September 3, 2010
I love the fall! New ideas! Bursts of energy! And a preview of the coming year. During Sept, the month before my birthday, this always happens. Ideas come to me and I work on them over the next year. Maybe it is the conditioning of the end of summer and the beginning of the school year. Maybe it is seasonal. Maybe it is related to my birthday and the promise of a new year!
Whatever it is, 2 project ideas have arrived! I am going to tell you about one of them today.
Many of you know I traveled to 45 Jonas Brothers concerts during the summer of 2009. Hannah, my youngest daughter and I drove 24,000 miles in 11 weeks.
A few days ago, I surrendered to the impulse to share this book. The book involves 45 Jonas Brothers concerts, but there is a deeper story underneath. I felt called to do something that summer that made no logical sense and I lived on the edge financially to do it for three months. Every time I was ready to give up, be responsible, come back to Baltimore, there was a paradigm shift.
*An invitation to dinner in Portland from a mother who was following the journey
*A 3-minute conversation with a woman in Minneapolis telling me the blogs were a lifeline to her 13 year old daughter
*A job to film Jonas fans playing Bop-it
*A mother who became a lifeline to my daughter in Los Angeles
*Tickets and hotel rooms that appeared from musicians and a bus driver who was driving the back up band.
It became a quest. With limited money, I had to think differently to make it to the end.
Isn't that what we are all being called to do right now? Think in a different way about all of the details in our lives. Everything in the world is changing. Jobs, housing, banking, education, government and healthcare. This is not the time to give up. This is the time to dig deeper, get a new perspective, awaken our creativity, and collaborate with one another.
Here is the beginning of my vision. It will continue to evolve this year:
I am creating a membership called An Evolutionary Woman's Journey series (this came to me as I drove through the mountains in 2008. Another story!)
The membership time period is Oct 1, 2010-Sept 30, 2011. The cost is $22. (If you sign up now, the cost is $17 and you will receive the first excerpt of the book on Sept 22, 2010)
Three e-books will be released this year:
Book 1-45 concerts Part 1
Book 2-45 concerts Part 2
Book 3-Living on the Road: A One-year journey
Here is what you do:
1. Go to this link to sign up: http://bit.ly/ewjourney
2. Every month 8-10 chapters of the current book will be e-mailed to you on the 22nd. I will mail the first chapters on Sept 22. It will be a pdf file. You can read it on your computer or print it out.
3. A survey will arrive 2 weeks later asking you for your opinion about things in the book.
4. Every month there will be something for you to vote on- Title of the book, Cover design, Book structure. I will supply the content of the book, but you will be building it with me. There is a book series called, "Choose Your Own Adventure." There may be elements of that added to the book. Sections about making choices in our lives.
5. There is a Facebook page to join called An Evolutionary Woman's Journey Series. There will be discussions. Anyone can join the FB page, but the books will only be shared with people who have a membership.
6. More ideas will emerge! And many of them will come from you.
7. If anyone has a business or a website, there will be space in the back of the book to advertise. E-mail me at opentoinspiration@gmail.com for advertising info.
8. If you have more questions about the program before signing up, write in the comments section of this blog or go to my formspring account. http://www.formspring.me/andreahylen
9. A monthly drawing with prizes like posters, books and goodies. More ideas will emerge...
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Here are some of the lines from the book- Part 1:
*Concert 5-: I started thinking about the impact we can each have on the people and the world around us. I talked with many fans who felt that the Jonas Brothers music had healed their hearts. They felt sad or unloved in their lives. This sadness could be from the loss of a loved one or an illness or a disappointment in life.
As I sang the songs in the concert tonight, I began to imagine that I was a light beam in the world. I was feeling the love and the music and then I was imagining that I could spread that love to the section I was in and then to the rest of the arena and out into the world.
What if that is true? What if whenever we felt love we began to radiate love to the world? Try this. Think of a situation where you have felt love. Feel the love and imagine that it can flow out of you, like breathing in and out. Breathe in the love. Breathe out the love. As you feel the healing of you own heart, breathe that out into the world and then breathe it in again. Maybe that is the greatest gift of following the Jonas Brothers. The love we feel radiated to ourselves and each other.
*I ask myself, "Why can't I trust life to support me? Why must I worry and fear that things will not work out? Why am I holding onto the details of life so tightly when I have so much proof that I am supported?
*Am I here to watch the movie of my life or am I here for the ride? I choose the ride.
*Concert 6- Tacoma, Washington. I needed silence. My mind was racing with questions and I wanted to find a stillness to hear the answers. For me the silence is best in nature. I take a quiet walk or sit and watch the birds, the flowers, the trees, the wind, the clouds and the sky. As I sit in that still connection between myself and something greater than myself, the questions begin to appear.
*(talking about the impact of songs from the bands traveling with the Jonas Brothers) From the Honor Society is the song, "See U in the Dark." This is stirring something in me that is ready for the next chapter in my life. I am closing the chapter of homeschooling Mom. Widow of Hurley. Baltimore resident. I am excited to move into the next chapter and it is scary at the same time. The words from the song, "I'll never see you the same, The veil has been lifted, now I see you're gifted, My whole perspective has changed." This summer I want to explore the questions, "What are my gifts? What is the next step for me? How do I support Hannah in the last two years of school and begin to explore my own new life?" What's next?
*Concert 9: Provo, Utah. My victory is your victory. My YES! to the Universe, is your YES! to the Universe. My adventure leads you to your adventure.
It takes courage to step out of your comfort zone and risk everything. I am learning to relax more on this evolutionary edge and follow the ideas and the guidance. Every step leads me to the next step.
*This is funny. As I write this blog, the ad on my Facebook page in this moment reads, “Be more than a Leader. Be an influential leader. Learn how to create solutions that make a difference!”
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I hope you will join me on the journey this year, as we create something together. Here is the link to sign up: http://bit.ly/ewjourney
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