I am a Writer

It has been a long while since I have written in this blog.  I have been writing - every day, but I have been writing on the iPad that I received for Christmas last year and using a wonderful app called My Writing Spot.  I promised to write every day, no matter what.  So that is what I have done for the past year.

A year ago, I attended a writer's workshop with Kathleen MacGowan, author of The Expected One and several other beautiful, amazing books.  I have connected with Kathleen over Facebook and appreciate her work and her presence.  The nugget that I received from The Writer's Grail workshop was that to be a writer, one has to write.  Period.  Kathleen and Philip's suggestion was to write, even for 5 minutes, every day.  EVERY day. So I made that commitment, and for the past year (the workshop was a year ago this past weekend and when I received the book, The Source of Miracles, also by Kathleen and mentioned in my blog from last December) I have written.  Every day I write.  It is just what I do.  No matter what.  It is my sacred daily practice.

I am a writer.  I write...therefore, I am a writer. 

I am also in the midst of a very profound journey with my business and partnership with Life Force, and WOW- Wo/men Owning Wealth.  I have stepped into leadership, residual income, and wealth in a way that I have not done before.  It feels like a journey very similar to that of the Camino...they actually reflect one another beautifully. 

I saw that my last blog was written in February and I shared about my decision to become a conscious network marketer.  It has actually expanded greatly from that - I actually practice Sacred Commerce in partnership with an amazing community of women and men, WOW, and Life Force. I experience the structure of this business of network marketing more as a collaborative business model that is an infinite series of connected and interrelated concentric circles.  Core to these concentric circles is a profound spiritual and evolutionary path that we each step on to when we step into this business.  To grow and expand in this business is to be on a sacred path that ultimately brings us home to ourselves - to the highest, biggest, brightest, best version of who we each truly are. 

I am totally committed to this path of Sacred Commerce, and right now, it demands most of my attention and time.  I am committed to creating financial freedom for myself and my family while supporting others to have the same opportunity for health and wealth as I do, and it is my focus and highest priority commitment right now.  Why do I even  need to write this right now?

Because I had made a commitment to write my book on the first leg of my journey with the Celtic Camino this winter, and as I began to really settle into that task, I realized that my focus is on building a business, not writing a book.  I can write every day, but can I write an indepth book and build a rapidly transforming business at the same time?  Do I really want to?

My commitment is to write.  I am a writer.  But is my commitment right now to write a book? 

Out of this question, I realized that I wanted to return to this blog.  I like writing here.  I feel as though I am writing to someone.  When I write to "write a book", I write differently.  I feel like I am not so much in a relationship, and so I become more concerned about the wording, how I say it, does it sound right?  Here, I write, and know that if I need to fill in some details with research, etc., I can and I will and I will come back to it.  When I write a book, I feel like I have to have it all right there the first time.  Here, it feels intimate and more like a sharing and connecting from the heart.

So, today I return to this blog and share my ongoing Camino journey, and how my life and work at home reflect each other.  It comes down to this for me, and in Sue Kenney's words:  When the Camino ends, the journey begins.''

My life, all of our lives, are a sacred and profound journey.  This is my invitation to you - to live your life as a sacred journey, woven together by your sacred dreams, sacred partnerships, sacred sexuality, sacred commerce, and sacred purpose.


Buen Camino!

The Camino Continues to Guide and Provide

Back on 9/9, September 9th, before I left for the Camino, I asked "I wonder what the Camino will provide today."  I was working with my mantra, "The Camino guides and provides (for me) every step of the way."  I knew in my heart the truth of this statement, even as I questioned and doubted whether or not it was "okay" for me to affirm this.  Was I somehow using the Camino, relying on it in an inappropriate way?  Was I being selfish? Self-centered?

Even with these doubts and self-concerns, I knew that this mantra was a profound reflection of my relationship with the Camino.  After being on the Camino for the month of October, I actually love the Camino more deeply than ever, and I also know and accept this truth, the Camino does guide and provide every step of the way.

After I wrote that blog, I let the question go and got on with my day.  A few hours later, a dear friend and former coaching client, called me to see if I was interested in finding out more about something she was doing.  Hmmm....my first question was "Is it network marketing?"  I could feel my resistance rush to the surface.  Yes, of  course, it was.  Damn.  I love Kate, I love what she's up to in life, and I knew that I wanted to explore being a part of it.  But, I did not want to do network marketing.  I had vowed ten years earlier to never do network marketing again.

And then I remembered my question that morning.  "I wonder what the Camino will provide today."

In that moment, I knew that I had to be open.  What if the Camino knew something that I didn't know?  What if this was my opportunity to receive something that was actually what I had been looking for all along but didn't know it?  What if I didn't know it all?

I could feel both dread and excitement when I went to meet with Kate a few days later.

As much as I felt concern and reluctance, I also felt an opening and a receiving.  I had decided to trust and allow the Camino to provide for me.  I couldn't dictate what form the support would come in.  One never knows.  What I did know then, and know even more deeply now after another month on the Camino, is that the Camino always provides what you need, not what you want.

Something felt right from the very beginning about this opportunity, yet to hedge my diving in, I knew I needed to experience the products.  Fortunately, the flagship product of Life Force International, the company with whom Kate was partnering, also comes in a little packets, so I took 45 or so little packets of Body Balance with me to drink while I was walking the Camino.  They weighed next to nothing (very important to a pilgrim!) and they were so easy.  Every afternoon, when I had been walking for 4 or 5 hours, I poured a packet of Body Balance into my water bottle and as I drank it, I would ask the Camino, "Is this business opportunity with Kate and Life Force in my highest good?  Am I to do this business?  And if so, at what level?"

Every day this was my afternoon ritual and request, and every day I felt a quiet, warm yes.  I really liked the product and how it made me feel.  Everyday I felt stronger and more nourished, and while I couldn't distinguish that feeling from what I was receiving directly from walking on the Camino, I knew that something in my body was being deeply nourished.  I never saw or felt loud, bright neon billboards proclaiming that "YES, DO THE BUSINESS!"  and truthfully, thank goodness.  I am sure that this kind of response from the Camino would have raised every resistant hair on my body!  Instead, it was a gentle and warm feeling that stayed with me and grew with each day that I walked.

When I came home from the Camino, one of the first calls I made was to Kate.  Even in the midst of re-entry, I knew that I wanted to do this.  I saw that in building a business that provides residual income, I could fulfill my dreams to walk the Camino every year , I could lead groups of women to walk the Camino and not have it be about the money and be the make or break about whether or not I got to go, I could travel, I could pay off debt, I could contribute to my childrens' college educations, and I could live in England part time.  I could make my dreams real, and not have to depend on anyone else to make them happen.  I could become 100% responsible for living and manifesting my dreams to the fullest, and in doing so, I could provide others with the same opportunity for making their dreams real as well.

Also, I loved the products and the company and knew that if I was to do this, this was the company that I wanted to partner with.  I had several crucial must have's to ever consider network marketing again.

1. I had to love the products, it had to be a simple, straightforward product line that could appeal to anyone.
2. I had to respect the founders of the company and their leadership style.  No "messiah" worship culture.
3. The company needed to be solid financially, founded on a product that provided great results and grew into network marketing, rather than a company that wanted to be a network marketing company that then found a product to sell.
4. I wanted to love my upline, and not be put under anyone else.
5. I wanted a generous and supportive payout plan where I could start making money right away.
6. I did not want any hidden, upfront investment costs.  I wanted straightforward and above board.

I got all of this with Life Force and Kate.

Thank you, Camino.

I have now been actively doing the business since the beginning of the new year, and getting my feet wet in December.  I achieved the first level of accomplishment in January, and with bonuses, I may receive a check for over $500.  I have quite a few friends who are using the product and experiencing great results.  I am excited.  

I get the vision of what a network marketing business can provide.  To not only imagine that I can walk the Camino annually and make the pilgrimage from Santiago to Rosslyn one stage at a time, but to also have the means to financially support my dreams, is a dream come true in and of itself.

I have big dreams.  Big dreams require me to be willing to take courageous action and to be open to more than what I know to be true or possible.  I get to - have to - be open to what the Camino provides.  I know that the Camino wants me to walk it.  The Celtic Camino needs me to walk it, and to heal the split and create heaven on earth.  This is my contribution, my soul's purpose.  And so, I get to receive the support and guidance to fulfill my soul's journey.  My purpose happens to be a journey, a sacred pilgrim of initiation that requires that I am in the world and integrating the lessons of initiation in my life.  I am a modern mystic, a modern pilgrim, who receives the challenges, lessons, initiations, and support from the Camino that are also reflected and experienced in my life.  As on the Camino, so in life.  As above, so below.  As in Heaven, so upon Earth.  I walk the Camino, and then return to my life, my world, and to society.  There is no split between the Camino and my life.  I live and walk them both, fully engaged. 

And so it is that I have become a network marketer with Life Force and my dear sister, Kate. Together, we are co-creating Women Owning Wealth (WOW), a powerful new culture within the network marketing world, where women get to re-claim this powerful feminine way of doing business.  Within a circle, we create and manifest out of relationship, a community of women co-creating abundant health and wealth for themselves and the planet.

Thank you, Camino.

Suseya!

Walking in the cold wind this morning but it felt so good! Using my walking sticks brought me right back to the Camino.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry