It’s homework time again!
Last week my homework involved getting an email list together and it felt like such a BIG! DEAL! This afternoon I sat and did it in Zoho. Ten minutes later it was done. Fussing with the pop-up to collect signatures is a whole other story so tomorrow I’m going to ask some friends if they would come here and try signing up so I can see if the pop-up works for them because maybe it was just me. That happens sometimes when it’s your site.
….more social media maudlin’….
I’ve been thinking about the whole social media thing, too. In the session this evening, I had to get specific about what reach meant to me. It’s difficult in the moment when I’m holding the mic but now that I’ve had some time to reflect, I have a better idea of what it means. I will preface this by saying that I don’t miss having social media on my phone. I put Instagram back on because of the Upstate Art Collective art swap. I touched on social media last week and I thought I had said more, but I guess I did not.
However, I am aware that at some point, I will have to learn how to make social media work for me. I’m not interested in having 100,000 followers if I don’t need to. If I had the opportunity to mindfully and strategically build a social media following again I would rather have 1000 really engaged followers I can talk to and build a community with. I’d much rather a small town of people than a big city. I didn’t fully understand how much having a huge following wasn’t necessary until I watched a numerology creator I know, cry in a private forum because she isn’t making any money – and yet she has almost a million followers on TikTok. I honestly thought she was making money hand over fist but apparently not. So rather than pursue collecting followers, I’d much rather work on building an email list and learning how to use that to connect with people because at the end of the day, social media platforms come and go, but they don’t control my email list.
This week’s homework is to define my core values in three to five words.
Full transparency, I was cringing when I heard “core values”. That phrase makes me think of HR Reps who aren’t really anyone’s friends. Oh gawd….noooo…..breathe…..not the live/laugh/love stuff!!! You would think that someone who practices the metaphysical systems I do, who is also a Reiki healer, reflexologist, and aromatherapist would be all about that stuff, but no. I am probably one of the least woo-woo mystics you’ll ever meet. Also, my allergies were driving me nuts this evening. This becomes important later.
I started thinking about my Mahabote chart – my Burmese astrological birth chart while simultaneously trying to come up with core values that don’t make me sound heartless and hoping I did not get picked to tell everyone right then and there what my core values were because I was listening and thinking “I don’t think blunt bitch is a core value….and if it is, it’s probably one I shouldn’t share.”
So I drifted for a few minutes and thought about my birth chart.
I practice Mahabote (Burmese astrology) and have for fourteen years. A birth chart is like a blueprint of its owner. I use it alongside my numerological core chart (same idea but with numbers) when I have to ponder myself. Anyway, what I was thinking about was my House of Wealth. A Mahabote chart has seven houses. The house in the center of the chart is the House of Wealth. That it is located in the center is not an accident. If you overlay a little stick person over the chart, this house sits at their heart. Within this house is contained information about what this person needs in their life to feel happy, whole, and secure in the world.
I have Jupiter in the House of Wealth AND it is my birth planet. What does this mean? It means that for my world to proceed tickety-boo, knowledge and learning are front and center. My numerological life path is ruled by Mercury, the planet associated with inquisitiveness and fact-fiinding. Mercury and Jupiter are like two sides of the same coin: the love knowledge, but differently. Mercury loves to learn and amass ALL THE FACTS. Jupiter knows all the facts, but also knows what will work and what won’t. Jupiter teaches. Jupiter people love sharing and they prize ethics, law, directness, and orderly systems. Jupiter people are excellent manifestors. They may not live in the lap of luxury but they are always able to rattle the universe to get what they need and generally speaking, they tend to have enough to share.
Enter the photographer
This evening we had a visiting photographer who was shooting photos of ThINCubator in action. I got my allergy shot on Monday and I was still reacting to it. For three years I’ve been getting shots to train my immune system not to treat the world as a threat. The side effect is that I feel like I have the flu for two or three days afterward. I spent a fair amount of time hiding behind my accountability buddy to avoid the camera that films the class for Zoom. Why? Because my nose was I T C H Y right up into my brain and I had to scratch. I didn’t want to sneeze or end up with a tickle in my throat that sounded like I brought the plague to everyone. Do I sneeze and get my new friend Dawn in the back of the head or do I cringe quietly and rub my nose like a six-year-old in church because I can’t find the Kleenex hiding in the dimensional portal that is my purse?
And then Dawn left. I lost my human shield! It’s ok, I told myself…we’re almost done…..I have lived and not sneezed everywhere….
And then the itch became exquisite. In mid-scratch I looked up to see the photographer with the zoom lens on her camera like a gigantic double venti, pointed in my general direction.
So I just want all the nice people at ThINCubator to know that…..IT WAS A SCRATCH, I SWEAR!!!!!
Also: clarity, consistency, humor, forward-thinking, and determination are my core values.
PS: if you’ve made it this far, I’d also like to let my fellow Refinery people know that if you need help setting up a WordPress site, I can assist you. I’ve been using WordPress – .com since 2008 and self-hosted since 2011. I’m also a Canva Pro addict – all those old newsletters and ezines in the sidebar and footer were done in Canva.
