🌀 Comeback-ish Post from the Middle of Whackadoodle
(Technically Oregon and Washington. Emotionally? Whackadoodle adjacent.)
Hey there my fellow Whackadoodlians. Did you miss me?
I know. I know. After several years of posting weekly, I suddenly went silent. What happened? Where’d I go? And most importantly—Where are those book excerpts she promised us?
So here’s where we left off. We’d just finished our sixth, or was it seventh, cycle through the guidepost, and we were about to begin new when it hit. I started wondering if the guidepost were helping others in the same way they helped me.
I mean, you might be able to read musical notes. You might even know how to play some of them on a piano. But if you never practice, you’ll never make real music. That’s how it started to feel — like I was handing people sheet music and no one was sitting down to play.
Case in point: I recently watched two genuinely good people have a full-on falling out. Exhaustion, frustration, defensiveness — boom. Done. No conversation, no attempt to understand, just radio silence. And yes, they’ve read my stuff. They know the guideposts. But in that moment? Nada.
That kind of thing chips away at you.
So I paused. Tried something new — started posting excerpts from my book Navigating a Whackadoodle World. — I hoped you enjoyed them — before I hit the wall again. I got busy taking care of Dad, watching the grass in my yard overgrow, and basically coming up with incredible post ideas, but failing to hit the computer.
Which brings us to now: I’m currently on the road in a glammed-out RV with my sister, her family, and my 94-year-old dad. We’re driving through Oregon and Washington. The scenery is stunning. The coffee is... plentiful. Something about the chaos and change of it all has me back at the keyboard.
I’m not calling it a fresh start — let’s not get dramatic — but it is a real one.
What You Can Expect in the Weeks Ahead
The eavesdropped conversations between student and tutor aren’t going away — I still love writing those. They’re fun, they’re clear, and they make big ideas easier to chew on. I will keep urging you to keep the guidepost in mind as you muddle through your relationships and days. But I’m also giving myself permission to mix things up. Expect a few more hands-on tools. Maybe even a weekly online meetup for subscribers who want to practice these ideas face-to-face. I figure that these online meetups could become eventual perks for paid subscribers. (Yes, I do like to get paid for my efforts).
Basically, fewer format constraints. More practical tools. Still the same Whackadoodle me.
If you ask nicely, I might even toss in some RV photos — though cameras in my hands tend to have a minds of their own. Case in point? Consider the lovely photo I managed to take today of my gloved hand, followed by a slightly better photo of my sister’s Alpacas. Can you guess which one is which?
And what about those book excerpts I promised. They are coming, but perhaps not in the manner first promised. Keep an eye out for a new 📚 Freebook Friday Feature, in which, every so often, I’ll make one of my books free on Amazon — but only you, my subscribers, will know which Friday. (And when I open up paid subscriptions after this trip, Freebook Friday will be one of the perks.)
If you don’t want to wait, here’s a link to the Kindle version of the book; if you can bare the wait, keep a look out for a post letting you know when you can down load it for free: Navigating a Whackadoodle World on Amazon Kindle
So that’s where we are now.
If you’re still reading — thanks for sticking around.
If you’re new — welcome to the river.
If you’re wondering if I’ve changed — only in the best ways.
Still navigating,
Lynn Marie
Oh and before I leave you, consider the lyrics of this lovely song that has become a earworm for me on this trip. It’s a really nice earworm, and occasionally I even feel the need to dance along with the song in my head:
[Verse 1] I am unwritten, can't read my mind I'm undefined I'm just beginning, the pen's in my hand Ending unplanned [Pre-Chorus] Staring at the blank page before you Open up the dirty window Let the sun illuminate the words that you cannot find Reaching for something in the distance So close you can almost taste it Release your inhibitions [Chorus] Feel the rain on your skin No one else can feel it for you Only you can let it in No one else, no one else Can speak the words on your lips Drench yourself in words unspoken Live your life with arms wide open Today is where your book begins The rest is still unwritten, yeah Oh, oh [Verse 2] I break tradition Sometimes my tries, are outside the lines, yeah We've been conditioned to not make mistakes But I can't live that way, no, oh [Pre-Chorus] Staring at the blank page before you Open up the dirty window Let the sun illuminate the words that you cannot find Reaching for something in the distance So close you can almost taste it Release your inhibitions [Chorus] Feel the rain on your skin No one else can feel it for you Only you can let it in No one else, no one else Can speak the words on your lips Drench yourself in words unspoken Live your life with arms wide open Today is where your book begins Feel the rain on your skin No one else can feel it for you Only you can let it in No one else, no one else Can speak the words on your lips Drench yourself in words unspoken Live your life with arms wide open Today is where your book begins The rest is still unwritten [Pre-Chorus] Staring at the blank page before you Open up the dirty window Let the sun illuminate the words that you cannot find Reaching for something in the distance So close you can almost taste it Release your inhibitions [Chorus] Feel the rain on your skin No one else can feel it for you Only you can let it in No one else, no one else Can speak the words on your lips Drench yourself in words unspoken Live your life with arms wide open Today is where your book begins Feel the rain on your skin No one else can feel it for you Only you can let it in No one else, no one else Can speak the words on your lips Drench yourself in words unspoken Live your life with arms wide open Today is where your book begins The rest is still unwritten [Outro] The rest is still unwritten The rest is still unwritten Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah