watching Indie Arts #2 after meeting the creator of the magazine Karen and sharing rose hip tea and a fresh crepe with strawberries, chocolate, and whipped cream (only I didn’t share my crepe) and being infused with her enthusiasm for her precious endeavor. I’m happy to say this DVD magazine is so worth purchasing. She is making a bridge to create from your truth.
I’m alone as Chris is on location for most of the next 12 weekends – actually Thursday through Monday lunch time. He’s in Los Angeles shooting a TV show… Lilly is at sleep over in Seattle… wearing her new bathing suit we bought on Wednesday. Seeing my daughter in a bikini was truly heart blowing. She is so healthy and whole and gorgeous.
Portland was yet another turn on the spiral of this blossoming time. I accepted: dinner with Mark Silver and his peacefully present wife; doing a radio interview with Diana Jordan who I have seen on each of my book tours, and who reminded me of meeting me when I was very pregnant with Lilly; hugging Terry Jordan who attended one of my very first workshops in Washington, D.C; and a sweet older woman who came with my very first book in hand, first edition, with a postcard tucked inside I had sent her– she had come to hear me speak 13 years ago in LA; there was so much more and what kept breathing me and me breathing was gratitude and acceptance.
All my life I have wanted to belong — perhaps I’ve created my own tribe to belong to?
5 responses so far ↓
1 Tracy Mar 9, 2007
Belonging… what a universal desire, isn’t it? I think you MORE than belong. You have indeed created a wonderful tribe of like-minded people in search of their truth, their creative souls and their life’s passion. Thank you for creating this vibrant and authentic community!
Enjoy your solitary retreat in the warm, cozy comfort of your own home, Jen.
Tracy
2 Marilyn Mar 10, 2007
I think you nailed it, at least for me. That’s EXACTLY what I’ve spent the last few years doing…CREATING MY TRIBE. It just took me awhile to figure it out. Glad to hear you had such a fulfilling trip to our old town. (I love Portland.)
3 Paulita Ellie Mar 10, 2007
Jen, my experience of you is that you give folks permission to be themselves, to listen to themselves and take themselves seriously. The “giving permission” is key, in my mind, because our society is so permeated by messages and advertising encouraging/manipulating us to be/want what *others* want us to be/want. For me then, since I feel safe being myself with you, I know I belong with you, your work, and the community of other authentic selves who also find your permission-giving so freeing and inspiring. I’m very glad for you that you’re getting to experience that sense of belonging. I crave that, too, especially in my day-to-day, personal, immediate life and interactions, and I wish I had more of it. It’s tricky for me at work because I feel a tremendous sense of belonging there. I’ve worked in my department in several relatively similar roles for 11 years. But I’m bored and want to be more challenged at work: I want to be more myself at work! Yet, I am *extremely* hesitant to eliminate the primary context in my life where I feel like I belong. I’m realizing as I write this, that there are lots of places I could “belong” if I were comfortable not being myself. How unacceptable! Then conversely: How precious the belonging I sense in contexts where I can be fully authentic.
4 nicole Mar 11, 2007
what a feeling, to belong! i’m happy to see that it IS possible after all! I love your blog…been reading for a while, but haven’t commented yet. I’m a fellow writer and Bainbridge Islander! Nice to meet you (well, at least virtually anyway).
Also, is there anywhere to buy your new book on the island? Couldn’t find it at Eagle Harbor…maybe I wasn’t looking in the right place?
5 Jennifer Louden Mar 13, 2007
Hi All!
Nicole, Eagle Harbor is a mystery to me. Can you order the book from them and ask them why they aren’t carrying it? I’m happy to give you a free CD – I can leave it at my front door for you.
Paulita, thank you for seeing what I most want to give others – permission to be!
Belonging — what a huge issue for me. Always will be? Who knows but it was nice to feel that while I rarely feel I belong where I live (not that I don’t belong, I love it here but that I don’t have that fixed in one place tribe and history I’ve always had a story were “better”) I do belong in a global sense and have a history with my readers.