September 16, 2005
The Encourager
Volume 1 No. 4 September, 2005If you know a Square-Peg-Person who would appreciate reading encouraging words, please forward this newsletter to them.
In this issue:
What's New at Square-Peg-People.com
Square-Peg-Spotlight
Square-Peg-Stacks
Looking ahead
What's New at Square-Peg-People.com
~We've had a zillion tech problems in the past 24 hours - that's why you're getting this a day late - I'm very grateful now that it looks like this issue will actually get to you.
Thursday, September 22 at 9 P.M. (Eastern) we’ll talk about our favorite Square-Peg books. Which book has helped you feel most “at home” in the world, or has inspired you the most, or gives you a boost when you feel down?
Come to the chat and let’s trade book stories. We’re meeting at the
Artella Chat Room.
I met Rachel Kitterman in a You*U class earlier this year where Rachel designed an ATC-related e-course that is fantastic! The course helps you explore different parts of your personality while you learn new art techniques.
Let’s meet Rachel:
~Square-Peg-People Talk Books. That’s the discussion topic for this month’s chat-room-get-together.
~And, thanks to comments from readers, we’ve changed the fonts in the Square-Peg-Spotlight interview to make it easier to read.
Square-Peg-Spotlight
I've always felt that I was different than other people but I've come to think that perhaps most people feel this way.
I learned to read when I was very young - three and a a half...I used to take a big cardboard box and fill it with books every time I went to the library when I was growing up. It drove my mother nuts that I always had my nose in a book. She was always saying, "Why don't you go DO something?" I even used to read while I was riding my bike to and from school! A library book fit quite nicely in the handlebars of my ten speed.
All my friends have always been older than I am. At this point in my life most of my friends are a good deal older. I always felt like I was waiting to get old enough so that people would take me seriously. Now I think that the key might be to stop taking myself so seriously and not worry what other people think.LOL.{laughing out loud}
I am an introvert and always spent a lot of time by myself lost in my imaginary worlds or buried in a book as a kid. I'm quite gregarious in social situations. I love to talk and tell stories but it exhausts me and I need downtime alone to recover and recharge.
I'm an artist - and even stranger, a fiber artist which people just do not seem to get.
I've lived in a small, conservative rural town for the past eight years and it has been something of a shock after growing up in a fairly large and very liberal college town. I usually feel like the weird one here. I unschool my kids...I'm way out there on the alternative end as far as parenting goes...We live in a multi-generational household with my dh's {darling husband} eccentric family. We have a swing in our living room.
When my dh was a kid his ... dad put up a rope swing in their livingroom...When we enclosed our carport and made it into a family room, we put up two swings. One is a rope swing with a circular seat and the other was a baby swing for our younger dd {darling daughter}. For a long time my younger dd, Rowan, would only go to sleep in the swing. My older dd swung while watching cartoons and could get herself going so high that she could touch the ceiling. We also have a swingset, two tree swings, a porch swing and a hammock outside! We must be people who enjoy swinging! LOL!
And now I am getting very interested and involved in alternative healing practices such as energy work, Reiki, chakra meditation, etc. So, all in all, I feel like a fish out of water a lot of the time.
I could not stand high school and left at 16 to go to college.I've never had any desire to have a "regular" job. I like being a SAHM {stay at home mom} and an artist and my mother thinks I'm nuts because I don't want to go back to school, get a career, a house, a minivan and send my kids to public school. I'm so grateful to Marney and her You University class for showing me that it is possible to follow my dreams and make a living doing what I love to do.
I have an incredible group of friends on the internet who are all odd and amazing people. I can share my work and my eccentricities with them and get support and understanding. I have great real-life support groups.
My counselor also started a spiritual community called Divine Mother Community that focuses on bringing Divine Mother energy to heal the collective... It has been a really wonderful experience for me to be part of such a positive and inclusive spiritual community.
I have done an incredible amount of personal and emotional healing - especially in the last year - and I think that has helped a great deal in accepting myself and trusting that there is indeed a plan and a purpose for my life... And I have the world's most incredible husband who I can talk to about anything.
His family is the polar opposite of my family and I was fascinated by them. They were this loud, demonstrative, eccentric group of artists, writers, actors, and rebels. Gabe is actually the "white sheep" of his family being the quiet and practical one. He keeps me grounded. I am a flighty, passionate and dramatic visionary and he is mellow, steady, practical, and incredibly loving and spiritual. We've been through a lot together...
Read more...
Square-Peg-Stacks
OK, I have to start with a quote - such a telling quote - from SARK’s book Make Your Creative Dreams Real
Me, too! Me, too! I LOVE hearing people’s stories and seeing their eyes light up - and feeling the community spirit that comes when people share who they really are (which includes not only their creative dreams, but also their hard times, happiest times, their shame and their glory).
And that’s what I love about this book. SARK’s willingness to be so open and real!
SARK loads this book with people’s stories. There are 2 fantastic sections devoted to mini interviews with people who share their creative dreams. And you get to see their pictures, too.
SARK shares herself throughout the book, too. And not just her “happy camper” face - she mentions having been sexually and physically abused as a child, tells us that she’s..
“...pretty tightly wound and prone to crabby, controlling outbursts”
I admire SARK’s integrity - I imagine that it would be easy (and/or “safe”) to allow people to think: Yes, she DOES have it all together. How courageous and beautiful SARK shows herself to be in telling us she’s just like us: Messy and Marvelous all in the same self.
At the end of nearly every page I wanted to run and hug this woman in gratitude for her integrity - and, of course, all the encouragement she pours out.
What else is there I can say about this book?
Read more...
~I’m very excited to tell you that the October issue of The Encourager features Jill Badonsky in our Square-Peg-Spotlight interview. Jill is the author of Nine Modern Day Muses (and a Bodyguard) - the fantastically funny and super helpful guide to self-expression. She also founded
The Muse Is In
~Square-Peg-Stacks news:
We've been adding one book review per month - taken from The Encourager - we're now going to increase the # of self-help books reviewed each month--
We'll include books to help in dealing with depression, anxiety, grief, to increase & understand creativity, career change, women's issues...and???
Well, what suggestions do you have? Are there categories you'd like to see in that list?
Please use the "contact us" form and let us know!
~At the end of September we’re going to introduce a new section to Square-Peg-People.com. It’s called Dealing with... and the first issue we’ll introduce is grief.
During the past couple weeks we have all seen so much devastation due to Hurricane Katrina. My heart has been touched as I’ve read or watched reports about the damage and loss. Many of us have reached out to help, in whatever ways we can.
Grief and loss are so universal - but often we feel alone in our emotions. Grief is an area where almost everyone feels like a Square-Peg-Person, even if they wouldn’t normally use that term to describe themselves.
Please look for a note in your e-mail box letting you know when the Dealing with Grief section is added to the site.
And, as always, I would love to hear from you. Do you have any stories about your own grieving that you think other Square-Pegs would be encouraged by? Ideas for what is and isn’t helpful when someone is grieving...or books that were comforting or encouraging to you.
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“I am endlessly inspired by people’s creative dreams. I see the sparkle in their eyes...I am always thrilled when I see the instantly close community that is created when people share their dreams.”
Looking Ahead
Jill - and SARK -and Marney Makridakis (founder of Artella) - and a number of other wonderful presenters - will be at the
WildChild Wisdom Weekend
in Connecticut, October 6 - 9.
And I will be there too - how about you? I’m looking forward to meeting (in person--wooohoooo!) lots of Square-Peg folk.