Kyeli and I have been talking a lot lately about what we want to do for our next project. But what we want is only half the story, because we also need to know what you want.

So if you can spare a minute to tell us about yourself; to tick some tickyboxes and maybe even fill in a text box or two, it would make us really happy.

Talk to us. We’re listening.

Have you read the Freak Revolution Manifesto? It tells the story of why there is so much hurt and sadness in the world, and how we can heal through connection.

Another installment in the series of posts of the WCWW scholarship contest winners and runners-up! Today’s post is written by Moon’sLark, one of our scholarship runners-up. Enjoy!

Change your life, change the world.

My passion has always been writing… since I was old enough to hold a pencil to paper I have been scribing words to the page – everything from poems to short stories, attempts at novellas and novels, plays, rituals, entreaties, manifestos, journals. For my 16th birthday, when all my friends only wanted cars of their own, I asked my parents for a Brother electric typewriter. I yearned to express myself, to write, to connect with other people… and for most of my life I thought that I would do that through writing.

But… like most of us, life happened. And although the urge to write never stopped, the urge to share myself through writing was stamped out. Maybe it was out of genuine concern that it happened – “find a job, make a life” – maybe it was control — “You can’t make a living that way” or “You’re just not good enough, find something else” – but either way the message was clear: Writing is unacceptable.

Writing was a “hobby”, but not something that was acceptable for me. It was something that was delegated to only the SPECIAL FEW that are good enough to create ART, and something that the rest of us were shoo-ed away from lest we think that we, too, might have the ability to create something or think outside the norm.

You know what? It might have taken me 36 years (30 if you don’t count those 3 years when I was busy inventing my own hieroglyphics and my stalwartly uncoordinated 3 years of pre-literate use of the English alphabet before I learned how to properly put letters together) to figure this out but:

It’s a myth. Artists are people who think “outside the box”, who refuse to be controlled and cowed to what is “normal”. Artists are freaks who let their Freak Flags fly. Of course those in control want to make it seem like being an artist is a special privilege instead of an inherent RIGHT of all people to pursue their true nature. Making art, of any kind, the voice of only a few cuts off the voices many of us…

I might not necessarily seem like someone who can change the world enough, I know that even the changes that seem the smallest can inspire many other small changes… and snowball to truly alter the world in surprising ways. So, how would allowing me to join in the World Changing Writing Workshop change the world?

I am working on challenging the status quo that says people like me – over 20, women, single mothers, educated in business and psychology, never formally trained as a writer, not yet “living the dream” – can not write to change their lives, and that writing is not for anyone who might want to express themselves.

As a mother, my voice is powerful in shaping the world. My voice, my actions, my words guide and mold the lives of my children, and their voices and choices ripple out. Stories I read, stories I tell, histories I share with my children all help them learn about the world. My ability to write makes me a better mother, believe it or not, and changes the paths of those that I interact with. My passion for writing shows my children the importance of language and the love of structure and flow of writing. My willingness to put myself out there, to mirror my struggles to become a full person and to guide my children to adulthood, shows that connection with art (in my case writing) changes lives for the better.

Writing is my creative outlet, my wish for the world manifest. Writing is my spellwork, my ritual, my way of bending the rules of the world to allow the wholeness of my being to come out. Writing is my freak flag flying out there, timidly I admit, but with growing confidence that my voice matters. My writing shows my true self, exposes me to the world, and forces me to take a hard look at myself and the patterns of my own paradigms… I yearn to learn the ways to improve my writing, ways to strengthen the voice that has tremulously started to come through with my words. I need to change the world, connect to other people, and enthusiastically change the way we see each other and ourselves in this world we live in.

I want to learn and grow and open myself up to my creative passion. I want to encourage those who were beaten down in the way I was, through the school system or religious system or through domestic violence, to come back to their authentic selves, learning to debunk the myths of the special few. I am determined to challenge the “way things are” and “how things have to be” and re-writing the stories that we tell one another to keep each other down. I want to challenge the notion that writing is divisive and elitist, and show the world that ordinary people can change the world too..

I can change the world: One word at a time; One story; One challenge to the status quo. And slowly a voice grows stronger through the words of challenge and the stories of overcoming and making it genuine.

This I know is true.

Moon’sLark currently writes on her personal blog FrozenNowhere, which chronicles the inside of her head. She has started a spiritual blog as well; the purpose of which is to share her journey through what she thought she was (Wiccan) through her critical thoughts on what she really wants, needs, and thinks about her spirituality.

Here’s what’s been going on with us and with our community lately!

Kyeli just had a post-surgery followup appointment. Everything looks good and she’s healing on schedule. You’ll probably be seeing more of her around here soon. (:

Ana Ottman, previously our online friend, has moved to Austin! She’s awesome in real life, too.

Mark Silver poignantly told the story of why marketing is so important for those seeking to do good in the world. (And if you’re one of those people who wants to do good in the world and wants to learn how to do so more effectively, don’t miss Mark’s course, Heart of Business Momentum.)

Rachael E. C. Acklin wrote something too beautiful for me to summarize. It’s about Love.

Shann Vander Leek wrote a book! It’s called Life On Your Terms, and it’s about redefining your notion of work and breaking free from what’s expected of you. I haven’t read it yet, but Shann is cool and it sounds freaky and revolutionary, so I thought I’d share. (:

Last but not least, The Egg. A story about spirituality that moved both me and Kyeli to tears.

What’s been going on with you lately?

Have you read the Freak Revolution Manifesto? It tells the story of why there is so much hurt and sadness in the world, and how we can heal through connection.

Here’s the first episode of a new series on the Freak Revolution blog: Pace Explains.

Today, Pace explains the difference between gender identity, gender expression, biological sex, and sexuality, and what all that has to do with the whole transgender thing.

Click here if you don’t see the video. (It’s 4 and a half minutes long.)

Featuring:

• Pace
• Chuck Norris
• Angelina Jolie
• Drag queens
• Biker chicks
• Charts and graphs!

What would you like me to explain next?

Another installment in the series of posts of the WCWW scholarship contest winners and runners-up! Today’s post is written by Milo McLaughlin, one of our scholarship runners-up. Enjoy!

I wake up to a new day. I am, figuratively speaking, a new person each day I awake, because I’m free to behave however I want to behave. But sometimes the person I was in the past has made choices which limit the paths open to me now.

Thankfully the Me that I was yesterday was a kind person. Kind to the Me that I am today. And the one before that was also kind. Today is Friday Me, so the last two Me’s were Wednesday Me and Thursday Me. They were kind enough to exercise and eat well, get enough rest, and to cross a number of significant tasks off our shared to-do list.

Tuesday Me was a bit of a git though. In fact, now I think about it, he was a fat lazy git, who stuffed himself with jam doughnuts and stayed up too late watching Battlestar Galactica. So the Wednesday Me was already screwed, and couldn’t get up out of bed so was late for work. That had a knock-on effect to Thursday Me who already had a busy day scheduled, but now had extra work from Wednesday Me to contend with. However, Today Me is compassionate and forgives Tuesday Me so that Tomorrow Me doesn’t have those negative emotions to deal with and can get on with his life.

1997 Me was a total idiot. 1997 Me was a drunkard who treated people badly. This adversely affected 2009 Me when one of those people started working in the same office and understandably refused to speak to 2009 Me. Not only did this make the workday awkward, but 2009 Me felt deeply ashamed and guilty for the behavior of 1997 Me. 2010 Me is working on transcending 1997 Me’s negative impact.

Today I think to myself – what can I do for Tomorrow Me? Well first of all, I could turn down the doughnuts that my boss offered me, and I could go for a swim. That would mean Tomorrow Me was a fraction less unhealthy than today Me. Also, I could do some writing. That would mean Tomorrow Me was a more practiced, and possibly accomplished writer than Today Me, even if only by a tiny margin.

Also, Tomorrow Me has a piece of written work to edit if he wishes, to publish on his blog, or to offer to someone else to publish. So it would be like giving a gift to Tomorrow Me. Also, if the piece I have written is useful for other people, then it is also a gift for anyone who reads it.

Today Me could also spend some time truly listening and engaging in conversation with Today Her. Then Today Me would be improving life for Tomorrow Me, as well as for Today Her and Tomorrow Her because our relationship will be a little bit stronger and happier.

That’s three positives from one action – which have the potential to multiply because of the other people that Today Her, Tomorrow Me and Tomorrow Her come into contact with. But I won’t go into detail, or we might all get confused.

Don’t tell me that you can’t change the world – you can do it every single day. So let’s begin. What is Today You going to do to make the world a better place for Tomorrow You?

Milo McLaughlin is a writer, musician, & filmmaker who has a day job working as a web co-ordinator on environmental issues. He’s been published by a variety of print & web publications on topics as diverse as music, technology, and journalism and has interviewed a bunch of highly creative types including Will Oldham (aka Bonnie Prince Billy). He blogs at Products of a Gaseous Brain.

When I was in the hospital, I had a panic attack.

I’m not good with hospitals. Plus, my legs were semi-bound with these cuff things that were constantly inflating and deflating (something to do with blood circulation and clot-prevention) – and I’ve got a thing about my legs being bound. Plus, I had a breathing tube stuck up my nose and laying on my throat, without which I couldn’t breathe well. Plus, I had an IV that was making my hand ache. Plus, I was incredibly, awe-inspiringly, ridiculously nauseous from the anesthetic. Plus, I had had major surgery about 6 hours prior and was in gobs of emotional and physical pain.

So, I wasn’t in the best shape, all told.

I’d been asleep, and I jerked awake in panic. I couldn’t move without intense pain everywhere and I was having trouble breathing, and the effort of doing either was making the nausea wash over me hardcore. I tried for a few seconds to calm down, then started begging Pace to help me – but she was at a total loss as to what to do, so she called the nurse.

The nurse came in an eternity later and asked, “Are you having a panic attack?”

I managed to answer in the affirmative, but I was really confused as to why she had to ask. It seemed pretty fucking clear to me that I was having a panic attack.

She proceeded to be really mean to me. Seriously. She threatened to withhold my pain medication if I didn’t calm down. She told me, “You just need to relax. Right now.” She said a bunch of other cruel, unhelpful things that the eventual application of morphine has happily erased from my memory – but I sure remember her attitude.

Seriously? She came into my room while I was in the middle of the worst, most terrifying moment of my life – and was mean? Anything less than utterly gentle and compassionate would have been wrong, but her outright uncompassionate cruelty was insane.

I had to stand up for myself, even then in that moment – in that worst, most terrifying moment of my life, when I couldn’t breathe or move and was sure that, at any second, I was going to die. But I would die before I would let this woman stand there and be cruel to me when I needed her love and compassion.

So I did.

I looked right at her (and managed not to hurl or punch her lights out!). I said, “You are not helping me. Either help me or go away.” I’m not sure how much of that was understandable, given that I was hyperventilating and sobbing, but she responded by dosing me with medication and going away, so I apparently got my point across regardless.

Even with Pace right there, it was up to me to stand up for myself. Pace was so worried about me and was utterly flummoxed by the nurse’s attitude, not to mention that she couldn’t even hear half of what the nurse was saying, that she couldn’t say anything fast enough to make my situation better fast enough – so it fell to me.

At all times, it’s really our responsibility to make our lives the way we want them to be. It’s up to us to protect ourselves if we need protecting. It’s up to us to defend ourselves if we need defending. Society tells us (especially women) that our parents or our spouses or our Knights in Shining Armor will ride in and save the day for us – but that makes us disempowered.

Yes, Pace would have jumped in and stood up for me. And yes, I knew I could depend on her to do so if I couldn’t – but even in that terrifying moment, I found that I could.

And I felt even more powerful and satisfied when I did it myself.

Are you ready to stop reading about how to be awesome and start living it? Our 52 Weeks to Awesome e-course is open for registration! With a commitment of just an hour per week, you can be living an awesome life in 52 baby steps. What better time to start than now?

The World-Changing Writing Workshop has just wrapped up, and it was a wild success! Over the course of seven weeks, we helped over 100 aspiring writers learn how to change the world with their writing.

We’ve just finished stuffing all the World-Changing Writing Workshoppy goodness into a big box, and we’re very excited to share it with you! We call it… *drum roll*

The World-Changing Writing Workshop-In-A-Box.

For those of you who missed the live version of the WCWW, you can now get it in this nicely packaged form. All the recordings, all the transcripts, all 63 pages of the Workbook, and all the bonuses.

Click here to find out more! (You can also see what the students thought of the live version of the workshop.)

Author’s note: This is Pace’s special bonus Tuesday post for the Cartoonival of Wisdom. We will return you to your regularly scheduled Freak Revolution tomorrow. (The revolution may not be televised, but it will be scheduled.)

Bob The Angry Flower has so many lessons to teach us all, which one shall I focus on today?

The importance of clear communication?

The danger of overpromising in your marketing copy?

That a victim mentality doesn’t solve anything?

The critical difference between $19.95 and $20 (it may save you from getting stabbed in the neck!)

That it’s not all about you?

That one excellent experience can make you forget the bad?

The importance of acquiring ninja insurance for your business?

Nay, I say. Despite the grand insight Bob expresses in those poignant anecdotes, I feel that his greatest wisdom is expressed by Bob smashing his own hand with a hammer, over and over and over again.

Do you mock the plight of our floral friend? Does his tenacious stubbornness amuse you?

Have you yourself never persisted in a course of errant foolishness, simply out of habit or inertia? Have you yourself never engaged in self-destructive behavior, even when you knew the most excellent course of action would be to stop? Were your own rationalizations any more compelling, in truth, than those of a certain angry flower of our mutual acquaintance?

Is there some area of your life where you are smashing yourself in the hand with a hammer over and over and over again?

Stop!

Want more cartoony wisdom? Here’s some from Doofenschmirtz, Bloo, Bugs Bunny, Pinky and the Brain, Jem, and my personal favorite, The Far Side.

Are you ready to stop reading about how to be awesome and start living it? Our 52 Weeks to Awesome e-course is open for registration! With a commitment of just an hour per week, you can be living an awesome life in 52 baby steps. What better time to start than now?

Another installment in the series of posts of the WCWW scholarship contest winners and runners-up! Today’s post is written by Karen Hyde, one of our scholarship runners-up. Enjoy!

World Changing

It’s a big concept, changing the world. It’s a big task too. But it’s a challenge I’m up for. I need to change the world. As I’ve grown older, I am no longer content to watch the world pass me by and keep quiet. I feel an urge to fight, to incite change and provoke thought. I am not rich, I do not have a powerful position in my job and I do not have unlimited resources. What I do have is a voice, a critical eye and a passion for the human race.

I believe in order to change the world, you have to start with people. People can effect change in our surroundings and with others. As an aspiring life coach, I want to help people discover their passions, their own voice and give them the gift of power in their own lives. I want to change the world by making people happier, more secure with who they are and moving them towards completing the tasks or goals that are important to them. It is my firmly held belief that when people are happy and satisfied in their own lives, that they can then move outside of their personal bubble and help others.

I liken it to when you’re on an airplane and during the spiel about emergency procedures, they tell you to put on your own life vest and oxygen mask before someone else’s. Until you are safe, you cannot really save anyone else. Until you have your life heading where you want it to go, it is difficult to move anyone else in that direction. I want to be the one helping people get their lives heading in the direction they want, so they can turn around and help someone else.

I began blogging in earnest in September of 2009. My first blog was and is A Year of Doing. It’s a personal blog about my quest to do things. Anything, just get out and do. I started the process to become a Big Sister with the local Big Brother/Big Sister program, I began wanting to travel and see the rest of the world, not just my little corner of Southern Ontario. In a short time, I realized that the things that I wanted to do, the things that made me happy and feel alive, were the things that helped others. I got excited about joining committees and wanting to be more active in my community. It was also suggested to me that I look into life coaching. Life coaching is a chance to do exactly what I wanted to do: help people move in the direction of personal satisfaction. I signed up for a program through Coach U and I am taking 2 classes a month and working full time because I know that this is what I am supposed to do. It has also led to me recently start a second blog and business website, Igniting Your Life.

My readership is not large on either site, and both websites are still rather new. I have, however, come to realize that my blogs are being read. And because they are being read, I have an opportunity here to put out my message. I can put something out into the world that is going to be read and listened to. And herein lies the chance for me to do my part to change the world. I am passionate about wanting to make a difference and I am passionate about my message of helping others. What I lack are some of the tools to write world-changing blogs. I have the thoughts and the ideas, but I need to find the best way to put my message out there. This is where the World-Changing Writer’s Workshop would be perfect for me. I need to know how to construct my message to reach as far as I can and make the biggest impact possible. This workshop can teach me. With more than half the names of the guest speakers on my daily reading list, and bookmarked on my home and work computers. I know with complete confidence, that this course would be everything and more that I need to learn to put my message out there effectively.

I want to change the world. Help me to gather the knowledge so that I may spread my message far and wide.

Karen Hyde is a Human Resources Professional by day, but by night she’s a Life Coach, which is really her passion. She’s also a volunteer Big Sister and an avid baker. She loves all things creative and getting messy. You can find her online at IgnitingYourLife.ca or follow her on Twitter.

Little things are different than big things… or are they?

How excited would you feel to save $30 on dinner for your family? That’s a pretty ridiculous discount, and a pretty ridiculously good deal.

How excited would you feel to save $30 on a new car? Or on a house?

People are geared to think about saving money in terms of percentage, not in terms of the actual amount. But the $30 you save on the car or the house is just as thirty as the $30 you save on dinner. It’s worth just as much: exactly thirty dollars. You can spend it on exactly the same amount of things, or save it for exactly the same raininess of day.

Earning is different than saving… or is it?

How much effort would you put into earning $500 by the sweat of your brow, or by the tapping of your fingertips?

How much effort would you put into saving $500 on a large purchase, like a new car or a house?

Most people wouldn’t even put in a tiny bit of effort. Either they’re intimidated by the large-thing-buying process, or it just doesn’t seem worth it, because it’s less than 1% of the total cost. But remember: that $500 you could save is just as five hundred as the $500 you worked those many hours to earn.

Wouldn’t it be worth putting in at least one hour to try to save that much?

Isn’t your time worth $500/hr?

The next time you make a big purchase, remember that every dollar you can save is just as dollar as a dollar you save on pretzels, and just as dollar as a dollar you earned from your own hard work.

The next time you buy something big, think about what you would charge for an hour of your time. If you think you could save that much or more by negotiating, shopping around, or looking for opportunities to save, do it. Money saved is just as money as money earned.

Are you ready to stop reading about how to be awesome and start living it? Our 52 Weeks to Awesome e-course is open for registration! With a commitment of just an hour per week, you can be living an awesome life in 52 baby steps. What better time to start than now?