Kids have it figured out. Read more about my wise guys, over at Hybrid Mom.

photo courtesy iStock Photo

I sat on my bed around 8:00 last night, staring at the screen on my laptop.  I had proofed the pages a zillion times. I attached the document to the email, took a breath and hit Send. The first 10 pages of my book are off the South Carolina Writer’s Workshop.

Exhale.

Another exciting thing happening this week: I’m a guest blogger for the Center for Women’s Lowcountry Women blog. They asked me to write about work-life balance.

I’m not sure if I have balance, but let’s just say, I’m an advocate for the cause. My best friend once told me I have changed careers like I change Halloween costumes. Her assessment of my resume was funny, and true. Click here to read the rest at the Center for Women blog.

Attention Writers and Wanna Be Writers:

My friend and fellow writer, Abigail Green, is teaching a 6-week online writing class: Personal Essays that Get Published. It starts next week (September 8). To register and to learn more about the class (and the wonderful Abby Green) click here.

Again, it’s an online class, and for those of us struggling with balance, that’s about as convenient as it gets.

This is my first conference, and signing up for faculty critiques made it real for me. I’m really doing this. I am writing a book. And now, I’m opening myself up to feedback. This is just one of those things I have to do, regardless of the outcome. I’m open to what the experience will teach me.

I’m taking a chance on my dream, but I’m not really the adventurous type. Click here to read the rest of the story, over at Hybrid Mom.

In Charleston, we’re lucky to have an organization that continues to be an advocate for women. That organization is The Center for Women, a non-profit offering resources, educational programs and networking opportunities to help all women succeed every day.

So, I’m honored that they picked this day to feature me on their blog. Click here to read what the Center for Women has meant to me, my thoughts on working in today’s economy… plus a well-deserved shout out to my mom.

“Dillon has a question for you,” said my husband, who was following close behind and giving me a look that said, “This is a good one.”

“Mommy, where was I before I was here?” He flashed a smile that shows he knows exactly how cute he is and how proud he was to think of the question all by himself.

I glanced and my husband and nodded. Yes, this was a good one, indeed. My son wanted to know where he was before he was in the world. “Well, I had that very same question when I was your age. And I think before we are born, we are with God. And the angels.” I looked at my husband, for backup.

“I told him he was like a ghost battery. Like on Scooby Doo.”

“Huh?” Then I laughed. How bizarre. Dillon laughed too.

“I told him he was like energy you can’t see,” my husband explained. I nodded again, understanding we had essentially told Dillon the same thing, just in different ways.

“So Dillon,” I said, lobbing the biggest question of all, “what do you think?”

He wrinkled up his face, pondering. “I think I was with God.”

My husband shrugged. “The ghost battery is a tough sell.”

But so is the concept of being with God. I’ve had thirty-five years to experience and contemplate what that means to me. I want to freely share my perspectives, while giving my children room to consider these things on their own. Dillon’s question had come from his own imagining. And to me, that is truly fascinating. We can’t be forced into these realizations. We discover our truth in our own way. We can’t be afraid to be curious, to have questions.

Of course, it was just a matter of time before the conversation moved from spiritual things to the science of it all… exactly how do babies make their grand entrance? You can read the rest, over at Hybrid Mom.

[Reading] the book was the beginning of my mindset shift, to say to myself , “What do you want, and what is important to you?”

Funny, what I got from it is “be selfish at all costs.” Instead of throwing away marriages to embark on an epic adventure to find yourself, we need to learn to be content with what we have.

I’m not sharing this to criticize or defend… our points of view are often shaped by our experiences. I think these comments simply illustrate the various filters through which we view our lives and the world. Both comments are valid and glean bits of truth, in the proper context.

When we share our personal stories, we open ourselves up to the circus of public perception. People shake poms poms (go girl!) and throw tomatoes. The real-life main character of Eat Pray Love, Liz Gilbert, has said, “I’m not what’s being said about me, either in the highest praise or the highest criticism. I know I’m not a self-indulgent idiot; I also know I’m not the second coming of Deepak Chopra. If I had believed either of those, or both, as some people do when they get famous, that’s when the mental illness arrives.”

Eat Pray Love begins with Gilbert kneeling on the bathroom floor, sobbing and praying to God. I’ve been there. In that lonely, desperate place. Gilbert is often criticized for what happens next: She leaves her marriage (they don’t have children), and then receives a book advance to go on a year-long journey to Italy, India and Indonesia. In the end, the craze that is Eat Pray Love was born.

What resonates with me is not how she got there… but what she experienced when she was finally alone with herself and was forced to face herself.

So this is my big take-away from the book, the movie and my own life: Whatever we are running from will find us. If we slow down, face it and make peace with it, then, whatever we are seeking we will find.

Pretty good casting, I think. In Nicole’s dream, I played myself.

I was in Starbucks the other day and saw the soundtrack for the movie, Eat Pray Love, and it reminded me of Nicole’s dream in a round about sort of way. The movie is based on the best selling memoir by Elizabeth Gilbert, and the book is, by far, one of my favorites.

Each week, I set up shop at Starbucks for a few hours to work on my manuscript. After spotting the soundtrack for Eat Pray Love, I caught myself daydreaming. If my memoir had a soundtrack, what would it be? I went through my story scene by scene, and here’s what I came up with:

Why Georgia / John Mayer

Don’t Know Why / Norah Jones

Strength, Courage and Wisdom / India Arie

Slow Down / India Arie

You’re in My Heart / Rod Stewart

T-R-O-U-B-L-E / Travis Tritt

Breakfast at Tiffany’s / Deep Blue Something

Ain’t No Mountain High Enough / Marvin Gaye

Unwell / Matchbox 20

Miss Independent / Kelly Clarkson

Watershed / Indigo Girls

Keep On Singin’ My Song / Christina Aguilera

Bonus Track: September / Earth, Wind and Fire

Do you see any songs you like? If you story had a soundtrack, what songs would make the playlist?

But he is old enough to understand the clearly marked end of one thing and the beginning of something new.

You can read the rest of this story in August issue of Lowcountry Parent magazine, or by clicking here.

I mean, don’t you?

This video caused my kids (and me) to break into a spontaneous booty shake over Fruit Loops this morning. If you don’t see the player, click here.

I want to thank Jennie for featuring me on her blog today and for awarding me with The Mah- velous Magnolia badge. I received the honor in part, because according to Jennie, I bare a slight resemblance to Yoda. Click here to read the rest.

Dreams aren’t practical. Or convenient. Nothing worth having in life is.

Sometimes– perhaps, many times– we have to do the practical thing. We have to set our needs aside. But I believe the true desires of our hearts will continue to surface. They are asking us to figure out a way to make room for them, to help bring them out of the dream realm and into reality.

And sometimes, we try to make it happen. And it just doesn’t. And other times the blessings seem to fall into our lap. I’m beyond trying to figure out why that is… I’ve just learned that my heart (not my emotions) always tells the truth.

Of course, this is all just my opinion. I’d love your thoughts on this. In the meantime, I wanted to share this feature article I had the opportunity to write for Hybrid Mom. In doing so, I was able to reconnect with how much I love telling other people’s stories, as much as I enjoy telling my own.

This couple found themselves sinking under the weight of their financial obligations. Facing foreclosure, they did a “crazy thing.” It definitely wasn’t practical. But it’s pretty darn awesome, if you ask me. Click here to read their story.