Tag — ask magpie
Ask Magpie: 7 Ways to Find Time for Creativity
Ask Magpie Girl: 7 Ways to Find Time for Creativity from Rachelle Mee-Chapman on Vimeo.
Neato Things Rachelle Mentions in this Video:
- My free course, Magpie Speak: a new vocabulary for soulcare. (Feedback from this course inspired this post. I LOVE responding to Magpie Girl readers’ questions!)
- Work-at-Home mom and creative business woman Tara Gentile of Scoutie Girl records a video post “How I Get it All Done – 3 Tips for finding more time.” (Originally posted at Perideau Designs.)
- Rowena Murillo of Warrior Girl gets an impressive amount of creative work done in snippets — and this inspite of working a part-time(?) job and being a Warrior Mama.
- Stacy de la Rosa has a baby, a toddler and a creative business. She wrote about how she does it at her blog, Bella Wish.
And the Questions We Need YOU to Answer (pretty please.)
- What are your biggest roadblocks to creative pursuits?
- How do you find time to pursue your creative projects?
- What sticking points can the Magpies help you past?
Don’t miss your chance to Train with Magpie Girl. Catch all my training posts, watch the video posts, and sign-up on my mailing list for advance sign-up opportunities and special discounts. (Top of the column, stage right.) Thanks for being here!
Jamie and Rachelle Talk Creativity
This week we have a brief hiatus in our 1Q Interview series. But be not dismayed! Because Jamie Ridler Studios has a special surprise for you.
Jamie called me up for a Creative Living interview a few weeks ago. We had a great time chatting about making space for creativity; the connection between art and spirituality; and the all-important power of failure. I also introduce my new phrase –”managing the crazy. ”
The interview is now edited and up as a free listen over at Jamie’s place so just click here.
Thanks so much for being here!
How I Started an Online Soulcare Community: Flock
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 more →]
Ask Magpie Girl: Why do you charge for your work?
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!
Ask Magpie: Cultural Singularities
There’s nothing I love more than being interviewed. (Narcissist much?) So it’s time for Ask Magpie! This week Kate of Phlog blog asks via Twitter:
What is one (or eight) thing(s) (food, culture, social phenomenon, etc) about Denmark that you can’t experience anywhere else?
If you’ve been reading my occasional Immigrant Diaries, or if you’ve popped over to our little blog-for-the-grandparents, you know that life in Denmark has been a bit of mixed bag. We are culturally lonely, and the weather strains our tolerance resources. But other than that, there is a lot we like about living in Denmark. The pace of life is slower, there is more time for our family, and life without a car is healthier and less harried.
Most of these things are indicative of European life in general. But there are some special things that you cannot do anywhere but Denmark. Here are *8Things in Copenhagen. Come on by and experience some.
1. Tivioli Gardens: This is one of the oldest amusement parks in Europe, and the place that inspired a little someone named Walt Disney. It’s especially charming at Jule when the entire park is wrapped in colorful lights and warmed with glowing red charcoal braziers.
2. The Art of Hygge: In Denmark if something is “hygge” it’s warm, inviting and fun. If your dinner guests say they’ve had a hyggliet time, it means you did a wonderful job lighting the candles, picking the guests, and preparing the meal. In Scotland “the crack is good,” in Denmark you have “a hyggliet time.”
3. Canal Boats: You can ride canal boats elsewhere, but will they take you past the Little Mermaid? Take a canal ride through Nyhavn, the “new harbor” (new in this case meaning roughly1600’s), sail past the Fishmonger’s Wife, and stop for beer along the waterfront.
4. A Postmodern Wonder: Part brick-and-leather history, part modern edifice the Royal Library on the Copenhagen waterfront is a seamless example of postmodern architecture. I wish I could live there.
5. Nisser: Leave out a bowl of porridge and a mug of beer on Christmas Eve or these mischievous red-capped creatures will burn down your barn instead of leaving you presents.
6. A Day of Silence: I don’t know any other culture where you can spend an entire day shopping — in real stores, not on line — and not speak to a single person. Chit chat is not a part of Danish culture. I’ve never experienced such a “closed circle” culture.
7. Juleøl: Do you get extra strong beer at Christmas and Easter? We do in Denmark! (Just be careful where you step on the sidewalks the day after the Juleøl is released!)
8. Spontaneous Street Parades: The Royal band marches every afternoon that the Queen is in residence, polse wagons hold up traffic, and the Clydesdales clomp down main street with the beer wagon in tow. You never know what’s going to happen in CPH.
What is one thing that is totally unique about where you live? Do tell us in the comments below. Or submit a question for me to answer next week at Ask Magpie.
Where Our Deep Creativity and the World’s Deep Hunger Meets
“Where is that place for me? For you? For the creative community of us — we, the ladies who art. Where is the seam that weaves together our deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger?”
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These are emerging thoughts and I share them with not an un-small amount of trepidation. But they won’t leave me alone, these wonderings, and I need all the contributors to The Giant Pool of Wisdom to help me out.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately — off and on for years really — about this odd and wonderful bubble we live in. On good-humor days I think of it as something like “the women’s creative empowerment community.” I like it, this loose group of wonderful women who are finding their voice, expressing their creativity, and rebuilding their spirituality in the studio instead of the sanctuary. (Or as I like to think of it, the studio has become the sanctuary.) I love working in this milieu. I know, that I know, that I know these are my people. And nothing gives me more joy than teaching and learning in this world.
On cynical-humor days I think of myself as “the middle-class middle-aged white woman doing crafts.” Do you know what I mean? Kind of cushy, and whiney, and little bit frivolous. It makes me think of all those Jane Austen novels. How all the female characters embroidered, or did crewel work, or played the harpsichord. “The womanly arts,” they were called. It was what women did when they weren’t allowed to do anything else. Correction, it was what privileged women did when then didn’t have to do anything else (and also, they weren’t allowed. A combination then.) On cynical days I substitute “embroidery, crewel work, and harpsichord” with “mixed media collage, photography, and guitar lessons” and I feel a little–well, frivolous.
Then I get my feminist dander up and I remember that women’s work has always been downgraded. The most amazing intricate needle and tapestry work would be referred to as “craft” while oil paintings done in the all-male studios of yore were classified as “art.” Even now, women are severely under-represented in galleries and museums, as the film Who Does She Think She Is so passionately demonstrates. This distinction is still there — it’s changing, true — but it’s still there. And it bothers me.
But in addition to this feminist outrage, more than the slight discomfort I feel around my so-called cushy life, I am deeply bothered by the imbalance that I feel between two worlds I admire and desire: The introspective and necessary world of self-fulfillment and self-expression. And the equally necessary world of charity and social justice. I feel…unsatisfied…with the extent to which these two worlds intertwine. And I see other creative women trying to find a way to tie the two together as well. There are ripples out there, and rumors of another way. We are exploring. We are finding the connection.
It’s already so hard to make a living, to make your art, to raise your kids, to tell your story, and to be in a relationship. How can we possibly do any more? (Throw in all these mysterious “women’s diseases” like fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, and migraines and it gets even harder.) And yet, and yet….
I guess it’s that I feel, YES, your story is important. Yes, you, white girl with the two kids and the minivan. You story, your creative dreams are essential to the universe. But so are our African sisters’, so are our Latina sisters’, so is every sisters’. And how do they find the strength to tell their stories, after a day of trying to make ends meet. How do we help? How do we partner? How do we teach and learn from each other?
I keep thinking about Fredrick Beuchner’s famous quote about vocation from Wishful Thinking:
“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”
Where is that place for me? For you? For the creative community of us — we, the ladies who art. Where is the seam that weaves together our deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger?
In the excellent but now defunct television series Joan of Arcadia, God tells Joan that she has suffered from “a crisis of imagination.” I think that might be it. In spite of all our creativity, I think we are suffering from a crisis of imagination. I think there is more.
Recently, I’ve been listening to Pride, Prejudice and Zombies, a freaking brilliant adaptation of the Jane Austen novel in which the characters do not practice “The Womanly Arts,” but rather are trained in “The Deadly Arts.” The art of combat. The art of defense. These are not little women. These are Warrior Girls. How can we be warrior girls for our sisters? How can champion their right to be in this world?
Really I have very little idea. But I know it’s always a good plan to take a step. It might not be the step that works out, but it will lead you to the next, and the next, until you find the path. So my step, right now, is to put both feet quite firmly on one particular stepping stone. I will announce that I have fallen in love with the Apparent Project, a program run by people I know and adore in Haiti. Through the Apparent Project, Shelley and Corrigan Clay, who are artists, feed street kids, house kids who were forced to be left behind due to poverty, adopt orphans into their own family, and help women learn skills to support their families. I am head-over-heels with this small, grassroots program— in much the same way that I am in love with art. But I can you imagine me, the migraineur, in Haiti? No. Help. At. All.
So I will do what little I can. I will give ten percent of whatever profit I make this year – from my upcoming EBooks and Ecourses and whatever else might come my way—I will give ten percent of that profit to Haiti. And, whenever I can think of a way to encourage others to chip-in, through the A Year Without Clothes Pledge, or any other thing that crosses my path, I will do so. I will not have a crisis of imagination. I will learn to connect the dots.
It won’t be much. But perhaps this is the practice that will open the door, the rehearsal that will shine light on the solution to this hunger in my life. To be a mother, and an artist…and a warrior girl for others.
Do you think we can find the way? Let’s jump.
Click here to contribute to the chip-in for the Apparent Project, or tell us your ideas in the comments below. Thank you for being here!
Ask Magpie: A Year Without Clothes
A couple of you have asked about this mysterious pledge I’ve made recently: to buy no clothes for one year.
Two years ago I became enamoured with The Little Brown Dress Project by Seattle local Alex Martin. In a one-woman attempt to subvert the consumer hamster wheel of fashion, Alex made two identical brown dresses and wore them for one whole year. She layered in the winter, and stripped down in the summer, but the whole time she just wore just the one little brown dress.
The past 18 months I’ve been living in Copenhagen, Denmark, where the cost of living is roughly 30% above that of Seattle, which was already one of 10 most expensive cities in the U.S. Unlike Seattle there are no well-stocked affordable thrift stores, and new clothes are expensive. At home when you pay more for something you can usually count on better quality. But here more is just, more.
Because of this, I went on a shopping spree this Summer in Seattle. Target, thrift stores, Old Navy. Now I was stocked on the basics. When I got back to CPH I was confronted by two American TV ads on Hulu. One for a designer discount store in which the spokeswoman said “Just because times are tight out there doesn’t mean you should have to stop wearing designer labels!” The second was for Target and featured the new term “frugalistas” and designer Nina Garcia from Project Runaway. She encouraged an average- looking shopper to buy bright blue and pink jeans, because “This season denim is all about color.”
WTF?! People are in foreclosure and designer labels are a priority? Soccer moms need to buy jeans they won’t be caught dead in next year because “this season” demands a color we abandoned circa 1985?!
Look, beauty is a deep value of mine. I love self-expression, and I think clothing is one of the ways we differentiate ourselves to others. But this endless cycle of disposable clothing designed to last “this season” and be out the next, it is absolutely ridiculous. And as much as I adore Project Runway, I’m sorry sweetie but fashion, at least as part of consumer wheel of fortune, is not going to change the world.
The madness must stop. So for this year, no new clothes. I have a good coat and boots, couple nearly-new black long sleeve t-shirts, jeans in two sizes (you know how it is), and enough socks and undies to last me the duration. I’m a little worried that my two-year-old sweater from Old Navy may not make it through the winter. But for the most part, I think I’m set. I just want to see what it’s like, to not be beholden to the trends of the “season,” to get off the hamster wheel and just make-do. [Read more →]
Ask Magpie: What’s for Dinner?
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You may already know that on Wednesdays I try to write a post filled with good tips and suggestions. But do you also know that I have a food blog? Yes Ma’am! My Seattle neighbors Katy K, Sarah and I feature all our favorite recipes over at Food Hero. We trend towards cookies and cocktails … because really, what else do you need? Sometimes, we cook real food. Here are some favorites from my part of the collection. So if you are wondering what to make for dinner tonight, Ask Magpie, she’ll tell ya.
Got something you’ve always been itchin’ to ask me? Go ahead! Post your query in the comments below. Ask me good questions, I’ll tell you no lies….
Magpie Girl’s Guide to College
The 19yo is talking about college. Of course, when I overheard him say, “I was reading this college catalog…” I stopped dead in my tracks. After several years of unschooling and some pretty serious slacker practice before that, I wasn’t even pretending that college was in his future—at least not right away. So this news that he’d already assessed and discarded one community college option and was considering another was a surprise to me.
As I listened from a vaguely discreet distance, there was a tone in his voice and a certain lean to his body that I recognized. This particular combo is what he uses when he’s trying to convince someone that he’s doing what they want him to do. But it’s a little tricky because it’s also the tone and posture he uses when he’s trying something on for size—sort of sussing out if he really believes what he’s saying, seeing if what he’s thinking of is really a good fit for him. I like it when he does this. I think it’s really wise. It makes me proud.
Later he and I were able to talk this college thing out a bit over breakfast. (These things always go better over a breakfast burrito.) It became clear that while he’s aware that most of the parental-types in his life would like to see him in college at some point, he wasn’t just blowing smoke at us when he mentioned the college catalogs. He really is interested in the possibility of taking some course — he’s just not sure how to do college his own unconventional way. He doesn’t want to get trapped on some horrid jump-through-the-hoops, school-debt, hamster wheel from hell. In short, he’s trying to figure out how to make college work for him, instead of the other way around.
See, I told you he was smart.
This got me to thinking about all the courses I slogged through and hated, and all the books I bought and never used. It was a lot of waste. So here, in retrospect are my Magpie Girl’s Tips for College Courses. [Read more →]
*8Things: Songs for the Soul
Hello Loves,
As you may know I am single parenting and leaving today(!) on a six-week Friends-and-Family tour of the U.S. — our first time “home” in a year and a half! Thus, the slow blogging. I’m hoping to get the next DO LESS installment up on Choosing the Essentials. But the essentials may mean that’s a 3-hour writing session might be non-essential for one more week. We’ll see. Stay Tuned.
Hopefully this week’s *8Things will tide you over, because its a good one in that it requires both a little creativity AND ya’ll will be a great resource to each other if you complete it. (Filling up the Giant Pool of Wisdom one bucket full of goodness at a time!)
In the comments on a recent Ask Magpie, Bethany of Coffee-Stained Clarity asked:
Church music used to be a very important part of my relationship with God, and not just music we sang at church but worship CDs and music I would play on my instruments. However, I’ve been a little shocked to find over the past year that this music has lost all relevance for me. Only one or two of the songs in our church’s entire repertoire mean anything to me, and the rest are just a matter for endurance. My question: Is music still a part of your spirituality, and if so, how does it apply? Have you found a way to bring it with you into the uncharted regions of the map?
I have written a little bit about how things stopped working over here, and I’d like to write more about that shift someday. … I figure this is a challenge not only for those of us in various stages of Leaving (or re-forming) Church, but also for folks who aren’t in an organized religion but who find a spiritual connection through music. (approx. one kazillion souls)
So, what *8 Songs connect you to the Divine? Songs that aren’t classically “religious” or “church music” but create a harmonic bridge to all things holy. Songs that soothe the soul. Songs that encourage and shore you up. Songs that connect you to something bigger and beyond, or more deeply and truly to the here/now. What songs are just Good Medicine? Do tell…and if you have time link us to online versions and youtube videos, just for fun. Here’s my list of *8 Songs for the Soul.
1. I Don’t Want to Waste Your Time, Over the Rhine from The Trumpet Child: this song is good medicine when I need some strengthening tonic in order to step out of the fray of various kinds of arguments, or to move through religious power struggles.
2. We Crawl, Polyphone Spree from The Fragile Army: Small is beautiful, and “we’re better together.” D’accord?
3. Gravity, John Mayer from Continuum. I know, I know. I’m a manic fan. But he’s a brilliant songwriter, he’s really open about his artistic journey, and he’s a top notch guitarist. This song keeps me anchored when times are hard. I listened to it on repeat every night when we first moved here and every day in February. “Just keep me where the light is.”
4. Ubi Caritas, Taize Chant: “Where there is love, there is God.” These are very much religious songs, but I find them to be accessible and touching, even though I trends toward the heretical. Many Taize songs are in Latin, a ‘dead’ language in that no one uses it as their common tongue — and thus is belongs to no one people group, and therefore can be commonly owned by all. Taize songs are sung on repeat by the congregants, with a solo line in voice or instrument carrying over the top. This symbolizes the reality that somewhere in the world, there are always people praying — so the prayer of the many (the congregant chants) supports the prayer of the one (the solo), and the prayer of the one enhances the prayer of the many. Last week when I was boo-hooing in church, I sang it out loud, even though it was only meant to be background for the offeratory. Thankfully the professional opera singer in front of me smiled benevolently and joined in. Taize chants convey universal truths that are helpful on many spiritual adventures.
5. Yahweh, U2 from How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. It’s hard to feel jaded around Bono and the Boys. When the girls were toddlers we had a rule, no one gets out of the car until Yahweh is done playing. Many a minute was spent in the driveway listening to baby lisps sing “Take dis soul stwanded in some skin and bones, take dis soul and make it sing.” And as I transitioned out of organized religion, so full of anger and loss, I held on to these words with both hands: ” Take these hands teach them what to carry, take these hands, don’t make a fist. Take this mouth, so quick to criticize, take this mouth give it a kiss.” There’s always pain before the child is born, but there’s also an ocean of love. Hold on.
8. Breathe In, Breathe Out, Matt Kearney. My housemate Sharon has a t-shirt that says “Breathe In, Breathe Out. Repeat.” It’s ridiculous how many times I need to be reminded to do that. This dreamy little song hooks me back up to that reality when things get panicky.
7. Bold as Love, Jimmy Hendrix via John Mayer, Where the Light Is (Live). Poetic lyrics, passionate instrumentation, and the best sermon I’ve ever heard smack dab in the middle. “I’vedone everything in my life that I want to do except just give and receive love for my living. And I don’t mean Hollywood, roman candle, hot pink love…I mean like I’ve GOT YOUR BACK love! So I’m gonna experiment with this love thing…giving love, receiving love. I know it sounds really corny but it’s the last thing I’ve got to check out, before I check out. Take me to the chorus, cuz I’m Bold as Love.” Can I get a witness?
6. Coming Up Easy, Paolo Nutini from Sunny Side Up. Most of the lyrics on this song are on Paolo’s main and most annoying theme – which is something like: ”wow you smell good and I love you like a rock, but also…um…also there are a LOT of women out there.” This is the downside of being a little bit brilliant and a little bit 22-and-male. None the less, the closing refrain of this new song rocks me to my socks. “It was in love I was created and in love is how I hope I die.” Amen to that, my randy little brutha.
What are your *8Songs for the Soul? Grab a button and play along, or put your list in the comments below.
