MADCAP MONDAY (LIVING IN HARMONY)

Well, it certainly would have been a better (and more harmonic) start to madcap Mondays if I had gotten the blog posted this a.m. But since it felt more like mayhem Monday, I couldn't quite get it done. Dang. So I'll combine my madcap Monday and Tuesday tunes post into one.

LIVING IN HARMONY
It's not what you think, actually I don't know what you think, so maybe it is what you think. My Harmony was an actual place and not a state of being. Although that played an important role as well. Let me begin:

When I was 11 my mom and I started taking yoga classes together, now this was the late 60s when practicing yoga was considered one step away from smoking pot, so for my mom to be so open minded about it and to take me with her was really cool.

The best part for me? Classes were at a place called Harmony, sounds like a commune in Arizona. In reality it was a mansion in Woodbury MN. This place was gorgeous: double front doors, a huge round fountain in the entryway, flagstone steps leading down into the main living room with a two story wall of windows. Two baby grands in one corner and a massive stone fireplace in the other. And that was just one room!

Yoga class was in the basement, and by basement, I mean lower level. There was a level lower than that, it held the volleyball court, of course. Did I tell you this place was awesome? So, yoga yoga yoga. We did the real yoga, the kind  with meditation. I soaked it in. I was 11!

The only thing better than going to class at Harmony, would be living at Harmony...D'oh!
I'll continue my "Harmony" posts on Mondays, but not every Monday, 'cuz, I might have other things to say.

So what about you? Any weird childhood experiences? Tell me.

THINKING THURSDAY, POSITIVELY.

My Critique Partner reminded me I shouldn't stop my positive thinking when it comes to my writing.

Of course I shouldn't. But I hadn't even realized I was doing it. It's the sneakliest kind of negative thinking -- the accidental negative thought.

You'd think I'd know better. I was served positive thoughts along with my Captain Crunch since I was 5 years old. My mom has been a speaker and writer of positive thinking for a gazillion (count 'em) years http://joankennedy.com/ this is why it threw me for a proverbial loop that I was yucking up my thoughts with negativity.

I think I know why I was doing it though. It means too much to me. The writing. I was protecting my psyche...I wrote a character who voiced this: What if God had a wicked sense of humor, and only gave you a passion for something you had no talent for?

I actually don't believe God would do that, yet, sometimes, I live it.

So, now I'm going to start on purpose positive thinkingabout my writing -- intentional and specific.

I am a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author. Thank you.
I make more than enough money to support my family with my writing and I love it. Thank you.
Or maybe I should start with something like this:
I enjoy the whole writing process. Thank you...very much!

I'll update as needed.
So, what trips you up?

If Time Really Does Fly, Why Doesn't My Baggage Ever Get Lost ?

Okayokayokay...soooo it's been awhile since I've blogged. And I realized I hadn't blogged in awhile, but when I saw the date of my last post, well, that's just not right. Right?

But, we all know life and...other things happen that makes our time fly. So, why can't it fly first class? I think sometimes it does, we just forget about those times.

Lately I feel as if I'm letting it fly by, or maybe as if I've been grasped by the hand and pulled along--with no control as to any destination.

So, today, my Mom, Joan Kennedy (not that one) gave a workshop at the library where I work and I was reminded in a non naggy mom way that I do have control over my life and my time. I'm the damn pilot. D'oh! I had forgotten that fundamental fact. It's my life. A mental slap to the cerebelum, or wherever, is a good thing, something we all need every once in a while. We all just get pulled into the flow of what's going on around us--a centrifigal force of crap--we forget that we are the pilot and the navigator of ourselves.

And that "baggage" we carry with us, well...let's toss it out over the Bermuda triangle. Ba-bye.

So, what's it like where you stand--are you the pilot? What could you do to become the pilot?