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It is the question that has been on everyone’s mind. 

What is a Shelf Monkey? … Anyone? Anyone? 

Well for starters, Shelf Monkey is a book.  A book that was personally signed by the author at McNally Robinson Booksellers in Winnipeg Manitoba and then sent to me by my mom.  Shelf Monkey is a book written by an old high school chum, I played Grace to his Daddy Warbucks in the musical Anne back when I was in the 9th grade.  His dad was our family physician and his mother my choir instructor.  His name is Corey Redekop and I could not be more delighted to be reading his book!

When I received Shelf Monkey, I thought…”oh thanks mom! How nice Corey wrote a book.” And then put it on a shelf.  This weekend my husband Jeff and I were hanging on a boat for the day and I thought, what the heck, lets grab “the monkey” off the shelf.  Next thing you know I am grinning, giggling and guffawing my way through this book, reading passages aloud to Jeff and totally tickled by the little glimpses of autobiography Corey has woven into his story line ( I said little bits… as where I left off the main character is on the run from the law and from every major talk show personality in the country. Last I checked, Corey, while living in remote Thompson, Manitoba is certainly not on the lam… or is he?  Hmmmm.)  

A review on "Bookgasm.com" dubs it as…

"Oprah’s Book Club meets FIGHT CLUB in Corey Redekop’s debut novel SHELF MONKEY, a savage satire on literary snobs, a pabulum-lapping public and talk-show hosts as deities."

The dry whit, the self effacing humor, the unique format all has me completely taken! Let’s put it this way, chapter one is a marked up copy of a homework assignment the main character did for his therapist, with the therapists notes in the margins diagnosing him.  The rest of the book so far seems to be a combination of transcripts from a talk show  and emails the main character is sending to a Canadian author as a plea for understanding and an effort to be heard, sharing his story as to how he got into this whole mess that has him on America’s most wanted. Now add in the Winnipeg references (my old stomping grounds) the Canadiana (my home country) and the little glimpses of this man I once knew when he was just a boy, and I can hardly put it down.

Still don’t know what a Shelf Monkey is but I am looking forward to finding out. You can read some reviews here and learn about Mr. Redekop if you are so moved.

Happy Tuesday!

Joelle P.S.  It is raining out, dark clouds, consistent rain.  A quiet day.  I like it! Smiles!

It’s Saturday Am,

My husband Jeff and I just came back from a trip to the Shaker Square Farmer’s market (what a delightful find!) and a run along Shaker Lakes (a little piece of heaven in our back yard!). Time for a shower and then on with the day… but I notice that I have a sudden hankering for a massage and a trip to the spa so I start calling around. 

“No availability”…. “No, were sorry”…. “No but we can get you in Tuesday”…bummer, options exhausted.

Then just when I am about to sulk, I stop and realize, hey wait a minute, I have everything I need right here to bliss out and have a totally divine Saturday. 

I set up the cd player and started up the Zen Chill music.  Light the candles, pull out the spa robe, fuzzy slippers, and the “good towels”.  I close the door, put on a mud mask ( a.k.a. doing my Shrek impression) and begin the experience.

At some point my husband pokes his head in and says…”if anyone calls, should I say you are at the spa?”

I laugh and said “yes, that would be perfect”!

About 15 minutes later my husband enters again while I am in the shower.   He says “ the spa director asked me to bring in this complimentary Mexican Coffee (add brown sugar and cinnamon) .  It is by the sink mamn. Enjoy.” 

I LOVE it when he plays with me!! How perfect!

Finished up with my coffee, robe and slipper, a book, cat cuddles, and a nap.  Perfection. It just goes to show that if you look around, you probably have just about everything you need.  Really.

May all your Spa dreams come true.

Joelle

As some of you may know, I intentionally take Friday’s off.  Long ago I asked myself what a schedule for joy and ease looked like, and being able to wander around the world on a weekday while the rest of the world is still waiting for their weekend gave me a little twinkle in my eye (it feels a little like playing hooky .

The past couple of months I noticed that Fridays were not quite turning out as planned.  Little by little I was booking appointments or would end up spending the whole day working on a program or writing at my desk. 

Now don’t get me wrong, I am very happy to do work that needs to get done, even if it is on a Friday, the thing is that it was becoming a habit, and that my friends is not ok. So this Friday I had a 3:00 manicure/pedicure scheduled and I was looking forward to it all week!  It is one of my happy places and an angel works there… wait, I’ll share.

Friday morning, I woke and started the day getting organized, (one of my favorite things to do)! I went through binders and files that I had been creating for years and it was a truly amazing process to pull out a file from a back cabinet and realize that it is perfectly suited to be integrated into something I am working on right now!  wow! It really had me realize how I am being perfectly guided and how this thing I am up to is truly a life’s worth of work.  So cool! Then it was off to Aladdin’s ( my favorite Mediterranean restaurant just around the corner).  I had my meal in the sunshine, drank my coffee and completed and sent of a speaking proposal that I was really proud of. It was very pretty as I integrated client logos into the body and I really liked the formatting.  SEND! Completely satisfied, that was the end of my work day.

Then it was off to Starbucks, wrote a couple of thank you notes in the sun on the patio and mailed them just in time to partake in my final piece of Friday Joy! Bridgett’s is this little “old fashioned” feeling salon just down the street.  It does not have the cool Zen edge of some of the newer salons but it has something even better…. Bridgett’s has an angel working in the back.  Her name is Stephanie and she does my nails. When I enter into her presence she wraps me in care, hands me my magazines (gotta hear the latest on Brittney and Lindsay) gets me a glass of wine from next door and takes care of my feet.  Could anything be more delightful?!

So I spent the final hours of my afternoon in the quiet, loving care of my aesthetician.  It was delightful.  Not to mention that I kept catching myself over the weekend looking at my striking fuchsia, slightly iridescent toes and saying “it is good”.

New Coach Joelle Ritual…. Fridays, alternate, manicure/pedicure and massage.

Action item Monday AM: Book Friday’s massage. What could Friday hold for you?

Even if you are working, I invite you to consider what you could integrate to get a little Friday Joy.

HUGS!

Joelle

So many adventures! So many Ideas brewing, stuff being created, life being lived!  I often think of writing, sometimes 2 or 3 times a day, if I only had someone walking around where I could dictate and they could transcribe and record the beauty of a rainy day in the middle of summer, the joy of watching my plants grow and bloom or the humor and insight from an emergency trip to the office to bring my husband a pair of pants.  So much to share and I have not put writing at the front of my focus and so I will take some time to tell a little, share a little and express this morning.

For those of you who were interested and have asked me about my “body of a dancer” quest, I thank you for interest.  Causing the body of a dancer was a very interesting pastime for me as I was waiting for summer.  It gave me purpose and focus. It got me into my body and was a lovely distraction from my work.  And then something happened. Well, actually 2 somethings. 

1) summer came, life became easier in the sunshine and warmth which freed me up to walk and be outside more and revel in the beauty of it all making the body focus less of a necessity and

2) I realized that I had some work to do.

I am very focused on lifestyle.  I am waaaay interested in quality of life and have no interest in building a business at the expense of my joy, peace and happiness.  The challenge is that I was really enjoying my lifestyle, writing, focusing on my body, creating, but at the back of it I realized I was actually avoiding something kinda important….

Selling.

Or let’s not call it selling, let’s just say I was not spending thought, time or energy putting my energy out into the world. And then I saw that…. And then I did something about it…. And the result has been tremendous. 

So here I am in this tremendous flow of abundance, taking all my action and then delivering on all the opportunity it presented and somewhere along the way, I lost my quality of life! Well, not lost it, it just kinda got absorbed into my work.  And you know the old saying, all work and no play makes coach joelle, a pain in the butt to live with! And so It was time again to look and reevaluate.  

My mom says that we should not be talking about  “balance”, it is “balancing” – a constant ongoing process, I think she has something there.

So I realized I needed to get more life into my life, but I also wanted to do it while honoring the systems and processes I put in place which were supporting results on the business end. Hmmmm.  Quite the inquiry! A couple of Fridays ago I met with my Cleveland Girl Power Mastermind group and I had a wonderful conversation that lead me to great clarity about the topic of life, leisure, creativity, professional integrity and financial prosperity.  What I realized was that work worked, as long as it was inside of “my fabulous life”.  If my life is inside my work then it can end up being really one dimensional, however if I have work as a key component inside of and in alignment with a delightful, beautiful, fun, joyful life, then work is just one more ride in the amusement park, executed with the same zeal as I would have for a trip to the spa or dinner with my husband. 

As it turns out, my husband and I have taken on our health and wellness together and I am deeply enjoying the process and excited about the results.  I have lived with this body long enough to know that when it is happy, life works out.  In the end I might just end up with the body of a dancer after all, along with a thriving business and a great life… who would have thunk!?

May you enjoy your own balancing process.

Happy Monday all!

J