Half Moon Bay, September 2014

I’m sure there are psychologist and personal growth experts who have written treatises about the phenomena of what happens when you set your mind to try to make something happen. I am not a psychologist or personal growth expert. But I can tell you that the choice of the word “intention” as one of Mikhail and my three words for the year has been a powerful one.

I think I chose the word because I was already seeing that at work in my writing life. My intention to work on my book every day, even if just for a few minutes at a time, was magically making people and resources that I had never heard about before pop up in my life in unexpected ways.

I ran into my friend Julie Kay Kelly in the locker room at the Y. I told her that I was looking for an expanded connection to creative women in my life. She told me about a group called Hacker Moms. And with a few clicks of the mouse, I had learned about the Writer’s Circle, which soon came to revolutionize my writing habit.

Serendipity? Or power of intention?

Nearly two years ago, I decided that writing retreats were going to be critical for me to be able to make this novel happen. At first I was intimidated by the idea of going on a writing retreat alone, but I knew eventually I would have to. After a lot of time spent organizing retreats with other people – which sometimes worked out beautifully and sometimes didn’t – I decided it was time to bite the bullet and schedule one for myself alone.

It just so happened that I had already found the perfect place. I had kept my intention to eventually do solo retreats in the back of my mind through hours of searching Air Bnb for retreat locations to serve many. That was how I found the place where I spent this weekend, my third solo writing retreat this year. I had put the intention out there for exactly what I hoped to find – someplace safe, quiet, reasonably priced, beautiful, with a view of water, and a close drive from my house, and with people who I would connect with and feel very comfortable around.

And it happened.

My retreat spot. Lucky writer!

And don’t even get me started about the intention that led to us getting a hot tub. That’s a topic for another blog post.

So when my friend Andrea said, “Should I put an intention out to manifest a teaching gig in New Mexico?”

I said, “Yes, definitely. In Taos.”

I take intention seriously.

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