leilaland

Writing Rites

March 6, 2007

I meet periodically with my friend Barbara Ann O'Leary to write. We do this in person and online. Today, since we are a few thousand miles apart, physically, we are writing together online.

I like calling our meeting times Writing Rites, as it feels empowering to claim my right as a writer, my place as a writer, my identity as a writer, and to ritualize and sacredize (as a writer I take liberty to invent words) writing through rites!

Today when I sit down to write I think of the beauty in the world that I have witnessed.

I mean simple, real beauties, like roses in bloom, sunsets, crashing waves, deep laughter, a flame on a candle, and so so so much more.

I think if I allow myself to slow down and just breathe and notice how that feels, the slow and nourishing in and out, that makes me feel so calm and appreciative of what I have in my life.

I like to feel my feet on the ground, my head reaching for the sky, my eyes relaxed and happy.

Right now, as I stare out the dining room window to the north, I see blue sky peeking through the trees that surround the border of the property. Daffodil and rhododendron are beginning to bloom. Bluish purple morning glories creep their way across the garden floor in the dappled shade and sun of the morning.

It’s only March 6^th but it feels like late April. It’s 64 degrees today, sunny, a perfect experience to behold for its beauty and serenity.

Beauty and serenity, things I crave and revere and need.

As I sit here and let my eyes go out of focus and just meditatively stare out the picture window onto the garden I feel a much needed calm sweep over me.

Everything’s okay.

This is the base, the foundation, the arena in which upon with from which I can continue to grow and actualize myself.

This peace and security, this beauty and calm provide me the environment I need to focus on my writing… writing for life.

Which brings me to....

Leila’s 2007 Manifesto

(public declaration of intentions, opinions, objectives, or motives)

This year I aim to:

1. Sell / Option my eco-adventure screenplay, Descendants©

a. Send a copy to Sharon Madden

b. Send a copy to Leo DiCaprio (or his agent)

c. Send a copy to Angelina Jolie (or her agent)

2. Get a literary agent and/or publisher for my memoir, Hope©

3. Engage in community with green activities, energy conservation, and eco-consciousness.

a. Research and learn about getting off the grid

b. Investing in solar, wind, and tidal energy

c. Develop or involve myself with a green power company

4. Marry Justin Hayes on July 22^nd, 2007 on the Washington Coast

a. Make Invitation list

b. Send out invitations

c. Choose and Reserve location for wedding and reception

d. Select a Minister

e. Create vows

f. Arrange travel and accommodations for guests

g. Get wedding dress

5. Travel to Costa Rica with Justin

a. Research property investment opportunities

b. Volunteer at Corcovado National Park

c. Visit Earth University

d. Kayak on the southwestern coast

6. Hold Writing For Life© workshops

a. Develop my Writing For Life© book

b. Advertise in Bellevue Paper and on Craigslist Bellevue to hold Writing for Life Workshops at my house

7. Host a Writing Workshop/Retreat for Barbara Ann O’Leary’s Evoking Authenticity Tour

a. Arrange/reserve location – Washington Coast beach house

b. Arrange travel

c. Stock food at beach house

8. Take Yoga, Pilates, Tai Chi, and Belly Dance classes – take care of my physical body by getting in shape

9. Invest in property on the Washington Coast near the Olympic Rainforest

a. Travel to the Olympic Rainforest

b. Design a house that will be made of all natural and recycled materials, that is energy efficient and self sustaining (off the grid), powered by one or all of the following: hydro, geo-thermal, solar, and aero energy.

10. Get my Munay Ki Creator Rite

a. Meet with Barbara Ann O’Leary to do this, as I want her to be the one to grant it to me first.

11. Find a good spiritual community near my house (church, prayer group, sacred fire meetings, munay ki practices, etc…)

12. Nurture my writing, exercising my writing rights, engaging my writing rites, and writing.

a. Screenplay about Nietzsche – Cleaning Nietzsche’s House©

b. Love, Thanatos© screenplay

My list will probably grow and evolve, but right now, I feel very good and aligned with the things listed above.

Barbara Ann O'Leary helped encourage me to come up with a list of intentions for 2007 through her online community, Evoking Authenticity. She is a powerful shaman-healer-sage full of wisdom wit and potency. I invite you to meet Barbara!

I also invite you to make your list of intentions, your manifesto, for 2007. Make them grand, outrageous, simple, easy, seemingly unobtainable, obnoxious, graceful, ridiculous, hopeful, realistic, or anything and nothing at all! But make them! Do it do it! Thought creates reality.

To see more about this idea, watch The Secret.

On my path and wishing you the best,

Leila