Is my refrain. I’m a writing machine… (sing to the tune of Love Machine by The Miracles), The electricity starts to flow, I’m just a writing machine and I won’t write for nobody but you… I’m just a writing machine…

I think, I pray, I hope the book is jelling.. I keep finding it can actually be easier and shorter than I think – the perennial lesson, KEEP IT SIMPLE. Lord, when will I ever really get that one?

So here’s a bit I’m excited about:

PLEASE DO NOT REPRINT!!
    Life organizing is the expression I use to describe different way of approaching time, life planning, and goal setting that I’ve observed in clients, friends, and mentors. It is a way of shaping a life that grows out of a spiritual dedication of some sort, an orientation toward listening to and connecting to something larger than yourself at the same time you are moving toward completely accepting and embracing your quirky, dented, perfectly imperfect individual self. It’s connected to being curious about how your minds work and how thoughts and beliefs shape your experience. Embracing your feminine and masculine traits – intuiting and checking facts, surrendering and sallying forth damn the torpedoes, caretaking and protecting for example – is another underlying trait, an ability to receive and apply what you’ve has learned. Rigorous self-honesty coupled with tender self-compassion is often present, as is a deep connection to the body and to understanding that the body is a gateway to the soul. There is also a strong dedication to bringing your awareness into the present, to embracing what is happening now, without cluttering the moment with the past or future.

    What this kind of life orientation begins to appear primarily in middle age, although I am sure there are both younger women and many men who are experiencing a similar shift. However, it would make sense that middle-aged women are developing a new way to be with our increasingly complex, fast paced life conditions: our brains are wired for it with more connections between hemispheres and therefore our ability to keep many things in the forefront of our consciousness at one time; we have more roles and wear more hats; we have a tremendous incentive to create a sustainable way of being in the world (we can’t do the male way without burning out and we’ve never felt such a need to bring our gifts to the world and make a difference); we tend to have done our inner work and are aware of how precious our life energy is, and our time.

    Whatever the biological, cultural, and personal reasons, more and more women are rejecting the over-striving, forcing, rushing, making life happen mode and developing a more intuitive yet grounded way to sort and discern the choices available to us. On the surface, it doesn’t always look that different but inside, it feels like the difference between a business suit and cashmere pj’s. For me, it has been one of the most profound shifts I’ve ever known, equal to becoming a woman (at twenty-five) and becoming a mother (at thirty-one). I know, with my entire body, it is the shift so many of us yearn to make and yet have no idea how to talk about, let alone make it real, make it practical. It has taken me years to understand and name just a little bit about this shift; partly because the subject is vast; it’s about bringing spiritual awareness into everyday life and it’s about adapting and working with our feminine brain and body and it’s about the cultural and political crucible we find ourselves living in and let’s not forget that it’s about the call to evolve if we are to survive in these complex, break-neck-paced times. It is also difficult to name clearly because this way of being is emerging. It’s both as ancient as the spiritual quest and as new as women’s political freedom. We are making it up as we go along – and this is crucial to remember because it will feel like that and that’s normal. This is improvisation! This is cutting edge stuff, fluid and flexible, and more often we know it by what it is not rather than what it is. It is not: trying to find the one right way; having to prove your essential worth; stressed out and separate from All-That-Is; product oriented; striving to do more faster or perfectly; physically, emotionally, morally, or spiritually depleting; done solely for the sake of yourself or your goals; without life force, desire, ecstasy; divorced from the body; based on the idea you have to change something about yourself to be good enough or lovable; What is it? Living from love, trust, and acceptance – without flying away into fantasy and magical thinking.

Comments? The rest of the book isn’t this dry, I swear!