Purpose: A Butterfly in the Sky

Photo by:Gary Bendig

Two years ago, I walked into Mom’s Organic Grocery store singing the anthem to Reading Rainbow much to my son’s chagrin, and as I pulled out my shopping cart there was a man of my opposite. Meaning, I am small. He is tall. I am thin; he was decidedly muscular. I am pale; he was dark. But we were both older. So I took a chance and said, “Do you remember Reading Rainbow?”

He looked at me, then my son, cleared his throat and started: “Butterfly in the skyyyyy——”

I joined in and we both turned to my befuddled son and sang: “I can fly twice as high, take a look it’s in a book, a Reading Rainbow!”

We laughed. He looked at me, and if I were to interpret the moment, we saw how very much we have in common, and how easily including children in a moment reminds us how similar we are.

So much can happen from connection. Human beings are wired to create and connect.

Computers and algorithms are created to compartmentalize and the dissonance is spilling over so wildly we are being sold an idea that would leave us forgetting who we are.

Unless, unless you are in room with other humans on purpose.

Recently I attended the Women’s Public Leadership Network Summit in Philadelphia. Being in a room with purposeful leaders, changes connections and conversations. Instead of competition, I was talking cooperative education solutions over the coffee and French toast with a funder in Texas.

When she asked me what I was focusing on, I reached for a few more strawberries and mentioned, “we need long form education to give a runway to critical thinking instead of episodic data consumption.”

She stopped in the buffet line and looked at me: “Everyone knows this and no one is saying it.”

I am saying it.

I have been speaking on it in rooms of parents and educators on the need to scaffold critical thinking before curbing a mind toward Claude or building synapses to feed an algorithm.

I am telling local businesses that those who double down on humanity, will be light years ahead of those who shackle themselves to predicative data without a pulse. Parents, voters and now even representatives are having very different conversations on education.

This is where Reading Rainbow comes in: Literacy creates empowered children.

Empowered children have confidence to pursue purpose. Purpose is the shelter of humanity. We are wired to create and we flourish in healthy community. We deflate when we are out of ourselves and become destructive when we are isolated.

The answers are not that baffling; they do require a return to investing in humanity instead of a p & l line.

It will also, I imagine, be helpful to look at what is similar to us, like the man in the grocery store, and acknowledge that loved children who feel a place in a community will build a world we will age in. Yes, I said it. It’s easy to tear down and be selfish in your prime if you feel invincible and protected, but not so much when you are at the hands of another, sitting with what was once former strength is now in a place of surrender.

When we foster purpose in our children, we are reminded of the power of purpose in ourselves.

It doesn’t mean the same dream for everyone, yet it does offer a possibility for us all to be living with the freedom of a butterfly in the sky — emergent and soaring.

Sit & Write : Do you have a book a in you

by Claudine Wolk, posted on her substack

It Is Time... For You to Sit & Write Your Book

In this episode of Get Your Book Seen & Sold, Kate Brenton joins me to present an opportunity for authors and aspiring authors. Kate Brenton, author and inspired teacher has created the Sit & Write Master Class that starts October 1 (intake interviews in Sept). Kate and I explain the Master Class: who it is designed for, how it works, and why combining our unique skills will make the difference between being an aspiring writer or a published author.

If you have no interest in a class at this time, keep listening. Kate and I tell our publishing stories and how working together made a huge difference in successful publishing!

What is the Sit & Write Master Class?

It is a class "container" that runs from Oct to Jan. With commitment to the program, the aspiring writer could come away with a first draft of a book plus the marketing knowledge to give it the best chance to be seen & sold.

How does it work?

Community calls, video lessons, and one-on-one calls combined with the uniqueinsight of Kate (spiritual) and me (analytical) will provide both pieces of what is needed for your book to get written and seen. Kate provides the "tapping into the creative" side and I provide the book marketing / publishing industry side (like I do right here on my Substack!) to give aspiring authors what they need at the right time to achieve their publication goals.

How to get started?

Your process starts with an intake call with Kate Brenton to make sure of a good fit. The call is free. Once the connection is made, the Sit & Write Master Class begins Oct 1. The information to start with the intake call and pricing can be found on Kate's Site. You can also contact Kate directly with any questions at Kate@katebrenton.com.

Why Kate & I?

We are both published authors/teachers/mentors and we have been there and done it successfully. We both passionately desire to help aspiring authors to get their message/story out in the world and to give their book the best possible chance to be seen and sold.

I am so excited for this class, Substack readers/listeners! By joining Kate, my long-time goal of helping authors get their message out and their books seen & sold is fulfilled. For four years now I have interviewed experts who have wished to publish a book or they publish quickly (and not so successfully) simply because they didn't know the book marketing side of being a published author. We change that state of affairs with this class!

Sign up to Sit and Write Master Class before 9/15/22 and use the promo code YES for an early bird discount!

I totally get it.

"I totally get it." 

- one of my favorite things to hear

I've recently (again, like all of us) had to let go of something to make room for some things; things that I don't exactly know, but I know they are coming.

Poetic, but difficult in the day to day. 

Or rather, excruciating with out faith. 

Like you, it's not my first rodeo so we know the feeling when we are in alignment and when we are out. I feel very clear that I am in alignment, because I have been out. 

I once had a coach tell me that in my core-structure I am motivated by connection and meaning. "You actually are here to help people," she told me. 

"Yup," I said, that I knew.

So with all the letting go in a year of collective letting go, I thought to myself, "What else do I have to lose?"

Answer: Nothing

"What if I just went on resonance?" I asked myself

Answer: You've got nothing left to lose...

[Me sitting quietly]

Answer: So, yes.

From that choice, I have had a slew of phenomenal recent conversations, connections and further a-ha's. Just from saying yes, to something (there's that word again) that I have indeed already said yes to, but now at a deeper level from a depth of unknown versus the light of assuredness.

I noticed that when I was connecting on that impetus, when I would begin to explain why I was reaching out to someone or explaining that I had no agenda but resonance in...[insert topic] I heard this in response:

"I totally get it. I know what you mean."

Again and again and again, 

It was so easy that the mere feeling of clarity lit up the next steps.  The space of what had been taken left me with a choice: Change or Repeat.

I choose change. I choose to move from a knowing and make it grow to a resonance—just like you have done time and time again.

We all know this comes in seasons and cycles. We can anchor it in more each time around the spiral, and unabashedly celebrate it when it comes.

So, if you are in it: Yay.

If you aren't: keep going. Your turn is coming.

If you need a little Refresh, a place to talk it out and get clear on a path, project, or journey.  Let's chat. 

More soon,

Kate

More talk on Alignment here.

Pre-order the e-book of Rebirth here.

(turns out this is really helpful for the book to get where it needs to go)

Thank you for your support! 

"You start dying slowly

If you do not change your life

When you are not satisfied with your job,

or with your love

If you do not wish what is safe for the uncertain,

If you do not go after a dream,

If you do not allow yourself,

at least once in your lifetime,

To run away from sensible advice..."

- Martha Medeiros

I hope your summer has been full with running away from the sensible and into the creative. I have. I sighed up for a watercolor (so excited) class that starts soon. I am reading a great story-teller author, Maggie O'Farrell thanks to a friend's referral, and I am taking a long hard look at what needs to be consolidated and potentized to reach the goals I am setting.

I have had a few similar conversations with a a few female friends, all leaders in their own right, about what we want...truly, clearly and plainly. 

It's interesting to watch the hedging and the languaging we all are moving through, and by all, I mean all, self included.

You know what that tells me? That tells me a big change is coming. When I have the same conversation intersections over multiple relationships, that means a fulcrum is forming. I bet you are feeling it too even if you cannot name it.

What are you pruning for a ripe harvest? And what will you be clearing the fields for for next year's harvest?

The largest help I can be in this co-creative process is to get out of the way, clear the system's habituated thoughts and think a. lot. bigger. 

I might even read Mederios's poem every Sunday night until I am certain that the doubt has been swept far enough away that—and I love this line—The Muse can walk across the threshold without sullying her gown. (Steven Pressfield, not in quotes because I am not going to look for the page citation, but you can).

Make way because change is here, it's gonna grow you. The only choice is your availability.

We have Sit & Write this upcoming Wednesday, 11 - 12pmEST  It's about boundaries and growth, necessary structures for radical change. Register in the link below. If you can’t make it, or missed the August one, we are holding them the first Wednesday of every month through December 2022.

More soon,

Kate

Some things never change

Some things never change.

Like how many times I've walked a dog to this very spot and cast the same prayers into the water. Thankfully, the Wisaahickon loved me too much to answer them all.

That wisdom comes with the learning repetition gives, some call it aging.

Talking with a deeply creative friend, who will be on Season 6, (subscribe) he reminded me that Our Path, some call it entrepreneurship, or non-traditional -- IS the traditional path.

Humans traditionally worked on the seson's cycles, powering to Harvest and Resting for the next Season.

I realize my entire life has run on the Educational Cycle of time. 46 years! Even when I was in corporate I still spiraled with the summer of play and the anchoring into the new in September.

Every astrologer (there have been 5) that looked at my chart said the same: Oh, you have the Teacher Archetype. That's what you're here to do.

So why would that change? Look at where it brought me? Here.

Only the form evolves as I align closer with the Essence.

Change is afoot (literally and figuratively) and I think for those in this circle that this change is calling on our Creativity, which is really our Divinity ---pulling Form from the Cosmos, the womb of possibility, saying I am here and this is the Life I created.

Have a beautiful day.

Kate

Did you know I have a podcast?

Check out the latest pre-season episode:

Shine

originally sent in newsletter August 2018

I am not known in my circle for my green thumb.

Although I love and need the nourishment of deep Nature, I am smack in the heart of the concrete jungle of Philadelphia, learning to be grateful for the small stretch of plantable dirt that we have in our backyard. Along with herb and medicinal plants, I bought my first sunflower seeds this summer, wanting to bring some color into my sonʻs world.

They popped through the dirt pretty quickly - the sunflowers; I thought. I had the same excitement and wonder from childhood, witnessing the sprout popping through: “It works!” Nature doesnʻt cease to amaze, even while we are too busy to see.

We went to visit family at the beach for a week, during which there was a huge windstorm back in Philadelphia. Of the three previously impressive stalks, one had broken, and one was bending. In my rash disappointment, I clipped the bending one off, and regretted it immediately. Only one remained.

I ran into the house – yes, ran – and started to explain to Corey (my partner) that there was a sunflower emergency and that I couldnʻt grow anything, and, and, and...

He listened and quietly slipped away. He returned with a stake, tape and a broom handle.

“A broom handle?”

“Yes, a broom, handle."

“A broom handle?” I repeated.

“Listen, if that sunflower goes down – you will go down too, and that canʻt happen.”

I was surprised by his words, mostly because he was right. I had been exceptionally invested in the sunflower, checking Her daily, watering Her, talking about Her, peeking in on Her at night.

Honestly, I figured it would fail. I think that is why I broke that stalk off.

After the broom handle operation, all I could do was wait.

A less windy rain storm came. Where the wind had broken Her one stalk, She now had two flowerheads sprouting. The broom-handle-fortified stalk now had a tightly fisted, fractaled head full of promise and vibrancy.

I was mesmerized, and waited now with hopeful anticipation. I talked to Her, sharing our expectation for and with Her.
​
On a Sunday morning, She did it.
She opened.

She was the most radiant sunflower I had ever seen.
I told Her so. I marveled at her determination, her allowance of her genetic and divine brilliance.

We continued to water Her and talk to Her. Aaron and I inspected her petals and watched as She would turn ever so slightly to better face the sun.

One day, on her center sat a honeybee. In the midst of the city, in a small row of dirt, surrounded by concrete, weathering a storm that took all others down, She fed another.

"Follow diligently the Way in your own heart, but make no display of it to the world. Keep behind, and you shall be put in front; keep out, and you shall be kept in. (S)He that humbles himself shall be preserved entire. (S)He that bends shall be made straight. (S)He that is empty shall be filled. (S)He that is worn out shall be renewed." –Lao-Tzu

I was awestruck.
She looked right at me and shared one word: Shine.

If She could do it, I thought, so can I.
And so can you.


Shine On friend.
Itʻs what you are here for.
Kate