Happy New Year!!!

Hello my wonderful friends and family!

This year was a wild, wonderful and woolly ride. The most valuable thing I learned is how blessed I am to have amazing people in my life. I’m especially appreciating my still, small voice, because it has seen me through a year fraught with challenge!

So. I’m headed down memory lane to count my blessings.

January: This year started out with Grace piloting Maggie, her dog pal Kay Kay and me on a loop from Santa Ynez to Santa Barbara! We followed up with lunch in Santa Ynez. 

February: While at work, I had the intuition to take a writing retreat vacation to Los Osos, CA. I knew a friend was out of town, so I stayed at her wonderful home on the back bay. What a magical visit! I saw tons of friends and got to hang in one of my favorite places on earth. 

March: Spontaneously joined a 4 week business class from Women’s Economic Ventures. We had 1 F2F meeting before we were Zoom-Zoom-Zooming along. This class was so valuable! I learned what step I am on for my website, and most importantly - that my heart’s desire is to focus on completing writing projects.

April: Working from home and staying home is getting real. Happily I am sharing a house with 2 awesome housemates - Rich and Debbi - so isolation is not so isolating. That Los Osos vacay is serving me well!

May: Celebrating my birth month usually means a trip to San Luis Obispo county. This year my stay home par-tay included a reading from Rich Moser of Transcendental Astrology. So handy to have this detailed resource not to mention the convenience of a housemate astrologer. Check out his insightful read on the nature of fear. 

June: Wowie kazowie!!! My dream came true! I scored an awesome apartment in uptown downtown Santa Barbara. It happened so fast, before I knew it I was trying to squeeze 10 lbs of stuff into a 5 lbs apartment. Luckily, I discovered the amazing team at Elite Movers who had me out of my old place and into the new in less than 3 hours and I now live upstairs!!!   

July: I’ve been working with a Talent Buddy for over a year as we worked through a book by Lucia Capacchione called Putting Your Talent to Work. Nina Kleidel is a fellow Visioning(R) coach graduate, an artist, my new friend AND she lives in Denmark. We did it!!! I also took the plunge and joined the Hay House Writing Challenge and joined the community.

August: Missing my music! Hooray to Jensen’s Guitar shop for the new strings. I made a couple of videos for the Pajama Sessions. Right now I’m still practicing. But as soon as I remember to take the gum outta my mouth - I’ll be sharing. 

September: Wow! This is one long pandemic. I’m starting to crunch, so I take steps to ask for heeeellllppppp! Now I’m working with an exercise coach who keeps me moving. A remote session at BeBalanceBliss took the edge off. Between walking and falling asleep to my session recording, I’m ready for a solo holiday season. 

October:  The California fires have me updating my evac plan. Most of this month is spent scanning letters and snapping photos of photos.. Whoops! Too little too late on the music promo front. If anyone can recommend an experienced music promoter, ...please let me know. I have high hopes for Christmas Tonight on Spotify, iTunes, and even a Holiday movie!!! I’m excited for the upcoming holidays, though bummed not to be seeing friends or family. I feel loved though!

Here’s a collage photo of my 2015 Christmas past.

November: This month is the last of a series of writing workshops with Marcia Meier. Between her workshops and the writing challenge, I’ve invested my writing energy into a memoir about my pet-sitting/house-hopping adventure. This was a surprise. I had joined the challenge with the intention of this topic as a non-fiction, teaching book. However, this new focus has my heart singing.   

December: Yahoo! Holiday decorating and completing the first draft of Chapters 1,2 and 3 is my reason to celebrate! I treated myself to two days of inching an essay towards first draft completion: The Keeper of Sentimental Things. I had abandoned this piece to focus on the book. The year has been maddening, exasperating, fulfilling and insightful. But because I allow myself to express all of my feelings, Keeper is delicious to write. Looking forward to my next 2-day essay break when Chapters 4,5 and 6 are in the can.

From Keeper: “On my next birthday, I’ll be 60. By then I want to be the kind of woman strong enough to deadlift her neighbor’s body down eight stairs and across the parking lot. Though It is no longer necessary, it’s still a worthy goal. Plus, the idea delights me.” 

Finally, an excerpt from Melody Beattie’s Journey to the Heart daily meditation book.

12/31/20 Honor the Ending: “..Look back for a moment. Reflect in peace. Then let this year draw to a close. All parts of the journey are sacred and holy...”

Here’s wishing you and yours a blessed and holy 2021. 

Love and hugs, 

Dorothy

PS: I almost forgot!!! Listen in on my conversation with Emily Yurcheshen on valuing ourselves. Listen to Emily the Songbird podcast here. We’ve been pals for 16 years!!!