Related to making, creating, and sparking discovery through creative endeavor.
I landed my first international client. These handmade trackable gemstones are on their way to France. oui oui and wee wee
They will serve as Christmas gifts and the recipients will get to see all the places the stones go as they trek the globe.
This was a fun project.
If you’d like some for you, your kids, for geocaching, or for gifts, visit this page. 100% free shipping in the U.S. puts them well under $2 each. Or, just go to Geotrackable.org to start your own project!
You’ve heard “follow you bliss,” right?
“Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls.”
― Joseph Campbell“If you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. Follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be.”
― Joseph Campbell[This is wiki link for the scoop on Campbell]
Campbell wrote “The Power of Myth”, “The Masks of God”, and “The Hero of A Thousand Faces” among many other works and was an American mythology professor, writer, and orator best known for his work in the fields of comparative mythology and comparative religion.
Follow your bliss refers to a path you take. The journey and the making of a hero.
(video is cheeky and humorous summary of what happens in a Hero’s Story)
It’s the journey of every great person and every life well-lived also.
(photo source)
My offshoot and focus is “KISS your BLISS”.
Why? Because nothing’s more active than that (and it rhymes, which is a nice mnemonic device).
This is the name for the moment you cross the threshold to adventure and finding your purpose. It’s when you decide you have a deeper calling in this world and living from your core is what counts most. I’m crafting a book on this right now and it’ll be out this fall. I hope you’ll come back for more details soon.
You will find that once you embrace your passion and gifts and kiss them full on the mouth a switch happens. At that point the sides fall off your holding cell and it turns into a go kart. You pick up speed, scream in delight and your passion is infectious.
Make no mistake: It is a risk.
There is true danger involved.
At the KISS POINT you will gain two things:
1. A following–people you splash with your passion who come for the ride, guide you, or cheer you on.
It is also characterize by new and better-fitting opportunities unveiling themselves and new connections and relationships emerging. You’ll “be on to something” with all kinds of vague but palpable mystery that whispers of the divine. You’ll feel “in the flow” with new energy and a revived sense of purpose.
2. The devils–people (or systems) who are threatened by your passion or jealous of it because they are lacking it and feel empty.
The obstacles will be new too and formidable. You’ll feel a target on your back and a strange level of animosity that has no proper explanation except that which points off the map to something cooperative and moved by the otherworldly trying to thwart you and divert your path. Weird, I know.
This is the Kiss your Bliss Effect.
Sound at all familiar?
Sometimes when we’ve been working hard or spinning our wheels, rest it what we need most.
But, never forget about WHIMSY!
This week I was working on a new project and I could just tell I needed whimsy.
What is it exactly?
Whimsy is caprice. It’s playful or humorous behavior. It’s the opposite of work and taking yourself too seriously.
If you are burned out, give it a try.
Here are some ways:
• Do something you did as a kid (a game, an activity, a piece of art, hopscotch, legos, build a card house, color, whatever you want.)
• Whistle. (People don’t whistle much anymore. It’s a crisis of scarce whimsy. Just pick something and do it.)
• Create something for nothing but the fun of it. No one even has to see it. Exuberance and a no-holds-barred attitude is key!
• Sing or hum or play an instrument.
• Whatever made you belly laugh last time? Do that again.
• Tell a friend or family member a funny (or whimsically embarrassing) story and invite one from them.
Just 5-10 minutes of pure whimsy works wonders!
What did I do? I made something whimsical. I call it a “Whimsy Box”.
(People have said that just looking at this makes them feel a creative burst coming on!)
Each Whimsy Box is one-of-a-kind and tells a story.
It’s part art, part whimsical tale, part conversation piece, and part interactive inducer of creative tsunamis. Some Whimsy Boxes have a bona fide riddle about them or mystery to solve. Others play music, make a noise, have moving parts, or light up somehow–like this one!
(Sorry…this one is SOLD. If you’d like one, though, contact me.)
So, that’s how I took my break.
What will you do?
Hi everyone.
Just a quick note. I’m offering my ebooks free in July and August; different books on different days. Today is one of them! Click here to get it–today and tomorrow only! To get the scoop on the other dates, plus freebies associated with my secret project (the AUGUST ebook release), and have a shot at getting a free copy just sign up!
(a pop up will guide you…or click here)
:)
Please leave a review at Amazon! (If 50 reviews are left by August 5th, one review will be randomly chosen to receive a special prize package/ box ‘o goodness curated by me.)
And stay tune for BIG NEWS to be revealed this week. BIG News!
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This is the last bit of reflection on the Leonard Sweet event hosted by Evangelical Seminary this week. (Here’s the first one in the series. Here is the second post.)
Sweet claims we are living in TGIF times.
Thank God It’s Friday?
No.
Sweet leaves out YouTube which is huge omission. I sense that slipping a V into his acronym wouldn’t be as nifty. (But, I think he’d agree with me that it’s worth inclusion in any assessment of how our current culture learns and is entertained.)
Notice this: All but one of these vehicles of media prominently feature images instead of text. Twitter is driven by 140 text characters (and usually less than that) and this apparently is enough to be radical. Though Twitter is often used for tiny newsy bursts and quotes, tweets tend to include internet links to articles or videos which include visuals.
A new image driven age emerged with televisions in every home in the 1950-1960s. Film? It got super popular and this has never been more true in our current age. Can you think of any other time when you shut off your phone for 3 hours? No. People hate that, but they will sacrifice what that love for something they love even more: Cinema. Nothing solidified the domination of our image age more than the advent of images on the internet. Add to that, the innovative ways of sharing Videos and Images on devices we routinely carry (laptops and smart phones) a major and permanent shift in how we prefer to engage the world occurred. Period.
So what?
Well, we haven’t adjusted, and that is going to really matter. And soon.
Protestants have a substantive Identity crisis because they have lost the story. Disciples have stories: Guiding narratives that set them apart so they don’t have to discover who they are; they can just move forward and be innovative and transformative.
Sweet used the example of Identity in the Jewish culture and ethic group:
• There are about 7 billion people living in the world.
• There are only about 13 million Jews (How much of the world’s population %? is that? Scant.)
• Those with Jewish heritage make up whopping 25% or so of Noble Prizes winners, Oscar winners, Pulitzers, Tonys, and many other commendations for exceptionality in a variety of fields. How can this be?
A bunch of social science research projects tell us that what lies behind the wild success is namely a firmly formed Identity.
By 12 years old they know who they are, where they come from, and they see themselves in the larger Story (by religious imperative and rites actually: it’s mandatory).
• Jewish culture also has many times of “play”, that is, festivals that tell them who they are. The sit around the table speaking about and interrogating the Story also. This creates a solidified Identity for flourishing.
The last tidbit from the Len Sweet event: Play Ethic
In our mad rush to work and do we have forgotten how to play. God was wasn’t working during Creation, he was making mud pies. He was Creating which isn’t work really. He still is. Labor came hit corruption entered the world and things got messed up. Jesus is always at a party or eating or cooking or making food out of thin air. He loves Martha’s cooking, but when caring for Jesus became work he told Martha of a better way. He didn’t want her to work, but to enjoy. “Sit down and let the rest go.”
If ministry is soul-killing, if it’s a heavy burden and labor, you’re doing it wrong. Ministry shouldn’t be [slow] suicide, says Len Sweet. “Worship is the playground of the Spirit.”
So, really the question remains: Will Protestantism stand the test of time? Signs point to “no”. But, critical to its survival and virility is the concept of creating a lasting and potent Identity that starts with a Story well-told.
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Thanks for reading today. Did you enjoy it? If you did like this post or these series, be a friend and share. Okay?
The next post is a surprise. Come back soon (or sign up in the side for for the update).
xo
-Lisa
