November 19-- prompt free weekends!

So... as I've been focusing on keeping up with NaBloPoMo, my blog has lost a little of it's former direction, and gained a bit of a new direction... good things come from creating, and change always... well... changes things.  I make art, but I call myself a crafter-- most of what I do is alter pre-existing things... I love to paint on journals, I love to make books.   Long before I considered myself a crafter, though, I fell in love with words and language and the stories we tell.   I think that many of us don't write because we are afraid of the reactions to the stories we tell...  because we value our privacy or the illusion  of us that we strive to maintain.   I write because the me I wear is not always the me I am, and sometimes, the costume gets heavy.  I write because I believe in records, I believe in leaving a footprint.   I write because, as much as I'm most likely to be the girl in the corner who says nothing, I actually have a lot to say.  I like being heard.  I like making an impact.  I like making a difference.   This past summer, the idea to write The Planet You workshops kinda fell out of the sky and crashed into my office with meteor-like force.   It grabbed me and shook me up and sat me down and said "you've got to do this."  So I did.  And i hemmed and I hawed and I asked for a lot of support from a lot of people... and out of their corners they came, to help me focus, to encourage me to go on.  To help me with the technical aspects of putting together an online classroom, edit video, prepare myself to be someone a bit bigger than the me I am in my own head.    It is easy, when things are tough, to forget that we have amazing talents and skills.  It is easy, when things are hard, to think that we are alone and that no one really cares if we succeed or fail.  It is easy, when things are scary, to think that we are too small, too unimportant to have enough strength to face the world.  The easy thing has never been my way, though I'm as prone to moments of self-pity and sadness as the next guy.    What it is, though, is that I believe that who I am is worth everything I have been through to be her, to be here.    Even when "here" is a great big slippery mess.   Even when "her" is struggling and hurt and angry and exhausted.  Life is what it makes of you, not the other way 'round, but You are what you make of life.    Love is everything.  And I never in eighthundredthousandbazilliongajillion years thought I'd be the girl who not only believed that but also said it outloud, for everyone to hear.    Love is the reason we are here, and I'm not going to the first person to say it, but perhaps, this will be the first time you hear it in your heart:  If you don't love you, all the rest is pointless.    I don't claim to be anything other than this girl who has "been there done that and lived to tell,"  and in many cases, more than once.   But as I've been there and done that, I've taken a lot of notes, and learned a whole lot.    The journey to you begins with a simple step... the same simple step many times... ask yourself a question, and tell yourself the truth.   If you're looking to start that walk, or want some guidance and company on the way, I'd love to have you join me for The Planet You journaling workshops.  View the introduction, free mini-course, and register here.

Make something beautiful with your heart and your hands,
Kaere