Symbols and Cymbals
Symbols and Cymbals
Symbols & Cymbals®
Fifteenth E-Newsletter!
Volume 1, No. 15, November, 2006
Nerissa Nields, LLC RGS, VBM*
Sign up at www.nerissanields.com
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Quotations Du Jour on a Certain Theme
“It is a glorious thing to be yourself!” CS Lewis.
“Every man has his own courage, but is betrayed because he seeks in himself the courage of other people.”- Ralph Waldo Emerson.
“To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best day and night to make you like everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight and never stop fighting.” e e cummings
If you enjoy this e-zine, please spread the word by forwarding it to friends and colleagues with or without a brief note saying why you think they'll like it. Think especially of your friends who want to organize their lives but are just way too interesting to do so.
If you do not want to continue to receive this newsletter, say so and I will cease and desist! That’s a promise.
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In This Issue
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1. Greeting and Apology and Shameless Promotion
Hello, dear readers,
…and Happy Thanksgiving Aftermath, as my dear friend Daniel calls it. I hope you are not too stuffed and that Black Friday didn’t cost you all your pennies or your sanity. Most of all, I hope the time you spent with family was sweet and too short and encouraging. And I hope it is as beautiful where you are as it is where I am today (A 60 Degree uncloudy day!) I spent a good portion of yesterday counting my blessings, and you filled my list. I continue to be amazed at the life I have been given to live, full of interesting, thoughtful, engaged people, many of whom I have never met, some who have come to see a Nields show, responded to a blog entry, written beautiful evocative, provocative stories and poems, plays and essays in my living room; trusted me to be their life coach and done incredibly brave, creative work. How did I get so lucky?
I want to apologize again for having forwarded all your addresses to Bonnie, my partner-in-crime in Day Planner design. I asked her not to use them at all—to erase them from her data base and she has done so. You will only be hearing about the Day Planner from me, unless she gets a hold of you through some other channel. It was careless of me to forward your names to her, and I do believe I made you a promise that I wouldn’t do such things. So I am sorry. And I still hope you’ll buy the Day Planner, but only if you really really want one.
And now we pause for a shameless promotion while I mention…um…the Day Planner:
2. LIFE COMPOSITION: The Creative Day Planner
The Day Planner is almost here, and it's better than my wildest dreams!!!! I have been working with my own little cobbled together version for the past 4 weeks and I am now officially addicted, even more so than to the New York Times (see below.)
What you get when you shell out $79 for the Life Composition Day Planner:
-A life coach and artist’s muse in a three ring binder
-An organizer
-a personalized set of daily check in pages which Nerissa will email to you after you fill out a menu
-weekly exercises designed to amuse you and keep you enlightened and inspired
-Daily inspirational quotations
-A calendar with full color Katryna Nields paintings of Nields Songs (from last year’s wall calendar)
-Even MORE inspiration in the form of a monthly mp3 which will be me reading to you.
- Angel Bonnie will customize your treat/toy/tool kit based on your inventory and send you surprise gifts at least twice during the year.
- A hole punched board with set of scraps & ribbons; you can customize the blank board and use it as a page marker (comes with kit.)
-a little collection of portable art materials; (which may include an adorable little 2" x 1" watercolor kit; stickers; and more, plus a summary page on the topic of "Personalizing your DP Cover.”)
-a web site with evolving contest for Best Personalized DP cover plus online ideas, and step-by-step (size, cutting, etc. instructions) for sewing a fabric or other cover.
-email correspondence with life coach and other life composers
Here’s what people are saying:
“I want one.”
“I want more than one; I am going to give this to everyone I know.”
“I usually hate these things, but I totally want one of yours!”
“I love the menu card!”
“Give that back! I was looking at it first!”
Yes, it’s $79, but that comes to only $7 per month which is really not that much if you think about it. For me, that would be three days worth of Café Americanos.
Day Planners will be ready for shipping around Dec. 9; in fact, I will be picking up my first batch from Bonnie at our Phoenixville, PA show, and have them to sell there. We hope to have the web site up by next week and will be taking orders at that time. I will send an email out alerting you to its grand opening.
Sign up for 3 months of life coaching with moi and you get it for a mere $60.
3. New York Times Hegemony Over My Life
One of my rules for writers and my life coaching clients is “never read the New York Times Book Review.” Why? They sometimes ask me. Because, I say, all life coachy. Your job is to find your own voice. To let your own light shine. To see what’s uniquely yours and be true to it. The New York Times’s job is to impress you with their acumen, listen to powerful publishers and publicists and then to point out in a clever way how the new fresh piece of literature is really not bad, except for a few problems. Its job is not to encourage but rather to discourage. When a person is trying to nurture an artistic career, or even just a realignment of life purpose, the last thing one wants is a snarky older sibling Voice in his or her ear pointing out all the ways one is clumsy or not quite getting it right or downright idiotic looking.
Woe to those who make rules. As I think I may have mentioned previously, I became re-addicted to reading the New York Times (Book Review and all) right after Lila was born. Before that, I had successfully given it up. I had no time to read the Times. It arrives as a major distraction and paper tsunami that enters my home and leaves it looking like…well, a tsunami has hit, since I seem to be incapable of reading it without teasing apart every single section of paper and letting the sections fly where they might. I also have this insane fear that I might miss some great story or bit of news, and so I tended to hoard it.
Also, it was always bad news.
Anyway, after Lila was born, I was on maternity leave, and reading a few articles every day was about as much intake from any external source as I could handle, and by external I mean anything outside of my house and my immediate newborn family. Somehow it was delicious to read about Lady Astor’s nasty son and daughter-in-law, or Joe Lieberman’s battle against Ned Lamont and the bloggers. I found myself guiltily asking Tom to pick it up at the local Zee Mart almost every morning. One day, in late July, I noticed a sheet of cardstock in between the pages: “Home Delivery, 50% off,” it said. In teeny tiny print it also said, “For the first 90 days.” I’m no dummy. I read teeny tiny print, sometimes, and so I noted that if I got home delivery at the beginning of August, it would take me through the election. After that, I wouldn’t care about the news anymore; I would have weaned myself off this literary subgenre and be on to more weighty texts, like Crime and Punishment, or Super Baby Foods.
For I did notice that the New York Times could be alternatively titled “Opinions of your Infuriatingly Snarky Older Brother Plus Gigantic Envy Sections Aimed at the Very Rich.” I noticed that reading it never gave me the catharsis of reading a good short story, the delicious friendliness of a novel, the insight of a good spiritual article or even the false hope of a self-help book. Instead, the Times ignited me the way a Café Americano does: I’d read some article that said fat people were the cause of global warming and get outraged! (at the Times, not the fat people.) I’d read about how our country is less safe from terrorists since we waged war against Iraq and get outraged! (at the administration, not the Times.) I’d read about some band who were breaking and feel envious; I’d read about some rich author’s fancy schmancy house in Louisville and get envious; I’d read about some skinny model and her romantic troubles and be glad I wasn’t her, but also a little envious. I’d look at beautiful photos of Machu Picchu and Ethiopia and fantasize about going there. And be envious. I’d read Maureen Dowd and be annoyed AND envious. I’d read John Tierney and David Brooks and just be plain old annoyed. And I’d throw the paper down and vow not to read it. It piled up all over the house anyway, most disturbingly in the bed next to Lila’s crib where I’d nurse her down for a nap while reading one of the envy sections or page 20 where the election news was.
And, oh, how fun it was to read the returns coming in two weeks ago! Delicious paper! I took it to bed at the end of the day and scanned the charts saying who was going to be what new chairperson of what committee as if I actually knew who was who among the newly elected officials.
But then last Sunday the paper wasn’t on my front walk. It wasn’t in the bushes either, or on my porch or in my driveway. I called the local carrier and she said there was a new kid on the route and he might be late. “But I have to go to church!” I whined. “This is my paper reading time! Not at 9 o’clock! NOW!” And I realized I had snapped. I felt like a junkie panting after my fix. I paced the kitchen and finally put on Tom’s boots and walked the fifty feet to the Zee Mart two doors down and bought the paper for full price.
Then I called the Times’s 800 # and said, “When does my half price deal run out?”
“November 18,” the receptionist said.
“Then cancel my subscription at that time,” I said, full of resolve and visions of reading Crime And Punishment.
“Can I offer you the Sunday Times only?”
“No,” I said.
“Can I offer you Monday through Friday only?”
“No!”
“How about Friday through Sunday?”
“NO!” I said. “I don’t want the paper! It’s a lot of paper in my house and I can’t possibly keep up with it! Plus it makes me envious! And it’s snarky!”
“What about Times Select, our online option for just $6.95 a week.”
“No! I said. “Most of that stuff’s free!”
“No,” said the receptionist. “It’s not. You just think it is because you have a subscription. Once your subscription runs out you won’t be able to access it.”
“I don’t care,” I said. “I’m done with the Times.”
The guy took a beat. “What if I offer you six more months at half price.”
Six more months. “What does that come to per month?” I said, wondering if “half price” had more than one mathematical meaning.
He calculated. “”23.95”
“Per month?”
“Per month. Till May.”
May. Lila’s birthday. She would be one. Maybe then I would read Crime and Punishment.
“OK,” I said.
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4. Blog “When God Comes For Tea” http://www.nields.com/blog/
5.Music News
Folk music is alive the way a family is alive; each generation builds on the last one while being entirely itself. A song like “Scarborough Fair,” which became a huge hit for Simon & Garfunkel in the mid 60’s is actually a medieval tune from the northwest of England. It migrated to this country and took many different forms, mentioning different fairs along the way, being arranged and rearranged many times. The Civil War tune, “When Johnny Comes Marching Home” has a northern version and a southern version. Unschooled musicians who don’t necessarily read music remember it by passing it down through the oral tradition, changing words, tunes, making major what was once minor along the way. Slaves took the old church hymns from their white oppressors and turned them into anthems of liberation.
For our current project, which we are tentatively calling Sister Holler, Katryna challenged me to write a collection of songs in which I drew from a pre-existing folk song. And so I have a version of the ancient English tune “Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Foot;” a sea chanty called That’s My Ship, a ballad called “Abington Sea Fair” which is a “Scarborough Fair” from a woman’s point of view; a populist Woody Guthrie-esque “This Train is Bound for Glory,” a spiritual called “Give Me A Clean Heart” and a collaboration with Katryna and Dave called “Leave that Trouble Alone” for welcoming congregations everywhere. Plus a bunch more songs. We are finishing the recording at a snail’s pace but hope to have it out by June 2007. Meanwhile, our family CD All Together Singing in the Kitchen is selling like little hotcakes, though parents report that sometimes the CDs get stuck on one or two songs because they are not allowed to play anything but the current favorite.
To order All Together Singing In the Kitchen go to http://www.bulletproofartists.com/onlinestore/category.cfm?Category=16
Here’s our latest schedule update.
December 1, 2006 Club Passim- Cambridge, MA
December 2, 2006 Hooker Dunham Theatre- Brattleboro, VT
December 9, 2006 Steel City Coffeehouse- Phoenixville, PA
December 10, 2006 Jammin Java- Vienna, VA
December 31, 2006 First Night Northampton- Northampton, MA
January 13, 2007 Joyful Noise Coffeehouse- Lexington, MA
January 26, 2007 Minstrel Coffeehouse- Morristown, NY
January 27, 2007 Sounding Board- West Hartford, CT
February 2, 2007 St Louis Folk Festival- St Louis, MO
February 17, 2007 Taconic Hills PAC- Craryville, NY
March 3, 2007 Jones Library- Amherst, MA
March 17, 2007 Kripalu- Stockbridge, MA
March 23, 2007 Little Theater at Cheney Hall- Manchester, CT
April 14, 2007 Crossroads Coffeehouse- North Andover, MA
July 27-29, 2007 Falcon Ridge Folk Festival- Hillsdale, NY
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The winter sessions for Monday and Thursday writing groups are full.
The January writing retreat, has one space available! The next retreat is March 9-11 and it is FULL. You can have that spot in Jan. by writing me: Nerissand@gmail.com . Cost: $150.
Please let me know if you would be interested in joining a weekly writing group Monday afternoons from 3-5 here in Northampton.
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Sometimes when I go to the movies, I completely lose myself in the story, like in that great Woody Allen movie, Purple Rose Of Cairo, where the hero falls in love with a woman in the movie theatre and comes down off the screen to seduce her. I can get so caught up in the plot, in the characters, in the premise, in the hair-dos. At other times, I am annoyingly aware of the guy sitting behind me chomping on popcorn, or the dust motes in the space between the film projector and the screen. But in the best of all movie experiences, I am both delightfully caught up in the action on screen, and thoroughly conscious of the act of watching a movie, This happy balance between awareness and participation is, I think, the key to living a happy life.
We are given a set of circumstances-stage directions, if you will-when we show up here on planet earth. And after that, we are actors, translators, interpreters. To some extent we are directors, but never completely so, because Life is a lot bigger and bossier than we are. But we do get to participate in composing our lives, and it is in this participation that the cool stuff happens. We have the power to define our own character, for example, to choose whether he or she is going to swashbuckle his/her way to glory or collapse in a heap of self-pity. But we don’t get to decide whether or not he or she is going to become ill or have war waged on his/her country or win the lottery or be built like a supermodel. We just get to decide how he or she is going to react to these circumstances.
We also, to some extent get to plan our day. All we have is the next 24 hours (and even that isn’t a guarantee). How will we use our precious day? How will we sculpt it and script it and write it and act it and draw it and draw from it, and take direction and hear the voice of the editor and the clicking of the metronome? To me, the truest artist is the one who takes the raw clay of the next 24 hours and transforms it into a thing of beauty, one that is full of integrity, creativity, friendliness, humor, service, whimsy, and good old fashioned hard work.
My mission as a life coach, as a musician, as a writer and as a member of the human race is to remember that all the goodies—all the joy, love, affirmation, success, abundance-- we need are right here in our own hearts. That opening up to the joy, opening up to the God within, that unique voice which we will soon recognize as our own (if we are paying attention) will give us all we need. To touch that self-love with music, with kindness, with enthusiasm is to touch God. And to touch that true love makes a person yearn for-need to-share that love in community: the communion of a folk festival, the communion of family, the communion of true lovers locked in embrace.
And the other part of my mission is to free all, especially myself, from the bondage of our own resentments, anxieties, and depressions by taking up the tools to live that beautiful serenity prayer of Reinhold Niebuhr’s: to accept what can’t be changed, to courageously change what can, and to do the painstaking work of figuring out the difference. And to do this, we must confront our deepest fears, wounds, addictions and delusions. But we don’t have to do it alone.
“It is a glorious thing to be yourself!” proclaims CS Lewis. “How much time he gains who does not look to see what his neighbor says, or does, or thinks, but only at what he does himself, to make it just and holy,” says Marcus Aurelius. And “Every man has his own courage, but is betrayed because he seeks in himself the courage of other people- this from Ralph Waldo Emerson. And finally, and most damningly, “To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best day and night to make you like everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight and never stop fighting.” e e cummings said that. If I could sum up my own journey in a sentence, it would be one of self-acceptance, of seeing who I truly am rather than who I think I am supposed to be in order to gain all those goodies-joy, affirmation, success, etc. As a musician, writer and person, what I always find, over and over again, is that when I am true to my real self, all manner of good follows. It’s my mission to help clients discover this truth for themselves, and my hope is that this new day planner will be a helpful companion for the journey.
What is Life Coaching? It depends on who the coach is. I was trained by Martha Beck, a very cool person whom I discovered about six years ago when I read her book, Expecting Adam. (She’s also Oprah’s life coach and writes a monthly piece for the O magazine.)
The style of coaching I do is geared towards helping mentally healthy people achieve goals, helping them through tough spots and encouraging them to be all that they can be without having to join the army. In addition, I do individual coaching for writers and musicians, acting as editor, cheerleader, consultant, and that person who can show you that you can have a full time job, be a parent or partner, stay in shape and still manage to write a few pages or chords every day.
I coach a limited number of people one on one, mostly on the phone, which means I can coach anyone in the country who has access to a telephone. Starting with the premise that everyone's life is a statement, and everyone's life is a work of art, I work with every aspect of the person--physical, emotional, spiritual. I work on issues about relationships, family. finances, health, vocation and avocation.
SPECIAL SPECIAL SPECIAL!! Life Coaching plus Day Planner Sign up for 3 months of life coaching and get a day planner for $60!
If you are interested in working with me, please email me at Nerissand@gmail.com and visit my website at www.lifecomposition.com.
Katryna and I are leading two holiday HooteNanny sessions: Dec. 7 and 14 at 9am and 10am. Drops ins welcome! $15 per family.
The winter sessions start on Jan 18. Enrollment limited to 12 families.
Cost: $150 for ten week session plus $15 for materials.
Contact Nerissand@gmail.com
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*LLC=Licensed Life Coach; RGS=Really Good Swaggerer; VBM= Very Big Mouth.
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Unless otherwise attributed, all material is written and
edited by Nerissa Nields, LCC. Copyright (c) Symbols & Cymbals Inc.(r)
2005. All rights reserved. Visit my blog at
www.nields.com , my writing website at www.nerissanields.com and my life coaching website at www.lifecomposition.com .
You may reprint material from Symbols & Cymbals in other
not-for-profit electronic or print publications provided the
above copyright notice and a link to
http://www.nerissanields.com is included in the
credits. Please send a copy of the publication along with a
note referencing the reprint.
"Symbols &Cymbals," “Writing It Up in the Garden” and "Life Composition" are registered trade or service marks of Nerissa Nields, Inc. All other trademarks
are property of their respective owners.
Nerissand@gmail.com
Privacy Statement & Subscriber Info
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You can get on or off the list by sending Nerissa an email at Nerissand@gmail.com.
This newsletter is sent only to
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Symbols & Cymbals Inc. does not sell, rent, or loan subscriber
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Symbols & Cymbals®
First Ever
Volume 1, No. 1, April 1, 2005
Nerissa Nields, LLC RGS, VBM*
Sign up by sending an email to NFNields@aol.com
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Symbols & Cymbals®
Thirteenth E-Newsletter!
Volume 1, No. 13, August, 2006
Nerissa Nields, LLC RGS, VBM*
Sign up at www.nerissanields.com
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Six brown cows walk down to drink
(All the little fishes blew bubbles at the may-fly)
Splash goes the first as he comes to the brink,
Swish go the tails of the five who follow…
Twelve brown cows bend drinking there
(All the little fishes went waggle-tail, waggle-tail)-
Six from the water and six from the air;
Up and down the river darts a blue-black swallow.
-A.A. Milne
Please spread the word by forwarding this e-zine to friends and colleagues with or without a brief note saying why you think they'll like it. Think especially of your friends who want to foment revolution but just can’t let go of that daily half-caf latte. Also your friends who have kids ages 0-5.
If you do not want to continue to receive this newsletter, say so and I will cease and desist! That’s a promise.
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In This Issue
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1. Mission Statement
This newsletter is about living, writing, and the pursuit of happiness. It’s about the growing of new life, be it artistic, biological or spiritual: that delicate work of living day to day with as much grace as humor as is possible to muster: truly, the highest of art forms. I am a musician and a writer and a life coach and, most recently, a mother. This newsletter is a kind of clearinghouse for all of these activities; you may know me as your life coach, or you might be a Nields fan who skips through the essays to find out where my sister, Katryna and I are playing this fall. Please write back if something interests you!
2. Greetings!
I can’t believe it’s already August. Lila turned three months old last week and we celebrated by playing forty-seven rounds of Romper Stomper, a game she invented wherein we lift her overhead as though she were SuperBaby and she flies around. This is her favorite thing to do, except maybe nurse, and when she comes down to earth, or rather her parent’s knee, she stomps her feet to get said parent to lift her up again. It’s kind of irresistible, so we usually do.
My maternity leave is winding to an end, along with the summer. I spent it learning to be a mother, walking into Northampton and back with Tom and Lila and drinking copious amounts of water. I barely wrote at all, with the exception of a couple of blogs and some songs about Lila taking her bath and her weirder stuffed animals. I barely read at all, either, although I’ve become addicted to the New York Times, hoping secretly Tom gets a copy every morning when he takes Lila to visit our neighbor, Sahid, at the local Zee Mart. Then, as we’re having our morning beverages (tea for me, orange juice for Tom, breast milk for Lila—by the way: why is it we call cow’s milk “milk” and human milk “breast milk”?) we discuss politics down south (Connecticut) and what it might mean for the nation. (I tried to write a blog about this, but instead wrote about Lila as usual. See http://www.nields.com/blog/index.html )
Lila has very strong opinions about Joe Lieberman and Ned Lamont, and also about Brooke Astor and her son and grandson. She is totally into saving the planet, insisting on wearing cloth diapers. (Also gdiapers. I swear they’re not giving us an endorsement (yet) but I do have to rave about these. They have permanent outers and flushable inners and now available at Whole Foods. See www.gdiapers.com). Lila also counseled us to buy a diesel Jetta named Olivia, which runs on soybean oil. She says she would like a planet in which one does not need to run air conditioning 6 months out of the year, please, and wishes her parents and their friends would take steps now to occlude any further global warming. (see other blog, “Our Vegetable Sipping Car” at http://www.nields.com/blog/2006/07/our-vegetable-sipping-car.html).
Most of all, Lila is excited about the new parent/child singing extravaganza called HooteNanny which her mother and aunt Katryna are starting this September. My absolute favorite job of all time was being the music instructor at Camp Greenway when I was between the ages of 18-22. Where else can you sing for 5 hours a day, everything from “Froggie Went a Courtin’” to “Born in the USA” and everyone in the room is compelled to sing with you? Lila and I went to a Music Together group in Ashfield, MA led by the wonderful Lui Collins last month and we both loved it so much we decided we needed to do it ourselves. We’ve been singing along to all of Dan Zanes’s amazing CDs and to All Together Singing in the Kitchen in our kitchen, but we agree it will be more fun to sing with other parents and kids.
Enjoy this last wonderful month of summer and be sure to eat plenty of tomatoes, corn and peaches. Take in the smell of fresh cut grass and the way the sun bakes into the asphalt.
Love, Nerissa
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3. Blog “All This Intensive Labor Just So I Get My Heart Broken?” http://www.nields.com/blog/
4.Music News
All Together Singing In the Kitchen made its debut at Falcon Ridge. Of all the thirteen CDs we've ever made, it's my favorite. We have another CD in the works, the tentatively titled Sister Holler, which we are adding luscious layers to even as I write this....
To order All Together Singing In the Kitchen go to http://www.bulletproofartists.com/onlinestore/category.cfm?Category=16
Here’s our latest schedule update.
8/25/06 Boston Children's Museum Boston, MA 12:00 - 1:00 pm
9/2/06 Cup and Top Café Florence, MA 10:00 am children's show
9/8/06 Purnell School Pottersville, NJ
9/15/06 Trinity on Main New Britain, CT
10/7/06 The Barns at Wolf Trap Vienna, VA
10/14/06 Iron Horse Music Hall Northampton, MA 7:00 pm
11/3/06 Golding Park Café Cobleskill, NY
11/11/06 Stone Soup Coffeehouse Pawtucket, RI
11/17/06 Christ Congregational Church Princeton, NJ
12/1/06 Club Passim Cambridge, MA
12/2/06 Hooker Dunham Theater Brattleboro, VT
1/13/07 Joyful Noise Coffeehouse Lexington, MA
1/27/07 The Sounding Board West Hartford, CT
2/2/07 St. Louis Folk Festival St. Louis, MO
3/23/07 Little Theater at Cheney Hall Manchester, CT
4/14/07 Crossroads Coffeehouse North Andover, MA
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5. Writing Retreats and Weekly Groups
The fall sessions for Monday and Thursday writing groups are full. The winter sessions will start the week after Thanksgiving and run from Nov. 27/30 to sometime in early February. Cost: $300. You can send a deposit of 50% to hold your space. Write me at Nerissand@gmail.com.
The Fall writing retreat is scheduled for the last weekend in October (10/27-29) and it is full. There will be a retreat Jan. 5-7. There are three spots left, and you can secure yours by writing me: Nerissand@gmail.com . Cost: $150.
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6. Life Coaching
What is Life Coaching? It depends on who the coach is. I was trained by Martha Beck, a very cool person whom I discovered about six years ago when I read her book, Expecting Adam. (She’s also Oprah’s life coach and writes a monthly piece for the O magazine.)
The style of coaching I do is geared towards helping mentally healthy people achieve goals, helping them through tough spots and encouraging them to be all that they can be without having to join the army. In addition, I do individual coaching for writers and musicians, acting as editor, cheerleader, consultant, and that person who can show you that you can have a full time job, be a parent or partner, stay in shape and still manage to write a few pages or chords every day.
I coach a limited number of people one on one, mostly on the phone, which means I can coach anyone in the country who has access to a telephone. Starting with the premise that everyone's life is a statement, and everyone's life is a work of art, I work with every aspect of the person--physical, emotional, spiritual. I work on issues about relationships, family. finances, health, vocation and avocation.
Packages
Life Coaching $300/month
With some clients, the sessions are spent brainstorming about time management and follow through. In other cases, as one client put it, I act as an “existential sherpa.” The focus of coaching is often on learning to understand where your own internal compass is leading you to go; in other words, learning to trust your own gut.
Discovery Session $150
I will send you a questionnaire to determine your needs and desires. In this initial session, you will work out with me how you want the scope of your time together will go.
Writing A Novel case by case. I have worked with many writers to help them begin, develop and finish their projects, both through coaching and editing, depending on what the client wants and needs. At completion, I can help with the next steps: finding an agent and bringing the work to publication.
Artist 911 $75/session. I will work with you on your project, give feedback and professional advice to build an entire career plan and team.
Journal for Peace $100/month/eight weeks. An eight week program involving reading (Dr. King, Thoreau, Gandhi, Thich Nhat Hanh), writing and meditation. I will give writing exercises to recognize the sources of unrest and anger and help participants develop a spiritual practice to bring to the rest of their world(s).
Fitness for Body, Soul and Checkbook $300/month
Set goals, understand blocks in this very specifically directed program. Make a plan and stick to it. Make peace with the issues that cause 'dis-ease' in these areas of your life. “Learn” your own body.
Love and Other Four Letter Words $300/month Look at your relationships and fix what’s ailing. Find love inside and out. Heal family dysfunction and have a better time at Thanksgiving.
If you are interested in working with me, please email me at Nerissand@gmail.com and visit my website at www.lifecomposition.com.
Nerissa and Katryna Nields are national touring musicians, a part of the legendary band The Nields who toured North America throughout the nineties and into this millennium. As a duo, they were a part of Lillith Fair, and have shared the stage with Natalie Merchant, Suzanne Vega, Sarah McLaughlin, Dar Williams, The Indigo Girls, James Taylor, Joan Baez, the Band, 10,000 Maniacs, Billy Bragg, Dan Zanes and countless others, all of whom informed and enhanced their musical repertoire.
They are also mothers, now, and make their home in the Pioneer Valley. Join them and their children in a new music group for parents and children starting Katryna has participated in Music Together training (and is an alum of the fabulous Hill Town group with Lui Collins in Ashfield.) Nerissa spent four years as the musical director of a day camp of 400 kids. They grew up listening to Pete Seeger and Jack Langstaff lead audiences in song, and fervently believe that a group of people singing folk songs together is tantamount to heaven on earth.
Many studies have shown that early musical education will enhance a child’s development and confidence. HooteNanny will help you and your child gain basic musical competence through:
-Movement and Dance
-Instruments
-Singing
-Quality time spent with your child!
Enrollment limited to 12 families.
Cost: $150 for ten week session plus $15 for materials.
Contact Nerissand@gmail.com to join.
_______________________________________
This is one of the best novels I’ve ever read. Ann Patchett created a snug, tight mini-world in her tale of hostages and terrorists learning to live together in an unnamed South American country. Her language is so rich and eloquent and her characters so fully formed, I keep wanting to write them postcards to see how they are doing. I loved this book so much it made me want to learn to sing arias and to listen to opera (something I had formally equated with eating lima beans.)
Syriana
I wish I knew why they named this film this way. I was glued to my TV set, mostly because the film was filmed in Casablanca and I am a sucker for anything filmed outside the US (also for anything filmed in NYC). This movie reminds us, graphically and violently at times, that we are all complicit in the chaos of the Middle East; that it is our gargantuan appetite for fossil fuels, for gadgets that need plugging in, for air conditioning, for transportation that creates the conditions that make life so difficult in that region.
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*LLC=Licensed Life Coach; RGS=Really Good Swaggerer; VBM= Very Big Mouth.
=============================
Unless otherwise attributed, all material is written and
edited by Nerissa Nields, LCC. Copyright (c) Symbols & Cymbals Inc.(r)
2005. All rights reserved. Visit my blog at
www.nields.com , my writing website at www.nerissanields.com and my life coaching website at www.lifecomposition.com .
You may reprint material from Symbols & Cymbals in other
not-for-profit electronic or print publications provided the
above copyright notice and a link to
http://www.nerissanields.com is included in the
credits. Please send a copy of the publication along with a
note referencing the reprint.
"Symbols &Cymbals," “Writing It Up in the Garden” and "Life Composition" are registered trade or service marks of Nerissa Nields, Inc. All other trademarks
are property of their respective owners.
Nerissand@gmail.com
Privacy Statement & Subscriber Info
===================================
You can get on or off the list by sending Nerissa an email at Nerissand@gmail.com.
This newsletter is sent only to
subscribers who have signed up at nerissanields.com,
lifecomposition.com, or Nields.com, or who
have emailed a request to be added. This mailing is part of
a recurring series of bi-weekly email newsletters plus
occasional messages about special offers and programs.
Symbols & Cymbals Inc. does not sell, rent, or loan subscriber
information to any third party. Period.
Write your reality, grow your dreams and spread the word by forwarding this e-zine to friends and colleagues with a brief note saying why you think they'll like it. Your referrals are the primary way I grow. That, and overeating Tom’s crack brownies. You will not be sent this newsletter ever again unless you explicitly sign up for it! That’s a promise.
================
In This Issue
1. What the heck this is
2. A bunch of propaganda
3. Why you should throw this into the spam filter
4. Folksinging 101 Or How I Came To Lead Writing Workshops Out Of My House
5. Novel Writing Boot Camp and other teleclasses
6. Incredibly Personal Disclosure
7. Confessions of a Young Adult Novelist
8. Prayers and Promises
================
===============================================
Hello, confused friends and people who ended up on my mailing list. Welcome to my first ever newsletter. In this newsletter, I will make three claims: to tell the truth, to make you laugh, and to get you to read to the bottom. OK, I am on page one and already I have lied. This isn’t my first ever newsletter. For those of you who know my Past, you know I was in a band for years called the Nields and for most of those years relied heavily on a patchwork style turbo driven newsletter made up of fancy fonts and Katryna’s cartoons.
Last night I had a dream about cartoons. In it, my ex-boyfriend had sent me a newsletter online that was a series of tiny video cartoons in which he, a business professor and father of three children, reached out to all his old friends from college in a funny and technologically advanced way. I woke up thinking two things: How did he do that? And: I must have some coffee, now.
My goal is to reinstitute the Nields Newsletter of old in a form that suits my current circumstances. My goal is to have technologically advanced e-mail cartoons one day, and until then, my goal is to draw a cartoon—a really funny New Yorker like one. Short of that, this doodle I did in my journal this morning. My goal is for you to laugh and giggle and pass this along to anyone you think might laugh and giggle and incidentally want to write with me.
================================
Other goals:
Also to write a ton of novels, but more on that later.
Someone from one of my writing retreats forwarded me an e-newsletter and even though I could barely understand what the woman who wrote it was talking about, I promptly sent her a check for $150 and bought an e-book and a set of mp3s which I’ve been listening to diligently for the past four weeks. I still don’t know who she is or what she sells—something about e-business, I think--but she’s totally changed my life. She said the first thing you want to do to grow your business is offer your clients some personal information. So here’s my email address, my home phone number and bra size:
Email: NFNields@aol.com
Phone: 413-584-7736
Bra Size: 34B
Oh! Wait. I think she said “pertinent information.” Oh, well. Even though I don’t know what she was selling, I can tell you what I sell. I run writing workshops out of my house, online and via conference call, to motivated writers and songwriters. I also do one-on-one life coaching for artists and writers.
3. Why You Should Stop Reading This Now And Throw It In The Spam Folder.
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This newsletter is not for people who don’t want to write, or make music or be life coached, and you may have gotten it because once you wrote me hoping I would autograph a photo for your cousin, or because you are my best friend from high school (hey, who’s going to the reunion?)
You also might be saying, “What’s a life coach? That sounds stupid.”
That’s what I said too. It was the weirdest thing. I was at my computer answering my email two years ago when I got a message from my friend Julie Nathanielzs Serritella, who was—yes—a friend from high school. She said, “Hey, I am in Taiwan and I just heard your song on the radio! By the way, I am a life coach.”
Weird, I thought, and that was that.
Then, last September, Katryna and I sang a show at Cornell in Ithaca and there in the audience was Julie.
“You are back from Taiwan,” I noted.
“Yes,” she said. “And I’m still a life coach.”
“Ah,” I said, and that was that.
A month later, I was on tour with Lisa Loeb and Carrie Newcomer, and the woman driving us, who had organized the tour, the inimitable Jill Stratton, kept talking about her fabulous life coach and how she was changing her life and blah blah blah and then Jill turned to me and said, “Nerissa, YOU would make a fabulous life coach.”
The proverbial bells went off and an angel descended right then and there into the front seat of her tiny SUV and I said, “Lo. You are right.”
I went home and promptly googled Martha Beck who, besides Julie, was the only life coach I’d ever heard of. She wrote me back and said, “I will certify you. Come to Phoenix.”
I went to Phoenix, I read a lot and wrote a lot and felt I was back in school, and Martha blessed me and waved her magic wand upon me and made me laugh so hard and said, “Nerissa, never forget how big your mission is.”
So here I am taking people’s money and saving up for my dream kitchen and stalking trip.** Please forward this newsletter to all who might be interested in contributing.
4. From Folksinger to Fabulous in 30 Days!
================================
It happened like this. I was divorced a year, and even though I loved the house I’d shared with my ex-husband David, a little farmhouse in Hatfield (hmm, that makes it sound like I was married td David, a little farmhouse….) I wanted to be in Northampton. For those of you who don’t know Northampton, “Noho,” as it is called by its apologists, is a charming, leading-with-the-chin college town populated by artists, music lovers, liberals and not a small number of the clinically insane. In short, exactly where I belong. Anyway, I had been looking to move for a few years and nothing was in my price range. One day in July 2003, my realtor, Anne Young called to say a really nice house that had been for sale for over a year had just come down in price. I went over, entering the house via the kitchen. Even though I jest that I want a dream kitchen, something out of House Beautiful or Don’t You Wish You Lived In A Woody Allen Film, I fell in love with even the old linoleum on the scabby floors. I thought, “There is no way I can afford this house.” Then I went into the spacious room at the very front of the house with high ceilings, with windows looking out to a porch surrounded by tall ancient box bushes, and I practically heard a voice saying, “You can have writing groups here.”
I knew the voice was not lying. And I thought, “If I can sell my house in Hatfield for a little more than I thought; and if I can get this house for even less than they’re asking; and if I could teach two writing workshops a week, one in songwriting, one regular prose or poetry; then maybe…”
Within six weeks from that day, I had moved in. Within eight weeks, I was teaching my first Writing It Up In the Garden class. And I haven’t stopped since.
Writing It Up in the Garden workshops are one of the very best parts of my life. What could be more fun that having people come over to my house once a week, serving them hot tea and cookies, catching up on their lives; and then sitting down with a unified purpose and pounding out forty-five to fifty minutes of whatever nonsense comes into my head while they do the same? As someone who lived with, loved and traveled with a rock band for ten years, I thrive on the collaborative process, and for me to write my novels (yes, I’ll eventually get to that), I crave human contact. The people who show up at my workshops are some of the best poets, playwrights, songwriters, novelists, wordsmiths I’ve ever met. I am completely serious. If you don’t believe me, check out their work on the Writing It Up In the Garden Blog: http://www.nields.com/blog/writing/.
I have been leading workshops on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, and this evolved into my leading retreats. The people who came to the retreats traveled from far away: California, Arizona, Western Ontario, Washington DC, New York, New Jersey, Vermont…and many of them said, “We wish we could be in a weekly workshop!” So to that end, I am launching a series of teleclasses.
5.Teleclasses #1 Novel Writing Boot Camp
=========================================
Write a novel in ten weeks!
When: Thursdays at noon, one hour, ten week session. Weeklong email contact. Starting June 9.
Cost: $300 Space is limited to 8 participants. To secure your spot, send a 50% deposit.
Have you ever wondered how novelists actually write their books? How they come up with plots? Where the characters come from? The answer: one word at a time.
In a structured workshop, Nerissa takes you week by week through the process of writing a novel. Each week has its own topic, such as: architecture, genre, character, development, dialogue, tone, plot, details, voice/POV, revision. Using techniques from the famed NaNoWRiMo experiment, (magic weapons=deadline + peer pressure), you will emerge from this workshop with a novel.
More Teleclasses
================================
Name: Writing It Up in the Garden: Weeding and Pruning.
When: Tuesdays at noon, one hour plus weeklong email contact. First ten week session starting as soon as possible. Space is limited to 8 participants. To secure your spot, send a 50% deposit.
Cost: $300 plus cost of telephone call.
For those who want to participate in a creative writing workshop but live too far away to join a weekly writing group, or for those who want to go a little deeper into the “weeding and pruning” phase of their writing. We will “meet” weekly on a telelconference call for an hour. Nerissa will have given a prompt previously by email or on the phone, and all will have written and submitted the work to the other participants. During the teleconference, we will discuss the merits of the work and make helpful suggestions about how the piece can be strengthened. All writers welcome in any genre, including songwriting if the songwriter can distribute lyrics and music by mp3 or snailmail. We will take turns sharing our work, so that in one week, four people will share, and the following week the other four will share.
Journal For Peace
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Name: Journal for Peace
When: Wednesdays at noon, one hour, ten week session. Week-long e-mail contact. Starting September 14
Cost: $300 plus the cost of the phone calls. Space is limited to 8 participants. To secure your spot, send a 50% deposit.
An expanded workshop, growing out of Nerissa’s popular 8 week online workshop of the same name. In this teleclass, we will talk about our process. Nerissa will give assignments on line: a weekly writing assignment, reading assignment and action assignment. The writing will be done on line and the workshop time will be used for discussion.
We will be reading from a diverse group: the Bible, Thoreau, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Rumi, Thich Nhat Hanh, Eckhart Tolle, Byron Katie and others.
Other tools of the program include meditation, written inquiry and active listening.
Sample Weekly Assignment:
Reading: Martin Luther King, Jr. “Letter From Birmingham Jail”
Writing: Write out your PERSONAL credo. What do you know is true for you in terms of how to get along with yourself, other people, and the world? Use empirical evidence:† for example, I know that when I hold my tongue when I’m angry with someone I never regret it, even though I think it’s going to kill me at the time.† You might be different: you might always hold your tongue and never ever speak up for yourself. What has WORKED for you in the past? Be brutally honest!! Write a credo that is as long or as short as you feel called to write.
ACTION: one of the three below:
Go for a daily walk in a place where you know there will be litter.† Pick up the litter.
Get five dollars worth of quarters.† Spend an afternoon filling parking meters.
Next time you go to the supermarket, return all the shopping carts that are left idling in the parking lot to their rightful place.
6. Incredibly Personal Disclosure
=========================================================
Nah. Not yet.
7. Confessions of a Young Adult Novelist
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I decided I wanted to be a novelist one January day in 1997 while I was on my morning run in Hollywood. I was recording a single for our new CD, Gotta Get Over Greta, and felt quite amazed by the fact that suddenly, after years of hard work, I was where I always wanted to be: on the verge of getting massively famous, traveling the country with my rock band and delightfully anorexic. This last part, I quickly discovered, was not at all it was cracked up to be. I got very mentally ill to the point where every day was sort of like being in a massive labyrinth with no hope of ever finding the golden thread, wrecked my knees through running for six miles a day, became infertile, and subsequently was forced to change my life in a myriad of ways that seemed ghastly at the time. Actually, the attempt to become massively famous was almost equally painful. But the traveling around the country—now that was something worth having, worth living, worth loving. I decided right then and there to write a novel about a rock band who lived on the road, were related to each other, and came through a series of hardships to some personal and spiritual clarity. I named it The Big Idea and promptly did what all good beginning novelists do: procrastinated.
Exactly four years later, I began to write. My marriage was falling apart, and my rock band was breaking up, and I wrote as if my hair were on fire. With no evidence to support me, I declared to myself every morning from 10am-noon that I was a novelist and proved it by pounding out a bunch of words.
A year and a quarter later, my manager, Patty, got a call from Scholastic Books. “Would Nerissa like to write a series of Young Adult books based on her songs?” asked Randi Reisfeld, Acquisitions of Trade Paperback.
Nerissa would. So, I wrote. I wrote once a week in a weekly writing workshop, which is where and how I got the idea to lead workshops of my own. I wrote the whole first draft of my novel that way, in three months. Then I began the laborious revising process, and now, three years later, voila! A BOOK! It’s called Plastic Angel and it’s out in the stores mid-May.
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So I have a theory: even though it’s totally Stuart Smalley and all, it seems to work, these positive affirmations, and as I promised at the top of this newsletter to be entirely honest, I have to say, this is what I do. I ask for a lot of help from the universe and try to say thank you when I get it.
I promise to stop bugging you now. Oh! And here’s my Big Disclosure: I use Crest White Strips. Not just once every eight weeks. Pretty much all day long. That’s why my pearlies are so white.
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*LLC=Licensed Life Coach; RGS=Really Good Swaggerer; VBM= Very Big Mouth.
**Vitally Important Disclaimer: Fantasies of Paul McCartney notwithstanding, I am not a stalker. I realize some people, especially lawyers, might not think it’s cool to even joke about stalking. To those people, I say, “You are right.” And to Paul, I’d like to say, “You rock. Thank you for the CDs. I will listen to them and leave you and your family alone. I’m just joking about waiting for you to appear in Tralfalgar Square.”
Publication and Reprint Info
=============================
Unless otherwise attributed, all material is written and edited by Nerissa Nields, LCC. Copyright (c) Symbols & Cymbals Inc.(r) 2005. All rights reserved. Visit my blog at www.nields.com, my writing website at www.nerissanields.com and my life coaching website at www.lifecomposition.com.
You may reprint material from Symbols & Cymbals in other not-for-profit electronic or print publications provided the above copyright notice and a link to http://www.nerissanields.com is included in the credits. Please send a copy of the publication along with a note referencing the reprint.
"Symbols &Cymbals." and "Life Composition" are registered trade or service marks of Nerissa Nields, Inc. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.
Nerissanduffy@aol.com for life coaching
NFNields@aol.com for writing.
Privacy Statement & Subscriber Info
===================================
You can get on or off the list by sending Nerissa an email at NFNields@aol.com. This newsletter is sent only to confirmed double-opt in subscribers who have signed up at nerissanields.com, lifecomposition.com, or Nields.com, or who have emailed a request to be added. This mailing is part of a recurring series of bi-weekly email newsletters plus occasional messages about special offers and programs.
Symbols & Cymbals Inc. does not sell, rent, or loan subscriber information to any third party. Period.
Symbols & Cymbals®
Thirteenth E-Newsletter!
E-Newsletter!
Volume 1, No. 13, August, 2006
Nerissa Nields, LLC RGS, VBM*
Sign up at www.nerissanields.com
*******************************************
Six brown cows walk down to drink
(All the little fishes blew bubbles at the may-fly)
Splash goes the first as he comes to the brink,
Swish go the tails of the five who follow…
Twelve brown cows bend drinking there
(All the little fishes went waggle-tail, waggle-tail)-
Six from the water and six from the air;
Up and down the river darts a blue-black swallow.
-A.A. Milne
Please spread the word by forwarding this e-zine to friends and colleagues with or without a brief note saying why you think they'll like it. Think especially of your friends who want to foment revolution but just can’t let go of that daily half-caf latte. Also your friends who have kids ages 0-5.
If you do not want to continue to receive this newsletter, say so and I will cease and desist! That’s a promise.
***************************************************************
In This Issue
================
1. Mission Statement
This newsletter is about living, writing, and the pursuit of happiness. It’s about the growing of new life, be it artistic, biological or spiritual: that delicate work of living day to day with as much grace as humor as is possible to muster: truly, the highest of art forms. I am a musician and a writer and a life coach and, most recently, a mother. This newsletter is a kind of clearinghouse for all of these activities; you may know me as your life coach, or you might be a Nields fan who skips through the essays to find out where my sister, Katryna and I are playing this fall. Please write back if something interests you!
2. Greetings!
I can’t believe it’s already August. Lila turned three months old last week and we celebrated by playing forty-seven rounds of Romper Stomper, a game she invented wherein we lift her overhead as though she were SuperBaby and she flies around. This is her favorite thing to do, except maybe nurse, and when she comes down to earth, or rather her parent’s knee, she stomps her feet to get said parent to lift her up again. It’s kind of irresistible, so we usually do.
My maternity leave is winding to an end, along with the summer. I spent it learning to be a mother, walking into Northampton and back with Tom and Lila and drinking copious amounts of water. I barely wrote at all, with the exception of a couple of blogs and some songs about Lila taking her bath and her weirder stuffed animals. I barely read at all, either, although I’ve become addicted to the New York Times, hoping secretly Tom gets a copy every morning when he takes Lila to visit our neighbor, Sahid, at the local Zee Mart. Then, as we’re having our morning beverages (tea for me, orange juice for Tom, breast milk for Lila—by the way: why is it we call cow’s milk “milk” and human milk “breast milk”?) we discuss politics down south (Connecticut) and what it might mean for the nation. (I tried to write a blog about this, but instead wrote about Lila as usual. See http://www.nields.com/blog/index.html )
Lila has very strong opinions about Joe Lieberman and Ned Lamont, and also about Brooke Astor and her son and grandson. She is totally into saving the planet, insisting on wearing cloth diapers. (Also gdiapers. I swear they’re not giving us an endorsement (yet) but I do have to rave about these. They have permanent outers and flushable inners and now available at Whole Foods. See www.gdiapers.com). Lila also counseled us to buy a diesel Jetta named Olivia, which runs on soybean oil. She says she would like a planet in which one does not need to run air conditioning 6 months out of the year, please, and wishes her parents and their friends would take steps now to occlude any further global warming. (see other blog, “Our Vegetable Sipping Car” at http://www.nields.com/blog/2006/07/our-vegetable-sipping-car.html).
Most of all, Lila is excited about the new parent/child singing extravaganza called HooteNanny which her mother and aunt Katryna are starting this September. My absolute favorite job of all time was being the music instructor at Camp Greenway when I was between the ages of 18-22. Where else can you sing for 5 hours a day, everything from “Froggie Went a Courtin’” to “Born in the USA” and everyone in the room is compelled to sing with you? Lila and I went to a Music Together group in Ashfield, MA led by the wonderful Lui Collins last month and we both loved it so much we decided we needed to do it ourselves. We’ve been singing along to all of Dan Zanes’s amazing CDs and to All Together Singing in the Kitchen in our kitchen, but we agree it will be more fun to sing with other parents and kids.
Enjoy this last wonderful month of summer and be sure to eat plenty of tomatoes, corn and peaches. Take in the smell of fresh cut grass and the way the sun bakes into the asphalt.
Love, Nerissa
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3. Blog “All This Intensive Labor Just So I Get My Heart Broken?” http://www.nields.com/blog/
4.Music News
All Together Singing In the Kitchen made its debut at Falcon Ridge. Of all the thirteen CDs we've ever made, it's my favorite. We have another CD in the works, the tentatively titled Sister Holler, which we are adding luscious layers to even as I write this....
To order All Together Singing In the Kitchen go to http://www.bulletproofartists.com/onlinestore/category.cfm?Category=16
Here’s our latest schedule update.
8/25/06 Boston Children's Museum Boston, MA 12:00 - 1:00 pm
9/2/06 Cup and Top Café Florence, MA 10:00 am children's show
9/8/06 Purnell School Pottersville, NJ
9/15/06 Trinity on Main New Britain, CT
10/7/06 The Barns at Wolf Trap Vienna, VA
10/14/06 Iron Horse Music Hall Northampton, MA 7:00 pm
11/3/06 Golding Park Café Cobleskill, NY
11/11/06 Stone Soup Coffeehouse Pawtucket, RI
11/17/06 Christ Congregational Church Princeton, NJ
12/1/06 Club Passim Cambridge, MA
12/2/06 Hooker Dunham Theater Brattleboro, VT
1/13/07 Joyful Noise Coffeehouse Lexington, MA
1/27/07 The Sounding Board West Hartford, CT
2/2/07 St. Louis Folk Festival St. Louis, MO
3/23/07 Little Theater at Cheney Hall Manchester, CT
4/14/07 Crossroads Coffeehouse North Andover, MA
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5. Writing Retreats and Weekly Groups
The fall sessions for Monday and Thursday writing groups are full. The winter sessions will start the week after Thanksgiving and run from Nov. 27/30 to sometime in early February. Cost: $300. You can send a deposit of 50% to hold your space. Write me at Nerissand@gmail.com.
The Fall writing retreat is scheduled for the last weekend in October (10/27-29) and it is full. There will be a retreat Jan. 5-7. There are three spots left, and you can secure yours by writing me: Nerissand@gmail.com . Cost: $150.
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6. Life Coaching
What is Life Coaching? It depends on who the coach is. I was trained by Martha Beck, a very cool person whom I discovered about six years ago when I read her book, Expecting Adam. (She’s also Oprah’s life coach and writes a monthly piece for the O magazine.)
The style of coaching I do is geared towards helping mentally healthy people achieve goals, helping them through tough spots and encouraging them to be all that they can be without having to join the army. In addition, I do individual coaching for writers and musicians, acting as editor, cheerleader, consultant, and that person who can show you that you can have a full time job, be a parent or partner, stay in shape and still manage to write a few pages or chords every day.
I coach a limited number of people one on one, mostly on the phone, which means I can coach anyone in the country who has access to a telephone. Starting with the premise that everyone's life is a statement, and everyone's life is a work of art, I work with every aspect of the person--physical, emotional, spiritual. I work on issues about relationships, family. finances, health, vocation and avocation.
Packages
Life Coaching $300/month
With some clients, the sessions are spent brainstorming about time management and follow through. In other cases, as one client put it, I act as an “existential sherpa.” The focus of coaching is often on learning to understand where your own internal compass is leading you to go; in other words, learning to trust your own gut.
Discovery Session $150
I will send you a questionnaire to determine your needs and desires. In this initial session, you will work out with me how you want the scope of your time together will go.
Writing A Novel case by case. I have worked with many writers to help them begin, develop and finish their projects, both through coaching and editing, depending on what the client wants and needs. At completion, I can help with the next steps: finding an agent and bringing the work to publication.
Artist 911 $75/session. I will work with you on your project, give feedback and professional advice to build an entire career plan and team.
Journal for Peace $100/month/eight weeks. An eight week program involving reading (Dr. King, Thoreau, Gandhi, Thich Nhat Hanh), writing and meditation. I will give writing exercises to recognize the sources of unrest and anger and help participants develop a spiritual practice to bring to the rest of their world(s).
Fitness for Body, Soul and Checkbook $300/month
Set goals, understand blocks in this very specifically directed program. Make a plan and stick to it. Make peace with the issues that cause 'dis-ease' in these areas of your life. “Learn” your own body.
Love and Other Four Letter Words $300/month Look at your relationships and fix what’s ailing. Find love inside and out. Heal family dysfunction and have a better time at Thanksgiving.
If you are interested in working with me, please email me at Nerissand@gmail.com and visit my website at www.lifecomposition.com.
Nerissa and Katryna Nields are national touring musicians, a part of the legendary band The Nields who toured North America throughout the nineties and into this millennium. As a duo, they were a part of Lillith Fair, and have shared the stage with Natalie Merchant, Suzanne Vega, Sarah McLaughlin, Dar Williams, The Indigo Girls, James Taylor, Joan Baez, the Band, 10,000 Maniacs, Billy Bragg, Dan Zanes and countless others, all of whom informed and enhanced their musical repertoire.
They are also mothers, now, and make their home in the Pioneer Valley. Join them and their children in a new music group for parents and children starting Katryna has participated in Music Together training (and is an alum of the fabulous Hill Town group with Lui Collins in Ashfield.) Nerissa spent four years as the musical director of a day camp of 400 kids. They grew up listening to Pete Seeger and Jack Langstaff lead audiences in song, and fervently believe that a group of people singing folk songs together is tantamount to heaven on earth.
Many studies have shown that early musical education will enhance a child’s development and confidence. HooteNanny will help you and your child gain basic musical competence through:
-Movement and Dance
-Instruments
-Singing
-Quality time spent with your child!
Enrollment limited to 12 families.
Cost: $150 for ten week session plus $15 for materials.
Contact Nerissand@gmail.com to join.
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This is one of the best novels I’ve ever read. Ann Patchett created a snug, tight mini-world in her tale of hostages and terrorists learning to live together in an unnamed South American country. Her language is so rich and eloquent and her characters so fully formed, I keep wanting to write them postcards to see how they are doing. I loved this book so much it made me want to learn to sing arias and to listen to opera (something I had formally equated with eating lima beans.)
Syriana
I wish I knew why they named this film this way. I was glued to my TV set, mostly because the film was filmed in Casablanca and I am a sucker for anything filmed outside the US (also for anything filmed in NYC). This movie reminds us, graphically and violently at times, that we are all complicit in the chaos of the Middle East; that it is our gargantuan appetite for fossil fuels, for gadgets that need plugging in, for air conditioning, for transportation that creates the conditions that make life so difficult in that region.
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*LLC=Licensed Life Coach; RGS=Really Good Swaggerer; VBM= Very Big Mouth.
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