I know a lot of people who are sad about that, but I couldn't be happier. I'm not crazy about the heat and I love action, so fall is my favorite season. Everything wakes up. I was born in Detroit and when the air got crisp and the leaves fell on lawns and streets and we got fresh pencils and new shoes for school, I always got excited.
11 years later, we moved to Los Angeles and there was no way of knowing what season it was. People here in the east say that California is the place where Labor Day never comes. I finally know what they mean. In California I never would have undersstood what that meant. "Labor Day? What's that?"
My first Xmas there was sunny and hot and I was stunned to see huge cardboard cutouts of Santa and the reindeer strung across Wilshire Boulevard between tall, skinny palm trees. My mother was singing with joy, but I was offended. But I couldn't remember cold weather and snow somehow so I couldn't figure out what was wrong. Everything was slow and the same. It was like living indoors.
I kept moving around after college looking for something and when I finally moved to New York as a grown woman. That's when I got it: Los Angeles doesn't do weather, it does climate. I had to figure out as an adult how to adapt to the seasons, watching other people, looking at kids in the playgrounds and windows of department stores. The crisp autumn weather made the child in me happy, and putting away summer clothes and pulling out winter clothes made the grownup in me happy. It was like visiting a beautiful new world and relearning a language I had forgotten.
To my family back in California, this sort of thing just looked like extra work. They're real Californians. Me, I love work. Of course, most of the work I do is work I really enjoy. Which reminds me of one of my favorite quotes, from Spider Robinson, a science fiction writer beloved by many: He said,
"It took me better than a quarter century to learn, the hard way, that hard work at something you want to be doing is the most fun you can have out of bed...to learn that the smart [person] finds ways to make everything he does be work; to learn that 'leisure' time is truly pleasurable (indeed tolerable) only to the extent that is is subconscious grazing for information with which to infuse new, better work."
Which brings me to one of my favorite kinds of work: running retreats.
BACK FROM WS RETREAT
I just got back from my third retreat for Writer-Speakers. Once again it has drawn another amazing group of people who are already supporting each other and moving forward on their plans to have a book and a speaking career within the next year.
In my inbox I find that 3 more people from the previous WriteSpeak programs have finished their books and one has gotten a very big speaking gig (we're holding her hand -- which is shaking -- but she's already done this a dozen times in the class and will be fantastic. And she'll soon be rich enough to take us all out to dinner to thank us :-)
REUNIONS
On a short break I met with Scanners from last spring's Puglia Retreat at their first reunion. We ate at a huge, noisy Italian restaurant and shouted over the music and noise as I heard about their progress and met their partners. I don't remember enjoying any holiday get-togethers with family and friends more. This month I'll regrettably miss another Scanner's reunion, (of the first Scanner retreat ever, from Corfu, Greece in 2006) at its second reunion in Tuscany. (I'll be busy running a new Scanner's Retreat in southern Italy.)
One of the expected rewards from both WriteSpeak and Scanner's retreats is the ongoing, loving, unending enthusiasm and support that come out of the days we work together and the following months and years of emails and monthly conference calls, watching and helping everyone move forward to exciting personal and professional goals. But the unexpected reward is turning out to be the creation of lifelong friendships. I've never seen anything like it.
SCANNER RETREAT IN PUGLIA
SEPT 26 - OCT 1, 2008
LAST CALL!
Now it's almost time to pack again, to head out for the next Scanner's Retreat in Puglia, Italy (Sep 26 - Oct 1). Three spaces have just become available, so if you want to join me and your tribe of Scanners for the experience of a lifetime, be sure to let me know as soon as you can. If you ever want to attend, do it now if you can. I hope to do others in future, but I've got a book that's been waiting for me to write it, and I'm planning to start in October. If the Scanner retreat is right for you, seize the day.
And if, for some reason, you have no idea what I'm talking about and would like to know, head over to GeniusPress and read all about it, see some great photos of the lovely 16th cenury masseria we pretty much have to ourselves, and sign up.
If you want to hear my recent radio show in which producer and Greece/Italy-man-on-the-ground Matt and I talk about Puglia Scanner retreats, click here and listen away: Refuse to Choose! (or What Do I Do When I Want to Do Everything?)
And if you want to hear the song that always goes through my mind when I know I'm heading back to Puglia, listen to this and fall in love.
I've been fighting with a tempermental mail program all of this Labor Day weekend, so first come will be first served. If you're a Scanner who wants to finally become focused and get moving in the best direction your life can take, I'd love to work with you.
FAQ about the Scanner Book: In the states it's called 'Refuse to Choose,' but 'What Do I Do When I Want To Do Everything' is the same book when published in New Zealand, England, Australia, and South Africa. The book is also popular in Germany (called 'Du musst dich nicht entscheiden, wenn du tausend Träume hast'). We've had Scanners from every one of those countries at our retreats. Add to the rich mix of all those cultures all the many interests inside the head of every Scanner, and each retreat is like the best birthday party in the world.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Patty Newbold is half-way through the first-ever telephone Success Team and it's a triumph! You can find out more at
I'm starting to do teleclasses on Resistance again, and have one scheduled now. The proceeds go to the Kilim e-Commerce School of Ortahisar, Turkey. The details are
Barbara
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