There are (I hope, Deb is keeping an eye on this for me) a few spaces in my next two retreats, this Saturday in Wisconsin near Madison and next Saturday in McKinney, near Dallas.

Check out my guest Fabeku at the May retreat whose name I can never pronounce but lots of people can’t so he created a cool tutorial.

And, because everybody wants to know, Stuart is a Schnoodle (half mini-poodle and half-mini schnauzer) and Luna is half standard poodle (yes, standard) and half Jack Russell. Otherwise known as a Mistake-a-Poo.

I never planned on having two small dogs but then I also never planned on just about everything in my life so why would the dogs be any different?

Deep breath.

Wait, need one

more.

Do I mean it?

Yes, yes I believe I do.

Then here I go: leap

with love

and surrender

by my side.

No holding back, no plan B.

Oh sweet friend, come watch with me.

Let us see

what wondrous net appears.

So a powerhouse of a book come out yesterday and I want you to buy it.

I want you to buy a copy for everyone you know who has ever wondered what the hell they are doing with their work life.

I want you to buy a copy for everyone you know who has ever slumped on the couch and said, “I have no idea what I did today.  I was so busy but what did I actually do?”

I want you to remember that you read it here first that this book is going to become a classic and every bit as influential as What Color is Your Parachute? or Wishcraft.

I want to tell you all this but I feel a little odd saying it because I love the guy who wrote this very fab book.

I’m biased, okay, FCC?

Tell me something about your Great Work in the comments in the next 24 hours for a chance to win a copy of Do More Great Work by Michael Bungay Stanier.

Buy Do More Great Work today and get some cool bonuses. Last chance for the bonuses is today.

Consider this quote by Seth Godin that Michael ends the book with:

It’s not about you, it’s about the next person. The single best use of a business book is to help someone else. Sharing what you read, handing the book to a person who needs it… pushing those around you to get in sync and to take action–that’s the main reason it’s a book, not a video or a seminar. A book is a souvenir and a container and a motivator and an easily leveraged tool. Hoarding books makes them worth less, not more.

I’m giving a copy away. I’ve bought several to send to friends. I hope you will do the same. God knows we need more Great Work in our lives.

Cheers, Michael. Keep it up.

There is an emptiness that comes to me when I am finished leading a retreat.

A scrubbed out-ness. Hollowed out. Pumpkin after scraping before carving.

It’s an odd feeling, not bad at all, but if I don’t ground myself, and have a lot of awareness, I start pounding chocolate.

I wish I could sum up the magic of the Virtual Retreat

But I’m not good at summing things. Humming yes, summing not so much.

I throw myself into the moment of teaching and then I wonder, ‘What can I say about what I just did?”

Last year, when Havi Brooks was my guest at the Writer’s Retreat (she is again this year and there are few spots open and early bird price was supposed to go away yesterday so hurry and that might be a run on sentence).

So anyway, not good at summing up.

I could quote from some of the hundreds of blog posts on the Virtual Retreat blog but what would that tell you?

That people had a wonderful experience.

That people faced into their fears.

That people touched their essential goodness.

Is that enough of a summary?

In my hollowed out-ness, I started to despair at writing a blog post and then Jenzie posted this at the Comfort Cafe (yeah for the Cafe and Jenzie!) and I thought, “Virtual Retreat Essential Distilled Beautifully Summed up Wisdom! Just what I need to choose my life this week.”

So here is Jenzie’s wonderful summary:

How can I put the pieces of my life together into an abundant yet peaceful whole?

What do I yearn for, what do I truly desire, right now?

I am not all things … yet I am enough.

I tend to my peaceful perspective, as I would tend a garden or a child.

I pay attention to life’s transitions, small as well as large.

Gently bringing myself back: sweetheart, we’re doing just one thing at a time now.

Find and use a compass that leads me back to my true self.

The first time something extraordinary happens, we call it a miracle. Yet if it continues, we begin to regard it as ordinary! Reclaim the miraculous in the bowl of cheerios…

I am not broken, and I do not need to be fixed.

I am open to the voice of the sacred, in everyday life as well as in transcendence.

When do I feel most myself?

What would I love my life to be like?

I instinctively know what I need to thrive.

I am.

Who is it who notices my body, my thoughts, and yet is not contained by them?

Live more. Forgive yourself. Begin again.

Just shift direction by one degree… and in six months, I’ll be somewhere entirely different than I would have been otherwise.

Listen for the inner voice of self love.

Be the little girl who can do anything.

Grow wild and wooly before you prune.

Focus on what’s really essential and true.

Stop thinking about time, instead think about energy and flow.

Be fully committed to and fully present with whatever you’re doing, right now.

Get underneath the joy … and the fear … from there comes inspired, grounded action.

Act as if what I truly want is already here.

That which I avoid is an energy drain … and the longer I avoid, the stronger the drain.

What is the simplest action?

Learn to distinguish the practical-sounding voice of fear from my true loving voice.

I am more than my history, more than my degrees, more than my checkbook, more than my stories.

I am not all things … yet I am enough.

What one bit will you use to light your way this week?

Thanks to Deb, Meredith, and the amazing teachers and hundreds of people who retreated this weekend. More kudos coming must go shower and get on a plane.