My Real Job - Reinvented Personal Brand

As is customary for me every year, I've reinvented my real job's personal brand. Heres's my new site:

And here's a new bag and some pumps I got to go with it:

And here's my new business cards from moo.com:

Blue Skies,

Emily Baldwin Branding and Marketing

Blue Skies,

Its Family Moments Like These...

...that remind you why you left the world behind and came back home.

Blue Skies,

Culture Moment: Georgia Nature Musings

[Journal Entry - Autumn 2012] Even The Leaves Are Letting Go

I spent all day outside at Arabia Mountain - listening to the wind, talking to the trees, watching Nature work her Autumn magic, just thinking: there's so much beauty and intelligence here. I'm noticing Georgia's flora and fauna has more dimension it seems, more depth... she moves you with the sway of her hips, weaving the light and the dark through her landscapes, something I didn't see often enough back in the Land of the Gods...

When life shatters you awake, you become obsessed with the idea of home. You talk yourself into believing that some vague memory of playing by the lake with your cousins on a warm, silky summer night is where you will return to - to a family with open, loving arms, restored to hope by the transforming power of tragedy. The perfect contrast to the concrete jungle, to the constant commotion, noise, and shallow people. I was going home. And people were jealous. Deep in their hearts they too longed for that home they couldn't return to. In LA, we were runaway children, united as Middle America refugees, and here I was, turning my back on the tribe. My self-seeking had prevailed; my life had been redeemed. I had a home that wanted me back, someone was missing me...

The truth was, I had no home to come home to.

But today, I really just let myself surrender - to this social orphanage, this starting over one more time, and to a new Nature I'd never noticed in such sharp relief: it was this part of her I wasn't ready to accept and didn't quite understand. I laid down atop a large rock outcrop, closed my eyes, opened my arms, and just died. I gave up all the old horizons I'd been chasing. I could breathe in the living intelligence all around me and I - emptied - asked it to show me her secrets - the tender and carefully placed paradox behind her scraggly tree limbs, her mossy pools, her neutral tones, and the beautiful creations she was so adamant about destroying.

I wandered back through some of my time with her....

I remembered how exciting it was to dare her in her fury as she threw her flashing whips across threatening skies, snapping and spinning the clouds on their axes... slowly lulling me into the hum of her dark spell, and secretly wanting her to unleash more of her wild downpours and whipping winds on our boring, pathetic lives... or how the first bittersweet smell of decaying leaves used to break my heart, reminding me that firefly light shows and cricket choirs don't last forever... ever revealing again and again the promise inherent in all her changes, and showing me that even the leaves can let go.... For some curious reason, I feel safer in her stormy, rocking arms than under the endless embrace of sunkissed skies... and I'm becoming aware that I no longer have that tired and weary child tugging at my heart asking, "can we please go home?"

She has more poignancy. She has a deeper, drumming prowess. Like a stealth panther, more moody and cruel, but it adds to her art, making her this vulnerable, yet violently passionate dancer. She has a wider range of technique and flow - an edge to her elegance, and I think that's what I'm finding more of now... this deep, unlimited depth, like the yins and the yangs that paddle evolution forward - where the old surrenders breathlessly in the undertow - the backwash of time - giving way to a greater expression of the new, reborn as a bubbling, zealous crest atop a mighty wave, until it banks again in due time..

I looked up at the plane in the sky from where I was laying and thought about the people up there, in their own little world - perhaps complaining about the in-flight service or putting the finishing touches on a power point or digging through their purse for a benzodiazapam. Their whole awareness tucked so tightly, like little pigtails, under their worldly helmets as they soldiered onward.... unaware of this great, expansive space I was losing my entire life to down here. Perhaps all of those gurus I met while walking labyrinths were right, I suppose. Maybe we do live in deep, cosmic pools of perspective. Some large, some small, dual here, non-dual there... but I'm glad I am finding more and more reflections in deeper and deeper pools. It will probably be my greatest gift in the end.

Autumn is all about surrender. It's like Mother Nature is delicately kissing her beautiful masterpiece goodbye by changing the color of the leaves and surrendering them to the wind.... I will follow her.

Blue Skies,

Client Gift Idea: New Baby

Did your client just have a baby? Looking for a creative gift idea? What could be more creative - and practical - than buying the baby's domain name? Leave a legacy with a gift that keeps on giving.

Here's a free domain from Go Daddy - on me:

Blue Skies,

The Inner 40 Year Old

[From a work titled "Hold Space," written in 2005]

I guess if men have mid-life crises, women can be said to have one big whole-life crisis. That obnoxious chatter that wrings your head out like a wet rag with its constant overanalyzing of every single detail – all the “should have dones,” and “never agains,” and the “hard lessons learned.” I’m chronicling mine. Why? I want the chatter to stop. So I’m spilling it out of my head and onto these pages so I can walk back up to it, stare at it, poke it, and make it start answering questions.

I will tell you though, I have learned more than I ever thought I would by this age. Lord knows if our age is determined by how much wisdom we have gained from our life experiences, I’m dying a scholar. In fact, I’ve started thinking of 25 year old self in terms of, “What would my inner 40 year old self say in a situation like this? What would she do knowing all she does about what life hands us? What would she think knowing that there is some meaning and purpose to it all?”

I have so much adoration for my most mature inner 40 year old self because she is so comfortable in her own skin and wears the world as a loose garment. She knows sometimes she has to jump off cliffs and build her wings on the way down. She knows she has too many edges to be a conventional shape. She knows broken bones, once they have healed, are stronger than bones that have never been broken. She knows people are moons and have a dark side. She knows all too well that talk is cheap. She knows denial wastes tremendous amounts of precious energy. She knows when to stop turning red flags into pink ones. She knows revelation can be hard and that revolution can be harder. She knows the greatest pain is disillusionment. She knows people can evny that which they condemn. She knows everything can be taken away without warning. She knows that sometimes you have to let go to get your sense back. She knows the unexpected is to be expected. She knows that sometimes she has to pierce the barriers, becoming scarred, so that a path can be cleared.

She knows that God always has the last say and that she will never know His grand design. She knows waiting by the phone is a waste of time. She knows that you can't make someone change. She knows it is unreasonable to think people will stay the same. She knows she has to deal the cards she was dealt. She knows turning off will not protect her. She knows that fear is only a response to the unknown. She knows she can adapt to change. She knows she can always trust in her ability to learn. She knows jealousy is projected insecurities. She knows that when you take time off from working, you learn more about yourself than you ever wanted to. She knows how to hope for the best but still anticipate the worst. She knows that the single most powerful way to relate to people is through compassion. She knows how many shoulders she is standing on and is grateful for each person who has lifted her. She knows true maturity comes from the courage found in facing obstacles head on. She knows when she needs to draw a new map or retrace her steps.

She knows she doesn’t have trust or commitment issues because she opened herself to healing her wounds. She knows she never makes the same mistake twice. She doesn't think she is a man because she knows she has great power in her femininity. She knows that every step forward is probably a step away from where she doesn’t want to be. She knows she is better for everything she has overcome. She knows people who say she can't accomplish something can go sod off. She knows that mistakes are only lessons to be learned. She knows a good healthy cry is the quickest way to get over it. She knows that when she asks for something out of conviction, she usually gets it. She knows she has strength she doesn't even know yet. She knows never to let people “should” on her. She knows love never dies a natural death. She knows that she can trust that the future will open doors. She knows the truth always finds her in time. She knows that sometimes you have to come crashing down before you can wake up.

She knows that whatever happens, she will handle it....

Wearable Technology Fashion and Lifestyle

Check out things I love in the latest wearable technology fashions! #talk2myshirt

Blue Skies,