I’ve waited six months for the publication date of the book I’m in! Today’s the day! I’m so excited to share the book with 35 other storytellers and to have my personal experience with whales be included.
Adair Heitmann on book launch day!
You can see and hear me reading a section of my story, page 133, “Overcoming Fear with Help From the Whales” on the video here.
The book is Animals: Personal Tales of Encounters with Spirit Animals by Dr. Steven Farmer, is published by Sacred Stories Publishing. Available from online booksellers worldwide and at https://bit.ly/cs_animals
Creativity and wellness message for today: Never give up on your dreams! Keep submitting!Keep having your deep and authentic experiences in life and with nature.Don’t let anyone try to take them away from you.
In 2019 I had a nighttime dream in which whales metaphorically foretold a health crisis that I would survive in 2021. Their wisdom helped me weather a very trying and scary time because I knew to trust their guidance. I’ve been connecting to spirit animals in my dreams and in waking life all my life. They’ve never steered me wrong.
Last year I was so sick and the medical treatments so severe that I had to take a medical leave of absence from work. Due to the severity of the treatment’s side effects, I had about 5.5 non-consecutive hours a month (that’s right — 5.5 hours per month, non-consecutive) when I had functioning brain cells and a modicum of energy. I called it my “one week a month when I came up for air,” for about an hour each day for a period of about one week.
During my long stretches of down time, when I could focus, I had a lot of time to think. When I thought about what I wanted to do when I came up for air, once a month, I thought “Do more of what makes me happy.” When I thought about this I pondered . . . writing makes me happy.
Serendipity played a hand one day, while I had brain cells I was randomly scrolling though LinkedIn, and along came a call for writers from Sacred Stories Media about its upcoming book by world-renowned author, teacher, shamanic practitioner, and licensed psychotherapist, Dr. Steven Farmer, ANIMALS: Personal Tales of Encounters with Spirit Animals. The publishing company’s call was “Have You Had a Mystical Experience with Spirit?” Well, yes, I have.
The Common Sentience book series is a first-of-its-kind series that brings to the fore and celebrates mystical experiences we have. Every book is anchored by a Featured Author (Dr. Steven Farmer for the ANIMALS book) who is a eminent thought leader on the book’s topic. These teachers share both their personal stories and deep knowledge in chapters throughout the book, along with selected contributing authors. Sacred Stories Media asked people to share their true, compelling personal stories of a direct interaction with a Spirit Animal. The story that immediately bubbled up from deep within me was an experience I had with gray whales in 1988 and how they helped me overcome fear on the Pacific Ocean outside of Tofino, on Vancouver Island in British Columbia.
Over the next weeks, whenever I had a few brain cells available I jotted down my memories of that profound experience. Over time my briefly drafted word sketches grew into the whole true story. During my few hours each month in which I had energy and brain power I stitched all the pieces together and I felt happy writing it. The deadline loomed. I knew I had gotten the story as good as I could. I submitted it to the publishing company for consideration and went back to sleep.
Needless to say, when I learned my story was accepted I was delighted! I am now counting down to the book launch date of January 11, 2022.
Part of the back cover states: “Experience how these spiritual allies can guard, aid, heal, and guide you in the most unexpected and delightful ways.” I’m proud that out of the 35 selected sacred storytellers that my story is one of the highlighted six on the back cover! You can find my story on page 133, “Overcoming Fear With Help From the Whales.”
Best U.S. Book Links to Use: ANIMALS is available worldwide. If you live outside the U.S. please look up the book on your favorite retailer site. A shortened Amazon link is – https://bit.ly/cs_animals A shortened Barnes and Noble link is – https://bit.ly/cs_animals_bn
Creativity and wellness message for today: Allow yourself to to guided by the intelligence of animals and the power of nature.
My thoughts today alight on feathers: Feather symbolism has different meanings depending on who you ask. For me, they represent hope, alignment with Spirit, divine protection, poetic inspiration, and profound yet light mystical connections. They also come into my life unexpectedly and offer me insight and strength to try something new. The feather comes as a sign and teaches me to creatively trust what is in the immediate moment.
Others have said: “In a result oriented culture like ours, it is easy to get hung up on endings, on figuring things out and finding precise solutions. But a true fascination continues building with each new piece of information, making new connections, revealing new patterns and opening new perceptions. The exploration of natural miracles is a fundamentally open ended and curiosity driven enterprise. It reminds us that science is not always about the answer, it is about the questions.” – Thor Hanson, Feathers: The Evolution of a Natural Miracle
.“The soul, light as a feather, fluid as water, innocent as a child, responds to every movement of grace like a floating balloon.” – Jean-Pierre De Caussade
“Style is the feather in the arrow, not the feather in the cap.” – George Sampson
Creativity and wellness message for today: Acknowledge unexpected gifts from nature that may float into your awareness.
The stories people tell have a way of taking care of them. So when stories come to you, you must take good care of them, as well. Learn to give them away where they are needed. Sometimes a person needs your story more than food to stay alive. That is why we put our stories in each other’s memories. This is how people care for themselves.
-Barry Lopez
The hallmark of creative people is their mental flexibility . . . Sometimes they are open and probing, at others they’re playful and off-the-wall. At still other times, they’re critical and fault-finding. And finally they’re doggedly persistent in striving to reach their goals.
-Roger von Oech
Creativity and wellness message for today: Honor all of your eight parts.
From Wikipedia: Roger von Oech (born Feb. 16, 1948) is an American speaker, conference organizer, author, and toy-maker whose focus has been on the study of creativity. In 1975, von Oech earned his Ph.D. from Stanford University in the self-created interdisciplinary program “History of Ideas.” Shortly afterwards, he began providing services in creativity consulting, working with companies such as Apple, IBM, Disney, Sony, and Intel.
In the 1980s, he created and produced the “Innovation in Industry” conference series in Palo Alto, which included Silicon Valley entrepreneurs such as Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Bob Metcalfe, Charles Schwab, Alan Kay, and Nolan Bushnell of Atari.
Two years ago I wrote a blog about “happy accidents.” You can read it here. Currently I’m focused on other work and can only ponder my art from afar. However, inspirational quotes keep my creative sparks going. I hope they do the same for you.
Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep. -Scott Adams
I’m always thinking about creating. My future starts when I wake up every morning. Every day I find something creative to do with my life.
– Miles Davis
As you know I wear many hats. I work full-time as the Director of Communications for a non-profit, plus I have two part-time jobs which are keeping my fine art and writing careers going. I also have a family, and volunteer in my community. I say this not to toot my own horn but to lay the ground work for what comes next.
I’ll paint the scene for you. It’s early November here in New England and it’s been unseasonably mild. A small, white window box hangs from the open-on-three sides front porch of my house. Each May, I plant annuals in this petite box. Every year I have fun choosing different flowering plants, based on their colors (they have to make me happy), my mood, and budget. I love mixing it up year after year.
This past May I planted red, yellow, gold, and blue flowers and enjoyed a summer of lovely emerging plants. Then a few weeks ago as I briefly looked back at my house while driving to work I saw a profusion of pink. Perplexed I used great will power not to stop and investigate. The following morning I made sure I had time to look into this situation. Unbeknownst to me, Mother Nature conspired to give me an autumn gift. Steadily growing and blooming were pink flowers that I must have planted at least five years ago, and they must have been perennials.
Once summer ended I haven’t been watering my window box regularly. The plants are completely root-bound, and all the vegetation just sits there during Connecticut’s freezing winter months. This little pink plant has been steadily chugging along, staying alive underground for years, until the conditions were just right for her to pop up.
The metaphor in this is that sometimes we have creativity inside us that is natural, pure and real. Even when we don’t tend it, it is there waiting, healthy and ready to come out when we least expect it. The additional symbolism is that this past September I exhibited a clay monoprint in an English international art exhibition and in October sold two original fine art pieces. It’s as if my art career is like this pink perennial bursting to life after years of dormancy. For decades I didn’t have time to tend daily to my fine art, but the goods were always there, safe and sound, and waiting for me before they bloomed.
Creativity and wellness message for today: Trust that your imaginative glimmer is there. You don’t have to water it, just allow it to flourish.
I’ve finished reading Biz Stone’s book, Things a Little Bird Told Me: Confessions of the Creative Mind. Biz Stone is the co-founder of Twitter. His self-awareness has been inspiring.
Over the years my friends, family, co-workers, even clients and bosses have exclaimed to me, “How did you know that?” or “How in the world did you make that connection?” What used to feel like shame when my idea appeared to be poles apart from the crowd’s, has turned into appreciation for the way my mind works.
In Stone’s book he says, “Experience and curiosity drive us to make unexpected, offbeat connections. It is these nonlinear steps that often lead to the greatest work.”
What I’ve learned about myself is that my connections are organic. I couldn’t always explain them analytically and this caused some people to doubt their validity. In an instant my mind would grasp interrelationships, visual clues, and data. Or as Stone puts it, “unexpected, offbeat connections.” Does this happen for anyone else?
Creativity and wellness message for today: Ease off on being linear, let your mind associate what appears to be dissimilar information.
Have you had a chance to read Biz Stone’s Things a Little Bird Told Me: Confessions of the Creative Mind? Biz Stone is the co-founder of Twitter. It’s a quick read and if you are too busy revising your memoir, put it on your Goodreads list.
I used to say, “I learned everything I needed to know about working in the real world from art school.” At Syracuse University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts I learned how to chunk down complex projects into efficient timelines. I mastered techniques and discovered the importance of creating something in a step-by-step manner. I experimented with new mediums and technologies, and maybe most important of all, I learned how to take constructive criticism.
After reading Stone’s book I’m now adding a second experience, working in the graphic design industry. He was a book cover designer in his former career and I’ve had a steady career in graphic design ever since my first job out of college. Stone says, “Graphic design is an excellent preparation for any profession because it teaches you that for any one problem, there are infinite potential solutions. Too often we hesitate to stray from the first idea, or from what we already know. But the solution isn’t necessarily what is in front of us, or what has worked in the past . . . My introduction to design challenged me to take a new approach today, and every day after that.”
Creativity and wellness message for today: Be inspired and fulfilled by your new ideas. Let them change you, your company, our nation, and the global community.
Adair Wilson Heitmann's Blog 