Big Dreams, Messy Manuscripts, and an Author’s-Artist’s Creative Life ~

Hello my Beauty,

Big Dreams, Messy Manuscripts, and an Author’s-Artist’s Creative Life ~ This is what I’m calling the next iteration of Beautiful You~Dream a Bigger Dream juiciness.

You get me.  Whether you’ve just joined me on this journey of leaning into a life where love and joy and gratitude and the willingness to thrive go hand in hand with living your best life (whatever that looks like~feels like in any given moment), or you’ve been with me since the inception of Beautiful You~Dream a Bigger Dream, and this beautiful haven of love and positivity and curiosity, (and let’s face it, VERY tinted, rose colored glasses,) thank you for being here.  Thank you for sharing this process of me remembering me, more and more with each written word, with each year of this life I am blessed with, with each reach beyond my comfort zone, as I lean in more and more to what fills me up.

It has been a wild and weird and wonder filled ride, and I’m so happy and so honored to share this journey with you.

I’ve been working with Leah Campbell Badertscher ~ artist, genius, Creative with a capital C, Life Coach extraordinaire.  At first, by taking her on my daily walks, listening to her magical, mystical, The Art School podcast, and applying all her juicy~divine inspired~magic infused~hallef*ckinglula work with me, coach with me wisdom.  Next, I participated in every deep dive into her online free workshops I could.  Now, I’m part of The Art School and The Art School Master Mind coaching, part of her family of magical, manifesting, affluent, brilliant, life changing and changing lives beauties ~ authors and playwrights, artists and musicians, stay at home moms, doctors and lawyers, teachers and coaches… all visionaries leaning in to the limitless possibilities of their bigger dreams… of being wholly and holy true to what makes them ~ us ~ me, glow.

Remembering our essence.

My essence is storytelling.  I’ve connected the dots of all that I do, all that I am.  Whether I’m writing my YA Fantasies, teaching my students, creating art, sharing my life with those I adore… it’s all about story.  About what makes us most vulnerable, what fills us up, what makes the ordinary and sometimes grueling day to day, magical.

So, I’m outing myself.  I AM A STORYTELLER.

This might not be big news to you, lol, since you’re part of my community.  So why is this a big deal for me to claim here?

Because, it’s me owning ALL of me in all my parts.  And where else would I share such a thing, but with you, and this amazingly bright and beautiful and heartfull community of beauties we’ve created together since 2013….

It’s also because when someone asks what I do, my go to response is, I’m a teacher.

It hardly ever comes up that I’m a storyteller~author~creative, because I gloss over it, or don’t claim it at all.  A perfect example of this:  While having tea with a friend I’ve known for years who’s a writer, an editor, and a musician, it’s never once come up (because I have never once brought it up) that I’m a writer too.  Cue my dad, who very kindly and with a big grin, outed me, sharing with our friend that I was (indeed) a writer too and that I wrote YA Fantasy.

It made me grin, and take pause.  Why had I never shared this information?

One reason:  it had become a habit not to share this about myself.  Not so much because of an impostor syndrome, but more because my writing has always come second to my teaching, to my being Mom, partner, lover, friend, daughter, sister….  Yes, these last years I’ve carved out more time for my craft, taken the pursuit of becoming a published author more seriously, mostly because I take myself more seriously.  But, I hadn’t allowed myself to really, really, REALLY truly claim being a storyteller as the core of my being until recently.  That writing wasn’t just something I did.  It was ~ is ~ who I AM.

This deeper awareness has come with Leah’s help and being seen in a whole different light by my Art School sisters, and with a LOT of support from my partner and son and family and closest friends.

But others can only do so much in light of how you see yourself.  When it comes to claiming your true essence, the responsibility is solely yours.  I had to first acknowledge and validate my special gifts, and then I had to claim, loud and proud, in my head, in my heart, and in my soul ~ I had to OWN ~ that I AM a storyteller, that writing ~ sharing stories is all I want to do.  Which means shifting the way I see my art and creativity and acknowledging that it too is a form of storytelling, that my teaching is a form of storytelling, that how and why I love, how I show~share my love, how I live and embrace my life…  ALL of it is storytelling… because all of it is me.

I AM a magicker of words, regardless of what I’m doing or who I’m with ~ it’s my essence.  Creating worlds and characters who share their journeys of feeling ~ believing ~ they’re not good enough to  embodying their more than good enough-ness, with all the wonder filled and angsty sh*t that can come in between.  Stories that will always hold hope as sacred, love as the highest order, and self love as the thread that stitches the tapestry of LIFE together.

Know this aha and oh, yes, yumminess I feel in claiming my essence out loud, is nothing compared to the lightness of being I feel in my own skin.  It’s like coming home after a long journey, and stepping into the embrace of my soul.

So, in this iteration of Beautiful You~Dream a Bigger Dream, which is really a coming home, I’ll be sharing more of my stories, more of my art, and even more of my insights into the story of my life.

Summer Solstice is a BIG day for me ~ my son was born and my life was ever changed.  It marks the season I honor most in so many ways, one of them by basking in the heat and long days and all this precious light.  July is my birthday month, so there’s always and in all ways a great deal of inner work and observations and reclaimings going on (hence this post.)  It’s also when I double down and practice stretching time so I can write and write and write and create and play, all the while soaking up and sipping down every delightful moment without alarm clocks or have to’s.  Lol, school is officially out.

So.  My inquiry and curiosity is this:  What lights you up?  What is your essence?  What are you wanting to do a deep dive into without alarm clocks or have to’s?  What makes you step into the embrace of your soul?  I’d love to hear if you’d love to share.

In the meantime, I wish you a glorious, blessed summer season.

Hugs and Love.

InJoy,

Shannon