Corinne Anderson’s Story

I’ve loved your Yearbook from the time you first mentioned that you were hatching this wonderful idea.  Once I actually had it in my hands in March I was excited beyond measure.  I printed out extra pages and taped them together so I could ‘practice’ those first weeks in March prior to the launching of Spring.  All the love and attention to detail you and your sisters folded in, made a wonderful idea even more fabulous.

At the end of June in 2017 I decided to sell my beautiful house in the desert foothills of Tucson and move to Florida to be located closer to my daughter and her two Littles… As you know from your renovation process there are endless details that go into a huge event like this…. Much of it is a process of self discovery (along with daily tasks that discovery leads to)…. By the time I had the Spring Yearbook in my hands, the house had been prepared, staged and was on the market in ernest…. Multiple showings almost everyday… The yearbook and my colored pens accompanied the dogs and me to locations for waiting ….. The whole journey of marketing the house, negotiating a final price, all the inspections and then the packing up and prepping to move myself, my stuff and my two dogs and two cats across country (to an unknown life ahead)…. It is all in the pages of the Yearbook…  It is remarkable how flipping through the pages allows me to see the energies at work in the whole unfolding.  Somehow looking back, those times of fear and anxiety are smoothed over with the perspective of time and distance, the ‘what ifs..’ are lessened to mere ripples on the surface of things….  Very powerfully, my meditations, images of the unfolding inner guidance, noticing where the support and guidance of the Universe flowed through and showed up in unexpected moments, events and places… Continue to speak with clarity and impact.  So the Yearbook continues to support the journey.

I made sure to get my order for Summer Yearbook in right away… So much was going on in preparation for the move (the movers arrived with the solstice!)… I wanted to be sure I had Summer in hand for the next chapters unfolding.  I was shocked when it arrived… Still with lovely enclosures and care lavished on it… But what was this plain, nondescript white gathering of pages I held in my hand???… It bore no resemblance to the vibrant document that was my companion all through the busy Spring.  Had my Spring Yearbook ever been this plain, this vacant?  Was it actually my journey through days, ideas, plans, projects that had transformed the white book???

Now, I’m preparing for August and looking back over the pages of the Yearbook that have accompanied my journey here… It is remarkable… Once again the Yearbook swirls and eddies with the flow of the journey to a new place, with the time of being receptive and quiet, with the soft magic of arising possibilities, of finding my way in a new place, a new climate, a new community…. I can see the crumb trail forming in those July pages…  The move has also been a time of being distilled to essences and either having a break from so much that had formed the patterns that I recognized as daily life or simply letting things go.  The Yearbook is so much more than a document of daily happenings, it has come to be a place that my unfolding adventure is reflected back to me, discovered in a whole new way and the journey forward is reassuringly steady … With each white page that awaits the next morning.

I know that the Yearbook is transformed in the hands of every person who has one.. Each a unique expression of that lens of life shining though to illuminate a journey.  I wanted to thank you again (and your sisters… I know how much they support the yearbook as well) for this availability of observing the miraculous unfolding in each of our lives.   I wanted to be sure you had more feedback on how your ‘wonderful idea’ has unfolded out in the world.

Amy Christaldi’s Story

Insight from yesterday’s Studio Yearbook: No one else is going to do the work that is in MY heart. Everything else – dishes, bills, even my job can wait. It’s really that important!

I had this insight when I first woke up and was trying to decide how I would use my morning before a planned outing with my sister and her husband. My diligent self was telling me that I needed to take care of the bills and budgeting or do various chores around the house. But I really wanted to start working on some ideas I have for a sign I want to create for my studio. All of a sudden I had the thought that if I wasn’t here all of those other things – the bills, the house cleaning, would get done without me. But no one would create that sign for my studio. If I don’t do it, it will not happen. That’s when I realized that doing my creative work – no matter how silly it might seem to others – is really important. It’s my contribution to the world. No one will remember how many times I did the dishes or balanced the checkbook, but they may remember the works of art I created or the words I wrote. That’s worth a lot!

So I spent my morning making thumbnail sketches and a rough sketch of what I want my sign to look like and had a blast. So glad I had a place to record this insight so I will remember it from now on. There is a time and place for chores and getting things done and it will all get done eventually. But my creativity is important to and feeds me in a way that nothing else can.

Kate Chadbourne’s Story

Sundeep Grewal’s Story

Laura Allen’s Story

Cathy Murrant’s Story

Rosie Grey’s Story

Misty Olsen’s Story

Julie Kovac’s Story

Michaela Harkins’ Story

Dara Dines’ Story

Sandi James’ Story

Dianne Dixon’s Story

Esther Jansen’s Story

I’m having so much fun writing, drawing, colouring, painting, glueing (is that a word?) with my Studio Yearbook! There are also days I just write, think, write, feel, write, notice, write, fight with life, write, become aware, write etc, etc. … The Studio Yearbook is such a great way to help me see, to be mindful more often, to be ME more often and to make choices that suit me, nurture me, feed me.