Category Archives: Mysticphoenyx Cafe

Thriving in Times of the Tower – An Empire-wide ongoing series :>

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view of ruined tower through a stone gate - photo by karpati
photo by karpati

 

Greetings!

Thank you for taking a look at the Empire-wide series “Thriving in Times of the Tower”, inspired by the April #CustomerLove for Japan challenge.

This is a very recent revelation, and as such, is open to evolution as I hear back from people.

 

The Inspiration

I love participating in LaVonne Ellis’ #CustomerLove challenges, but this one was a bit of a challenge for me. As much compassion as I feel for the people of Japan, I just couldn’t see how what Mike & I needed to do to take care of our own Tower-like situation could possibly blend with what they needed.

Then it hit me.

(And it felt like it! :-D )

EVERYONE has Times of the Tower.

Whether it’s a personal disaster like losing your Day Job, or a natural disaster like what happened in Japan, Towers are everywhere.

Why not help people to cope?

Then the ‘how’ came:

Take our personal challenge of needing to become a viable business a LOT faster than we expected, mix with the guest post around it that I’d written for February’s #CustomerLove before realizing it fit none of the requirements for guest posts for that challenge, and blend into a whole that could aid a lot of people with Towers of all sizes, both now and in the future.

Hence this project.

 

The Sites, and What I’m Looking for:

You are more than welcome to choose any of our sites to submit work to, or more than one if you feel called to do so! :-)

Avian Empire
www.theavianempire.com

This site is where we go behind our biz to share thoughts related to the business side of things, as well as to sum up what’s happening in the rest of the Empire.

Possible Contributions:

  • Thoughts around the business side of things:
  • how to survive redundancy (love that term for it!),
  • how to re-invent yourself career-wise,
  • thoughts on the emergence of the ThirdTribe style of business, etc.
  • how to take care of business in Times of the Tower: career, business, personal, financial

 

Blanket University
www.blanketuniversity.com

This site is about Intentional Crafting: the idea of blending mental/spiritual energy with your work to help achieve a desired Goal.

Possible Contributions:

  • How you use crafting to help you in times of trouble
  • peaceful or uplifting patterns or links to same (if submitting actual patterns instead of links, original-to-you work only, pls!)
  • prayers, thoughts, or mantras that you use to blend with your crafting to bring you peace in turbulent times

 

Crafty Crows
www.craftycrows.com

Looking at the ways you can use energy, magick, whatever you want to call it to actively improve your life.

We also discuss symbolic magickal systems such as Runes, Tarot, Archetypes, and other forms of symbology.

Possible Contributions:

  • Write about what the Tower card means to you
  • Write about techniques that have helped you move forward in such times
  • Submit channelled, Third-eye information, or intuitive wisdom about coping techniques, etc.
  • Meditations, affirmations, mantras you find useful for calming your heart and moving forward in turbulent times. (Original work only if whole, otherwise excerpts are fine)

 

CrowTarot Tours
www.crowtarottours.com

This site relates to the Journey of discovering the paranormal and the paranormal lifestyle, as well as our conversations & discoveries around the paranormal.

Possible Contributions:

  • Your own stories and experiences with the paranormal and how they affected you. If you are or have lived a paranormal lifestyle (i.e. incorporating it as part of your everyday life), feel free to share these stories as well.
  • Channelled & intuitive wisdom relating to living the paranormal lifestyle, coming to peace with a larger world, etc.

 

Encouraging Bird
www.encouragingbird.com

This site is about inspiration & encouragement begetting movement.

Possible Contributions:

  • Your own stories about surviving and thriving through your Times of the Tower.
  • Channelled & intuitive wisdom relating to encouragement, inspiration, success, progress during difficult times.

 

Mysticphoenyx Cafe
www.mysticphoenyxcafe.com

This site is about living the creative life, with an emphasis on writing, tho’ that’s not exclusive.

Possible Contributions:

  • Original fiction stories, poetry, etc.
  • Original non-fiction stories, poetry, etc.
  • How writing & creativity can help you cope in times of stress.
  • Creative prompt(s) to help you find your Muse in hard times.

 

Roving Robin Reports

Not a site in this case, but a series, the Roving Robin is where I share the various bits of awesome that I find along my way.

Possible Contributions:

  • Artwork to go with a link
  • A suggested link to people, organizations helping either Japan or people to rebuild their lives in general, or uplifting, inspirational sites.

 

TwOOwls Art
www.twoowlsart.com

This site mainly features our artwork, tho’ I’m also willing, at least for the challenge period of April, to feature other artwork that relates to the theme, with a link to where they can buy it that is under your control.

Also featuring NFS (not for sale) pieces both ours and others, that relate to the theme, as well as short tips or mini-challenges for creativity in troubled times.

Possible Contributions:

  • Artwork, either for sale at your site or shop, or as part of a gallery
  • Short tips on finding your art when it’s hard outside
  • Mini-challenges to help refind peace through artistic endeavor

 

How You Can Help

ruined tower - photo by kelpie
photo by kelpie
  • record an interview
  • write a guest post
  • submit a photograph
  • include a piece of themed art (as either a pic or for sale on your site)
  • submit a Question for me to use in a theme-based Tarot Story
  • create a mini-challenge or baby step for people to use
  • submit a link to a site I should know about related to the theme
  • refer someone you think might be interested in participating

 

  • anything else that you come up with that fits the theme: if I agree with you, I’m open to it.

Once it’s up: spread the word! :-)

 

What You Get:

  • Link Love
  • Warm fuzzies from helping others thrive in difficult times
  • Other awesomeness as I think of it. :-)

 

How you can reach me:

Twitter: @EncouragingBird, @AvianEmpire, are best, tho’ I also check @BardicRaven, @CraftyCrows, @CrowTarotTours, @TwOOwlsArt on a regular basis.

Skype: birdy.diamond

G-talk: phoenyxravenswing

E-mail: phoenyxravenswing at gmail dot com or birdy at crowtarottours dot com

 

Awesome Contributors!

These are people who have already signed on to participate in a content-based way.

  • Courtney Ramirez
  • Gareth Hobbs
  • Skaja Wills
  • Virginia Reed

Want to join them? Then contact me through one of the above methods and let’s talk! :>

In love and gratitude,
-Birdy Diamond – Encouraging Bird, Roving Robin, & Paranormal Diva

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Introduction to Channelling Audio

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coiled fern frond - photo by seriousfun
Watch Nature’s spirals in action in this fern frond. Photo by seriousfun.

Greetings!

Welcome to the Grove!

A quick post on co-incidence-nots and our decision & delight about audio as an information-conveyance medium.

The Journey

The beginning-of-this-bit (because there is no firm beginning to anything – there is always a time-before), can be defined as our decision to have some fun ourselves and host a Solstice celebration.

Although there is also the bit about being grouped in a business mastermind with Andy Dolph, because he is an important part of this story too.

See what I mean about there being an endless tangle of beginning-bits?

  • To connect the dots a bit, Andy Dolph & I met through our business mastermind.
  • He learned of my channelling skill, and that my husband & I planned to make that how we made our living.
  • He promptly offered his services as audience-member.
  • I accepted.

Back to the Solstice celebration.

  • We invited, he came, he listened, he offered his services as an audio-tech-dude so that we could be even more awesome.
  • We gratefully accepted, then began recording.
  • We discovered that the words flowed far more easily this way.
  • Awesome things were (and are!) happening.

And that brings us to today! :-)

The Results

Questions?

We will still be doing some typed posts, but much of our communications will be in audio form.

If you have questions, feel free to e-mail me at Birdy at CrowTarotTours dot com.

While we cannot guarantee a personal response every time, we will do our best to get your question answered in some fashion – whether it be a personal response, a FAQ page, or an upcoming questions-based show, we will respect your curiousity & queries.

The Recording

So, to begin as we mean to go on, please find below our introductory recording for this site, titled, appropriately enough:”Introduction to Channelling”.

Audio MP3

IntroToChanneling (49 min, 22.4Mb)

Listen & enjoy!

Comment Zen for the Grove

This is a place for exploration, learning, and active experimentation.

  • This means that we accept people where they are, wherever that may be, while still maintaining our own healthy boundaries.
  • We consider the impact of our words before we say them, being both aware of & honoring their ability to help and/or harm.
  • We remember that there are many ways of touching the elephant, none better than another, so we suspend judgment on anothers’ ways.
  • We allow others to soar, and realize that their flight does not hinder our own.
coiled fern frond - photo by seriousfun
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Reverb10 – The Sixth Prompt – The Hubris of Marking Time for Making

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Greetings!

December 6 – Make. What was the last thing you made? What materials did you use? Is there something you want to make, but you need to clear some time for it? (Author: Gretchen Rubin)

(ETA on 01-12-12) Oh,, the mix of joy & pain as I look back on the simplicity of it all as I copy/paste from one site to another. It seemed so easy, so ‘throw it up there & all will be well’.

It’s proving to not quite be that simple. :> -B! :>)

Making. It’s a thing that I love to do. I live & breathe to create. I literally get antsy when I’ve gone too long without creating.

The last thing I made? Well, besides meals & loads of laundry & the occasional spot of cleanliness in the living space, the last thing I made were the Popping Epiphanies pieces.

Fun, useful, quick & easy, yet most amusing. They are simple jewelry & crafts pieces done with yarn in crochet. Popcorn stitch for fun & expansion.

The original piece was created to celebrate some major Epiphanies I’d had popping earlier in the year. I did a pouch first, then tossed off some quick cuffs, the pattern for which can be found in this post from “An Encouraging Bird”.

Is there something I want to make but I need to clear time for it? You bet!

Unfortunately, I would also need to clear space for it, and with this in-between space of housing limbo, that’s just not going to happen at the moment.

And then there’s always the other thing that I am needing & wanting to make, which is our online business. It is awesome & wonderful and I am really looking forward to getting all the ‘i’s’ dotted & ‘t’s’ crossed to that we can go out & play, but at the same time, it is rather putting a strain on my crafting time.

Every now & again, I make something quick-quick, to get it out of my system so that I can go back to doing all the set-up things that I need to do so that we can go play later.

I’d mind more, but that I know that ‘later’, unlike many times that it is said, really is coming most soon from now! :-)

With the New Year comes LAUNCH!!!

And then my creativity gets to go into high gear indeed! :-)

Chirp, chirp!
-Birdy  :>

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Reverb10 – The Fifth Prompt – Letting Go of the Wrong People

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Greetings!

December 5 – Let Go. What (or whom) did you let go of this year? Why? (Author: Alice Bradley)

Letting go.
Releasing.
Freeing.

So many ways to describe a thing both simple & complex.

And when people come into the mix, it becomes even more so.

Names are not important here.

What is important is that the concept of Wrong People has come into my life & working vocabulary this year.

And that I am learning to let those people go.

Wrong People, whyever they are your Wrong People, are poison to your life.

Quick or slow poison depends on their natures.

  • They suck your energy & batter your soul (and sometimes your body).
  • They pull you down & keep you small.
  • They need to go, soonest!

One of the many things I have released this year is the concept that everybody has to like me. For a Connection-based person this is beyond hard, but I realize that it’s necessary.

Do the math.

Seven billion (living) humans on this planet, plus all the other life forms out there – there is no way to be in contact with all of them, even if you were willing to release sanity & plausibility, which I am not.

So, with a finite amount of personal resources, why on Earth would you spend time on those who are not simpatico with you & your chosen goals, Dreams & way of life?

When put that way, it becomes SO much easier to see the logic & the beauty of it.

So, I’ll pass along the Question:

Who are YOU releasing this year?

Happy Muse-ings! :>
Birdy Diamond,
Wordsmith

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Reverb10 – The Fourth Prompt – Winter Wonderland :>

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Edomura Wonderland in Nikko, Japan - photo by Daniel T. Yara

Edomura Wonderland in Nikko, Japan - photo by Daniel T. Yara

Greetings!

December 4 – Wonder. How did you cultivate a sense of wonder in your life this year? (Author: Jeffrey Davis) #reverb10

I kept learning.

I kept learning even when I didn’t want to, whether it was because I was so sick of learning, or what I was learning made me sick.

I persevered.
And I got better.
Things got better too.

So, now, here I am in December, on a WP MU thanks to the patience & skill of Eugen Oprea, having some vague clue of what I’m doing thanks to many people, among them Catherine Caine, Sonia Simone & the rest of the gang from the Remarkable Marketing Blueprint, Mike Korner, Mike Diamond, and a host of others I am probably spacing at the mo’.

And while it’s a bit of a wonder to me how I got here, I’m also both in wonder & joy for my being here.

It is indeed being a Winter Wonderland. :-D

I can’t wait to see what happens next. :-D

And if you can’t wait to see what happens next either, feel free to sign up to your right in the attractive little boxes there. One will get you blog updates hot off the presses, the other will get you on to our newsletter, which will be primarily a conveyance for discounts as well as the occasional random bit of stuff-we-find-amusing.

If you find yourself looking for ways to help yourself get to your own place of wonder & accomplishment, you might want to consider signing up for our “Butt in the Chair” sessions here on this blog and/or our “Getting It Done” chats over on our sister site, “An Encouraging Bird”.

(And did I mention those newsletters contain discounts? :-D )

Happy Muse-ings!
Birdy Diamond,
Wordsmith

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Reverb10 – The Third Prompt – Moment

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Greetings!

December 3 – Moment. Pick one moment during which you felt most alive this year. Describe it in vivid detail (texture, smells, voices, noises, colors). (Author: Ali Edwards) #reverb10

Hmmm… not alive. It’s been too long as I write here in a New Year a year gone. (01-11-12)

But a Moment.

A Moment that, in hindsight, proved memorable, as so many Moments do.

It was December, the time we are writing about, in fact, in a bizarre turn of Fate’s Wheel.

Borders was not doing well.

And it showed.

Far from being a happy Christmas season, it was being full of stress & rumors that the store would be closing.

December is not an easy month for me anyway. Beyond the normal stresses & reminders of those in the United States, I have the additional moment of my mother passing on Christmas Day, 2005.

So, it was a time within a time. Things were hard. Things felt hard. The one became the other and it seemed like there was nothing much to be done about either.

And then, in the midst of it all, I received a gift.

Well, actually, I received this gift later, but it has to do with Christmas and a moment I had in December.

One day, in the midst of all this hard, I had occasion to call my husband at work.

I was put on hold, as happened.

And I stayed on hold.

But it was okay.

Because I was given the gift of music.

As many do, I love the Peanuts Christmas special, and that was the music that was playing.

I stayed and listened for several songs, until at last the music changed and I hung up and called back.

But I felt better.

And then, later, when the world, my world, fell in once again, and the box was opened to find a cat no longer there, Mike brought me home a gift that left me with tears of joy amongst the tears of change.

He brought me home that CD.

Not just a copy of that CD, mind, but that exact physical one, the one that I’d listened to those months before.

A small thing, but huge at the same time.

It reassured me that everything would be all right, that we would make it, that our world would reform in an even better way.

And it’s still some fine music! :-)

Let’s hear it for the joys of music and it’s ability to bring you safely home from here to there.

Chirp, Chirp!
-Birdy :>

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Reverb10 – The Second Prompt – The Dragon of Censorship, The Monsters of Fear, & the Swamp of Solitude

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the tools of the writing trade - photo by Jane M Sawyer

the tools of the writing trade - photo by Jane M Sawyer

Greetings!

December 2 – Writing. What do you do each day that doesn’t contribute to your writing — and can you eliminate it? (Author: Leo Babauta) #reverb10

At first, this prompt took me back a bit – what on earth could I say?

Yes, I have things that keep me from my writing, but many of them are not things that I ‘should’ do a whole lot about. Things like the Day Job. Things like laundry, dishes, housecleaning, things that while they can be considered escapes & procrastination tools are also valid, necessary self-care things.

Although, if you look at these things from that infamous ‘other point of view’ they don’t really count.

If you’ve ever had the dishes pile up, everything you own in the laundry basket, and the house in such a wreck that YOU can’t stand to look at it, never MIND anybody else, you know as well as I do that these mundane tasks are still vitally necessary to your writing peace of mind.

An orderly environment frees you to look at things from the unhinged (in the good way! :-D ) point of view that really lets your fingers fly.

And whether you write longhand or on the computer, money is still required. Pens, pencils, your computing medium of choice, Internet access, they all cost money (or at least time) to acquire. Not to mention little things like food, clothing, shelter, etc.

Day Job’s gotta stay. (At least for now. Later… that’s another show. :-D )

So, no, those things need to stay in there.

Then what?

I thought for a few, and did indeed come up with some things that do NOT need to remain in my writing repertoire, nor my writing day.

  • The Dragon of Censorship
  • The Monsters of Fear
  • The Swamp of Slimy Solitude

The Dragon of Censorship

Oh, what a fearsome beast this is! Blowing flame over your pages, burning away all that might cause contention, failing to understand that he is also burning away all that is uniquely you.

That saying “Try to please everybody & you end up pleasing nobody?”

So true.

This isn’t about shock-jock writing.

  • This is about saying the things that you have to say.
  • This is about opening your heart and letting what’s in there flow freely out onto the page.
  • This is about being brave and being you.

This is about telling the Dragon that he isn’t welcome here anymore.

The Monsters of Fear

But Dragons, no matter how fearsome they may be are usually too lazy to roam about the countryside looking for trouble.

No, they must be Called.

And who is foolish (or desperate) enough to do such a thing?

Your Monsters are.

Specifically the Monsters of Fear.

You know who they are, or at least some of them:

  • They Might Laugh!
  • You’re Not Good Enough!
  • Who Do You Think You Are?
  • What Will They Think?

They are emphatic about keeping you safe – as they see it.

Which, unfortunately for you, means shouting at you very loudly their messages of Doom, Gloom, and Don’t Do It!, and when that doesn’t work, calling in the Dragon.

Now Monsters of Fear need to be handled more delicately than the Dragon.

Monsters, by definition, are already afraid. So scaring them worse is SO not going to help! In fact, it frequently only encourages them to entrench deeper & shout louder.

Gentle, firm, loving touches are what is needed here.

(For more information on Monster Whispering, I suggest that you check out Havi’s blog, Willie & Alexia’s site, and my posts on Monsters on An Encouraging Bird.)

The Swamp of Slimy Solitude

Notice I say ‘slimy’ solitude here. Solitude can be a wondrous place to recoup, reconnoiter, and generally relax.

It can also be a suffocating pit of despair.

I’ve been known to wander into both from time to time, and I can tell you that I FAR prefer the former to the latter.

So I’m being very careful of where I walk these days. If my Savannah of Solitude turns into a Slimy Swamp, I do something to break away: I go to the ‘net, I turn on the television, I get out and walk the dog. Whatever it takes to reconnect with the world around me.

Turns out I did have a few things to ditch from my writing day.

What about you?

Happy Muse-ings!
Birdy Diamond,Wordsmith

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Reverb10 – The First Prompt – One Word, One World :>

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firework burst - photo by Matthew Hull

EXPANSION - firework burst - photo by Matthew Hull

Greetings!

December 1 – One Word. Encapsulate the year 2010 in one word. Explain why you’re choosing that word. Now, imagine it’s one year from today, what would you like the word to be that captures 2011 for you? (Author: Gwen Bell) #reverb10

You have asked me for one word to sum up 2010.

That is not an easy task, tho’ at first it might seem as if it should be so.

We haven’t gone much of anywhere, or, as seen from the outside, done much of anything.

But that would not be true, if you could see on the inside of things.

On the inside of things, we have been growing and changing and expanding, oh my!

We have been plunging headlong into a new way of life, Web 2.0, the Third Tribe, and going forth!

So, if pressed to choose just one word to describe the year just past, I would say:

Expansion.

We have expanded so many things:

  • our notions of what is possible
  • our understanding of the current tech
  • our understanding of how to run a Third-Tribe-based business
  • our worldview
  • our hopes, Dreams, and aspirations
  • our confidence
  • our belief
  • our network
  • our possibilities
  • our world

We are humbled & blessed by all the ways the Universe has chosen to help us out as we step into our larger mission: that of helping people fly beyond their fear, whether it is of putting pixels on the page, of spreading one’s wings to fly, of the unknown lying beyond the everyday.

So with that, I would say that our word for 2011 would be:

welcome sign - photo by Mary R. Vogt

WELCOME - photo by Mary R. Vogt

Welcome

I wasn’t sure, until I was setting down our ‘Love Letters to our Wrong & Right Peeps’ so that I could post here tonight.

As I chose the pics for our Right Peeps, I realized that, yes, ‘Welcome’ is our word.

Some things we want to be welcoming in next year:

  • prosperity
  • a new & happy home
  • a stable of wondrous, help-full products
  • our Tribe of wonderful friends, clients, customers
  • an easy & stress-free move
  • our new packmembers for Bailey (our Basset Hound) and Mage (our tuxie cat)
  • the Avian Empire in all its kooky glory :>
  • that or better! :-D

The world is a wondrous place, and truly one’s oyster.

Pluck forth the pearl of a great life & fly free, friends! :-D

Happy Muse-ings!
Birdy Diamond,
Wordsmith

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Hello world! Welcome to the Cafe! :>

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MysticPhoenyx Cafe

the MysticPhoenyx Cafe

Greetings!

Welcome to the MysticPhoenyx Cafe in the capital city of The Avian Empire. This is our first post.

The Cafe is a place where writers and creatives of all kinds can come in for a cup of creativity, to recharge and rejoice.

Come & join us as we explore the words and the ways of the creative life.

Happy Muse-ings!
Birdy & Mike, Wordsmiths

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