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 »

It is The Day After the launch of Flock. Now that I’ve birthed something new out into the world the post-pregnancy hormones are turning into a big boiling pot of neurosis stew. All my gremlin voices are chattering away at me, and my insecurities are looming large.

The monkey-ish part of my mind is telling me that everything is going to fall apart: I’ll get sick again and not be able to keep up. No one will pay for my services and skill. And the loudest message of all: “Everyone Else is more Helpful than You.”

I’m embarrassingly predictable.

Part of this pattern is attributable to my religious upbringing, which drilled into my subconscious this If/Then clause:

If you ‘step out to do God’s work’ then you will ‘come under attack.’

I point this out because I know many of my readers are in the same boat. I think part of what we do here together, is to re-write our inner narratives so they reflects more health, more shalom. When my voices loom large and I start defining things as “attack,” it helps to remember that this discombobulated feeling is actually a normal part of the creative process; that many of my artistic friends express the same phenomenon; and that like the physical reality of childbirth, eventually these hormonally-things level out.

In the wake of this gremlin uprising, I decided to check in with some of my favorite writers. Once a week or so I go through the blogs on my RSS feeds. I follow about 50 people, and checking in on them is one of my favorite things to do when I feel stuck, or overwhelmed, or lonely. There is so much beauty in these writers and artists, so much wisdom, and hope and breakthrough. Today was no different. Everyone seemed to have cooked up good stuff over the holidays. But this time, instead of inspiring me, those rich, winsome posts started getting me down. “See,” said the monkey gremlins “I told you Everyone Else is More Helpful than You.”

I started getting whiney. Whiney, insecure, and jealous. I don’t want those feelings. I don’t even feel like they belong to me. They belong to my miserly, selfish, un-generous Evil Twin. The real me is grateful and generous. The real me celebrates the success and wisdom of Other Women. The real me is Dangerously Giving. The real me is madly in love with Abundance and throws things out into the universe two handfuls at a time.

So in an effort to quite my Gremlins, settle my Monkey Mind, and banish my Evil Twin, I decided to sing. (Tra La La!) As an antidote, I am Singing the Praises of kind bloggers who have brought wisdom, insight and beauty into my life today. I’m honoring their Passion and Attentiveness. I’m saying: “Hey, look over there at what THEY did!” Most of all, I’m being grateful. Because at my core, that is my truest self.

May you find all these good things and more today.

Much Warmth,

Rachelle

Bloggers to Banish The Gremlin Blues

If you need to banish fear from your life: write a Dear Fear letter with The Penny Has Dropped. (She starts with “Dear Fear, fuck off….). And for more on fear, have a cuppa with the ElderWoman (via Anchors and Masts).

If you need a rite of letting go for the New Year:  Pink Coyote has a powerful one. (It involves fire!)

If you need to set aside all the rush and emotion and ups and downs of The Holidays and just celebrate possibility, The Bliss Chick can help.

If you are dreading re-entry to your work/school/normal routine, The Girl Who Cried Epiphany has some good thoughts on dealing with other people’s energy. (A constant growing edge for me.)

Who gave you the food you needed today? Share some link love in the comments below and pass the goodness on!

After much hinting and scheming, dreaming and hard work….I’m happy to announce that Flock with Magpie Girl is now open for registration!

Flock is an on-line soulcare spa dedicated to ”finding a spirituality that fits.”  On our private pages, Flock members can participate in  soulcare courses, make monthly soulcraft projects,  join book clubs, and ask advice from a team of professional soulcare specialists.

Unlike short-term Ecourses, the Flock is open all year long, allowing you to form ongoing connections with your virtual soultribe. Participate a little, or come by every day — it’s totally up to you.

Here’s what soulsister Jen Lemen of Mondo Beyondo & Picture Hope has to say about the Flock:

“Few people know how to tend the soul like Rachelle Mee Chapman.   A curator of everything exquisite and salvageable from the spiritual traditions, Rachelle understands how to craft a nest where comfort gives way to calling, where self-care reveals with compassion your finest, truest self.  I am honored to say I know first hand what it means to be in Rachelle’s circle of concern and care, and I can only imagine what good things await those who will join the amazing community of learners ready to fly in the Flock.” 

This is a novel approach to soulcare, so please feel free to stop by. Our doors officially open January 1st, but our lobby is open now for visitors! (I’m especially excited about our great collection of soulcare providers.)

In effort to balance fair-pay with accessibility, all this soul-spa goodness is offered to you for $45 a month — or about the cost of  just one yoga classes a week. (Ready to jump in? Join here.)

I know you’ve been searching for your place for a long time. Now you can flutter in for a landing. You’ve finally found your Flock.

Welcome Home,

Rachelle Mee-Chapman
Soulcare Specialist, Flock

The publishing and writing schedule for Magpie Girl and Flock…as scribbled out during the kid’s gospel choir rehearsal last night. (Work where you can.)

I am on pins and needles waiting for my designer to upload the finalized version of our new endeavor – Flock with Magpie Girl. Flock is “a nesting place for restless souls” with lots of courses for spiritual nurture, all offered at one monthly price. Think of it as a spa for your soul! The bonus to this method is that it creates an on-going place for a soultribe to gather, and it allows for the kind of teaching-learning process I so adore. We can really fill up the giant pool of wisdom with the Flock!

I like knowing how artists and other creative people work. If you are intrigued by that too, here’s a peek into the process of starting our Flock.

Initially Flock started out as an idea for two Ecourses. But as I worked through 31 Days to A Better Blog and started on the elevator pitches for my Ecourses, I realized what I really wanted was an ongoing on-line soultribe. I’d already done some vocational work with my amazing life coach, Jena Strong, and knew that community building was a skill I’d been practicing for a long time. The short-term nature of Ecourses wouldn’t scratch my community building itch. Since reading Chris Guillebeau’s Art + Money, I had been thinking about opening a membership site. But I had allowed  the outside voices of Conventional Wisdom and Fear to negate my intuitive pull towards that option. As I embraced the membership site as a viable choice, things started moving into place.

Jennifer McGuiggan helped me move through the wheel of work, which made me realize I needed a partner to get through the bottom half of the wheel – the execution half. So I scraped my money together and hired Neil Sittler of Stickflower Design to help me get a website ready. This was important because my work with Jena had already shown me that “beauty” was high on my list of guiding values, and that if I didn’t have a esthetically pleasing site, I wouldn’t be able to tap into the right energy to sustain a long-term project such as an online soulcare community.

While Neil worked on the site, soulsisters Lisa Alexander and Jamie Ridler coached me on values-based pricing, so that I would not consider my pattern of chronically under-charging. I was still struggling with setting a price that truly reflected the value of my work, when Jen Lemen suggested I do muscle testing to connect with my inner wisdom on the matter. After a truly amazing round of muscle testing with my daughter Eden, I finally came to a place of  confidence with my pricing choices.

I also decided to face my fear of asking for help so I asked a few soulcare providers I know and adore to come on board as expert advisers for Flock. And while I cannot announce who quite yet, I’m happy to say that my dream team of (therapist, life coach, and dream analyst and more) is starting to come together for our “Ask the Experts” column.

Finally, yesterday I sat down and wrote out a schedule of what I’m going to be posting each day both at Magpie Girl and at Flock, and what day I’d have to write it in order to get it posted professionally, on time, and well-edited. Because my health is a bit of a crap shoot, I included a day to write “stockpiled” posts so I have something to keep the goodness flowing when chronic pain sets me back for awhile.

Now I’m just waiting for the last odds and ends to get done on the website, and before Christmas we will have sign ups ready for our New Year’s launch! (Join my mailing list for a grand opening discount.)

As I write this post I realize once again how blessed I am to have this (almost entirely virtual) community around me. Those mentioned here, and others as well, helped me get past my sticking points and uncover the “ah ha” moments I needed to get through this process. I’m also struck by how Jen Lemen’s advice to “write to the tribe you’re starting to form”; and my mentor Ed Cook’s adage “you always preach the sermons you need to hear,” have both been proven true. All of the links embeded in this story were written by myself, or by Magpie Girl guests,  because I needed to hear them, and so did my tribe. Now I can see them as the work The Muse and The Universe were doing to get us where we need to be — that is,  together.

So thanks you so much, dear Magpie Girl reader, for being a part of this process. Your comments and visits have encouraged me more than I can say. I cannot wait until we are all gathered together in our Flock! Thanks for being here.

Much Warmth,

Rachelle

Eden and Cate’s amulet for their bedroom: rock salt, favorite polished stones, and a card from Jen Lemen.

It’s been a good couple of days over here in Magpie Girl world.

Monday Cate and I went through all our rooms cleansing and blessing the space we live in. Suzie Ridler gave us some ideas, and we picked the ones we liked best: holy water, a blessing of light involving a candle, and making little amulet bags to hold our intentions for each of the rooms in our home. It was really meaningful to me and I definitely felt the energy shift within myself and within our house, bringing in fresh hope and inspiration.

The night of the cleanse I woke up with a start, and free-wrote an entire plan for how I want my ecourses to work. Oh friends, I am so excited about this! I really think it’s coming together. Instead of short-term ecourses, my new offerings from Magpie Girl will be offered at a sister-site, Flock: a soul spa, with magpie Girl
(What do you think? Something like that? Other ideas?)

Flockwill be a membership site, with one price covering the cost of a number of soulcare options. Sort of like a spa health club with one membership fee, but lots of services and classes. Both of the soultribes I’ve been working on– the High Holy Days series and the Soulcraft Circle — will be there, along with a collection of Priestessy Things to do alone or in a group, and once we get rolling I hope to add something for the DO LESS Revolutionaries, and a book club. Oh, the possibilities are so inspiring!

The creator of the SoulFood layout, Neil Sittler of Stickflower Design, is working on the Flock site now and it will be ready in December for sign-ups and a January start.  I’m wildly curious to see how Flock’s on-going groups will help create lasting Soultribes for spiritual misfits like us! Can you feel it? It’s got good mojo.

Now don’t worry. There will still be great stuff, FOR FREE, here at Magpie Girl. I plan to continue Monday’s guest post series with fascinating artists and coaches.( In fact, I’m booked through January!) *8Things will defintely be featured at both sites. And all the choice little tidbits and “ah ha” moments that don’t fit into the on-going offerings at Flock will still be incubating at Magpie Girl. I’m also cooking up a way to offer a few reduced-price memberships, and of course, I’m always open to trades and swaps and all kinds of creativity.

Keep in mind that I offer discounts and special treats to people on my mailing list. So with the SoulRetreats book this close to being done, and Flock on it’s way, you really should hop on the mailing list so you don’t miss a thing.

Alright lovelies, give me all your feedback and ideas! I’m off to work on a delightful joint project with Rowena Murillo for awhile and then it’s time to draft an essay for Jennifer McGuiggan’s holiday collection. Oooh…I love do so love it when like-minded souls come together!

Much Warmth!

Rachelle