Travelers Through Time

Happy new year to all. May your best dreams come true.

December was a musical month, singing, composing, playing with the muses who drop tunes on me like rain from a passing storm cloud. I’ll never get used to that hit-and-run feeling of being left with a snippet of tune, or half a line of lyrics, and a lingering sense of some ethereal being saying, “Okay, see what you can do with this,” before blowing on out of here. Don’t get me wrong; I’m grateful, but it’s always shocking.

I knew I’d have an excess of free time in December, with clients away for the holidays, or saving their money for gifts, or down with the winter flu-bug. I had every intention of using my downtime to work on my novel—it’s coming along nicely. I’m already on Part 2, and I didn’t even know there was going to be a Part 2! Even my editor was okay with ending the story where it ended; but no, my characters weren’t finished.

“You can’t just leave us hanging, homeless,” they clamored.

“O. Henry did it all the time,” I retorted. “He was known for cliffhangers.”

“O. Henry was published,” they jeered.

Really, what can you say to that? Anyway, as the fates would have it, I didn’t get much done on my novel. A new song, a trancy little tune, found its way into my consciousness, and another song I’d written—a blues piece—begged for two more verses and a bridge. What’s a girl to do?

Travelers Through Time (click on the picture above to enlarge it) speaks from that part of me that knows we are all just passing through, from somewhere else to somewhere else, touching down briefly in these earth-bodies before moving on. If you read music, I hope you’ll play this and let me know what you think.

Brand new world

So, I sent my collection of short stories to an editor back in Ohio. She said she prefers writers who have a strong web presence... Web presence?? who have a website or a blog... Blog?
Thank god for the younger generation! My daughter, sister, and nephew are cyber-literate, supportive, informative, and actually took my questions seriously. Then again, you can't really see eye rolling on e-mail or over the phone.
I did some research on how to set up a blog. It was recommended that I choose a topic to focus on. One topic??? Out of all the possibilities that exist? The biggest, most all-encompassing topic I could come up with was creativity. My belief is that every single one of us, yes--even you, are made up of creative "stuff" that's just waiting to be expressed.
It took me until I was in my 40ies to stumble into this awareness, but I believe it to the very roots of my soul. My intention is to share my personal journey into creative expression as it shows up in writing, composing, acting, singing, and doing my life's work of psychotherapy. I'll be talking about the creative process in its many forms, and hope that you'll share your experiences as well. We're all in this world together and regardless of our culture or background, the one thing that crosses any appearance of separation is creative expression.
Please join me each week for an update. And, I look forward to hearing from you. Until then, best regards. Jo