Journey Juju

#best09 - Best Car Ride

Paris: February, with Heather of Secrets of Paris.

Hands down the best car ride of the year. I’m in the front seat of a Porsche down the Champs-Elysées after drinking champagne to toast the completion of my novel, Chasing Sylvia Beach.

The city is glittering, I've completed the last draft of my novel, and I'm feeling free, alive and slightly fancy.

Cappuccino Cepes

Paris Photo Album

Paris September 2009 Click above to go to photo album for a few peeks into Paris.

Five Weeks, Five Countries

Wish I could take those pillows with me!

I’m packing up the office and the studio and getting ready for another creative leap over to Europe. I’m excited like a kid is excited on Christmas Eve…wondering what will happen, anticipating the excitement and imagining the pleasures that await me in Paris, Croatia, Italy, Greece and Turkey.

 
What’s this trip about? I could tell the story or tell what this trip’s about. It’s like asking what a novel or film is about. I can give you the storyline for my novel: Chasing Sylvia Beach is about a young woman who travels back to Paris, 1937 and meets her bookish idol, bookstore owner Sylvia Beach.
 
What’s the understory? It’s about a quirky young woman looking for models for how to live an interesting life as an unconventional female. It’s about the power of books and the dangers of bookish fantasies.
 
So, the storyline for this Odyssey: I’m meeting my friend Mr. B in Paris where we’ll embark on a five-week, five country odyssey. We’ll fly to Dubrovnic from Paris and will spend a week on the Dalmation coast, visiting Croatia’s islands and villages. From there we’ll ferry over to Bari, Italy, where we’ll catch a night train to Naples. Almost a week on the Amalfi coast, or Rome, we haven’t decided.
 
From Rome we fly to Athens, where we take another plane to Crete. I’ve rented a house on western Crete and I look forward to living a relaxing week, Greek style. Whatever that might look like.
 
After that, ferry over to Rhodes, then tuck into Turkey. We’ll enjoy a week in Turkey, not sure where exactly, then five days in Istanbul before flying back to Paris and then home.
 
Unless we are having so much fun we decide to keep going. Lest you think this is just a vacation, let me assure you that I am always working. I’ll continue to coach my clients, lead my groups and publish my newsletters. I’ll be blogging, too, though how frequently I am not sure.
 
I’m developing some projects and will be researching the following:

• Istanbul as a possible site for a creativity excursion in June, 2010.
• The Creative Travel Tools insist on being tested again and again.
• Mr. B will be my test subject for an offering I am developing using the creative travel tools.
• Making and posting videos. I have an idea for a series I want to make in Greece. Stay tuned!

That’s the storyline. Here’s the understory.
 

The Creative Person’s Hierarchy of Needs

You’ve heard of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. In a nutshell, as humans, our basic needs are: Physiological, Safety, Love/Belonging, Esteem and Self-Actualization. To read more, go here.

Creative people, those who are making things – books, businesses, design, art – have additional needs. Recognizing these needs and making sure they are met are essential to applied creativity.

When we don’t acknowledge our needs, we’re allowing life to dictate our experience. Knowing your needs and being willing to take action to make sure they are met will make the already challenging work of creating much easier.

 

Not on the list but so important: lots of notebooks!

These are Marcus McAllister's notebooks in his Paris studio. I love his art.

Over ten years of coaching and almost twice that time creating things myself, I’ve identified ten needs creative people have. But unlike Maslow, I don’t prioritize them. Each person will have their own hierarchy for these needs and will also have their own needs to add.  Here they are:

Preparing for My Next Odyssey

It’s amazing to me how an upcoming trip can focus my energies. Once I had confirmed my departure date, I was on a mission to get all my work done before I leave.

On the way to the airport, settling in on the plane, I experience a feeling I rarely get to enjoy: the sense that everything is handled, everything is done, and there’s nothing to do but relax into the journey. Everything is buttoned up at home: the computer off and stored, my apartment tidy, my bills all paid….what great peace of mind. 


But the weeks getting there can be a frenzy of activity. Because I’ve embarked on major trips many times, I know I can get everything done. I can focus on doing rather than worrying that I won’t get it all taken care of. My inner control freak loves this part. I love planning what I will stuff into one small suitcase. I enjoy the pre-trip adventure as much as the travel itself.
 
It’s no small feat packing for a trip like this. There’s the clothing that has to accommodate life in Paris, Venice, Croatia, Greece and Turkey. There’s the art supplies and the painful decision about what notebooks to take. Wouldn’t it be great if I had only one notebook for everything? Then there’s the mobile office: the cell phone, the cords, the chargers, the gadgets and gewgaws that make it possible to report the journey as I experience it. Not to mention the beauty supplies, which really add up even for a non-girly girl like me.

 

Since you won't be in Paris with me, here's my hot dress with my Italian shoes. I'll be wearing this out to dinner.

I’m also working on being as fit as possible. I’m trying to lose those last few pounds so I can really strut in my sexy dress in Paris. I’m seeing a chiropractor to heal the back injury I incurred on the last trip. (Not from schlepping, but from performing a yoga pose at an inappropriate time and place. Read: ego yoga.) I’m building my muscles and taking my vitamins so my body is strong and ready for anything.
 
And then there’s the planning. We have a rough itinerary that seems to change daily. My travel pal Mr. B and I discovered that we have very different approaches to life. On the Myers Briggs Type Indicator, he’s a P and I’m a J, if that means anything to you. What it means to me is I like to have things organized and planned and he likes to wing it. We’re meeting somewhere in the middle and will hopefully have easy negotiations while traveling.
 
I have less than two weeks before I fly to Paris on September 22nd. Mr. B will meet me there and we’ll embark on our odyssey. I can’t wait. But in the meantime, there’s work to be done here. So back to it.
 
What helps you prepare for a trip? Are you an overeager researcher? An inveterate list maker? What makes prepping for travel as fun as travel itself?
 
 

Latest from the Magic Treetop Studio

A few weeks before Labor Day (US), I feel like summer is over. I’ve allowed myself a lot of free time while integrating back to life in the US and now I’m eager to move on to the more focused energy of fall. I’ve been home five months now and while it’s been a pleasant summer, it’s time to drag myself out of my magic treetop studio and into my office. I’ve been developing several new projects that I want to share with you.

Paris City Shrine

(From the City Shrine series.)

I consider this to be my best shrine execution. It’s many-layered. Let me unpack it for you.

I searched in the Marché des Puces on the edge of Paris for the container. Among the wooden trays, the yellowed lace and brittle postcards I found a small silver tin. It had a little sponge in a side tray for nestling a bottle, and a rack with holes to keep something like needles in place. The couple from whom I bought it were awesome; we discussed American and French politics in their stall while trying to figure out what the case had originally been used for.

We finally deduced that it was for some kind of medical injection kit. Not the most romantic container, certainly not a cool cigarette case, but it was perfect nonetheless.

On the lid is a painting of an artist who was doing an unusual gig at the Shakespeare and Company literary festival. She had a room in the creaky old shop where you could go and take a nap, and she’d paint you while you slept. I tried to slot into one of the openings, but my schedule didn’t work for it.

The inside has two tiers, just as Paris has two halves: day Paris and night Paris. On top, in day Paris I glued a metro ticket, the dates of the festival and a strip from a painting from the Absinthe bar card.

In the side tray I’ve included Shakespeare, of course, representing the bookstore Shakespeare and Company past and present, as well as the logo of L’As du Falafel in the Marais. 

Underneath, in night Paris, are the naughty bits. There’s the package from a Naughty Paris condom, and the address of the hotel on rue St Antoine where João and I spent two nights.

   and a book I made out of metro tickets tucked into a pocket made from the festival program. 

I had the most romantic time in Paris with João and the love and art of our time is definitely infused in this shrine. It’s color, texture and charm will always bring back that mid-June week.

This and other creative travel tools are in my Creative Toolkit for Travelers, available at my Original Impulse online store. All products are 20% in June 2009 to celebrate my ten years in business. Pick up your copy today and be making your own travel art.

You are dazzled by the wonders of the world.

This and other Journey Blessings on sale in June!

City Shrine series

 When I set out on my journey last year, I invoked a lot of juju to make sure that my travels would be smooth, safe, and tons of fun. I brought this juju upon myself with a project: make 100 travel shrines and sell them.

Remaining travel shrines. NFS

I made 100 travel shrines, sold about 80, financing my plane ticket with the sales. 20% of the proceeds were loaned to Dorothy Siaw, an entrepreneur I connected with through Kiva.org.

While traveling, I made City Shrines as a way to remember these cities as I and my Muse experienced them. These are portable talismans that represent the essence of a place as experienced on that trip. It's an artistic expression that makes travel more meaningful and fun. The first City Shrine was created in honor of Lisbon. After that came Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam and London.

I gathered ephemera from the each city – museum ticket stubs, postcards, receipts, cards, the detritus that one collects while traveling. I sought out the perfect containers for the shrine. They had to be from the city, lightweight and cheap.

I made several City Shrines leaving the city by train. The speed and rhythm of the train, my little tray table open and overflowing with supplies...such a beautiful way to honor a place.

It's more than just a fun way to gather the ephemera from a trip into a container. My City Shrines evoke memories of the people I met, the adventures I had, and the magic that made my journey truly one of great juju.

Shrines are just one of the creative travel tools I share in my e-book, The Creative Travel Toolkit. It's on sale with my other products for a creative life during the month of June 2009 to celebrate my ten-year anniversary of Original Impulse.

I’ll be sharing my City Shrines with you on Mondays as a weekly feature on the Journey Juju blogazine. I only have a handful so it will be a short series. Hopefully they will inspire you to make your own City Shrines. You don’t have to travel to do it. You could make a shrine for your own city.

Your journey is sacred. This and other Journey Blessings on sale in June!

Paris vs Amsterdam: Cities Compete for My Love

I know it’s silly to choose favorites, but by nature we like to compare things. Our identities are developed through our preferences. Paris has been my favorite city since I first went there in 1985. Every other city I’ve been to is held up against the City of Lights and pales in comparison. Until Amsterdam.

Amsterdam                Paris

I visited Amsterdam twice in this last year and last June, I could feel it catching up to Paris as my favorite city. In March, I finally capitulated and admitted that my desire to live there is real. Ever since my first visit to Amsterdam in 1988, I’ve wanted to stay there longer.

Because I like to understand and analyze things, I’m going to do a city-to-city comparison. Let's look at the appeal of both of these compelling cities.