As I sit quietly, journal open, ready to write, I realize that there are just a few days left in 2024. How are you feeling about this year and the prospect of leaving it behind us as we transition into another New Year?

I stepped off the scale this morning - I’m up just slightly but down overall this week. My sigh was not one of impatience at the number - I no longer worry about those - but because I felt in that moment the weight of time, that feeling of knowing that this process was going to take time, more time than I would like it to. I had to remind myself that things work better when my mind and body are aligned and I allow and trust that whatever time it’s going to take to release this extra weight is worth the daily, consistent action I’m now taking.

And yet, there’s this impatience lurking in the background.

Two of my favorite, most cherished friends left after a 5 day visit. Today my home is quiet, filled with memories I’ve made sure to write down so I won’t forget. There are a few things in life that are of true value - friendship is one of them.

I came across this birdhouse tree on a walk not long ago and couldn’t help but take this photo. Each individual birdhouse makes up the whole birdhouse tree - each little house is decorated, unique, with it’s own style even though the shapes and sizes are the same, except for the top birdhouse which appears to be a bit larger, as if guiding or guarding the tree itself.

For those who know me and have read my posts about using metaphors (“Allow” is one of them), you’ll know that part of my training as an EFT, Heartstream Process Practitioner and Tap and Write facilitator, is to use metaphors as a way to reach parts of us that aren’t easily accessed just by thinking. As I looked at this birdhouse tree…

The first line in the Introduction to The Pivot Year by Brianna Wiest, is

“I hope this is the year you change your life.”

“It is and I am”, I thought as I read it and realized that the last half of 2024 was the beginning of a pivotal year for me. I made a commitment to figure out how to lose and manage my weight in the next year and why that was important for me, and I stumbled onto what I now call Tap and Write and the Tap and Write Studio.

I’ve been posting videos on social media lately as a way to promote Tap and Write Circles. It’s been an interesting experiment for me because I’m not sure that enough people see or hear me to get to “know, like, and trust” me, let alone leap at the chance to Tap and Write.

I recently came away from a meeting with coaches who expressed frustration and concern about…

“The most recent prompt in the therapeutic and reflective writing class I’m taking invited us to use a metaphor to describe “When I am writing at my best I am like what?” I’d never stopped to consider what I’m like when I’m writing at my best, and in fact, I wasn’t even sure I had a best!

One’s philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes…And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

I began my final journey to lose weight this year by working with a dietitian and then joining Glean on September 1st, 2024. I’m learning a lot…

This feeling of butterflies in my belly today is welcome! I wasn’t sure when I decided to facilitate two sessions of what I called the “Tap and Write Circles”, or when I created the “Tap and Write Studio”, how they’d be received or whether they’d add value to the participants who joined me in my “experiment”.

Little did I know...

This place, where my heart felt still, calm.

It filled me with a certain ease, gently stirring emotions of longing.

I could...

This photo reminds me of my 2 year old grandson who comes over and immediately asks for my box of pencil crayons. He calls them “sticks”.

I have them stored away specially for him - along with paper he can color on.

What’s so interesting is...

The story of how wronged I felt at the age of 8 when my ballet teacher told me I was no longer welcome to return for second term was another defining moment in my young life. You can read the story HERE.

For decades I carried this story with me, angry at my mom for not advocating enough for me, angry that she couldn’t convince my teacher to accept me back.

These two short stories took about 20 minutes to create. They aren’t perfectly written but they are a testament to how powerful the written word can be when offered as a way into one’s subconscious and creative mind.

I made a commitment to write at least one word per day in my journal at the beginning of June - I haven’t missed a day! It’s been an interesting exercise as I’ve notoriously been a fair-weather writer, writing only when I felt like it or I’ve needed to complain about something. Hence my journal entries have been mostly a sad tale to do with weight or disappointments or failed attempts to write regularly.