McKinney Creative Community

John Denver has a song with the lyrics: "It's five o'clock this morning and the sun is on the rise." Well, I now know for a fact that at three in the morning, the sun is nowhere to be seen.

I decided to stay up all night to get a lot of work done that's been needing to be completed, so what better way than to get it done when everyone else is sleeping?

Well, just about everyone else was sleeping. Here it was still dark out and COOL, and I was just moseying around the square, checking out the new places and window shopping at the old ones when I turned the corner at Square Burger and saw the owner, Brandon, still working. WTF? Who is awake on the square at three in the morning??? (Okay, besides me...) He wanted to know what I was doing up. Trying to stay awake.

So today, Brandon let me know that when he left the square (sometime after we discovered we were probably the only two people awake at that time in the morning), he saw me standing in my daughter's office in front of the computer typing on the keyboard. "Do you know what time that was?" he asked me when I was in his restaurant at lunch.

Frankly, I didn't know. I was on a mission. I had work to complete, and, baby, I was getting it done. It felt good, and I love feeling good. I promised a man that I would send him 300 words a day on my next novel, and I was cranking those words out. I had an ecourse to catch up on, and I finished all the lessons. And today, I designed the commissioned work that was due and got it to my client. Sweet jesus! It has been a phenomenal day and night.

And right now I'm bursting with happiness. The girls here are laughing at my craziness because I can't stop talking and typing. Caffeine late in the day probably has something to do with that, as does lack of sleep.

So now, it's time to head home and shower. Way too many people have noticed I'm in the same clothes from yesterday. I'm getting dressed and even putting on makeup. (Yes, miracles do happen!) And then it's off to Cadillac's to snag musicians for the McKinney Creative Community. My friends, Tom and Silky Michero, told me today that our community needs to have more men, and musicians would be fabulous, and since I've been known to have a few of them in my life (male musicians), I'm talking to them about this new adventure.

There's a Facebook page called McKinney Creative Community, and anyone can join. We're beginning monthly potlucks in September so we can all come together and create a community of creative people. Right now there's all kinds of artists -- musicians, writers, painters, and we want to include anyone in the healing arts also. Who's not an artist? Who doesn't create a work of art with their own lives? Get creative, have fun, and join us for the time of your life.

Tom and Silky Michero working on plans for our McKinney Creative Community in Square Burger today at lunch

And the magic continues...

Another day in McKinney at The RejuveNation LifeSpa. Honestly, I don't know what to say. I don't know what words are capable of emitting the emotion that I feel at the moment. I am in awe. I am grateful. I am speechless.

Two of my most favorite people in the world showed up here tonight to do a night of trance dancing -- dancing to tribal drumming while blindfolded. Since I had already done it, I helped Silky spot those who were dancing without physical sight. You read that right -- Silky. I love that name. Silky Hart. It not only fits her perfectly but describes her so well too. I watched her dance tonight, and the movements were silky, flowing, effortless, and so graceful. She showed me how fluidity in her body exposed how open and natural she is, so allowing of others to be who they are in the moment, so open to the world of all possibilities and basking in the glow of immense abundance. She glowed with radiance as her hands flowed through the air as she swayed to the beat of the drumming. She was art at its best.

And my other favorite person is Silky's husband Tom. He set up his speakers and drums and soothed us into the beat of the music. Thank you, Tom and Silky, for being a part of my dreams coming true. I am so grateful to the two of you and to all who participated with us tonight. It was truly a night of magic at The RejuveNation LifeSpa.

I showed up here in McKinney last fall to spend my daughter's birthday with her and moved here just two weeks later. A beautiful, gracious, and loving man helped me move without once saying a derogatory word, not once did he utter a syllable of negativity. He packed me up. He moved my studio into the UHaul and then gave me the time of my life. He didn't want me to move, but he didn't say a word about it the whole time he carried boxes down the stairs to the truck. Instead, he helped me go down a path that unfolded my dreams.

And here I am in McKinney, Texas watching those dreams come to life every second I just show up. RejuveNation LifeSpa is magic. We all felt it tonight. People walk by tonight with the doors open and walk in. They tell me they feel it in here. They feel the magic. I do too. It's the magic of knowing I'm okay no matter what. I'm leaping and the net appears over and over and over. The right people and situations walk through the doors every day. I open the doors and dreams unfold. My dreams. The dreams I would've never dreamed before I knew how magical life really is.

So, thank you to all who helped make this happen for me. To my daughter, Dr. Alyssa Summey, you are my greatest gift, my wildest dream come true, and the most magnificent magic. You've taught me to believe in who I really am. Thank you.

Thank you to all who showed up tonight to play in my dream. It was so fun being with you and feeling the love in that room. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

To Tom and Silky. You are the light I choose to be.

And to Bo, thank you for trusting in me, knowing that I was embarking on a necessary journey and believing that our time apart would be temporary. In the meantime, thank you for everything. Absolutely everything. I breathe you in and it is delicious.

What's time got to do with it?

Seriously, today's July 9th. Honest to God, how did that happen? Not to mention that it's 2009. I'm tired of this time thing. Can't we just do away with it once and for all? Can't we go to work whenever we feel like it? Same thing with eating and sleeping? What if we ran our lives by internal clocks instead? Actually, what if we ran everything in our lives from an internal barometer instead of any external ones?

For instance, I awoke this morning to water dripping from the bathroom ceiling. That's after planning a day filled with "have-to" things because of the direction my life has been going. Alyssa has her first open mic night at the new digs so there's a lot to go into preparing for it. Cyndy and I just got two parties to cater to today and in between prep time and serving time, we were going to go over a plan on how we could make a catering business work between us.

But then I awoke to water dripping from the ceiling.

Did I mention that the shelf in the closet fell and clothes are stacked on the couch, boxes filled with shoes, hats, and belts stashed in every extra space? My art supplies are in every corner possible. And surely I've mentioned that I'm working on an art project for Working Mother Media that needs to be sent to NYC as soon as possible, so my sewing machine, cutting materials, ironing board, and boxes of fabric are filling the kitchen and living room. Right now I'm propped on the end of the couch with my laptop on my knees typing in the dark, because Alyssa's fallen asleep on the couch sitting up. She stayed up last night working on things for her office space. She was there late with the electrician, a dear friend so generous to do the work, and then came home preparing for today.

I don't think I lasted being vertical much past midnight even with a couple of cups of coffee. I was working on my art, but when it comes to using the sewing machine I really need to be fully functioning. I can screw things up when I'm overly tired. And my machine's been with me longer than most relationships, and it knows when I've had enough. It will just stop working, and it did very early this morning. It kept breaking threads, and I just called it a night.

When I finally got ready for bed, it seemed to me that the bathroom ceiling was still in one piece. It was between then and when I was awakened by dripping water, that the ceiling became less dense. It's got a nice line running through it with three holes that drip water. Alyssa called maintenance right away -- a 1-866 number -- and talked with someone from India. She told them that it was an emergency. They asked where she was. Not what apartment number but what apartment complex in what state and in what town. They said they'd get right over.

From India? From what state and from what town?

Just a few weeks ago, we would've been able to go to a very wonderful man in the main building and tell him what the problem is. He would've taken care of it, but now everything goes through corporate and apparently corporate operates out of India as does every other U.S. corporation that's still intact. No, I know they don't "operate" out of India, but it's their contract labor in India that we as consumers have to deal with.

So, how long do you suppose it's going to take to get maintenance here to fix a dripping ceiling and reinstall a shelf in the closet? Well, we'll see. Let's just hope that when they arrive, I'm here to take the dog out with me, because there's no one coming in here as long as he's here alone.

But didn't this posting start out talking about time and internal barometers instead of external ones controlling how our days are being spent? And just where was I going with that concept? Oh, who knows...my external surroundings are playing way too big a role in my consciousness right now to go any deeper. The internal workings are just going to have to work without me for a while. Right now I will just master going with the flow of wherever this river takes me. (Thanks, Silky, for that metaphor this morning!)