Invent a New Word by Stephanie Foley

Invent a New Word by Stephanie Foley

  1. Create a deck of 20 three-letter syllables and shuffle them.
  2. Draw three cards.
  3. Arrange and re-arrange the three cards until you are happy with the result.
  4. Decide how to pronounce your new word.
  5. Give it a definition.
  6. Write it out as pictured above.
Then join us in Athena Village to share your new words!Join me in our Spark Salon (that’s a link!) to have access to all these fun activities (there will be 52 by year’s end!) articles in the Pam Grout Art & Soul Reloaded Series and receive notifications when new articles are released.Spark Salon hosts a monthly zoom on 3rd Thursdays to share inspiration from creative mentors such as Pam Grout, Julia Cameron, Robert Moss and more.  We’ll recharge our artist souls, ignite our imaginations, and remember our creative magic! Click HERE for details about our next event when we’ll discuss Pockets of Time, Showing Up & G.U.T.S.
The spring equinox is a great time to set or reset your intentions. You can review your recent actions and ways of being perhaps with a new lens of awakening, awareness, and hope, and you can decide how you want to be moving forward. Keeping what is serving you and clearing out what is not.I set a lot of goals and intentions at the beginning of the year, yet I have recently noticed that I have become so preoccupied with perceiving what wasn’t going to happen in the future that I became paralyzed from taking action in the present. Looking through a new lens, a reminder and/or mantra I am using to remind myself to stay present is, “Today is the day that matters.” “Just do this workout/meditation/action today.” I’m letting go of trying to commit to things long-term where I have allowed myself to be overcome with worrying about not being able to commit, and instead I’m working on committing to what I can control and commit to today.Perhaps take the day or weekend to notice your behaviors and your inner states of being, and as you notice them determine what you want to carry forward and what needs some spring cleaning. Allow the change of the seasons to inspire you and help you reconnect with yourself, your heart, and your desires.Perhaps consider and journal or meditate with loving-kindness for yourself around:
  • How do I want to be daily?
  • Where can I notice I am in alignment?
  • Where can I adjust to being more in alignment?
  • What can I notice about this?
And if it’s helpful for you perhaps every day you can ask: “What actions can I take today to support how I want to be?”There are new hopes and possibilities available every day; however, spring can provide new perspectives and inspiration to come forth. How might you be inspired by this change of seasons?

Stephanie Foley

VILLAGE COUNCIL MEMBER and VILLAGE MUSE
Stephanie is the guide within Soul Sparks,  Soul Sparks is a muse-connecting co-creative think tank. Our mission is to help you ignite your soul sparks, re-wild your inner child, unleash your creative magic, and re-enchant your life. moonfeatherhollow.com
Playful Retreat Into Your Imagination!

Playful Retreat Into Your Imagination!

What are your favorite summer memories?

Star-watching. Swimming. Exploring the woods.

Root beer floats. Outdoor music. Fireworks.

Bare feet in the grass. Sun-kissed skin. wind-whipped hair.

Will you bring a bit of that childhood summer magic back with a quest into your imagination?

Can you retreat for a time beyond the mundane, the everyday.

Remember, imagination is only limited by the pockets of time we let it out to roam free, to play.

Play for adults is critical in our stressful go-go-go lives. Play has been shown to release endorphins, improve brain functionality, and stimulate creativity. And it can even help to keep us young and feeling energetic. Studies show that play improves memory and stimulates the growth of the cerebral cortex. ~Wanderlust.com

Your invitation:

Create a door—a portal to the faerie realm. Rectangular or round, hobbit style made from paper, wood, or cardboard with a window and door knob. Play with paint, colored pencils or cut from a magazine or our template below! Tape it to your journal cover, or a page inside. Then make another, for your bathroom mirror or dresser drawer. Be easy and just start. Remember, creativity is magnetic. Follow your impulse. If you can, we highly recommend you paint a door in the knot of a tree in your yard. Add a doorknob and sign, perhaps a ladder or stone pathway. The visual thrill and vibrational lift of a portal sighting will transport you to happier realities. These are two way portals—a reminder to stay open to possibilities and the muses, to visit you! A declaration that you are open to inspiration!

One of the things that may often stop us from playing is that we, as adults, get very set on who we are and the types of activities that we do and do not like. But play is healthy and fun, so it benefits us to figuratively—or literally—roll the dice and allow play back into our lives.

~Wanderlust.com

Perhaps your adult rational mind is ready to dismiss this whole article as silly. Are the enemies to your creativity demanding that you stay in your comfort zone, avoid risks, and convince you that you just aren’t creative anyway? The very first way that creativity can be accessed is through PLAY!

An excerpt from Pam Gout’s Art & Soul Re-loaded addresses our barriers to creative practice:

Enemy #1—Procrastination. When you first commit to working on your art, you will hear a tiny voice. Or at least you’ll think you did. Or you did until the appointed hour arrives. And then it’s, What was I thinking? I want to be an artist, but not today. Probably tomorrow. And then you go on living the same life you’ve been living before, the same life from which you want to escape.

Enemy #2—Resistance. Change is uncomfortable. Especially something this risky. Every artist is on the tightwire. No longer cowering. No longer hiding.

Enemy #3—Self-doubt. You’ll hate everything you produce. You’ll look at whatever it is and think, “This is pure drivel. I’d be wise to stop.”

Perhaps it isn’t too risky to those enemies to simply color some pictures and allow yourself a little creative retreat?

Click to download a PDF of the PixiePortals

Will you start now? Will you take just 5 minutes and any supplies within sight to make your first portal? 

Stephanie Foley

curious.  imaginative. creative. magical.
“What looks like play from the surface is really a much deeper journey into nature and ourselves.”
When Play Becomes a Career

When Play Becomes a Career

The beach is my happy place. Swaying in a hammock on the beach – pure bliss.
I’m a travel lover, nomadic soul and a rolling stone. A vegetarian for over 30 years, I tend to have more compassion for animals than people – they have no voice. I am passionate about helping women of all ages grow in business, life, career and joy. This passion has manifested itself throughout my life in many ways. And always at the very core has been an underlying love of producing meaningful and transformational events that bring people together.

My first events:

I’m guessing I was about 8 years old when I hosted my first backyard Muscular Dystrophy Carnival fundraiser. I ordered my kit and started gathering the neighborhood kids to help and to attend. I set up game stations around my backyard and canvased the neighborhood with flyers to let everyone know that THIS was the place to be. It was my first, and certainly not my last. By high school I was organizing girls outings, class parties (some of which I got in big trouble for) and other fundraising events. In my college sorority, I held the office of Social Chair – planning parties and philanthropic events. And of course all of my friends bachelorette parties, showers and baby showers along the way. My college internship led me back to the Muscular Dystrophy Association where I co-created a community event to kick-off the annual Bike-A-Thon fundraiser. We brought together city leaders, local celebrities and local radio for tricycle races on a track running through a popular bar. The event brought attention to the Bike-A-Thon and the start of the fundraising drive. I vividly recall during my junior year of high school one of my best friends saying to me as we were preparing for a party at her house, “I think you should be a party planner, it’s your calling.” Little did I know 20 years later that’s exactly what I would be doing, and getting paid for it.

It Becomes a Career

My career in training and development has led me to designing not only world class learning programs and events but also the celebrations and parties that come along with planning national conferences, awards programs and training sessions. I have organized and choreographed a flash mob. Facilitated experiential leadership programs with blindfolded CEOs. Trained service company dispatchers inside the body of a DC10 aircraft. Hosted improvisational storytelling on the beach. Conceived and launched a women’s expo. I’ve designed curriculum for dozens of learning programs for industries as varied as diamond jewelry manufacturing and plumbing. And still nearly 50 years after that first event my passion remains for creating experiences that change lives and businesses.
My personal brand promise: Never satisfied with ordinary.

Making It My Own

After creating both live and virtual trainings and events for corporations and associations for nearly 2 decades I made a difficult decision. I left a job I loved, working with people I loved to start my own business. I had accomplished so much and had done what I had come to do. It was time to get back to my true passion, working with women entrepreneurs in a way that is authentic to me. Truth, I no longer wanted to serve the agenda of others, but rather my own personal mission that had been carrying with me since my high school days.

Today

I help entrepreneurial women who want help creating high value, high engagement live virtual events. I use my 30+ years of instructional design experience along with a lifetime of creating high transformational experiences to guide women in their own creation. My clients have great knowledge and expertise to share, they want to create live virtual events. And they are overwhelmed and not sure where to even start. That’s where I come in.
Sheri Bennefeld

Sheri Bennefeld

traveler. creative. entrepreneur. nomad.

[/db_pb_team_member]
“My background is in training & development, marketing and association management. My mission is to provide tools, resources and guidance to help businesses grow.” – Sheri
Make your virtual events shine – without all the work and overwhelm I’m a Virtual Event Producer 🎧🎙 and Learning & Development Expert skilled at transforming your live courses, retreats & programs for virtual delivery. Working with Coaches | Entrepreneurs | Authors | Thought Leaders to bring their voice out is a unique and effective way. Founder – Way Beyond Ordinary. Your event will be anything but ordinary 🌺  #virtual events 📖📚 Virtual Book Launches | Meet the Author | Virtual Book Fairs Live To Online – get your live program, retreat, course, conference migrated to a virtual platform
Meet Joan Mathison 💃 guide and storyteller @ Adventures with a Locavore

Meet Joan Mathison 💃 guide and storyteller @ Adventures with a Locavore

Meet Joan Mathison 💃 guide and storyteller @ Adventures with a Locavore

Joan Mathison, guide and storyteller

Adventure lover: Curious + Curator + Connection + Community + Celebrate. Should you stay or should you go? I can help you find THAT PLACE WHERE YOU BELONG.
Saint Paul  Minnesota United States

My song is “Gotta Move” written and performed by Barbra Streisand

 
Gotta move, gotta get out Gotta leave this place,
gotta find some place Some other place,
some brand new place
Some place where each face that I see Won’t be staring back at me
Telling me what to be and how to be it Some place where I can just be me
Gotta move, got to get out
Gotta leave this town, gotta find some town Some big new town, some bright new town Some new town with new places, new lives And most of all, some new faces

My Story

photo by Lisa Venticinque

After eight exciting years, I lost my purpose in the pandemic.*

And it was so unexpected, just like the shutdown. You can probably relate. As a planner by nature, I was caught totally off guard. But it’s complicated. On one hand, I was happy that people were heading outdoors and discovering nature’s healing gifts, close to home. But on the other hand, they did that on their own without my help and encouragement. So now what? I was really afraid I wouldn’t be able to find another purpose that felt so right, that would energize me as much.

How could I make a difference in the post-pandemic world. What would that look like?

I had to take a deep breath and shift my thinking, consider other options, and look for the Big Picture. It took a while but there it was – right in front of me all the time. Nature is a feature of PLACE, and every place has a story. As a locavore, place was what I really focused on.
We celebrate a specific place by eating fresh food grown by local farmers, supporting small local shops, artists, and businesses, and learning local history.
I named my business,  Adventures with a Locavore  because I believed in that concept and love adventures.

Then I learned that where you live, has a huge impact on your happiness and well being.

So I thought, teaching people about the science and art of “place” was true to my core, and no one else seemed to be doing it – an opportunity for my business, Adventures with A Locavore, to grow. And place was a topic big enough for me to study for a lifetime. I was curious and believe other people will be, too. Coming out of the pandemic, knowing you can work from anywhere, there is a broadband today. Many people are itching to move.
People are thinking about upsizing in the suburbs or downsizing in the city, living in a small town or a cabin in the woods or closer to family.

So, how do you find that place where you truly belong.

I thought about my own place, my own life, and all the places I’ve lived – 10 places in four states. How about you? In Denver. The mountains were wonderful – a place to escape –  trout fishing picnics in the summer, skiing in the winter. But the perfect weather had me missing those grey days that make you really appreciate the sun. Another delightful place, Arbor Michigan, a college town, something was also missing for me. I found it in Chicago on the river, and the big lake. I thought about growing up in the new suburb of Eden Prairie, Minnesota, being carved out of cornfields. Not much else to do there in my jaded teenage mind, but the Purgatory Creek was magical, constantly changing throughout the seasons and it flowed near Prince’s Graffiti Bridge. It was a special place you could find and share.

That’s when I realized how important being near water was for me to be happy.

Where I live now is the perfect place for me. I live in the creative, urban neighborhood on the edge of the river gorge in St. Paul, surrounded by nature and history with family nearby. I’m home.

What’s your perfect place?

You can find that place where you belong too. Come with me we’ll have adventures. You can learn about good places to move, and whether you stay, or whether you go, how to put down roots in your place. that place where you belong. – Joan *see Joan’s “before the Pandemic” story here

What’s Next

*Coming Fall 2021*

That Place Where You Belong

Explore possibilities. Set down roots.

A 90-minute in-person workshop held outdoors in an extraordinary place + a Virtual Version in the Village

Benefits:

  • Where you live impacts your health and happiness
  • Create your plan to move and/or learn to love where you live
  • Support the Saint Paul Parks Conservancy

You will learn:

  • Every place has a story.
  • Should you stay or should you go?
  • Importance of where you grew up
  • Does your personality fit the city/neighborhood?
  • Revival of the “15-minute village”
  • The French art of flaneuring
  • Your “Third Place”

photo by Village Member Lisa Venticinque

About Joan

Joan is a writer, history nerd, pastry chef and community development professional certified in sustainability leading workshops in extraordinary Twin Cities places.  

Connect with Joan

Follow our 30 Women 30 Stories mojo Playlist on Spotify
Invent a New Word by Stephanie Foley

Meet Debbie Scheriff 💃 Healer on a Harley

Meet Debbie Scheriff 💃 Healer on a Harley

Debbie Scherriff

Partner to my best guy, healing channel, singer, listener, dog mom, daughter, sister, auntie and friend Robbinsdale, MN (Soon: Upper Peninsula, Michigan) United States
“Anyway”  by Martina McBride Lori Dokken calls this “my greatest hit” because I sing it too! 🎤 😎

My Story

  Highlights
  • 00:09 | At 42, I stopped waiting
  • 01:16 | Be careful what you wish for
  • 02:31 | Feeling powerful and beautiful
  • 03:24 | Finding a spiritual home
  • 04:33 | “Healer on a Harley”
  • 06:16 | Never Say Never

More About Debbie

My friends affectionately call me “the Healer on a Harley”. The open road is where I am FREE. Riding my motorcycle is when I feel the most alive, empowered and connected to Spirit.  It wasn’t always this way for me though. As an empath, I struggled with low self-esteem, depression and anxiety for most of my adult life. When I found essential oils I fell in love with how these tiny bottles could help me get through the day and I could use them to create how I wanted to feel. I became a Young Living Distributor and got curious about other ways to support my highly sensitive self. I began learning how to create healthy loving boundaries, trust my intuition, and channel healing energy. Over the years I’ve studied with The Radiant Heart School, Akashic Knowing School of Wisdom, Hands on Healing with Echo Bodine and the Profound Power Healing System. My mission is to show other big hearted, sensitive women who wear the weight of the world on their shoulders how they can master self-care and feel free too. A big part of my personal healing journey has been embracing and using my voice. When I was a child I was afraid to sing the songs in my heart because I was worried about what other people thought of me. That fear later rippled out into my adult life as I struggled to speak my truth with friends, lovers, and bosses. I started healing this rift when I started singing again in church and later joined a band. I realized that my voice (along with my heart) was my super power and that it helped transform people. I bring my voice into my healing work to create meditations and group experiences that are calming and healing. I’m here to empower others to tune into their truth and speak it from the heart.

Where to Find Debbie

 
Meet Briana Rose Lee 💃 (she/her) Digital Organizer – Activist – Filmmaker – Optimist

Meet Briana Rose Lee 💃 (she/her) Digital Organizer – Activist – Filmmaker – Optimist

Meet Briana Rose Lee 💃 (she/her) Digital Organizer – Activist – Filmmaker – Optimist

Briana Rose Lee (she/her)

Digital Organizer – Activist – News Junkie – Filmmaker – Optimist I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list!
Minneapolis MN US
 

What’s Up

by 4 Non Blondes

 
…the song “What’s Up” by 4 Non Blondes is a song that I feel very cheesy saying because it’s like the most overdone karaoke song, but it’s because it’s so good.     If sometimes things are popular, because they’re really great.
I related to it when I was 25. But  you realize at the end , she was talking about the past because nothing changed. And she kept seeing those same problems. And I’m like, “this song is so relatable”
And the lyrics in that song are fantastic and so relatable. This is my power song because not only do I rock it at karaoke! I love the lyrics. I just genuinely love that song.

My Story

I think Mojo is whatever gets you going, what what gets you up in the morning? What keeps you up at night. What excites you? What drives you. I think it’s that inner force. I want to just be like MOJO! I am still on my journey of claiming my mojo.
Timestamps for the “highlights”  so you can “cut to the chase”  [Full Transcript available in the Village for those who like to read along.]
  • 00:24 On Mojo
  • 01:04 Turning Point
  • 01:58 Working in a Male Dominated Industry
  • 03:19 I Can Wear Glitter to Work + I’m Still In Charge!
  • 03:42 Social Change
  • 04:29 Pandemic offered an Opportunity to Get Involved
  • 05:25 Act Local
  • 06:21 Resilience

More about Briana

Briana graduated with a BA in Theatre Arts and a double minor in both Communications and Ancient Greek Culture from the University of Minnesota. Briana is a freelancer in the production and AD departments for commercial, independent feature/short film, music videos. Briana also works at Ilhan for Congress as a deep canvasser focused on Medicare for All. In her free time, Briana enjoys dance classes, art museums, traveling, cooking (spicy food) and going to see musicals.  She serves as Vice-Chair for Minneapolis DFL, on the board of MN Women in Film and TV and is a regular volunteer with Greenpeace.

Connect with Briana