So my ongoing job is to pique your curiosity with a playful game, get everyone rolling in the flow with some good music and drop you off at your journal or canvas. And somewhere in that slipstream, your own smartparts start to blurt out just that thing that you have been needing to see. And aaaaaaaaah. Finally seeing it? And not only seeing it but claiming it in the marks of your art? That will make all the difference in how you navigate tomorrow and the next day and the next.

If there was one word that could be my rally cry, I would choose 🗣️ 💥INTUITION💥.

Why intuition? Intuition is one of those concepts that everyone nods at and mmmhmmms about, but when you actually start to follow your own intuition, I mean really follow it, you're down the rabbit hole of the imaginal. Symbol, Poetry, Metaphor, Dream, Glyphs. Those are the language of personal magic. Those are the language of soul and self.

So, if that person at the grocery store wants to know what I do, I can casually say I teach art classes online. But between you an me, what I really teach is connection with the thrum of your own wild magic. I teach it in paint, I teach it in scribbled watercolor pencil and I especially teach it with collage - which is the most free range playful version of divination I've found...

You still with me? Awesome.

Hmmm. what else would be fun for you to know about me?

I was born and raised, briefly left then returned, AND plan to live out the rest of my days in Northern California. I figure that means that I am fully entitled by birthright to all the paradigm challenging weirdy woo woo that I can lay my hands on. And I definitely have laid my hands on a full cabinet of curiosities!

I like to say that I missed getting the travel gene because while so many folks are called to jet-set the world, my stamp laden passport is all internal travels. If we were sitting over a cup of tea we could compare all our inner spelunking tours. But I'm guessing that even though it would be fun, that conversation would quickly turn towards the future, right? Because the true siren song is the things that we are seeking now. And so if we were sitting over a cup of tea we would both naturally turn towards the stories currently in play. The synchronicities that are showing up, the curious thing we've been drawn to recently, the thing our best friend just happened to mention and that we then  saw in an article and overheard in the grocery store. The way that everything seems to be conspiring to move us towards a specific unexplored terrain. And indeed *that feeling* that the story is in motion, that it is carrying us whether we realize it or not, and that we need only pay attention is at the core of who I am. And of course also at the core of what I offer. Storywalking is all about calling up a tale and letting it intertwine with the life in motion so that we can be carried towards our horizon line.

If you genuinely don't already believe that life is alive and conspiring, we likely won't have allll that much to chat about. I mean, we can talk about our pets. I've got a galoot of a 95 pound love dog and a bell wearing assassin of a cat. We could talk about kids. Hazel is 10 and a wild muse artist of her own so we could laugh and sigh over kid or grand pictures. Hmmm I also love my daily walk in the Redwood forest so we could maybe talk about that and if you're into banana slugs or mushrooms we probably won't have much to say about either of them but we can just grin happily at each other thinking about them. I love to cook so we could swap some recipes (like my go to super easy perfect pork tenderloin or my favorite chicken schwarma recipe with naan that you let rise in the instapot.) I'm down to exchange good poetry. I haven't seen a movie or watched a tv show in the last decade but I could smile and nod encouragingly.  I did happen to watch a really cool documentary on the gut biome. So we could talk about that and I'd be stoked!

On the other hand if you love to talk symbols and rhymes, if you love etymologies and curious bits (like the old use of the Russian pech' oven was not just for baking but also for healing and YES! I KNOW!  children were wrapped in herbs and put in the oven to help break illness. Which just tells you that Baba Yaga needs a new pr team). You know if you like bits like that.  And if you love talking about dreams or art or poetry or all of the above. If you are willing to at least lift the lid on the some of the tender bits and lift your hand towards what you quietly want, then I'll pour us another cup of tea and pull out my homemade oatmeal pecan cranberry chocolate chip cookies because I'm super duper glad to make your acquaintance and I hope we can be friends forever more.

I hope you'll find a way to say hello. Join my email list. Find me on Substack. And join the merry band for the next Storywalking Adventure.