Creative Living with Jamie with guest Meghan Genge

This week’s podcast is 21:31 long

This week's guest: Meghan Genge, writer

Her new website: Creating Wings
Her personal blog: More to Me
She is a partner in: Randomly Challenged, a website that is dedicated to being an antidote to all of the online social networking sites that keep you online. Its aim is to dare you to do something different.

Meghan Genge is a Canadian writer who lives and works in the UK. As part of her journey, she has launched a website called Creating Wings. With this site she hopes to 'become the change that she wants to see in the world' by inspiring people to believe in who they really are and to question the rules that they have imposed on themselves. She believes that we need to stop pretending that we are ordinary and remember that we are truly capable of anything.

Show Notes

Meg refers to Morning Pages, which is a daily practice of writing 3 pages of long-hand stream-of-consciousness writing recommendedby Julia Cameron in The Artist's Way

I mentioned my Full Moon Dreamboard Circle.

By the way...

If you're enjoying these interviews, you might like Your Creative Spark. 12 wildly creative women share their stories and strategies for facing creative challenges and releasing your inner artist! This collection features artist & coach Jennifer Lee, domestic diva Suzie Ridler, pet portrait artist Jessie Marianiello, mixed media artist & creativity guide Leah Piken Kolidas, artist & writer Christine Mason Miller, artist & coach Andrea Scher, artist Melanie McMullin, creative goddess Leonie Allan, artist & activist Jen Lemen, photographer & poet Darlene J Kreutzer, writer & coach Sunny Schlenger and writer & artist Laini Taylor. To find out more or to order, click here.

For more episodes of the Creative Living with Jamie podcast, subscribe in iTunes or visit creativelivingwithjamie.ca.

Anything is Possible by Meghan Genge

“Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me... Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.” - Shel Silverstein


July's topic is getting unstuck?!

Hilarious.

Because that is just what I have been:

Stuck.

And it has only been in the last few weeks that I have begun to see the reason and the light.

Once Upon a Time, a lot of years ago, I was feeling lost and felt inspired to start a blog. It went along really well for a few years. Along the way it helped me to make some wonderful friends and I even think it helped me begin to find my voice.

Fast forward a few years and I felt like my little blog wasn't big enough for me, so I created a new blog. I called it Creating Wings, because that was what I wanted to do the most, and for a few years it was big enough for me. I made some more friends, wrote one or two posts I was really proud of, and puttered along. Then, once again, inspiration struck and my medium-sized blog wasn't big enough for me anymore.

So about a year ago, I started another blog.

Are you seeing the pattern?

Every time I started a new blog (or a new book, a new job, a new anything) I have gone in with a vision of what I wanted from it. I have always thought I knew best. The initial spark of inspiration was always enough to make me commit myself 100% to that vision.

Inevitably: stuck.

A few weeks ago my husband and I were doing a post-mortem on a big dream that we had that didn't work. It was during that discussion that I had a lightbulb - hallelujah - slap my head with clarity -moment.

I can't dream big enough for myself.

Or maybe that should read:

Nobody can dream big enough for themselves.

I got stuck when I bumped up against the walls I myself had constructed. Stuck happened when I tried to force myself to keep fitting into The Plan or The Vision.

Stuck happened when I forced myself to keep thinking small.

You can't possibly know how much you are capable of. You can't possibly see what is next for you, let alone what is next, next, next, NEXT for you. What you CAN do, however, is remember that every time you grow even a little bit, your potential grows with you.

Me? I am taking off the shackles of a concrete vision and changing my site - AGAIN! This time with lots of room to write, breathe, think or share whatever comes up.

You? Stuck? Where are you bumping up against walls that you yourself have made? How can you widen your vision?

How can you get out of your own way?

Meghan is a writer, a storyteller, and a finder of magic.

I Know Who I Am by Meghan Genge

"Unstiffen your supple body. Unchatter your quiet mind. Unfreeze your fiery heart." - Celeste West

 

I have known it all along.

I've known it since my fingers tingled reading The Mists of Avalon for the first time. But then I put the book away, afraid of where there was room for goddesses and magic in my good Christian life.

I've known it since I read my first SARK book, tucked up in bed and breathing differently for the first time. But then I put the book on my bookshelf and decided I was not an artist after all.

I have known it since my friend Carla showed me her tattoo of a woman giving birth and something about the symbol stuck with me so deeply that I can draw that image to this day. But then I became afraid of how true she was to herself, myself by comparison small and afraid.

I have known it since I picked up a big black book and read about Women Who Run with the Wolves. My soul responded and I heard the roar for the first time that would echo through my days forever after. But then I experienced profound grief that made me switch off and question myself and disconnect from most people for a long, long time.

I have known it, but definitions and stereotypes made me question everything: Woman? Witch? God? Goddess? Sacred? Feminine? Heroine? Queen? Faery? Dark? Light? Magic? Spirituality? Religion? How could I - a 'good girl' - find my path amongst those trees?

I have been writing and living and reading around and around it for a long time now. Every time I got close to touching it, my fingers longingly toying with my pen, knowing that I was capable of saying more, I would retreat to the haven of familiarity and safety.

But it hasn't given up on me, and now, as I get closer and closer to the centre, it has begun to follow me around. Images like the one on this door knocker, words tumbling towards me from pages and blogs and meetings with remarkable people all seem to be pointing to the same place.

Sacred. Feminine. Divine. Beautiful.

Home.

Which brings me to my question for you:

What have you known all along?

Meghan is a writer, a storyteller, and a finder of magic.

The Power of I Am by Meghan Genge

“I am neither especially clever nor especially gifted. I am only very, very curious.” - Albert Einstein

   

I hear myself say two words a lot. I hear them attached to words like fat, crazy, Canadian and deaf. I hear myself parroting them with an air of total finality as if the decision has been made. They must be true because I preface those things with "I am."

But who exactly am I? When I try to make a list I hear a little voice saying, "No, I'm not," about things that are both good and bad. There are lots of things that I am sometimes, a few things that I would like to change and lots of things that I wish I was but can't claim as truth yet.

When I find a new blog or a new site and see that they have a huge, juicy profile I always read it with equal doses of envy and incredulity. Are they really all of those things? How miraculous that they can put it down in black and white and claim a long list of who they are. A quick look at Twitter profiles finds people who are: photographers, adventure-seekers, CEOs, dreamers, tree huggers, vegetarians, activists, coaches, artists, or yoginis. If you look harder, you can also find leprechauns and faeries, MBAs, authors, designers and comedians. I'm in awe of those who can so easily claim who they are. What if they find that they are not? What if they suddenly realize that they are something else?

By saying, "I am," we claim ourselves. Like Baby in Dirty Dancing we claim our dance space. "I am" sends a ripple of power out into the world and creates a little bit more of our reality. Care and clarity is certainly required: we wouldn't want a muddled reality!

Lately I have been stepping out to claim a little bit of dance space for myself. No more passive use of those most powerful of words allowed. When I say "I am" from now on I am going to mean it.

Who am I? Watch this space.

xo

Meghan is a writer, a storyteller, and a finder of magic.

Big Girl Pants by Meghan Genge

"In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility." - Eleanor Roosevelt

Be gentle with yourself, they have said.  

Remember you are a fragile soul, I have read.

Even the kindest words can be poison.

Because I have only listened to those words when fear or grief has caused me pain and I was seeking safety.

And instead of making me healthier, they caused a kind of paralysis.

Because sometimes we need to be gentle with ourselves, and sometimes we need permission to play small.

But now that we are grown-up, most times we need know that we are strong and capable and that we have what it takes to take the next step.

Most times the best course of action is not to stay fragile.

Most times the best course of action is to put on our big girl pants or our invisible crown and prove to ourselves that we have got this.

It's our internal Supernanny that we need, not our fairy godmother.

Take the chance. Make the leap. Sit on the naughty step. Get off your ass. Clean your house. Eat your greens. Play bigger. Get dressed. Make the call. Move your body. Do the math. Book the ticket. Take responsibility.

You've got this.

xo

Born in Canada, I currently live in England with my husband. Besides stories and magic, I believe in connection, nourishment and the power of a good BIC® medium black pen. I am drawn to the essence – of a person, a thing, a feeling – and I know that it is where the real truth lies. My dream is to own a porch and a dock – and hopefully the house that goes with them - and to do my bit to help remind you that you are more powerful than you can possibly imagine. I can be found at my new blog: Words and Wordlessness, and occasionally on Twitter.

Safe? by Meghan Genge

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us." - Marianne Williamson

I have this quote taped above my desk. I have written it into many journals and books. I have read it to myself dozens of times over the years. In some ways I really hate it.

I hate it because it is true. I hate it because it is the quote that I have been looking for - the one that answers my eternal questions - and the one that I most fear.

It is my light, you see, that I am the most afraid of.  It is easy to write about darkness. It is easy to stand beside everyone else and agree with all of their complaints and their fears. It is so easy to be small.

You'd think that wouldn't be the case.  You'd think that small and sad would be the hardest thing.  The self-help industry is worth bajillions, not because they have the answers, but because we are so comfortable with our darkness.  We know it. We don't have to work at it. We can't fail at it.

It is easier to be afraid.  Afraid, strangely, is safe.

Lately, however, I have felt a strange pull.  A new fear has taken root.  This fear - of staying stuck in the darkness forever - has begun to heave and snort and pull at the reins.  And luckily, it has begun to feel just a little bit scarier than my fear of the light.

Safety is relative. Which is safer?  Being brave or never sharing the gifts you were sent here to give?

I thought so.

Megg is a writer, a seeker, and a finder of magic. Her new website is coming soon!

Flirting with Completion by Meghan Genge

"If we wish a genuine healing of our hearts - not just fixing things, not just bandaging the broken aorta of the spirit - we must question the ego's most fundamental assumptions. For only when we reject the ego's account of who we are, can we begin to discover who we really are." - Marianne Williamson, The Gift of Change

 

You have to understand how hilarious it is for me to write about completion. Sitting in my office, I can see at least 15 books that I have started and not finished. I have at least three notebooks on the go, and I am the author of not one but seven uncompleted blog posts. I work to the wire, resisting deadlines and schedules like they are poison.

Completion and I are not friends. In fact, I would go as far as to say that completion has been one of my fiercest enemies.

At least that is the story I have been telling myself.

Completion means done. It means not able to tweak anymore. It means the process is finished and I should have Learned Something. Completion implies a finality, an ending. Completion means that someone else now has control over my creation or work. Completion means submitting. Completion means putting it out there for criticism or feedback.

Completion is scary!

And yet, it the deepest corners of my soul, a light has turned on. So many of the stories I have told myself are based in childhood fears. So many of the rules I live by and the I AMs I function with are simply not true. Like an old computer, I need an upgrade on my programming. I need to stand in the middle of the chaos, look completion in the eye and say, "I am not afraid of you."

Marianne Williamson writes, "...when we reject the ego's account of who we are, can we begin to discover who we really are."

So I am choosing to look completion in the eye. I am choosing to dance with her a little; do a little dabbling in allowing her to lead.

I'll let you know how it goes!

Megg is a writer, a seeker, and a finder of magic.

Being in Gratitude by Meghan Genge

If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough. - Meister Eckhart

I need to admit to you that I am the daughter of a minister. This is important information to have when you hear that I think I must have said the Lord's Prayer about seven hundred thousand times in my life. I am exaggerating, I know, but it must be somewhere up there.

A few weeks ago I was sitting on a plane feeling extremely tight and nervous and desperate for something to focus on to calm me as the plane was taking off. Strangely enough, into my head came the words for the Lord's Prayer. Grateful, I recited it under my breath as the plane took off. Thinking about it afterwards, I realized that nowhere in that prayer do you ever say thank you. If it is the prayer that we were given to say to our great Creator, why is there no gratitude in it?

When Jamie asked us to write about gratitude, that plane ride came back to me and after some pondering, I think I have it figured out:

Gratitude is the one thing that we have to come to ourselves.

As children we are reminded to say 'thank you,' but as adults we are not. Gratitude is something that we feel and give on our own terms. To be truly grateful and thankful for something means that we have understood that we have received a gift. No one can tell us to be grateful - it is something we have to feel. To remember to say thank-you to someone or even to who or whatever your version of the Divine is, is to show an emotional maturity and understanding of who we are and how deeply we are connected. It shows that you know who you truly are.

To be in a state of gratitude, I believe, is one of the most powerful choices we can make.

xo 

Megg is a writer, a seeker, and a finder of magic.

Being Grateful for Gratitude by Meghan Genge

“You simply will not be the same person two months from now after consciously giving thanks each day for the abundance that exists in your life. And you will have set in motion an ancient spiritual law: the more you have and are grateful for, the more will be given you.” — Sarah Ban Breathnach

I have been spending the past two months practicing gratitude. Every night before I go to bed, I make a list of five things for which I am grateful. I have been told that this makes magic.

So far? Nothing.

Or so it would seem. You see, this gratitude practice has made me face the fact that I am a very impatient woman. I want results, magic, details, answers and information NOW. If I don't lose five pounds immediately, I quit the diet. If I don't get praise, I don't do it again. If my life doesn't suddenly change to reflect changes I've made, they obviously aren't working.

This isn't the case with gratitude.

After the first week I realized that despite there being no gratitude fireworks, I was still making my lists every night and when I packed my gratitude diary at the very top of my suitcase on a recent trip, I realized that this little book had become strangely important to me. The simple act of making a list has somehow snuck through my instant impact monitoring system and firmly become a practice.

Is it easy to make a list of five things I am grateful for? Sadly, not every night. (I won't let myself write the same thing more than once a week!) But I have found that I have started looking for things during the day. I've started noticing dear souls and kind strangers. I've started noting when I taste something delicious, or see something beautiful. I have stopped to smell the blooms on the bush at the end of the path to my house every day this week.

Tonight's list?

I think that number one will be the book itself. Tonight I will be grateful for gratitude.

Megg is a writer, a seeker, and a finder of magic.

Creative Living with Jamie: Meghan Genge

Creative Dream Journals writer Meghan Genge was interviewed on Creative Living with Jamie. Have a listen and get to know more about Megg and her creative life.

This week’s podcast is 21:31 long
Meghan Genge is a Canadian writer who lives and works in the UK. As part of her journey, she has launched a website called Creating Wings. With this site she hopes to 'become the change that she wants to see in the world' by inspiring people to believe in who they really are and to question the rules that they have imposed on themselves. She believes that we need to stop pretending that we are ordinary and remember that we are truly capable of anything.

Show Notes

• Meg refers to Morning Pages, which is a daily practice of writing 3 pages of long-hand stream-of-consciousness writing recommendedby Julia Cameron in The Artist's Way
• Jamie mentions herFull Moon Dreamboard Circle.

By the way...

You can find more episodes of Creative Living with Jamie on iTunes or at www.creativelivingwithjamie.ca.

Consulting the Oracle by Meghan Genge

"In fairy tales, when something bad happens it means that something new has to be tried, a new energy has to be introduced, a helper, healer, magic force has to be consulted." - Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes

 

I own a very battered copy of Women Who Run with the Wolves. In fact, WWRWTW was the very first book that I properly wrote in. Before then, I wouldn't even fill in the blanks in books you were supposed to write in, but from the very first page I must have known that my experience with this book would somehow be different. I even dated the first reading in the same pen. Every time I have read the book since, I have used a different colour pen or pencil.

And do you know what? In the past 14 years, every time I went to the book, I underlined something different.

Apart from yellowing pages and a battered cover, the book hasn't changed. Not one word, sentence or paragraph has been altered in that time and yet different things are underlined depending on the date that they were read.

The book hasn't changed in 14 years, but I have. All of the wisdom, all of the stories and all of the words were there the very first time I opened that book, but I wasn't ready to read them.

There is a theory that you can't see something in others without it being present in yourself. I'd like to take that one step further and argue that all of the wisdom that you need is also already present within you when you are ready to hear it. All you are searching for in a book, a coach, a teacher, a mentor, a film or even a place of worship is the mirror that will reflect your inner knowing back to you.

And when you are ready, it will be there waiting. Just make sure you always carry a good pen.

Megg is a writer, a seeker, and a believer in magic.

Hold Up a Light by Meghan Genge

"If there is one thing that the faithful people of all deep and ancient creeds believe... it is that faith has no timbre and no strength unless... unless one lives it out publicly.// This does not mean jabbering about it incessantly, but neither does it mean denying that one follows a wild and precious soul life - one that helps to keep the lanterns lit high enough to see by, during dark times in one's own life and in the lives of others." Elena Avila, Woman Who Glows in the Dark

There are words that hold power over me. When I read them - especially when they are together - I always stop and take a breath. It's like my soul and my spirit remember something from so long ago, my mind has forgotten. It's as if the memories aren't actually mine, but part of a history I have inherited from generations long gone.

One of the first quotes I ever wrote down to taste again and again was a mix-up of an Audre Lorde quote: "For each of us as women, there is a dark place within where hidden and growing our true spirit rises...Within these deep places, each one of us holds an incredible reserve of creativity and power, of unexamined and unrecorded emotion and feeling. The woman's place of power within each of us is neither white nor surface; it is dark, it is ancient, and it is deep."

I remember feeling almost wicked just writing it down. It felt dangerous. I realise now that what I thought was danger was actually a deep connection between my truth and hers. Since then I have connected through time and space with many writers. You know the feeling: you read something that makes you gasp with recognition, and for one tiny moment you feel less alone. It is those moments of true and sacred that keep me reading and writing and collecting quotes.

Why am I telling you all of this? Because I have been blogging for long enough to know one thing for sure: when you are writing, be brave. When I am brave and blog what I am really truly thinking or feeling or longing for, I hear back from people who tell me that they connected to what wrote. When I am afraid and hold back that deep truth out of fear of showing too much, I miss an opportunity to connect. I miss the sacred.

The one thing that we can all do for each other is to keep our "lanterns lit high enough to see by." Please have the courage to say what wants to be said.

Let's show each other the way.

Megg is a writer, a seeker and a believer in magic.

Quickening by Meghan Genge

“There is a vitality, a life-force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique." - Martha Graham

Dear Ms. Graham,

Quickening is bloody uncomfortable. My body is full of equal parts excitement, terror and motion sickness. My tried-and-true neural pathways are disagreeing with you and reading this feeling as fear rather than vitality.

"Eat!" My ego is screaming.

"Self Medicate!"

"You can't handle this. It is too big. Food will numb you. Grab a spoon and eat Nutella straight out of the jar. Don't even move away from the open cupboard door. The faster you can get it in the sooner this feeling of terror/ possibility will pass."

"Who are you to think about getting bigger?"

"Who are you to think about being capable of more?"

"The way things are is easier."

"Why does it matter anyway? You aren't special. What you have to say doesn't matter."

"Tomorrow is soon enough. There is plenty of time to do it then."

"Go ahead, watch that re-run. You're tired. You've earned a rest."

But there is another tiny voice there that has been getting stronger and stronger. It wants me to listen to the quickening. It wants me to ride the feeling through to the end. It is telling me that I can handle it. In fact, it thinks I have the potential to Rock It.

“There is a vitality, a life-force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open.” - Martha Graham

Dear Ms. Graham,

I hear you, and I will.

love megg.

ox

Megg is a writer, a seeker, and a believer in magic.

Is That REALLY Fear? by Meghan Genge

"Love bravely, live bravely, be courageous, there's really nothing to lose." - Jewel

A powerful shift happened before I had even gotten out of my pyjamas this morning.

My cells feel scrambled and the world looks different than it did 20 minutes ago.

I started the day listening to the last Circe's Tribe call recording. In the opening meditation, Jamie had us visualise something that included a colour and an emotion associated with it. The colour that I saw was pink, and when she said emotion, I thought that I felt panic. I have been feeling that feeling off an on for a few months now and I have been swallowing that feeling down, giving myself heartache in the process.

I almost stopped listening, but then a question came into my head: "Is that actually panic that I am feeling? Is it really fear or could it be another energy? Could it be power? Excitement? Passion? The colour was pink after all?!"

The question stopped me cold. In that moment I realised that I have the same reaction to all of the great big strong emotions. Afraid of their bigness, I call them all the same thing: fear. Being afraid of them meant that I stopped knowing what they really were.

That realisation brought on the most incredible feeling of expansion.

Then anxiousness.

Then excitement.

Big excitement.

And then I wrote this in my journal:

"Q: What do I focus on next?

I commit to meeting my emotions, naming and allowing them; letting them be as big as they need to be and expanding myself so that I am big enough and brave enough to hold them."

"Q: What do I do next?

I commit to meeting my emotions, naming and allowing them; letting them be as big as they need to be and expanding myself so that I am big enough and brave enough to hold them."

There's that feeling again, but I am going to walk over and meet it face-to-face.

yes.

Megg is a writer, a seeker, and a believer in magic.

Big Fat Failure by Meghan Genge

"Acting on your own behalf is about slowly becoming a person you can count on." - Geneen Roth

Go gently.

There is a tender soul there.

They are doing the best they can, but they can't see that.

They can't see the path that is spiraling around ahead of them, bringing them closer and closer to where they want to be.

They only see that they aren't getting there.

They only see the times that they didn't follow through with their plan or didn't listen to their inner voice. They only remember eating the world and sleeping through and letting fear be the boss. They only remember that they somehow let themselves down.

They only see that they are a big fat failure.

They don't see the tender human being who is doing the best they can. They don't see that everyone else is struggling too. They don't see that other people sleep in and eat the world and don't write 10,000 words a day or have perfectly clean houses or perfect marriages or easy lives.

They don't see that they are beautiful and getting there.

Go gently.

There is a tender soul there who is learning their lessons slowly.

They don't see that every step forward that they do take is worth five steps back.

They don't see the other people who are looking at them and wondering how they got to be so wonderful.

They don't see that they shine.

Go gently.

Megg is a writer, a seeker, and a believer in magic.

Bedtime Story: Wings by Meghan Genge

 

When she gave herself time to sit and think about it, she wondered if perhaps there were other people who also had them. They were a bit of a nuisance at times. Sleeping on her back had become a distant, hazy memory. When she drove her car she had to put the seat so far back to get herself in that the seat belt barely reached around her. On every journey she could feel them straining against the leather. They wanted to know why she bothered driving at all.

The longer she had them, the bigger and brighter they seemed to get. But that wasn't all. They had begun to get demanding. "Fly," they would whisper whenever she chose to walk somewhere.

"I can't," she'd whisper back through gritted teeth. "People aren't supposed to fly. I'd attract too much attention."

"Fly!" They demanded as she waited in long lines. "Fly!" They would sing as she ran through the park.

But she could not listen to them. People didn't fly. People were supposed to stay with their feet firmly on the ground.

But sometimes, late at night when the world was asleep, she would take off the disguise of ordinary human clothing and let them out for a stretch. Then and only then they would dream together of everything she could be. Her dreams dripped from the tips of them in swirls of colour and ink and light. In the privacy of her room she existed in a world of possibility and potential. Then, creativity appeased, they would fly together as high as the moon and laugh at all of the ways that she had tried to keep herself small.

In the morning she would pretend again that they weren't there. Occasionally she thought she glimpsed a pair under the clothes of a stranger, but she realized that other people must be as good at hiding them as she was.

Someday maybe she would be brave enough to show them to the world. Someday maybe she would show everyone else the way. But in the meantime she would keep them to herself, no matter how much they whispered, no matter how much they itched and no matter how much they wanted her to fly.

She would keep her secret because she remembered a time that was much, much worse. She could remember a time when they hadn't realized that they were there at all.

xo megg

Megg is a writer, a seeker and a believer in magic.

Selectively Courageous by Meghan Genge

"It's hard to be brave when you are a Very Small Animal." A.A. Milne

13 years ago with only a single backpack and £300 in my wallet, I got on a plane for England. I was so afraid to go that I couldn't even hug my parents goodbye at the airport. I knew if I did I would start crying and not stop all of the way over the ocean. When I tell people that story, part of me still can't believe that I did it - Me - the person who is afraid of so many things. The people I tell always shake their head and tell me how brave I was. I wasn't brave because I have more courage than anyone else. On the contrary! Instead I was brave because I had decided to be.

Fast forward 13 years and you have the same me now living in the UK with her English husband. Looking back I know that I was brave because I needed to be somewhere else to get where I needed to be in life. A great big leap of faith needed to happen to shift me to a different place. But that is where I get confused. Why could I be so brave then and follow that dream when my manuscript languishes in my hard drive because of my fear? Why could I throw caution to the wind and move continents but I am afraid to let myself write what wants to be written? Why am I selectively courageous?

I'm not going to tell you that your dreams need you to be brave, or that you must take that leap or any of those guilt-inducing sentences. Instead I am going to ask you to think about one moment in your life when you were truly brave. We all have one. Just being alive and getting through the day sometimes takes immense courage. Thinking about that moment I want you to know deeply that you are brave - you have proven it to yourself - and that you can call on that courage at any time. And maybe, when the time is just right and you are really ready for a big leap of faith, you will choose to be courageous and it will change your life.

xo

Megg is a writer, a seeker and a believer in magic.

To the Edge by Meghan Genge

“I don’t think most people go to the edge of anything.” – Caroline Myss

A little while ago I accidentally went alone to an Enchanted Palace. When I set off in the morning on a solitary adventure, I had no idea that it would take a fairy tale to wake this sleeping beauty.

I have often been told that my expectations are too high. When your expectations are too high you are inevitably disappointed when the reality does not live up to them. Arriving at the palace on this day, however, I had no expectations. I had made the decision to spend the day following whispers and as I got on the tube at Paddington Station, I noticed the poster for the exhibition at Kensington Palace. As a poster counts as a whisper, that’s where I decided to go next.

The exhibition was absolutely charming, but all I could think as I wandered through the rooms was that I wanted more. Bigger, more magical, more whimsical, more intriguing possibilities filled my imagination. They had given me a fairy tale, but I wanted to add fairy dust. I wanted to emerge from the other side with twigs in my hair and feet sore from dancing, with a whiff of spices tangled in my clothes and a faraway look in my eye.

Standing in the park afterwards I realized that it’s not that my expectations are too high, it’s that my perception of the possibilities is enormous. There, beside a lake in London, the ‘aha’ hit me: however big my belief in shining possibilities, there is the necessary knowledge of dark ones. One thrills and the other frightens, so I have spent much of my adult life wishing for one but preparing instead for the other and ending up somewhere in the middle. I have tried to want less fairy dust, but instead of being happier I ended up with cobwebs.

Blinders slipping, feet planted, hair tangled, I am getting closer and closer to the edge. I can feel it coming. Dreams and possibilities have been showing themselves to me bit by bit, and I know things are changing. I am no longer afraid of disappointment because I know that I am a grown up and that the magic is in my control. I am no longer interested in becoming a princess or living happily ever after: I want more.

(A lot more.)

Saying Yes by Meghan Genge

"Just living is not enough. One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower." - Hans Christian Andersen

Here we are at what seems like the beginning of something.  Jamie has pulled together this group of dynamic, creative, inspiring women and it appears that we are starting here.  The blog is up, the women are writing, and collaboration is in the air.  And so it begins.

The truth, though, is the reason that I am writing here at all.  The truth is that this all began months ago when the notion of a dream, like the soft wisp of a dandelion seed, found fertile ground in Jamie’s creative energy.   She accepted it. She planted and nourished it.  She worked really hard on it.  And here it is, fully grown and incredibly beautiful.

How many times have you been given the gift of a dream seed?  How many times have you felt the soft touch of inspiration? Dozens? Hundreds? And how many times have you accepted that gift with open arms and fierce determination?  How many times have you grabbed it and planted it and worked your ass of to make it flourish?  Dozens of times?  Once or twice?  Never?

I am guilty of dream neglection.  I often accept the gift, scribbling it down so that I don’t forget it, and then close the book and walk away.  There are an embarrassingly large number of dreams lying dormant in my care.  But that is the beauty of the best dreams: they don’t go away.  Energy flows where attention goes right?  What dream seed it calling to you the loudest?  Is it time to give it life?

Yes.

Meet the Dreamers: Meghan Genge

Meghan Genge

Born in Canada, I currently live in England with my husband. Besides stories and magic, I believe in connection, nourishment and the power of a good BIC® medium black pen. I am drawn to the essence – of a person, a thing, a feeling – and I know that it is where the real truth lies. My dream is to own a porch and a dock – and hopefully the house that goes with them – and to do my bit to help remind you that you are more powerful than you can possibly imagine.

My links:
Blog: http://www.meghangenge.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/meghangenge
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/meghangenge/

3 favourite things:
- My husband and wider family
- Books (any and all)
- Trees (any and all)