My friend and fellow Lady Launcher, Cami Walker, was visiting from L.A. this weekend and recently asked me to lead a Right-Brain Business Plan workshop so she could make one for her new creative venture. We gathered seven other participants for a fun afternoon of visioning and planning. I wrote a bit about the workshop here.

I originally planned to launch this workshop in the fall. What I love, though, about having creative cohorts is that they are there to help spur things along! If I were just plodding along by myself, I would’ve sat on this idea for a few more months. I might have worked on the concept here and there and eventually set a date later this year.

But with a simple nudge and within just a few weeks, I’ve gained tons of momentum. By putting myself out there (perhaps earlier that I had originally planned), I now have new insights on how to improve the workshop and also confirmation of some other ideas I was tossing around. This weekend was a great reminder that creating is an iterative process. A process that starts with putting something out there! It sure helps to have a friendly catalyst nearby who can help propel you forward.

While I’m out here in Toronto (or just outside of Toronto to be more accurate), I just HAD to meet my friend and kindred creative spirit Jamie. What a treat to finally meet this amazing woman in person!!! Jamie is such a wise, intuitive soul who dances vibrantly with life. That’s us above finishing up our dinner. (I’m hoping she got a better picture!)

Jamie and I “met” early last year through an online coaching community for creative artists. One of my paintings was posted on the home page and Jamie reached out in her magical way to connect. From there we started to exchange e-mails back and forth, each time finding more things we have in common and are passionate about. Since then, we’ve been supporting each other in building our businesses, living creative lives and making a positive impact in the world. We’ve even started to collaborate together on ways to be pioneers in the emerging field of Expressive Arts Coaching.

I love that we both do things even if they scare us (see collaboration point above for just one example). I love knowing that I can drop her a line when I’m frustrated or stuck because I know she’ll understand AND she’ll call me forth. I love knowing I can always look to her for inspiration and insight. I love knowing that we’re there to celebrate successes with each other. I love that all of this grew out of a simple, spontaneous e-mail hello.

Who are you wanting to meet? What magic might unfold by simply saying hello to someone you don’t know? What new connection can you create today?

Last night was Tamiko and Moses’ lovely wedding at Cafe Leila. Tamiko incubated earlier this year and got lots of support and ideas from her fellow lady launchers for making their commitment ceremony uniquely theirs. What a treat it was to be a part of visioning their special day and then seeing it come to life so beautifully as they honored the blend of their richly diverse histories and heritage.

Lady launchers Kate, me, Hannah, Maria and Susan. We were all so touched by the story of how Tamiko and Moses met and how their relationship has deepened over the last several years. (There were many ohhs and ahhs coming from our table during their speeches!).

I made a card for them out of a gocco print by stamping the Chinese character for love in the corner. Giving handmade gifts and cards is one of my favorite things!

At the end of April I took a short trip to London to visit with four of my dear friends from my leadership tribe. It had been about three and a half years since we were all together, so we were thrilled to have a mini-reunion.

The four bellas - a radiantly pregnant Tina, Lisa, me and Fiona - were happy to be together. We have been connecting off and on on the phone over the past several years and it’s always like a breath of fresh air when we’re all together. Fiona, being the fabulous idea generator that she is came up with a “development day” concept where each of us got time to share what was going on in our lives and get support, coaching, insights and feedback. Pretty awesome considering we’re all trained coaches who care deeply about each other!

Beks‘ son Callum and Fiona’s son Pierre meet for the first time. Too cute!

A gorgeous view from Richmond Park where we spent a warm, sunny afternoon with the boys.

All five of us together before heading out to dinner at a delicious Turkish restaurant.

An afternoon at Petersham Nurseries.

We dined on yummy sweet potato and ginger soup in the lovely Petersham Nurseries greenhouse. Just heavenly!

A view of the Thames from the Petersham Hotel where we enjoyed high tea complete with finger sandwiches sans crusts and scones with clotted cream. A table near us had a group of gray-haired well-dressed women and we joked that that would be us forty years from now at one of our future reunions! I love to think of us continuing to make time to connect like that. These women are such an important part of my life and we have seen each other through lots of growth and transition. I am so glad I said yes to this spontaneous trip to spend time with dear friends.

I’ve been so behind with posting about my 29-day giving challenge. There’s been lots of stuff going on - mostly good and some bad/frustrating. I noticed that after getting in my car accident on lucky number Day 13 (see below), I was feeling a little stuck with the giving. I think that I’m in a better place now and I believe being committed to keep on giving even in the smallest of ways that has helped me move on.

Here’s a recap of the past week:

• Day 13: Gave emotional support to a woman I got in a fender bender with in the city. I got rear ended and she was sandwiched between me and the third car that hit her. No one was injured, so that was good. Her car was totaled, though, and she was very distraught. We’ve exchanged a few e-mails since then and she was very grateful for the concern and help I provided her. We’ve since found out the the driver who caused the accident (and the car’s owner are both not insured, so it’s been a bit frustrating dealing with the extra hassle). I’ve had to also practice not going into blame mode and instead to try to forgive and show compassion. This “crash course” in giving has definitely been one of the more powerful gives so far!
• Day 14: Gave resources/book recommendations to a wedding photographer friend of Brian’s who just moved to the area.
• Day 15: A client from the city came over for an in-person Right-Brain Business Plan session and since she doesn’t own a car, I picked her up and took her back to the BART station.
• Day 16: Brian’s neck was bothering him so I heated up my neck wrap and lent it to him.
• Day 17: Walked with Sonja, Sandy and the crew of dogs. She thanked me for the cookies from last week and said she very much enjoyed them.
• Day 18: Invited my friend Anne to join me as a guest at our Oakland Ladies Who Launch member meeting and drove her to and from.
• Day 19: Called my cousin Karen to wish her happy birthday, had a wonderful conversation with my friend Katie and brainstormed ideas for a possible business concept she has (very exciting!) and donated several bags of stuff to Goodwill.
• Day 20: Wrote thank you cards to Laura for lending her Creative Action Center space for our Ladies Who Launch meeting and to Reese for being our fantastic guest speaker on Thursday.
• Day 21: Spent half the day with the SF Coaches Board visioning what we want our organization to be this year and beyond. Was fun to dream up big ideas for the impact we want to make on the profession and in the world at large! I also brought my iPod and some speakers so we could have some lively and inspiring music on our breaks. That’s us below!

I’ve been posting about my daily gives directly on my page on the 29-Day Giving Challenge site. More of my insights are included there. If haven’t joined the challenge yet, I recommend giving it a try. It’s fun and doesn’t have to be a big to do. And yet, there’s so much power in the act of simply giving.

Anyway, here’s a quick recap of what I’ve given over the past week or so.

• Day 6: Picked up my friend Fiona from her training, drove us to the city for some shopping and then saw her off at the airport.
• Day 7: Baked some cookies and left them in my neighbor’s mailbox. She’s always giving doggie treats (she calls them cookies) to Emmett, so I thought it would be nice to give her some cookies, too.
• Day 8: Gave a client an extra copy I had of the book Money Magic.
• Day 9: Lent money on kiva.org to a Cambodian family so they could buy supplies for their art business.
• Day 10: Put a surprise gift in a package of business materials that I had to send to a friend.
• Day 11: Signed up for a widget that helps to track and offset my online carbon footprint on my site. My small way of giving back to the environment.
• Day 12: Picked cala lilies from my garden and gave them to my friend along with an inspirational book.

Visit 29-Day Giving Challenge

Cami Walker of Creative Urge recently kicked off a new and meaningful challenge - the 29-Day Giving Challenge. Cami is uber-talented and also highly spiritual and intuitive. And her own story is really inspiring. Find out what spurred her to create and share this challenge. I began the challenge on 3/31. Here’s a recap of my first five days of the giving challenge:

• Day One: Gifted one of my handmade Wish Boxes to Kate Prentiss for doing such an awesome job on my soon-to-be-ready brochure!
• Day Two: My friend Fiona from London is in town. I picked her up from the airport and she crashed at my place before going to a training session in the morning. (So excited that I get to hang out with her Saturday afternoon when she’s done! And in London in a few weeks when I go to visit her!)
• Day Three: Did a volunteer coaching call with Yessica, a client from C.E.O. Women.
• Day Four: Volunteered my voice for Aurora Medina’s Plenty of Money meditation.
• Day Five: Donated to Alison Ekizian’s AIDS Ride campaign.

In my work I feel like I naturally give a lot - a lot of support, encouragement, intense listening, resources, etc. I also love giving gifts, especially handmade ones. And I volunteer my time and money to causes that are important to me. This challenge, though, is helping me to expand what it means to give. And I hate to admit it but I’m noticing where I have resistance to giving (usually when it’s “inconvenient” for me or if I’m feeling strapped financially - see last post). What I love about the message from Cami and this challenge is that truly giving helps us get out of our own “stuff” and shifts the energy outward. Yes, there are times when it’s good to give to ourselves (I took a self-care day for myself today) AND that doesn’t mean we still can’t give to others. It’s not an either/or. I’m realizing I make it an either/or when I’ve pushed myself to the limit and I don’t have reserves left. So, my challenge to myself is to continue giving in some form even when I feel like I need to retreat. As Cami suggests, you can give anything - a material object, time, money, a kind word, a smile or even just positive energy. The key is to do it with intention. I look forward to discovering more insights during this challenge. And I’m excited to get creative about how else I can give.

Cami’s goal is to inspire at least 2,000 people to commit to the 29-Day Giving Challenge by 9/29/08. Won’t you join us? Spreading the word is one way to give!

P.S. - here’s a theme song to get you on your way… “Give a Little Bit” by the Goo Goo Dolls.

Julie, George, Jaden and Carson came to visit today during their spring break. We hung out at Fairyland, a tiny theme park nestled in Lake Merritt. I had never been, but Julie, who used to live in Oakland as a kid, had fond memories of going there.

Watching Jaden run around fascinated by all characters and activities reminded me of the joys of being a kid. When everything seemed larger than life and the simplest things could bring such delight!

And here’s wide-eyed Carson who is full of wonder and now a lot bigger than when I first met him.

How do you get in touch with your inner child? What small things delight you?

Our book club pick for this round was artist Beatrice Wood’s autobiography, “I Shock Myself.” Francisca dished up a delicious bohemian spread of lentils, quinoa, beets, salad, pita bread, hummus and all sorts of other goodies. Christina picked tangerines from the tree.

As an homage to the creative process, Francisca asked us each to bring pieces we’ve been working on. Christina, Francisca and I shared some knitting, Kristen brought photos and of course Lily brought her latest creation…

… Jacob whom we all met for the first time.

We are on our seventh year of our book club. And even though we hardly talk about the books, we know it’s more about just spending time together laughing, eating, enjoying each other’s company and…

just being silly together (Francisca and I sporting our “Blue Steel” Zoolander poses).

Ahhhh, another perfect book club afternoon!

Our Creative Playground met at Laura’s lovely home for an afternoon of mandala making. A mandala (which means means circle or completion in Sanskrit) symbolizes wholeness. Laura explained that in Sanskrit, bindu means particle or dot and is the center point of the mandala. It’s a place of infinite capacity. We are always moving toward this point. It is a journey.

We circled around a table on Laura’s front porch while she led us through a visualization to our creative center. Then, to warm us up, she invited us to pick up oil pastels and chalks and quickly create our first mandala in 10 minutes. I loved the freedom to just intuitively let the colors flow. During the visualization I was reminded of some powerful insights I had while listening to someone from the Strozzi Institute speak about body-based coaching at SF Coaches earlier this week. The presenter led us through a centering practice to get us really grounded in our bodies. We aligned from top to bottom, lengthening while grounding. We became aware of our width, meaning how we show up in the social dimension. And then we noticed our front and back, where we’ve come from and where we are going. Throughout Laura’s visualization I imagined that energy surrounding me like a globe and that’s what I depicted in my first mandala below. This piece felt very airy and dreamy.

Once we were done with our warm-up mandala, we moved on to a more focused project. I decided to play with brighter oil pastels against a black background. I explored feeling more in my body and more grounded and bold by using the vibrant, warm colors of the lower chakras. The mandala of the yellow, red and orange blossom emerged.

Mandalas come in all types. Some are very symmetrical and others, like mine today, are very organic. What’s amazing is that mandalas show up in nature all around us. Think of the rings of a tree trunk, the spirals of a sea shell or even planets circling the sun in our solar system.

What connects you to your center or bindu? How can a mandala help you journey inward and expand out? For more ideas on creating mandalas, check out Mandala: Journey to the Center.