Endings and Beginnings

ENDINGS

I recently took a break from social media because I had lost my why. Whatever goal I started out with was no longer driving or exciting me. Even my #lobby4love, which began as a labour of love, felt like a meaningless obligation. After serious consideration I stepped away to gain perspective about the root of my restlessness. After a few days of introspection I concluded that I had reached the end of a personal cycle (several different cycles in fact, one of which I’ll discuss here and others in future posts).

WRITING & SOCIAL MEDIA CYCLE

4 years ago I started a new cycle by stepping out of the writing closet and creating a blog. My goals were simple:

Confront my fear of sucking, and release my poetry to the general public
Prove to myself and others that I was a writer
Finish my first novel (long-suffering since 1998)
Stop making excuses and just fucking write already

The actions I took to meet those goals involved developing a daily writing practice, and releasing my-writing-in-captivity via my blog and social media. It didn’t matter that I was giving my work away for free, because I was an unknown quantity (both to myself and others), and it was part of a longer-term strategy to get my work in front of an audience. A year in, I also chose to self-publish my first poetry book because I believed that my poetry fell outside of traditional publishing wish lists.

FAST FORWARD TO 2017, and it is little wonder why I grew despondent.

I am no longer trying to prove myself or my writing skills. With 3 poetry books published, my debut novel finished, and my second novel a handful of drafts from completion, it’s time to rename those goals as achievements and begin a new cycle.
I thought that the control-freak in me would love self-publishing, but in the end it was my perfection-freak that won that battle. In short, self-publishing is not in my future, and I am now resolute about my desire to be represented by a Literary Agent in the future. If that means stockpiling my work in the meantime then so be it. I accept that it’s part of the process and part of my personal writing journey.
I remain undecided about what direction to take with my poetry. 4 years on, I still believe that it falls foul of traditional publishing, so, I guess I’ll have to see what happens on that score.

BEGINNINGS

Now that I’ve identified the lessons from my old cycle, I can release what no longer serves, Reset my intention, and Redefine my direction to begin a new cycle.

Bottom line is this.

I feel compelled to take an active vs apathetic role in this journey of life by sharing what I’ve learnt (and what I’m in the process of learning) with anyone who is interested. And Lobby4Love is my vehicle for doing that.

Lobby4Love has taken over my life-in a good way-and expanded into an ever-evolving practical guide to holistic living. What began as an individual project to tackle my destructive internal dialogue, and a daily action to assist me (and others by extension) in approaching life from a base of love-vs-fear, has now expanded into what I view as an interconnected chain between Body, Mind, Spirit and Planet. A chain that achieves balance through Love (Awareness and Action), and suffers imbalance through conditioned Fear (Lack of Awareness and Apathy).

I will explain in future posts why I am uniquely qualified to talk about these subjects and offer insight, so make sure to subscribe by email and receive new posts straight to your inbox…

WHAT TO EXPECT IN THE FUTURE

You can still expect snippets of poetry and readings from time to time, but I’ll primarily be sharing personal stories and insight, as well as on-the-go-learning about Body, Mind, Spirit and Planet.

Some examples include:

Plant-based homemade recipes for food, hair, skin, and home.
How our daily choices can negatively impact the environment, including waste, recycling, shopping etc, and tips on how to reduce waste and save $$.
Body Image
Yoga and Movement
The Food Industry, including labels, e-numbers, how to make informed choices, etc. (As a sensitive person, I am averse to seeing graphic images, and will not be using shock-tactics when discussing these issues. I simply want to raise awareness about what is in our food and how it impacts our mental and physical health).
Spirit Animal Guides, Dreams, Meditation, Chakras etc.
Recommended Reading, Websites, and People.
This list is ever expansive….

At the end of the day, everything is connected, and we can only expect to raise our collective consciousness when we turn competition into co-operation.