World Changing Writing Workshop

Dear Heartfull Karen-
Do you want to write and share what's in your heart?

I'd barely opened my email before my heart shouted a resounding YES! The words opened an email from SARK about a new online workshop that she was teaching in. I've had the privilege of listening to SARK speak before and it truly was inspiring but that wasn't actually what made me jump at those words. It went deeper and broader than that.

I investigated the link and felt myself getting excited in a way that has only happened a few times in my life. Times when the thing I was encountering was so just perfectly me that I dared not turn away.

The thing was it scared me a little. I've never felt that in regards to my writing. Writing is a very personal journey for me and as much as I'd love to have my voice heard, it's really pretty rare that I'm willing to share what I've written with even my closest friends...notice how sparse and generally far between posts in this blog tend to be. The choice to create Karen's Cake Adventures was a conscious choice to stop being intimidated and write about something I enjoy doing. The reality is that for the most part, it's still a very safe choice. Yes, a lot of who I am goes into every cake I design, but really it's safe to talk about the funny and silly stuff that happens when I make a cake and the things I learn during the process. It's things I learn about stuff I do not really about who I am as a person. But even there I haven't written all that often or consistently.

Don't get me wrong. Decorating cakes is actually important to me. It's definitely an expression of my creativity. I'm not great at creating visual art with a pen and paper, but I can say with pride that the things I create with cake, buttercream and fondant are beautiful. And beauty in anything does make the world a better place.

I have a love-hate relationship with writing. I love the physical experience of putting pen to paper and watching words flow into life. But at the same time the vulnerability of that process can terrify me into silence, procrastination and self-sabotage so I don't have to face the fear and take the risk.

Writing is like taking a little piece of your soul and leaving it out there for someone to stomp on or ridicule. I've been in that place and cried more tears than the person who did the stomping was worth but that experience leaves a mark and makes me want to avoid the possibility of it happening ever again.

I'm a glass half full kind of person and in most areas of my life that's exactly how I choose to live my life. Very rarely have I made that same choice recently in regards to what I write. But I know that there are more words that I need to write and that at some point they need to move beyond just being words on a page for me. So I've made a conscious choice and signing up for the World Changing Writing Workshop is part of that. It's time to take that step of faith and remember that while I've had that piece stomped on, others pieces have been put out there and been valued and have made the world a better place. It's time to focus on those pieces and remember that the stomping is part of what has made me who I am today and that's stronger than I was back then. Sometimes growth hurts but it doesn't mean you stop growing.

As another traveler on the journey to world changing writing described it, it's time to stop letting those "personal historical snaggles ... grab my ankles as I run by." It's time for me to determine how I live my life and share my words. I'm not going to make any sweeping promises about how much or how often I'm going to post here because that's more likely to cause me to sabotage myself rather than motivate me. Instead I'm going to use M-P-Q for exactly the reason I originally created it, as a place to post things that make me wonder and think. I'm just not going to avoid posting things here or decide that things have to be more important or profound or whatever other excuse I've told myself so that I'd stay silent and safe.

As it said on the Starbucks cup wrappers all winter …