp is such a genius and makes amazing choices in his career is all I have to say about that.  If you get the chance to see this film – do!!  It is a gem.

A comment came in on my Home Page from volunteer at TEDxAsheville who said: just wanted to let you know that your talk was GREAT! Thank you for sharing yourself with us. I swear I’m not some woo-woo crazy Asheville hippie, but I wanted to share a dream I had last night. Doc Hendley gave you a canning kettle full of butterflies in various stages of butterfly-ization. You opened up the kettle and laughed this amazing, belly-full laugh and all the caterpillars jumped up on your arms, and the butterflies were flying around your head while you skipped around the room. It was amazing. I hope you’ve learned to see yourself as you appear to the rest of the world. I’m still shedding all my cocoons, but you definitely seem to be a butterfly. You are such an inspiration! Thanks for being your squishy self.

WOW! I just had to repost that. First of all Doc Hendley is not only hot as hell (and married with children), he is one of the good men out doing good things in the world.  It’s a honor to be in the same dream as him and speaking at the same event.  He founded Wine to Water – non-profit aid organization focused on providing clean water to needy people around the world.

As it says on the TEDx site: Doc Hendley /henˈlēⁿ/ 1 : founder and president of Wine To Water 2 : named one of the Top 10 CNN Heroes for 2009 3 : calls himself proof that anyone, even a tattooed keg-tapper, can cure what ails the world.

The fact that he and I were in a dream together is such a great metaphor for me.  Both of us are “setting butterflies free” from totally different worlds.   We spent some time talking at the event and he is an extraordinary man as in extra-ordinary too. He even toasted a glass of water to the audience at the end of his talk and pointed out what a “nobody” could do since he went from a bartender to a hero by following a dream.

Speaking of dreams and butterflies – they play a significant part in things I’ve been writing recently!  Devon’s dream was a great little “keep dreaming and keep writing ” poke.   Plus, it propelled me back into a memory from when I was about three and had collected a whole jar full of fireflies with my brother and sister and who opened the lid in the house?  Me!!

Here’s something lovely ~

One of my favorite movies is Until the End of the World by Wim Wenders. Unfortunately we don’t always get to see great films like this in the states. You have to seek them out. I was living in Paris when I had the pleasure of discovering this film.

And of course, where there is great art and artists Bono shows up!  Wow, would I love to go to dinner with Bono and Wim Wenders. I have met both of them, but not together!  I met Bono at the height of my modeling career in New York.  What a presence he has, even though he’s about half my height – his energy is that of a giant.  I met Wim Wenders at a photo exhibit of his in Los Angeles. He told me how he goes to a place first and sits with the landscape and comes up with the story based on the essence of the place.  I love both of them – until the end of the world.

Related posts:

1. What I think about the world…
2. What I think about the world…
3. Living in a Fantasy World

I discovered this article today on Twitter via a post by TypeMicah (thank you!)

Jeremy Irons narrates a mocumentary about the life of a plastic bag and its journey to the ‘Pacific garbage patch’.

It was produced by campaign group Heal the Bay – lobbying for a ban on plastic bags in California

Brilliant!  Please help them help us.

I’ve always wanted to make a film about a plastic bag, I must say. I have notes in many of my creative journals about a film called Litter about this little plastic bag that won’t give up.  But no need to make that anymore after seeing this!  I love it.  If you’ve seen the end of my documentary (I hear the original one with the funny end is on Netflix), you know how I feel about Litter.  Those who litter reveal so much about themselves and the litter itself is becoming a country all its own in the middle of the ocean!  I have a long long list of ideas and creative projects so my plastic bag one gets the big check mark next to it because of brilliance like this.   This is the Global Brain at work.  It’s not about being upset about how you shoulda, coulda, woulda done something, it’s about what are you going to do now.  I’m going to help promote this movie and their cause!
Please share it!
YouTube

Heal the Bay

And bring your own bags when you shop too!

Related posts:

1. No Plastic Bags!
2. Plastic Bags