In a few weeks, I will offer the What’s Right With Me? workshop in my hometown of Asheville, North Carolina. For the last 2 and a half years I have been offering sessions and have done several workshops asking these questions and drawing out the answers. Literally. Drawing the answers to the questions about the very core of us. I did not set out to design this question series. It sort of designed me…

The inspiration for the questions came as a result of 2 friends and I attempting to collaborate to be of service and make a living with this new career I’d stepped into as a graphic recorder or facilitator. (There are a few different names for the work that I do. In essence I capture information, thoughts, hopes, dreams in illustrations and text on a white board or paper live-time mostly – though I do illustrate maps, visions, ideas, information montages, my own thoughts and those of others.) The 3 of us came up with a few questions to clarify our individual life goals to be sure my dear friends were not simply stepping into my dream and forgetting theirs.

Amy is a mega talent in a tidy package of beauty inside and out. And she is hilarious on stage in her character roles. Amy and Ken met over 30 years ago on the road in a band where Ken played I imagine an Eric Clapton-like brilliance on a shiny guitar, while Amy kept the audience entranced with her out in front of herself soul and voice. It is easy for me to see what Amy’s give back to the world is…it was more difficult for her then before we “did the questions” for her. I often say, and I’ve heard it often said, we are the last ones to see ourselves. Or we can be, until we turn it around and look at ourselves through our own eyes of appreciation…”what’s right with me?”…our new mantra. Amy sees who she is…it’s awesome.

Some of you who have been following my crooked (not the illegal kind of crooked) pathway with Verbal Remedies, thank you, first of all. You may have been there when I was thinking nobody cared in my very dark days of fear in the transition from being suburban up and comer, to tried-to-be-hippie-like, to not knowing who or what I was, to settling down and finding that I’m a pretty cool person, living a pretty cool life. I’ve followed a bunch of different healing methods and guru-type things. What finally works is taking a good look at myself and appreciating who I am, not who I hoped to be. Being okay with my faults, because they are most definitely there. Some I am changing, some I will change, some I can change, some I don’t change.

What I find in general is that some of the very things I have tried to diminish are my greatest gifts. They help me to be who I have wished to be and always have been somewhere inside. I am aware of my current and maybe life-long mission.

These questions have changed lives. I see it in the lovely people who have allowed me to ask and record their answers in the form of a poster for them to take home and color and truly see. The playfulness of coloring in or simply tracing the lines with your eyes helps the answer to be taken to heart. Lovely image.I am always honored to be a part of it with those who have played and helped me to see the value in making it my job to offer the questions on a much larger basis.

Sue is another dear friend of mine. Sue came into my life in the midst of my chaos and I into hers. We had both recently divorced and thrown our safe and secure lives into the air, scrambling to get the pieces to come back together. She is a filmmaker…the little filmmaker who could. Sue’s motto must have been “I think I can, I think I can!” because she just kept going. When last I saw her one year ago, Sue told me her beloved movie was over and she was giving up on it. We talked alot and we “did the questions”. Within 2 weeks, she was offered 2 distribution deals and now the movie is very much alive and being distributed. She attributes looking at what’s right with her and seeing who she is to be the catalyst for allowing in the future she had been trying so hard to keep out…all the while thinking she was pulling it in. I know it is because she chose to do something with the answers she received in the process of answering simple questions. Sue’s current motto must now be “I know I can.” because she is doing it, she is moving in the direction of her dreams with big steps.

I’ve learned that any kind of control is resistance. If we hold on too tightly, we cannot access the gifts that are in the palm of our hand.

For the last month or so, I have been lucky enough to find support with a woman who is brilliant at what she does and has accepted being my biz partner. So if you can’t make it to this workshop, it looks like there will be more and more … Also I will certify people to offer the questions in their own practice of whatever kind by attending a week long workshop in, hmmm, I don’t know… Costa Rica? France? Meanwhile I hope you will check out my ebook once I get it all put together. It’s written and it is like a workshop in a book. An app that is interactive (is that redundant?) is on the way. Also, the children’s book titled “I’m Awesome” is in the early sketch stages.

I love what I do. It’s my mission.

COME TO THE WORKSHOP! (March 16th, 1:30-3:30 at Nourish & Flourish in Asheville.) It will change your life…if you let it. It is just 2 hours on an early Saturday afternoon as we step into spring. Nourish & Flourish is a lovely space, small and intimate, so space is limited. Please sign up online or comment here or email me and tell me you are coming. http://tinyurl.com/acmvj58 to sign up via paypal. I hope to see you there. I promise at the least it will be entertaining to take a journey down memory lane to childhood and walk it right up to today and what’s next. At best your life will never again be the same and you will begin to feel absolutely perfectly outfitted to be that person you hope yourself to be. And you will begin to ask “what’s right with me?” instead of the heretofore usual alternative. Start asking that question right now.

Post a sticky note, everywhere you might see it often, that asks the question: What’s right with me?

Experiment. Let me know what happens.

Or a minute, or a second. Life can change in the blink of an eye as many of us can attest. Just when you thought it was never gonna happen, there it is…a miracle. And then it becomes normal. I remember when I used to work in Colorado Springs as a consultant. Every day I drove to work I was in awe of the snow-covered majestic Pike’s Peak towering above. I would remark and those who lived there all the time would often look at me with a little puzzled face and say “oh, yeah…” They hardly saw it anymore because it was just there.

What are you not seeing that once was a miracle? Time to look again. Refresh.

This is the last week of April, 2010. Where did this month go? That seems to continue to put people into an awe state…time moving so very quickly. Is it a result of getting older and having so much left to do when it is extremely possible that most of our days are behind us? Or is it across the board, younger and older alike who are experiencing the swift movement of the days? I’d like to know.

Recapping my own month is a habit as I near toward the end. I normally measure it in “how much money did I make this month” because I am keenly aware of the following month’s bills coming due. Oh, I know that success is not measured ultimately in dollars and yet it is what allows us to function in this world. Some days it is enough to simply have enough, though I am most happy when it comes through doing something I love doing.

This month’s end finds me physically tired. It’s been lovely to begin working in the yard, planting new and rearranging old. It also adds to my plate of things to do and my perception of so little time is reflected in the chaos of my house and car interiors. There are things left out that I hope to eventually find a home for, either in storage or recycling or (last resort) trash. Those things pile up while I am taking care of the immediate. It seems I am simply moving from one task to the next and not making any headway, though I suppose I can turn that look around and see that the fact that I am continuing to work as headway. This time last year I was borrowing money to make it through the month of April and May. Feels very good to be handling it well myself this year. That’s headway.

Money aside, what kind of headway have I made? This has been a month of growth in the relationship department. My son and his family have made plans to move here from Aspen and they will stay with me for a moment as they find their own home. I’ve been cast in a play that revolves around my character. The drama off-stage rivals that of on…relationship building. Some stronger steps are being taken to express myself in truth to my myself, which is easily the norm rather than not now. Headway.

The world seems to be truly shaking things up this month. So many earthquakes, volcano. It is becoming the norm to see that there has been yet another large earthquake causing devastation in someone’s life. We are becoming numbed out by the tragedies, so much so that we must shake ourselves and remind ourselves to be grateful for what we have right now.

Yesterday my daughter and granddaughter were driving through an intersection on a green light when a woman did not notice her own red light and crashed into my daughter’s car. When seeing the car coming at her, my daughter’s instinct was to turn and look at her own daughter in the car seat. My heart turns to a puddle when I think of the possibilities of that split second in time and gratitude overwhelms me to know they are unhurt and still lighting up my world.

I ended the previous post with gratitude, claiming a new story is emerging. So what’s the story? A very Brooklyn-like accent punctuates this question. Humor, y’know. Humor is a respite from a world that has seemingly gone mad. I’ve just read through the headlines once again on cnn.com. Oye. Don’t want to go there this morning. Humor. It’s a way of looking at the world with a smile that comes from the head and lands in the heart. A purposeful thought of twisting a situation into a laugh.

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Lately my blog postings have become fewer and fewer. As the list of things I have to do pile up, the blog writing gets put further behind. Not because I do not have the desire to write. It is because my head becomes so clogged with thoughts that I feel I have nothing of any significance to say. “It’s all been said before” kind of thoughts run through my head. Kind of bored with myself. I’ve had the same story running now for 11 years. Read on.

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