Today is the 🌓🌔🌕 moon is waxing to full; it is ✅ Day 90/100 of my second 100-Day Project for this year, (theme: Benevolence, Wonder and Meaning).
I am sharing daily reading notes from My Inner Sky by Mari Andrew through Day 100/100 and until August 31. 😊 … However, [freedom] is my guide words for 2026 (and I am in the midst of my radiation ☢️ treatments), so please take that into consideration. 🪂
“[Street light illumination:] In one instant, the whole city before me lit up like it was covered in a million little fireflies.” -Mari Andrew
“The English word ‘desire’ is derived from the French word ‘desir.’ The ‘sir’ part comes from the Latin sidus, which means ‘star.’ The verb desiderade, translated as ‘to want,’ literally means ‘to gaze at the star.'” -Mari Andrew
This chapter includes beautiful vignettes related to the fact that the stars we actually see in the night sky requires that we “suspend a bit of belief, and we must acknowledge the embarrassing limitations of our comprehension”—just like most things we experience.
Because the wonder we associate with a starry sky and “making wishes on a star” must be paired with the reality that those stars are probably dead.
Meaning that we can always look at our life realities in one of two ways: the hard and fast facts -or- something subjective, a clue to something larger with the option to reframe it as 🪄 magical.
“Something I find a bit comforting is that [we’ll] never know which stars are still alive, where exactly the miraculous end and technology begins…” -Mari Andrew
She describes [magic] as “our ability to imagine beyond our circumstances, our potential to make meaning from the ordinary” (p. 25). And after sharing stories, during which she was looking for something magical, she leaves us with a question: “Do you make magic happen, or does it happen to you?”
✅ My takeaway from this chapter: Abide with the 💫 stars, be curious and be open to the magic of each experience. And I am holding fast to this practice, Braveheart. 😊
- My doctor alerted me to the fatigue I would experience during my radiation treatments. But aside from feeling pensive during the first one, I felt fine. Until the next afternoon. 😴💤
- Everything immediately felt 🐌 slow and muted, and apparently will for the next few weeks.
- But I have my plan to slow read, make “ugly pages” and savor time with the sky (and ☀️ a 4.5 billion-year-old yellow dwarf star), so all is well. 😎
“Art is the act of structuring time.” -Julia Cameron
The Artist’s Way, Chapter 8, “Recovering a Sense of Strength” pairs well with being 💫 curious and open. And being willing to ask 🪄 “What is necessary next?” (as discussed in this chapter).
What does this have to do with right brain planning?
Showing up for ourselves daily-ish and setting aside ⏰ time and space on a regular basis for both tangible and intangible processing is how we redirect our energies + identify our desires + get 🔎 clarity.
- Right brain planning is a practice that invites us to devote ⏰ time and 🔎 attention to expression and a dated chronicle of our personal data—📈 highs, lows 📉 and in-betweens 📊— to assist us in our self-awareness and ongoingness.
- This includes notes from slow-reading books about creativity, self-discovery and healing + jotting down ways to live more of what we desire from those insights. 😊
My right brain planning practice has offered me a sacred space + a kindred community for healing and clarity. The fullness of my practice came as a bit of 🪄 magic for me while I was recovering from ovarian cancer.
During that time of recovery, I was also dealing with estrangement choices by my eldest two children. It was the beginning of learning that other people’s choices are theirs to make, and are not a valid cause to self-blame/loath.
- I chose to adopt them when I married their widowed father, but they had the right to make their own choices.
“A plant that dies isn’t a failed plant, and you’re not a failed gardener. Something was wrong for it, the soil, the heat, the spot you put it in. It’s not a verdict on you, it’s just information.” -Bridget Rose
How very often information is elevated as a verdict. Life happens. Things don’t always work out like we hoped.
We can “appeal” imposed verdicts on the pages of our journals—even if we cannot alter outcomes—we can experience resolution and healing.
- We can make our 🪄 wishes as we review the facts ❤️🩹 and cycle like the 🌙 moon.
- We can practice being 💫 open and curious regarding outcomes (what cannot be changed).
Right Brain Planner is a collection of lunar + seasonal prompts and journal-planning ideas to encourage self-compassion and review, reflection and expression, discovery and healing.
Braveheart, we learn by doing: we discover details about ourselves through chronicled observation 👀✍️📔 because everything we experience is data. 📊
Data is value-neutral; it is neither “good’ or “bad”—it is merely information to use for our choices, intentions and conclusions. Remembering this helps us to live free from judgment and shoulds.
Thank you kindly for your presence here.
I appreciate your interest and support.
~love & good wishes~
Artist’s Statement 😊🔮🔎📝🖌️🎨❤️📊
❤️ Braveheart, as the Creator/Artist of Right Brain Planner I am ever-grateful to have the opportunity to share my creative work online + support other creators! 🎉 For almost 20 years I have had the privilege of sharing my art and writing about right brain planning while also hosting kindred 👭🏽💞👭 communities. ✨ I consider it an absolute delight to continue this portion of my creative work (even as I retire from full-time work).
This is possible, in part, by {you} and your presence here. ❤️ But also because of the support of my Ko-fi patrons and the other member/subscriber communities I host.
If you already have your own system of creative journal-planning, but are interested in financially supporting my creative work, you may do so by making a donation:
- Make a one-time contribution in any amount via [this link]. (Thank you!) ❤️