‘Fortuna, Renowned Psychic!’

…read the sign.

The twenty-something woman stared or a moment, then took a deep breath,  pushing through the heavy tapestries sheilding the doorway. Blinking to adjust her eyes to the shadows, she peered towards the figure sitting behind the small table.  “Hello?”

“What will it be today, my dear? A future of fame? Romance, riches?” the stereotyped faux-gypsy woman started  into her spiel, already shuffling a deck of colorful cards. “Let’s see what handsome lover awaits–”

“None of that,” interrupted the girl, tossing a long strip of carnival tickets on the table.  “It’s more important.”

At Last!

The Initiatory Parade of Circusness has commenced!  Or started… or finished…  Or… something.  But whatever it’s doing, we have *Winners!* Yay.  If you missed the earlier fun, you can read all about it, here:  Every Circus Starts With A Parade (plus free art) Or just  scroll down to see the parade of awesome, and see who won (or  find out if you’ve won!)

First up? An honorary addition.

Havi Brooks didn’t comment in the parade, but it wouldn’t exist without her – after all, it was her Fluent Self’s pirate ship metaphoring that started this mess. So I’ve given Selma (Havi’s business partner & duck) the honor of Grand Marshall. You can see Selma here in her wee pirate hat, being carried along by her favorite Pirate Monkey, who is named Claude.

(Oh, and you can click on any of the images for a larger version. Clickity Click Click!)

So. Here We Are. Live.

There’s been tons of planning. A wee bit of hoopla, a parade  is in progress…  a few hopeful circus goers have gathered, to see what’s going to happen next.

And me, your fearless ringmaster?  Yeah.  I’m totally overwhelmed with performance anxiety. Totally not in the plans, but at least it  proves that the ‘serene, centered success’ thing? It’s an ideal I aspire to, not a fait accompli pedestal that I peer down upon you from.  We’re all in this insecure chaos together, baby

With the performance anxiety in mind, I’m going to skip the planned posts i’m supposed to be finishing up today, and instead, ramble about “serene, centered success” a bit. 

What’s the right way to start a circus?

With A Parade, Of Course!

The answer seems obvious, doesnt it? But I was a bit befuzzled when it came to trying to translate that idea into something online.

Then the  characters at the top of this post  spoke up; they’re from the same planning project as the love letter, and they  represent just a very few of imaginary Right People.

Dear Artist, Dear Writer,
Dear Dreamer & Dancer,
Organizer & Entrepreneur,

Do you know that you are my favorite person in all of the world?

Your ideas, words, images, melodies, methods… these things you create ? They connect us to each other, to the world, to ourselves.  You inspire, you motivate, you awaken, you comfort.  You make the invisible visible,  give form to the intangible, you help us to make sense out of our own madness, just by breathing on it.

And yes, my love, I know how mind-shreddingly scary this is, this being needed in such a naked, personal way.  I know that sometimes you are afraid to step forward to speak-move-write-share.