A shift is starting to happen in my design, in my content, and in the way the elements of me all interact. I’m not going to explain the big picture until I’m ready, but I am going to tell you why I added so many links to Virtual Magpie and to this site in the last few hours. These are people who are really having a powerful effect on me, and I want to introduce them to you. Here are the first three, for your generous attention.

Emii, my little sister. Em hijacked a friend, packed up a car and moved to New York to seek her fortune—just a year or two before I did something similar. She’s writing and performing amazing music, inspiring thousands of people, and changing the world (on her own terms). I keep being amazed at how similar we are without really spending any time together. Serendipitously we’re both into personal development, personal power, personal potential, and making things happen in a way that makes us crave new knowledge and skills and understanding. I have often felt disconnected from her—there are a lot of ways in which we just aren’t close at all—but discovering that she was breaking a path a lot like mine (and yet, completely different!) was very connecting, very exciting.

Marty Whitmore, brilliant illustrator. Marty is the friend that I hijacked, and it’s his car that we filled with our lives before making the epic move to Austin. We’ve worked together for four or five years, but in the last few we’ve become incredibly effective partners. He contributes glorious artwork to my projects, and I have made it one of my big important goals in life to build his evil empire. He is mind-shatteringly unique, courageous and frightfully daring (like his artwork). I am seriously proud to have anything at all to do with him, and I intend to make him a crazy successful son-of-a-bitch if it’s the last thing I do. ;}

Pace and Kyeli, communicators extraordinaire. I met Pace and Kyeli a few years ago when Marty and I moved to Austin; we got to know them gradually by attending the first several runs of their communication workshops. I’ve worked with them in several different capacities, but now is the most exhilarating our work has ever been. Marty is illustrating their first book, The Usual Error, and between the four of us we have built them a gorgeous blog and website for the Usual Error Project, their super exciting communication initiative. The insight they offer is simply amazing, and I highly recommend it. Pace and Kyeli are the originators of the Connection Paradigm theory, and they’re hell-bent on changing the world. They’re also the first colleagues with whom I’ve something like a Hill-esque mastermind group vibe, and these days we meet weekly for bold ideas, out-of-the-box brainstorming, and startling clarity on our individual worlds. Those meetings are invaluable to my process, and precious to me.

I’ll be posting the rest over the next day or so. I hugely appreciate your time—thank you for reading. :}

I haven’t done a Megan bits & pieces (or “information dissemination”) in awhile, and hell knows what I’ll end up calling it, or when it will get posted. But who cares? It’s a list of links. I’m sharing. ;}

Projects…

• The Usual Error Project Launch. Just what it says. We launched a gorgeous Usual Error Project site in October!
• Marty’s tubes, apparently, runneth over. Community Commission No. 2 is funded, Marty’s traffic spiked, and he’s doubling Tasty Flesh every week.
• Super Seekrit Triiibes Project [Triiibe-only link]. If you can see it, you can help! If you can’t you’ll have to sit tight, ‘cause I’m not telling yet! But it’s whole lot of work, and a crazy lot of fun!
• Zombie Marketing for Artists in the works! I’m kind of excited about this, in case you couldn’t tell. Not a lot of info yet, but more will be on the way!

Processing…

• Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us. Finished, and in thrall. Working on my notes!
• The Tribes Casebook. Nope, I haven’t finished it yet. I am loving it, though. I will post links from my favorites as soon as I’m done!
• Personal Development for Smart People: The Conscious Pursuit of Personal Growth. Grokking slowly, building Megan maps. This is a great, great book.

Eating…

• Coconuts, and delicious coconut milk. Glory. (Today I put the juice & meat in a blender and made a slightly thicker concoction—it’s good, but it needs work!)

To you I wish a beautiful Thursday, and hordes of coconuts!!

I visited my parents in Youngstown at the beginning of October, and practiced Shiva Nata every day on the huge porch surrounded by gorgeous living trees and bugs and birds and cool, crisp air. There was a huge rainstorm the first few days, and it was amazing to practice on the porch with rain falling all around me. I didn’t use the DVD while I was there, but I made so much progress and got so much peace of mind.

I played with the dogs outside while Dad did his daily walk, and Otto—who last visit had a boot—now had a bucket. A really mangled, chewed-on bucket. It was a freaking riot. “Otto and his boot,” Marty says. “Otto and his myriad things that he has. Otto and his bucket. Otto and his mail-order bride.” Yes. Any day now.

I got a great raw “cook”-book (Raw Food Made Easy For 1 or 2 People) and made awesome raw recipes for my family most of the time I was there. Guacamole and romaine wraps and chard salad and raw chocolate cake and fresh vegetable lasagne, crazy! It was so delicious. Mom gave me a Christmas present—a great looking book on food that I had to leave there for now because it wouldn’t fit in my bag to come home!

I launched the fabulous blog of Pace and Kyeli. It was really exciting! (The Usual Error Project has launched, too. I talked about it all in my project blog!)

I sang a great program for the Niles Gymanfa Ganu Association and hugely enjoyed seeing my friendly Welsh people again! The sun attacked my eyes, but I adjusted and all was well. (Geraint Wilkes was fabulous as ever, and the Shenango Valley Chorale sang fantastically!)

I successfully managed to videochat with Marty using iChat (we haven’t tried since he bought his new laptop!), but not until the last day of my trip. (Silly!) I had a revelation about parents and mindful purpose. I decided that I don’t want to fly anymore if I can avoid it (though I’m sure there will be exceptions).

And then I came home to my comfy red chair.