A few months back I was honored to give an interview at Kristin Tennant’s excellent blog, Halfway to Normal. (I LOVE being interviewed!) Kristin asked such good questions, I thought I’d run it again here for folks who want to know more about the process behind Flock: Soulcare with Magpie Girl. I hope you enjoy it. And do stop by Halfway to Normal, where Kristin is  ”Daily defying what it means to be a divorced-Christian-liberal-remarried-Midwestern-mommy-writer.”

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How did you come up with the idea for Flock?

I’ve been a soulcare provider and community builder for many, many years. Two years ago we moved to Copenhagen, Denmark, and a consistent community base has been hard to come by. I miss having a physical soultribe to turn to, and in its absence I am grateful for the online tribe that has formed around me while I lived abroad. I am fan of Ecourses, but wanted something that was more ongoing, something where we could all sink a little deeper into relationship with others. So I decided to try forming an online soultribe.

Flock has several components. Did they all come to you at once, or did the idea begin as a specific component and then grew from there?

Everything I offer in the Flock has emerged organically from topics and practices that have been in embryo at Magpie Girl. I wanted to start with the High Holy Days, to provide an anchoring rhythm to our seasons. The Ask an Expert feature emerged out of the guest interviews I’d been organizing at Magpie Girl. The rites and rituals in Priestessy Things are part of the work I’ve done ever since my days as the Urban Abbess. And the Read-a-Longs…well, who amongst us doesn’t have a stack of books they’d like to talk about with their friends? You know that saying, “Nothing is ever wasted”? I’m finally seeing the truth of that as my seemingly random blogging matures into what is now being offered at Flock. Someone recently said to me, “At Magpie Girl, you feed us great stuff, but the Flock is where the real meat and potatoes happen.”

You have been blogging and interacting with readers for a long time. Are you able to pick up on certain questions and needs that lots of people seem to have? How did those themes translate to the creation of Flock? Read the rest of this entry »

Remember last month when I gave Everett Bouge’s The Art of Being Minimalist a kind of lackluster review in this post on *8Things to Minimize?

I changed my mind. (You knew I’d come around, didn’t you Everett?)

It’s sticking with me, this little book, and the ideas presented in it are turning ’round and ’round in my mind. Since reading it Paul and I are seriously considering:

• living without a car when we return stateside.
• extending the lease on our six bedroom house in Seattle in order to experiment with  living in small, downtown condo. 
• selling 90% of our 1,000 volume library. (150 is our new golden number)
• getting rid of most of our DVD’s.

Anything that makes you re-think that much stuff is worth the $9.95. (Soon to go up to $19.95.) Plus, it’s an ebook – no physical clutter required. And it has a beautiful minimalist design, which I, the migrainuer, appreciates. (No visual clutter!)

Now look, I know a lot of you are doing too much.  So don’t buy this if it’s just going to be one more thing sitting on your desk waiting to be read. But if you have 90 minutes to read it this weekend, it might change your life.

Click here to buy The Art of Being Minimalist.

P.s. If you buy the book by clicking on a link in this post, you’ll be buying me a cuppa. For my full disclosure statement about how I love you and only tell you good things, click here.

Last week I sent out a survey asking my readers what kind of Ecourses they might want from me. I included a “tell me more” option so people could write me little notes — and most of those notes were helpful, encouraging, and affirming. A big “Thank You” to everyone who answered my questions! (It’s not too late if you want to chime in.)

That being said,  I did get a couple of comments questioning my decision to charge for my work. I feel these are honest questions, coming out of a place of true frustration. So I want to address them this week at Magpie Girl. This was the most complete query:

“I guess I am a little confused at why exactly I have to pay for knowledge. I am sure there is a good explanation. I just feel like people are trying to take money everywhere. At what price? If the people have come to it. This information is important and with everyone, everywhere raising prices and asking for a buck, shouldn’t those of us who wish to be inspired past looking at the all mighty dollar all the time and to what is really important, doesn’t it seem wrong to have to pay for it? Just saying….”

Here are my answers:

1. The work I do at Magpie Girl and Flock is, in fact, my work. It’s not my hobby, it’s my profession. I’ve been providing soulcare and support to artists and spiritual misfits since 1998. I have a master’s degree and everything. I’m passionate about my work, and it is what I do for a living.Most people who show up at their office received a paycheck. I would like to do the same.

2. It’s not sustainable for me to keep working for free. There is a lot of energy that goes into the work I do. Every blog post takes 1-5 hours to research and write. I spend about 30 hours a week writing content. I think about the work I do here, at Flock, and via email all the time. A lot of mental, emotional, and creative energy goes into the efforts made here. I need to honor that by asking for an equitable exchange of energy from you, my lovely compatriots. Does that mean I’m on an eye-for-an-eye warpath?  No! Not at all. I’m just trying to find the right balance of energetic give-and-take so that I can keep doing what I do in the long-range, sustainable future.

3. It’s not wrong to pay for products and service that have value to you. If you are an artist, counselor, freelancer, or small business owner you really must request fair pay for your work if you want to do the work long term. Does that mean you can never offer a student discount, or a free trial, or give an item away as a gift? Of course not. I do it all the time. Too much, probably. But please understand, it’s not a sacred exchange between us if it always only goes one way.

4. There are expenses to be covered. That free cookbook? I had to hire a designer to get that done.  Ditto for getting Flock off the ground. And even with this simple blog there are hosting fees and design costs. So far I haven’t made a salary or even covered my expenses. (My husband says, please can we improve this situation. :-)

5. It takes time, effort, and special skills to get this product finished. While the information I dispense is widely available from The Universe, I do the work to get it to you in digestible form. Sure, seeds are available and you could grow your own food — if you had the land, the tools, and the know-how.  But if you don’t have those things, you have to buy the apple at the market. The advice, lessons, and general inspiration I offer here is the result of many, many hours of distillation effort. I did not just pluck it out of the sky. It took a lot of work. And it’s the effort, not the universally held knowledge itself, that I am requesting compensation for.

So that’s a little bit about why I am starting to offer both “free” and “fee-based” work. As Magpie Girl under goes her re-vamp, there will still be plenty of free offerings, especially if you are on my mailing list. And I’ll also be offering various levels of training with me–from a few dollars a week for light support, to a more gym-like fee for on-going training  and nurture. Don’t worry loves, there will always be a place (and price) for you here at Magpie Girl.

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The Thank You Section: Survey Monkey is really cool, and the basic service is free, for which I thank them. Thanks also to Jen Louden, who mentioned in an interview that she used surveys to match her offerings to her reader’s needs. And thanks to to Mark at The Heart of  Business who helped me to tune into my intutition and know when to stick to my pricing guns, and when to give a little. And thank you for being here!

Today in our 1Q Interview  we are lucky to have Carrie McCarthy with us, author of  Style Statement: Live by Your Own Design. She’s giving us some insider’s tips on how to help your home become a reflection of your truest self.

Q. In our on-line community, Flock, we just completed the “Home + Stuff” section of Style Statement. Several of our members were surprised to find that there were a lot of very pretty things in thier homes– but not so many things that truly represented who they were.

Do you find this to be a common experience? What beginning steps could these folks take to start thinning out their stuff so it better reflects what they truly treasure?

It is very common to take stock of our stuff – which includes all areas of our life and discover we don’t like what we see.

When applied to your home these three simple steps will give you clarity and results you’ll love.

EDIT
Tour your home and really look at you stuff. Make two truthful lists: “Love it” and “Loose it.” Catalog everything, including art. It’s all based on how you feel. Maybe you come across a chair that irks you, but you’ve kept it because it was your grandmothers and you need a chair. Pay attention to the reasons you have things in your space – and categorize accordingly.

APPRECIATE
Collect items you love, including your clothes. Sift through collections, mementos. Check your mantel, bookshelves, and closets. Focus on the items that make you feel beautiful and joyful, the ones that inspire you to stand tall. Keep these items. Recycle, sell or donate the rest.

ADD
Tap your memory and imagination. Close your eyes and remember the places you love to be and why you love them. Recall hotels, films, music, and books that have resonated. Then go into fantasy mode. “Imagine real life constraints don’t apply.  Then picture your dream home, what you’re wearing to the Oscars, and what you would do with 24 hours of bliss.

Look for the common threads – design, colors, shapes materials, vibe – among the things you love. Let your brain be loose and free to wander and wonder. Make a list, create a vision board; this helps translate your tastes into smart shopping choices. Remember a beautiful landscape is based on what feels good and what you love.  

Bonus Q: What projects are you working on now that you are excited about?

I’m so excited to have been featured in Real SimpleMarch issue. It was a privilege to work with such a professional and creative team. As well, I’ve been asked to contribute to a new personal development site, in partnership with ehow, I’ll be in good company with Deepak Chopra and Desmond Tutu. Parentsask has asked me to be a lifestyle expert on their popular website.

I continue to work with clients from all over the world and have created Jumpstart sessions for our readers who need a nudge to discover and understand their Style Statement. And we receive many requests to license Style Statement and train consultants. Stay tuned!!

Want to hear more from Carrie McCarthy? Our 1Q interviews always turn into 3Q Interviews at our one line soulspa, Flock: soulcare with Magpie Girl. Come join us !

It’s been almost two months since the earthquake in Haiti  — about the amount of time when it becomes easy to forget the on-going stories of both tragedy and hope. I’ve been in touch this week with my friends Shelley and Corrigan Clay, American expats living in Haiti. The Clay family consists of two biological children and two Haitian children who are already in the process of being adopted.

When the Clays first came to Haiti the plan was to work for an orphanage. But Shelley and Corrigan were quickly moved by the reality that many children in Haitian orphanages actually have living parents. It’s just that the parents aren’t able to feed the children and are forced to give them up. While in the process of adopting thier own children (a 3-5 year process), the Clays decided to start The Apparent Project. This non-profit organization is dedicated to helping Haitian families stay together. They provide education and food for street children, act as foster parents to several older boys, and host a cottage industry where local women can support their families with their handcrafts.

After the earthquake the Clays housed 30 people in thier garden, and provided food and medical care to thier neighbors. Now they are extending that care into multiple neighborhoods, and underserved pockets of homelessness.

A few weeks ago Shelley was able to take advantage of emergency changes in the adoption laws by taking their children to the U.S. temporarily. This will allow the Clays to complete the 3-5 year long adoption, already in process.

In the meantime Corrigan is in Port Au Prince working to find better and more humane ways to distribute aid. Corrigan wrote this fascinating post on how a new method of going out in pairs with backpacks full of  food and supplies, is preventing aid rioting. And this post on the joy and resilience  of the Haitian peopel is an inspiration.

Right now, Shelly is in Washington filling a shipping container with everything from infant formula to pastic tarps to pots and pans.  They are also shipping jewlery making tools. If you’d like to help gather supplies you can donate here, and Shelley and her mom will be able to purchase goods. The container leaves for Haiti in a week. 

I so admire the work the Clays do to create sustainable solutions in Haiti. If you can, please donate today and help them to keep on keepin’ on.

Thanks for being here.

Rachelle

We believe stories are valuable, no matter how many people read them.
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We believe in the handmade, the first try, the small start, and the good effort.
We believe that small is beautiful.

The first Saturday of the Month I click through the over 700 blogs listed in our tiny revolution. (Oh that I had thought to ask all those people to join my mailing list!) I go through about 30 a month, picking out 5 that give me an intuitive pull.  This month is an especially eclectic group, featuring dance, medicine, magic, and tatting. Click around and see if you find someone to wonder with today.

• Gen Gibler’sblog is full of art and wonder, including stunning photographs of dancers. Dance is my new favorite love affair, so Gen, here is a kiss from me to you. (Mwah!)
• As many of you know, I am a chronic pain survivor. So is Shauna. Her blog celebrates all that she has achieved, even with chronic pain, and is full of handy resources from the registered nurse.
• Every month when I click through the Small is Beautiful list, there’s always one blog that catches my eye, even tho I can’t quite put my finger on why. Robin Riger’s blog To Put it Simply was that blog this month. Plenty of poetry, some really powerful work around miscarriage, plus the occasional just-because-you’re-neat free knitting pattern — and all in a clean, uncluttered blog layout. Nice.
• Jackie’salways got something hearty cooking on the stove. Death with Dignity, religious topics, and how she learned to love her daughter’s playlist are the first three, and all keepers.
• Finally this month there is Nancy at New To Me, a lady who tatts. Tatting is sort of a dying art, so I’m delighted to see it perseved here. And I like how Nancy’s tagline is all about sharing. How delightful! (Thanks Nancy.)

Fellow Revolutionaries are featured once a month for link love and general accolades. Readership numbers, fame, and fortune matter not one whit. Grab a button to play along, then sign up on the mailing list or follow me on Twitter. Thanks for being here!

As you may have heard, big things are cookingaround here. I’m getting ready to re-vamp Magpie Girl, and to finally offer those Ecourses I’ve been musing about off and on for…like…a year. But first I need your help. Will you take a short survey and let me know what kind ECourses you’d like from me? It’s just *8Questions and takes about 5minutes. I’d truly appreciate it!

Thanks so much my readers, my loves!

Click here to take survey

egg, 7×5 oil on hardboard panel

This morning in our One Q Interview, I’m excited to introduce you to my soulsister, Jolie Guillebeau. Jolie is an artists living in Portland, Oregon, and has just kicked off a new project: 100 Painting in 100 Days. There’s something on the easel every day at Jolie’s place — and lucky you! You can buy her art work at ridiculously low prices. The painting from day one costs just $1. Day two, $2. You get the idea. I’ve already bought a beautiful still life of an egg, and I’m skulking around her mailing list waiting for other kitchen-related items to appear.

Jolie has taught me a lot about setting your vision and reaching a firm, clear goal. (That second part is problem for my monkey-mind). Today she talks to us about goal setting, and reaching for 100.

Q:   You and your hubs are like the queen and king of goal setting. What made you choose this ambitious goal of 100 paintings in 100 days? What are you hoping to learn about yourself and your creative process in the midst of this challenge?

Queen of goal setting? I’m not so sure.

Mostly it was about getting myself back in front of my easel. 2009 was a really hard year in a lot of ways for several reasons. We moved away from our community in Seattle to Portland (where I didn’t know anyone), and I lost my moorings for awhile. I had artsy friends in Seattle and worked at a museum, so I was getting regular feedback and always talking and thinking about my work with other people. Once we moved to Portland, I missed that and I found my well of creativity dried out pretty quickly. I floundered and my self-esteem plummeted.

It took me nearly a year to find roots here in Portland, and find some of that community again. By December, I had that support, and I was on my way again, but I hadn’t really picked up a paintbrush in months. So (of course) I set goals. We went away on our annual goal setting vacation, and I read (or re-read) a few books that inspired me: Making a Living Without a Job; Write It Down, Make It Happen; and  The Gift by Hafiz. Then I started making a plan.

On that trip, I decided my word for 2010 would be “Stretch.” And I tried to figure out what that meant for me. I’m pretty comfortable with my painting style, which was something I worked on in the past, but because of perfectionism I’m pretty slow. Which means that it generally takes me around 30-50 hours to get a painting to a point that I’m happy with it. At that rate, it’s pretty hard to sell a painting at a living wage. So I decided to stretch my perfectionist tendencies. Making 100 paintings in 100 days was the best way to do that for me.

Also, making a commitment like this puts me in front of my easel everyday. I have to paint now, people are watching. I don’t have time to let myself get stuck. And, for me, the more I paint, the better I feel about myself and the quieter The Gremlins get.

Want to hear more from Jolie Guillebeau? Join us at our on-line soulspa, Flock: soulcare with Magpie Girl.  Our 1Q interviews always turn into 3Q Interviews in the Flock. Jolie’s answering our questions about balancing “fast and dirty” work with quality work. She’s also helping us suss out healthier ways of thinking about how (and how much) we get paid for the work of our hands (and our hearts.) Come join us in the Flock!

Today in our One Q Interview we’re talking to Jim Henderson co- founder of Off the Map, CEO of Jim Henderson Presents, and host of Church Rater.

Church Rater is a website on which people are paid (or volunteer) to rate churches, and where churches can pay to have their services rated. Similar to Trip Advisor, where you can see customer reviews of hotel rooms, Church Rater provides what Jim calls “the unvarnished truth” about your local house of worship.

I’ve been a  fan of Jim’s no-nonsense approach to Christianity for a long time, and was fortunate to have him as my mentor during the opening days of my own localized community, Monkfish Abbey. Now he and I continue to be on parallel paths as he works on-line with Church Rater with the tag line “finding a church that fits;” and I work on-line with Flock: Soulcare with Magpie Girl, where our motto is “finding a spirituality that fits.”

Today we’ll ask Jim a question about Church Rater, and find out why a person who doesn’t go to church would be in this particular game.

Q: Jim, it’s no big secret that you and I are not the most consistent church attendees in the world. In fact I can remember sitting with you at a bar once, cooking up an idea for a church that only met to make music and tell stories, required a support fee up front (instead of haphazard tithe), and didn’t meet at all during the Summer. Given your less-than-traditional approach to church, what makes you so passionate about helping Churches and church-goers make a good connection?

A: I parachuted into Christianity as a young adult. That means I have no cultural/familial affiliation with the Christian religion. I also have serious questions about what we call Christianity having anything to do with Jesus. However I have spent the majority of my adult life with Christians and have come to admire, respect and love many of them. I know they agree with me that the church needs to be a better place, a more open and welcoming place. They know that Jesus would find it hard to “go to church” if he were here or even be called a “Christian”.

ChurchRater is a mirror that we hold up firmly, respectfully and even lovingly. We invite the Church to take look and If they like what they see they can keep doing more of it , if they don’t they can change. We specialize in helping Christians see themselves through the eyes of Outsiders (a name we stole from David Kinnaman that is more polite than the more commonly used  “lost” while still drawing a line of distinction Christians have mindlessly drawn to separate ourselves from “them”). I do this because I seek to follow Jesus who favored Outsiders and used them to provoke Insiders. That is my spiritual path.

I found Jim on a ladder, painting the side of my house. But you can find him at Off The Map, or get to know him by reading his books Jim and Caspar Go to Church, and Evangelism Without Additives.  Keep an eye out for his upcoming books The Resignation of Eve- a series of interviews exploring how Women feel about church, Christianity and Christians; and The Outsider Interviews with Todd Hunter and Craig Spinks.  Plus, find out about his interview with Ira Glass, and hear what Jim thinks my odds are for finding a church that will fit my particular bill by reading the full interview at Flock: Soulcare with Magpie Girl. Thanks for being here!

Today we have Allyson Dickinson with us to tell us a little bit about her Year Without Clothes. What might going a year without clothes shopping mean for you? Here’s what it’s revealing to Allyson….

My Year Without Clothes
by Allyson Dickinson

When I first read about Susan Wagner doing a no clothes shopping challenge for 6 weeks, I laughed out loud. The only word that came to mind was ridiculous. I mean honestly, who could do that? But then she said that Rachelle was doing it for a year and I had to come and read all about this challenge. So many things about this idea intrigued me, after I got over the shock.

My reasons for doing the challenge are many. I wish I could say that it was altruistic, but bottom line: I needed to work on my bottom line. Times are difficult. My family is no different. We live a great life in Southern California, but it isn’t without its challenges. We don’t have a lot of extra money to throw around at the end of the month and even less when clothes and shoe shopping came into play. The basic tenet of saving money was my first reason to take part, but then I started to think my reasons and quick willingness were deeper than that. I wanted to clear the decks both figuratively and mentally. If I can actually wear what I have and wear it out, it may be a first. If I can discard what I don’t wear and stick with what works for me, I will be giving myself the physical space to breathe. There were still some nagging questions though: Can I really do this? Who am I without the clothes? But more deeply: Who am I with/without the weight? Who am I without the job? Who am I without the money?

The Weight
My daily challenge: I live in Orange County, home of the nutty housewives. I have a kid in private school in a high socioeconomic enclave where what you drive and what you wear are of the utmost importance.

“Your jeans aren’t True Religion? Your shoes aren’t Tori Burch? Your bag isn’t Prada and you drive American?”

“You don’t have a plastic surgeon, chef, nanny, eye brow lady, manicurist, facialist, or botox injector on call?”

I have been defined based on my looks. I am overweight. I don’t blow dry/straighten my hair. I am an intelligent and competent person, but none of them would know it because they don’t talk to me. I don’t fit into the standard criteria of beautiful.

My thought: If I did this challenge I can free myself from their ties that bind me. I don’t have to be defined by their level of beauty, because for one year I won’t have to buy into it. I won’t have to try to make do with a Target clearance shirt and Burch knock offs. I won’t have to pretend I bought my dress at Nordstrom when it actually came from Kmart. I won’t have to try to attain the ideal, because “I can’t. It’s not allowed.” I can blame my lack of fashion on the challenge rather than my…lack…of…fashion. It is a win-win-win. I don’t have to pretend to fit in, I get to save money, AND I have something to blame it on. Sign me up!

The Job
I have become everything I used to detest in Orange County. I am a stay at home mom of 2 who is a college educated post grad. I gave up a career that I loved to stay home and drive a black SUV that mostly resides in my garage only to leave to go to school pick up, Target and the grocery store. Argh. When did this happen and why did I let it? What dreams did I have that I just gave up on? Although my reasons for staying home are noble, what if I am missing my moment? This challenge will hopefully afford me the time to delve into some of those things and open space in my life to actually consider what my dreams are again.

The Tips
1. I knew going in that I would not be able to avoid Target. There are such things as essentials. To walk to the children’s section, my usual route goes by the entire women’s section. The first few times I went, I mourned what I could not buy. We are now 10 weeks into the challenge and I walk by with nary a look. I know I am not buying anything so why bother looking? This has resulted in less time (and money) spent inside Target.
2. I receive MANY catalogs in the mail, mostly of the clothing nature. I would continuously flip through them and fold down pages of things that I thought I would purchase in a year, when this is over. Delusional? Sure, but it made me feel better at the time. Like, the hope was out there. I started to take the front pages off of the catalogs and I recently went to the various websites and catalogchoice.org to get rid of most of them. Not only am I cutting down on the wasted paper going into my recycling bin, but the temptation isn’t there for me to consider cheating on the program.
3. Online shopping is one of my favorite things to do. To cut down on the temptation I unsubscribed from most of my favorite clothing stores and their promotional emails. I still go and look occasionally. I even fill a basket with beautiful things or deals I just can’t pass up. (The thrill for me is in the hunt, not necessarily in the purchase.) I then do one of two things. I leave the window open on the back of the computer until I get the guts to remove everything from my basket or I leave the site and forfeit my basket. I have done this a handful of times since this began and after it is all over, I usually cannot remember what I coveted. I don’t spend hours researching the best price and shopping on different sites, again saving time and money.
4. I declared gift cards as my safety net. I don’t count these in the realm of money, at least not my own. If I spend them, I spend them on what I want. I did get some for Christmas, but even the ones that I have used have been spent on items for the family instead of clothes. (I will admit to one exception, well two, a pair of clearance shoes.) I needed something to keep me sane in this process and that is my one caveat, although for the most part I haven’t needed it.

These simple acts have afforded me enough free time to be present. I am in the here and now when I am with my kids. I am not focused on what I look like when I show up for pick up in the school parking lot. I am focused on what kind of day my daughter had. I am not worried if my cardigan is from last year when I run the Girl Scout meeting. I have 15 wonderful girls sitting in front of me that could care less. I am not flipping through catalogs and websites to find something great on sale for a price I can afford. I am teaching my daughter to read and my son to play catch. It surprises me that these simple things mean the world to me right now. I am not sure if it is making a difference in my hopes and dreams, but I know it is making a difference in theirs. My time will come and hopefully my big questions will be answered, but in the mean time I am going to enjoy the openness, the free time and my willingness to breathe.