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Happy Monday, friends, and I hope you enjoy your M Happy Monday, friends, and I hope you enjoy your Memorial Day! Over the weekend I was thinking about the last chapter of The Middle, and these thoughts hit me. It's not that we don't enjoy having our family/friends/people on our side or that it doesn't feel WAY less complicated when they are. But the truth is this: it's all for nothing if we don't carry that approval within us FIRST. This is how we find ourselves. When we can stand by ourselves when the world around us cannot. The approval you and I need most is going to have to come from within. In the places where we find Truth. Where we find acceptance. Where we find forgiveness. Where we find our own souls telling us what is right, and what we will allow. Where we find our next step. P.S. Seeing these notes you make when we talk or you watch the video readings of The Middle is everything to me. ☺️ Swipe to see... #themiddle #perfectlyimperfect #writer #writersofinstagram #quote #quotestoliveby #words #wordstoliveby #approval
Long live this paint palette. Seriously. May it Long live this paint palette. Seriously. May it be honored and welcomed at the city gates with parades and cheering and its name shouted from the rooftops. It's just so dang pretty. Have been painting with these colors this week (swipe to see a piece of a painting), and I couldn't help but shoot the mess made on palette. I'm considering doing something fun and new with these, so stay tuned, but in the meantime, if you want to snag a print or pillow or notebook, I added this design to my @society6 shop. Can find it in the link in my bio, under Shop Art. Happy Friday, friends!! 😊 #paintpalette #painterly #colorpalette #colorpop #abstractart #painterspalette #oilpaint #perfectlyimperfect #art #artistpigment
From Chapter 9 of The Middle, "Awakening." When I From Chapter 9 of The Middle, "Awakening." When I wrote about Stamps, I had no idea it would become a core idea behind this book. That the clinging to the Stamp of good: good wife, good mom, good woman, good daughter, good person, would be something so many of you would relate to. When I hit the lowest place of numb in the pretending, there were two choices, really. Stay in the place of approval, wearing the Stamps proudly around my neck and continue slowly fading, OR look inside, find the knowing of what I was in my centers, release the Stamp of Good, while everything burned around me. It was the most powerful, hard, painful thing I've ever done. But finding the sliver of the soul place was worth it. Diving into the soul place was worth it. The place where we find forgiveness of ourselves, and of others. The place where we find the little girl again. The place where we breathe a little easier because we are finally deeply connected to ourselves. The place where we look inside, and not outside for the approval we desire so fervently. The place where we fly. P.S. If you missed the reading of Chapters 8 & 9, the live video was posted to the grid yesterday. Love to you, S.
Words and Paint. You’ll always get those here. Words and Paint. You’ll always get those here. Yes, I am a business coach, and I still do design work, and we run @thecreativeexponent for other creatives/creative entrepreneurs, but here...you will always get some form of words and paint. They’re my love language. Painted this little tiny mini after I painted the larger canvas panel. Love these loose abstract landscapes so much. Swipe to see the time lapse of the big dog. See you tomorrow for Story Time Live tomorrow here on IG. 2 pm CST. The Middle: Approval by Fire. ♥️ #writer #writersofinstagram #paint #tinypainting #oilpaint #abstractlandscape #wordsandpaint
I couldn't have known that when I decided to start I couldn't have known that when I decided to start reading chapters of my book aloud to you, here on Instagram, that it would become something holding so much meaning to me so soon. Writing it had been important to me for years, so I felt great to have just BEGUN. Longings was, by far, the one that resonated with you the most. And this piece of it...finding the magic again, going back to the longings we had as children, is everything. It was for me, and I'd bet it is for all of us. It came from this passage: "The longings were never weird. The longings were gold. They were my voice, my being telling me as a child what would become important to me as a woman. Love. Connection. Meaning. Magic. Dreaming. Slowing down. Breathing deeply. Looking for the unseen and the unknown. Writing. Imagining. Belief. The most beautiful thing about the longings is this: they come back to you. They never really leave. When you are open and you are searching and you are ready, they will come back. After my divorce and my second year in the wildnerness, I was standing in the ocean with one of my best friends. We talked about my novel, and we talked about the mermaids. We spent that summer and many, many other days talking about magic and meaning and connection and real, unadulterated love. We talked about calling. It was never about the mermaids. It was about belief in myself. Connection to the divine, and connection to myself. Writing that novel and believing in that mermaid was about acknowledging everything that made me feel alive and not another human going through the motions of topside living. Maybe the whole of our lives is to go back to the beginning. To find the magic again. To believe in big, scary love and just how much it moves the world. To believe richly in our own selves. To dive furiously down to the bottom and see what happens next." #writer #writersofinstagram #themiddle #storytime #perfectlyimperfect
I'm always surprised when life surprises me again. I'm always surprised when life surprises me again. I don't know why...my life has been filled with surprise after surprise, some good and some most certainly bad and a lot, meh. But yesterday's live video conversation and your response to the latest chapter of The Middle was most certainly a good surprise. 😉 If you listened, you know why this little plaque hanging behind my desk matters so very much. I keep "mermaids" here to remind me. To remember. To dive down daily to the pool bottom to dream and imagine, and to bring that little girl back up with me every single time. It sparks a fire in me. A longing. To write. To believe in magic. And more than anything else, seeing it hanging there makes me smile, honoring all the good and bad and meh surprises of this crazy beautiful life that I get to call mine. Happy Saturday, friends. Adding more chapters of The Middle to the blog and painting like a mad woman. What are you getting into today?? 💙 #writer #colorwheel #paintpalette #colorpalette #mermaids #inspirationboard #writersofinstagram
P.s. We must do this simply as humans, too. Our fe P.s. We must do this simply as humans, too. Our feelings rush to us and through us. And they are all okay. They are all acceptable. Learning to accept them is a huge, beautiful, ongoing surrender. But we can train our minds. We can practice faith, resilience, belief in ourselves. Speaking kindness to ourselves first and also to others. Lending grace by the bucketfuls. Be aware of your fears. Accept them. And also tell yourself the truth. Your whole soul can be trusted to lead you to the right place. Can’t wait to see you for our Live Story Time tomorrow at Noon. Fear: I’m sweating already. But the truth: I need to connect with you as much as you might need to connect with me, and each other. Long live the truth telling to ourselves. 😘 #writer #writersofinstagram #wordstoliveby #quote
So this is where half of the magic happens. Half So this is where half of the magic happens. Half because half the time I work here, and half the time downstairs in the dining room. I took a little time to clean out my office turned storage facility last week and good lord...what a gift it has been. I'm able to use the space for shooting more again, and for writing, which is NECESSARY with all the children home. While I still need knobs for the dresser, I'm beginning to tweak the inspiration board behind the desk, adding and taking away what does or does not inspire me. What is this word "inspire" and what does that fantastical word mean in real life?? Does every piece up on that board, right behind my desk, the first thing I see when I walk into the office, make me want to write, paint, or shoot? If the answer is no, it comes down. There are already a couple of pieces I see hanging that will make their way to the "thank you so much, but we're done for now," pile. When we surround ourselves with things that matter to US, not someone else, they energize us. Nudge us. Keep going. Come on, you know you kinda want to. Open the computer. Write. #writer #writersofinstagram #inspirationboard #studio #creativespace #homeoffice #creativeoffice #homedecor #decorate #paintpalette

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