Do What You Love and the Rest Will Follow

Welcome to my Blog! This is the place and space where I record my musings and keep you up to date with my creative pursuits and adventures.

I have been involved in many interesting and unusual projects over the past year. You’ll learn about in the next few months as they get closer to completion.

As you may have guessed I am also close (as in days!), to launching my first book, ‘Following My song’.  Eek! I am excited and a little nervous!

Following My Song

‘Following My Song’ is about a little girl who goes out into the world following a song. Her song pulls her in different directions during her journey and her encounters with different characters gradually throw her off her path. Finally she meets a man whose wisdom helps her to get back on course and leaves her feeling like someone truly understands her.

My main intention when I started on this writing journey, was to create imaginative stories that I could share with my children. There are certain life lessons that I would like to introduce to them and being a primary school teacher I feel most comfortable when I have a book to help me. Also, my girls and I love books! To be able to create something that was inspired by them and for them is the greatest gift I could give myself.

Important Teachers

Since having children, the idea that we are the most important teachers in the lives of our kids has had a huge impact on me. When I began to re-evaluate my life, I realised there was something missing. While I was busy with the hustle and bustle of life, something was brewing in the background.

Naturally, I started with the question:

‘What is it I love or have loved to do?’

I soon found out I had no idea what I loved to do and what I had loved to do in the past no longer felt relevant to me.

The next question I asked was:

‘What is it like to be in your element?’

What does it feel like to absolutely love what you are doing, where you feel a sense of accomplishment or you lose track of time when you are taking part in this activity.

After lots of midnight reading (while feeding babies), I began to read about other people’s stories: most of who were artist, athletes, musicians and scientists that were at the top of their game. I was beginning to develop an understanding of what it is like to be engaged in work that was truly fulfilling.

Let’s be honest! Unlike these experts and athletes I had no freaking idea what I was good at and the things I was good at I found hard to recognise. Other people advised me: ‘this is what you should do’. So I followed their advice because their reasons made sense at the time and I believe they had my best interests at heart.

This realization started a journey of self discovery and learning to get in touch with my inner voice and knowing. There are many things I did, and still do on a daily basis, to cultivate this connection with my inner voice. The most effective has been journaling.

The Moment When It All Made Sense

One day, while journaling, I started writing a story…it was coming through me like someone else was telling it. When I finished, I read it back and thought “This sounds ok!”…. But more importantly it was the feeling! I knew that this was it! This was what it is to be in your element. This is what it is like to follow your song! This was what all those crazy athletes and wacky scientist were banging on about!

I couldn’t stop! I had no idea where the stories were going and I didn’t care. For the first time in my life I wasn’t obsessed with the outcome because there was something inside me that was cheering me on.

All of a sudden like a computer screen re-configuring, all the clues throughout my life slotted in and it all made sense!  I remembered how I would create elaborate dramas with pretty much anything as a child. I recalled creative writing pieces during school that went on and on and on. Finally, I thought about my favourite times with my students when we acted out stories that we created together.

Next, came the shadow side: the critical voice inside my head reminding me of all the reasons I should stop, such as when kids critisized a story I had written, or a teacher covered my work in red pen, friends laughing at me for being a terrible speller or voiced concern that they thought I was dyslexic (which I am not).

As this critical voice started to emerge, I could have been stopped, like so many times before. I have been writing stories in secret for 10 years, but I decided to try and make peace with my inner critic and trust the quieter voice whispering stories and other exciting possibilities!

Yes, I can be at times a terrible speller, my grammar is a bit off and maybe I get things a bit mixed up sometimes. However…

There comes a time in life when the pain in staying the same is greater than the pain of doing something you fear.

The result has been: 3 children’s stories, one young fiction story, the first in a series and I have started the second and the third. There is no turning back now!

The most important life lesson I would like to pass on to my children is…

Do what you love and the rest will follow!

Barry Manilow

I don’t know, what is to follow, but instead of allowing fear, of the unknown, to paralyses me, I’m excited! New things create new possibilities.

I hope you will enjoy what’s to come as much as I have enjoyed creating it.

Wishing you lots of

Love, Laughs and Creative bliss!

Cathy

P.S. Thank you for stopping by! If you are interested in hearing about my future projects and workshops please…

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P.S.S. I would love to hear about the activities that you are involved in that bring you joy! Let me know on Facebook.