Week 6: Humility

Last night, I had a dream that I finally was able to do the splits. It’s something that I have wanted to do for a long time, but, have never really put in a solid effort to accomplish. In the dream, the trick was to do front splits, instead of side splits, and presto, I was able to spread out with ease. Dreams are funny that way. They often make connections for me, that my waking brain simply never can. The lesson is that sometimes I have to approach things from an unconventional way in order to achieve what I want to. And this little anecdote brings me to this weeks writing prompt, which is humility.

Agatha Christie writes about trying to emulate your writing hero, only to realize that one must in fact find their own way to go about things. The prompt further challenges the writer to look deep into what our strengths, and weakness really are. By digging deep into where you can grow, and where you excel, you ultimately will find your voice. The thing of this is, as I am sure with almost every creator out there, focusing on the areas that need improvement is easy, whereas, understanding or even acknowledging where you shine? Well my friends that is where the difficulty lies.

Can you actually create if you feel humility? If you are at the top of your game, knowing that no matter what you put onto the page, canvas, or whatever medium you choose, will be amazing, is there value? Or is it better to always be a pained and struggling artist? Is that where the heart and sentiment truly lie? I don’t know the value of ever writing with humility. Perhaps if that victory is ever achieved, it would be time to teach young minds about the craft that I hold so near and dear.

There is a part of me, that struggled with doing this women’s writing challenge because I didn’t want to change who I was, nor how I wrote. In fact, that fear, has probably kept me from doing a lot of things in life. Failure, is difficult for me to accept. Which brings me back to my dream. I know, that changing my point of view is something I am very good at doing. What I am not so great at, is the stick-to-it-ness. When I keep banging my head against the wall with no results, it eats away at my drive to continue. But here I sit, knowing deep deep down, that my writing strength is that I keep writing. And as evidenced by my many years blogging, the writing, it has actually improved a great deal. Perseverance is my writing strength as much as my nemesis.

And, yes, my ability to try new things. There, a tinge of humility has escaped my lips. I am very good, at absorbing new information, listening with all my facets, and changing or amending my opinions. And that my friends is what makes my writing what it is, something many of you enjoy reading. While my fear keeps me from actually giving up, hence not admitting to myself that I may never do the splits and therefor if I stop practising daily then I can’t actually fail. Maybe that’s a stretch in logic (pun very much intended), but hey, my perfect counterbalance to being so flexible (I can’t stop now) is by me not putting wasted effort into things that I might never achieve.

Welcome dear friends to my convoluted brain when I task myself with something bigger than I have the mental capacity to currently handle. A mishmash of thoughts, and ideas flow out of me, and if I let my stream of consciousness do the leading, this, is where we end up, with Intuition and Logic, the post I struggled with last week and said I don’t do. Ha! In actual fact, that last paragraph was my way of knocking myself down a peg after admitting that I was really great at something. Maybe just maybe, I have always written with a humble nature, and that’s what makes me relatable at times. But then again, maybe not.

For those following along on Patreon, yes, there are some behind the scenes pictures on there!!! Enjoy and thanks for the support.

Week 5: Intuition and Logic

When I read the title of this weeks writing prompt, I was nervous. For you see, I am not in the best of places emotionally right now. Hormones are a hell of a thing, and well, I’m feeling the weight them right now, all the while coming to understand that this is just a part of my here and now. Trying to give myself a break from over analyzing is tough work, and not something that I am particularly good at. Anyways, onto a prompt that will help focus my words, with intuition and logic. Wait a tick, did I just stumble upon something important here?

So in this prompt, Celeste Ng, speaks to the idea of writing down things creatively and then going back to them with a more logical lens. This idea of writing from your gut or soul, and then seeing if it makes sense, and the like. And well, I am more than grateful for a writing exercise that is more skill set building vs digging inside of me.

For those who are curious, I tend not to write creatively. Instead, I keep many ideas floating inside my brain, sometimes for hours, even days at a time. I let my mind wander over this thought or the next, often concerning my boyfriend with the pensive or faraway look on my face. I muse, puzzle, think, walk about, or drive. And then, the moment that logic floats in, or something solid actually materializes, I pounce out of my imagination and into the tactile. This sometimes takes the form of bullet point, rapid fire notes, and other times an entire fully formed story or article comes flowing out me. When the latter happens, I have learned that I must write down my title or subtitle of the piece first, so that the words that come pouring out actually remain cohesive. For me, that means a beginning, middle, and conclusion that ties all the ramblings together.

I live in a world of intuition, and only when the logic strikes do I put things down on paper. And to that end, I think for my next podcast, I will attempt this whole reverse outline that she speaks to, which intrigues me. In her mind, there is value in writing something down, and then pulling the outline afterwards, possibly a double check that there is logic and flow? Like I said, I am curious as to the effect this could have when I edit, or read out loud. Did I actually make my argument like the bullet point said, or did I miss a valuable summary point, that added cohesion and power to the words? My mind races with the impact this could have…

As always, thank you dear readers for following along. I hope perhaps my creative prompt journey inspires you to take your passion project to the next level. Maybe dig deeper yourselves, or hone in a skill. I would love to hear all about it! And yes, there will be bonus content on my Patreon at some point soon, I’m just feeling slightly overwhelmed with life right now.

Week 3: Truth

This weeks prompt is from the incomparable Margaret Atwood, and as I should have expected her note was direct and to the point “tell the Truth”. And whether via luck or happenstance this is exactly what I have been struggling with as of late, but not within my writing. No, as I mentioned last week, I really enjoy the process of digging deeper, and as I am discovering with my podcast, fact checking and research are things I really enjoy. There is an uncomplicated, more direction focused nuance to ensuring what I write is accurate. A little mental break if you will, to the emotional ties with which I write words down on a page. And these are all the things that I wanted to brag about really enjoying as I read the task that was presented to me, truth.

However, as I stood in the shower, letting the hot water pour over me, with the almost trance like effect of the rushing water that has elicited so many ideas over the years, I suddenly realized that while my mind and creativity are focused in truth, my body is not. In fact over the past year and a bit, my body has outright lied to me, time and time again. And it is becoming unbearably painful, because on more than one occasion my body has convinced every fibre of my being that we have conceived only to dash my hopes days later.

And well, being a person who adores research and fact checking, I can tell you with the utmost certainty that information available to those struggling to get pregnant absolutely sucks. There is almost no way to tell fact from fiction because everything is subjective. My body lies, my research yields false hope, and an abundance of information that simply states… wait. All you can do is wait! Now here is where it starts to get twisted.

In this new age of internet searching with cookies, and all manor of targeted advertising, something sinister lurks beneath my desperation, the profiteers. Oh yes, the internet knows what you are up to, and let me tell you that there are more than just a handful of so called experts, ready and willing to take your money in exchange for an almost guaranteed plan to help you cleanse your body so you can get pregnant. With a modest monetary exchange, you can reverse the age of your eggs with diet and exercise alone! There is no actual peer reviewed study to back this magic remedy up. Nor any way that you can ensure these things are safe, healthy, effective, or recommended by an actual Dr. But hey, in the wee hours of the night, when you are once again devastated that your body has once again let you down, you might say, “I’ll try anything”. And then dear friends, they’ve got you, and your money.

I wish there was a way to report these charlatans, who give false hope in exchange for your hard earned money, but as of yet, I do not know of a place. It feels criminal that in my hour of vulnerability, and hormonal upheaval, I cannot find a thing that I can try that is endorsed by anyone reasonable or rational. This writing prompt really wanted me to look at a past piece of writing and fact check it, remove bias, and take a long hard look at the accuracy of my words. And well, I want to write something verifiable in regards to increasing my chances of getting pregnant, and quite frankly, as this point in time, I could not ensure universal accuracy. The state of women’s healthcare and research is deplorable. I have hit a wall, and I cannot fact check myself out of it, no matter how hard I have been trying. And well, admitting that I have failed, just… sucks.

Well, until the next writing prompt. Hopefully it will be a tad more uplifting. Thank you as always to the amazing folks who comment, share, and subscribe to my Patreon. I couldn’t do this without your support.

Dear Body: It Has Been So Many Months…

I worked so diligently on really listening and being fully intuitive with my body. It was a long process, but I worked on a lot of emotional trauma, and got to place where I could be gentle with myself and my emotions. I felt empowered by this triumph. I sit here now, realizing that I no longer trust anything my body is doing. The earnest desire to become pregnant has turned all the rational cues I used to rely on, into damn bloody liars! Month after month, I experience every early pregnancy symptom, and month after month, I realize that they were false alarms. It is disheartening to know just how many months we have been trying for.

The best advice, as I’ve mentioned before, is to just relax. When it happens, it happens. And truly there is little more that I can do, beyond what I am doing. My next appointment with the fertility clinic is in a month, and while I have already waited 3, this last one seems the longest. I guess I was hoping that I would be able to tell them, I needed them for a different reason, an early pregnancy. And yet, all signs point to that simply not being possible.

I realized today, that I am 2 cycles away from us trying for a year without success. I cannot believe that it has been almost 9 months since my last chemical. As much as those suck, at least something happened, and my hormones and body changes were the result of something trying to get started. These past 8 months I have experienced varying degrees of symptoms. All different, and all contributing to my roller-coaster of hope versus despair.

It’s so odd, that I can be with the most wonderful man in the world, who makes me feel like a god damn queen, who has never been this happy. But, that I am also able to still feel the agony of my body letting us both down. The harder you love, the harder you fall I suppose. The range of emotions just gets deeper and deeper as your experiences increase. I suppose in a way, that is healthy, and a good sign that I am truly living life to the fullest, but there is darkness. As I type, Time in a Bottle, by Jim Croce plays in the background, and it’s true, there just never seems to be enough time. And that means I cannot waste any energy feeling sorry for myself, that we just haven’t conceived in such a long time. But saying the thing that makes sense, and believing the thing are two vastly different states of mind. I fear my rational one, is losing out to the hormonal one far more often than I am comfortable with.

Vulnerability is beautiful in so many ways. And it allows a person to really love, and feel, and I am grateful that I overcame so much to get here. I feel whole, and intense. But also a little wild, and out of control, which doesn’t suit me. That side lets in the fear. The fear that I might lose control, and just wind up in a puddle on the floor, unable to snap myself out of the void. My only saving grace is that I know I am not alone. There are people in my life who I can wholeheartedly rely on to keep me sane. I trust them with my heart, and my volatility, because they are flawed humans who love as I do. We have trust, compassion, and empathy for all that makes us humans. And it is this that keeps me going. This network of support that rises above the pain I feel on a monthly basis.

We keep trying. It’s all we can do. And I keep picking myself up off the floor, because as it turns out, reaching rock bottom is the biggest lie we tell ourselves to keep on trucking. I hope, I will be able to start rebuilding trust with my body sooner rather than later. For now, I am helpless. And at the mercy of my body, and the hormones that take over more often than not. One day, I will hold that baby in my arms… I will.

Thank you all for the love and support during this time. A special shout-out to those on my Patreon who have access to all the behind the scenes, including my newest project… a Podcast, because yes, distraction keeps me going!!!

Breaking Away from Monogamy Check-In

Check-In

I have a bunch of blog posts, articles, pictures, and projects on the verge of being shared, but before I do that, I want to ask one thing: How are you doing?

For me, it has been 6 weeks of my partner and I against the world.  We alternate going grocery shopping every 10 days or so, and go out to pick up a new keg of beer every two weeks.  The sunshine has been shining for the last 2 days which as certainly helped, but let me be completely honest, I now have days in a row where I do nothing.  I love my projects, and my writing grounds me, but for one reason or another, I just do nothing!  Many days I feel just like I am in a state of limbo.  That’s me, now, how are you doing? Feel free to answer in the comments, social media, or even share a post you have written about your current state of mind.

Check-In’s are important.  At the end of this isolation, having a strong network of support will make shifting out easier.  We had no say as to when the distancing would begin, and that can be incredibly challenging for many of us.  Being told what to do is not an easy thing.  We are adults after all, with autonomy, and yet, here we all sit choosing the collective good of society, rather than our own selfish needs. And that needs to be acknowledged and celebrated.  I thank each and everyone of you who are doing your part to distance, and minimize contact with your fellow humans.  Again though, this is not easy, so, how are you doing?

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If you are not Ok, please comment.  Reach out!  Let us all help each other get through this. Alternatively, if there is something that you are doing that is working really well, could you please share?  Maybe something as simple as smiling at yourself in the mirror, or taking 5 minutes to stretch your whole body helps.  Wherever you are with this check in, let us work together by helping, or sharing.  The whole social media community has a real opportunity to prove its real value in our society.  So, let us pause, reflect, and use the tools we have on hand.

Today, I am doing OK.  How are you?