Gentle Reminder

Not much summer left for me, but I’m happy that I got to spend this summer focused on my home and my family. My girls are just about ready to start the school year, and I hope I can keep working on finding ways to increase our well-being as a family without sacrificing too much of myself.

I can’t believe how important well-being is, and I wish that I had understood its importance years ago (I’m talking a fully grown human years ago). But I know now. I want to raise my girls in a way that shows them that maintaining their well-being is baseline.

Just think, it all started when I realized I was passing up all the things that made me feel more like a woman.

This post isn’t about feeling more like a woman though. This post is about doing things that make you feel better in your own skin. It’s a reminder that those things are yours to prioritize.

What kind of things make you feel good in your skin?

Artistic Dreams

“I dream of painting and then I paint my dream.” -Vincent Van Gogh

Now this I can relate to. I wasn’t expecting to find anything really interesting tonight, but here it is. An amazing artist is guiding me back to my place in this world. Not that I only have one place! I am a woman of many places, but writing is the root of it all.

What do you dream of?

I Have Stood on the Peaky Mountain

“I have been in Sorrow’s kitchen and licked out all the pots. Then I have stood on the peaky mountain wrapped in rainbows, with a harp and sword in my hands.” -Zora Neale Hurston

I was trying to think of Ms. Hurston’s name this weekend at a writing group I attend. I had to look her up. She has left us some good words, especially this one. I like how this specific quote ends with her on a peaky mountain. Sometimes in our greatest moments, all we have are the tools we’ve been given to rise above it all. I think this quote captures that perfectly.

Keep building that tool kit.

What’s in your tool kit as a writer?

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

“I think the story is the most ancient form of human entertainment.” -David Mitchell

I’ve been thinking about Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell a lot lately. I haven’t read the book yet, but I loved the movie. It definitely had an impact on me and made me rethink a lot of things that go on in the different systems that make up our world.

Here’s a little description from Good Reads

“A postmodern visionary who is also a master of styles of genres, David Mitchell combines flat-out adventure, a Nabokovian lore of puzzles, a keen eye for character, and a taste for mind-bending philosophical and scientific speculation in the tradition of Umberto Eco, Haruki Murakami, and Philip K. Dick. The result is brilliantly original fiction as profound as it is playful. Now in his new novel, David Mitchell explores with daring artistry fundamental questions of reality and identity.”

Have you seen or read Cloud Atlas?

Openness

“The only sense that is common in the long run, is the sense of change and we all instinctively avoid it.” -E. B. White

I do like things staying the same. At the same time, I like to keep expanding too. I took one of those leadership tests and I scored high in openness. They say when you score high in openness, you should implement and lead new endeavors. When you score low in openness, you have a hard time trying new things, and you can become stagnant or resistant to feedback that can help you improve. I don’t think it’s bad to be either way. You may be low on openness but high in conscientiousness. But the point is change is inevitable. Sometimes we like it. Sometimes we would rather pass it up and stick with comfort. The great news is that we get to choose! Sometimes, the better option is both change and comfort.

Here’s the list of Personality traits from the Big 5

  • Agreeableness
  • Conscientiousness
  • Extraversion
  • Openness
  • Neuroticism

https://www.verywellmind.com/how-openness-influences-your-behavior-4796351

Do you think you score high in openness?

My Writing Friends

It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer. -E.B. White

I really like this quote. Seriously, my little group of writing rebels lights up my life. Rebels because they write against all odds. They write in the middle of the night and early morning. After work, thinking at work. In the face of adversity, in the spirit of celebration. They show up with all their feelings and creative force, and with all that, they genuinely make me feel more secure in myself. Like maybe the world doesn’t understand me, but my writing rebels do. And I think that’s something valuable in a world that alienates you from yourself. My writing friends always bring me back to me, and it’s not forceful, it just happens.

If you’re looking to chat about your writing journey, my IG is the place to connect with me. @Jayne_Press

I’m Still Here

Here’s my daily post. No deep and profound insights today. Just a little note to say hi👋🏽 I’m still here. Doing this writing thing isn’t always easy and fun, but I do my best to find the easy and fun ways to get it done.

Here’s a cool article if you’re looking for something interesting to read.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/juliawuench/2021/06/21/why-small-talk-is-anything-but-small/

You still there?

Make Up a Story

“Make up a story… For our sake and yours forget your name in the street; tell us what the world has been to you in the dark places and in the light. Don’t tell us what to believe, what to fear. Show us belief’s wide skirt and the stitch that unravels fear’s caul.” – Toni Morrison

Make up a story! Anything or anyone who starts with that has got my ear. I often get asked questions about my novel that I just haven’t thought about. And I also often want to say, I don’t know. The funny thing is I don’t have to know all the answers by fact or experience. If I don’t know, I make it up. And that’s what makes fiction a real humdinger. We’re allowed to lie in order to fill in the blanks.

How’s your writing coming along?

The Purge

“My aim is to put down on paper what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way.” – Ernest Hemingway

I’m at the point in my editing process where I’m deleting and getting right to the point. I know the story. Now, to get rid of all the parts that motivated me to write but won’t motivate you to read. ::insert fake laugh that leads to sobbing here::

How’s your writing going?

If you could choose which writer would you have dinner with?

“Every act of communication is an act of tremendous courage in which we give ourselves over to two parallel possibilities: the possibility of planting into another mind a seed sprouted in ours and watching it blossom into a breathtaking flower of mutual understanding; and the possibility of being wholly misunderstood, reduced to a withering weed.” -Ursula K. Le Guin

I only got a short time to dream of having a living, breathing dinner with Ms. Le Guin before she passed. I remember when I found her short story The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas and believed just a tad bit more that maybe there is a place for me as a writer. I felt like I was so close to finding someone as strange cool as me that I could connect with as a writer.

If you could choose what writer would you have dinner with?