Who am I? What is my work?
I circle back to those, multiple times, as Life flows forward to different places, projects, interests, and inspirations. What and who are heart-connected? So many options; so much ‘noise’ coming at us.
Get out of the way. Let it work through you. Write pages, not judgments.
Julie Cameron, The Artist’s Way
I go back to the tent-maker role concept, of a guy named Paul I read about once. There was a particular, ordinary job he did, and his teaching others came in the course of his work.
Get out of the way. Let it work through you.
Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way
What is our tent-maker work?
Artists, healers, writers, coaches–this spiritual energy, electricity flows through us, lives through us; we are compelled to do what we do, be who we are.
Our tent-maker work is often what pays the bills, provides a way in to our other work, audience.
In Big Magic, Elizabeth Gilbert shares a vow she made to her creativity and writing. It was an unconditional vow of fidelity. She never expected or required that her writing support her financially–even though it does now; she felt it was her role to support it, her creativity, whatever it took. She always held tent-maker roles, even when Eat Pray Love topped the best-seller list for a good long time.
While we are targets of marketing to make six-figure lives of our creative endeavors–and many have and do–it’s not everyone’s desire or path. Some succeed via tent-maker work–not as failures of marketing or performance in our creative abilities, rather as another way of our being of service and connecting to those we’re here to serve. It’s a vehicle that takes us places.
We are taken care of, materially and spiritually. And as long as we go with its flow, we are engaged, energized, happy, healthy, blessed in magical and wondrous ways.
The vehicle that takes us where we want to go isn’t always our own.
Anne Wondra
Our Soul Agreements, before we came here, include a few lessons we’re working on, and also helpers and support and joy in the process.
What is my tent-maker work? Words-work, clerical, word-smith work, using technology, creativity to help others speak their words and move them onward–mine, too, in the process.
In order to tell you my story, I need to tell you theirs.
Ghost Whisper
It’s like that; happiness and joy and accomplishment are connected to, creating with, and serving others. I believe in magic and divine delights, and that life is like a Sudoku puzzle. There’s a flow in it, as long as I accept one step at a time and understand that these steps to a solution are generally not neatly in a row. In the end, a puzzle is completed; the route to get there has been anything but boringly straight. It’s a brain-building exercise; and L.I.F.E. — Living Inspired and Fully Engaged–is a whole-person-activating adventure.
Whatever business and success models work for others, we need to honor our own. That’s soul work of the deepest kind.
What’s your tent-maker work? I ask, because for many of us, Google has no idea what we do; they have no category for it. And we ourselves are still making those words. Meanwhile, our tent-maker work takes us where we’re needed and connects us. For now, that’s how I’m seeing this Living-Inspired-and-Fully-Engaged Life process playing out. And like that Sudoku puzzle, I know it’s an interesting adventure and there’s a happy ending.
If maybe my work can be of service, book a Starter Session and let’s find out together.
Anne