Thank you for visiting and joining me on the journey so far. I’m doing the hard work of starting a new book — thinking it through; outlining; writing the proposal plus pilot-testing the experiential research (see the pilot test of the pilot test here).
It’s arduous work and requires a lot of nonrenewable time and emotional energy, especially after all the ones that came before (there have been seven). I think this one’s gonna be something completely different in form and function from what I’ve done before –but how, I don’t yet know. I just feel it, and I want to allow it to reveal itself to me. Maybe it’s not even a book. Other big things are happening professionally, too (whatever you’re thinking, think bigger).
All I know is that my writing is my oxygen, fingerprint, soul. It’s my past, present, and future. I believe it to be my God-given gift, purpose, and most honest and complete expression of self. It’s my authenticity, art, and way of bearing witness in a world in crisis.
Keeping my work (and life) rooted in joy and truth is its own full-time job.
Take care, for now. And, as always . . .
Trust the journey,
Pattie
P.S. If interested, follow on TikTok! That’s my happy place online right now and that’s not stopping anytime soon.
UPDATE 10/30/22
Proud of myself! Pilot test done! I just returned from #WWOOFing (which stands for Working Worldwide on Organic Farms — see the USA website here) at a nonprofit named Our Giving Garden in Mableton, Georgia that donates 100% of everything it grows (plus hosts classes and events). I had the great joy of living in a micro Tiny House while there and working with the most beautiful, lovely people. It was extraordinary. (I did this immediately after concluding my year-long contract with the CDC Foundation in service to the State of Alaska writing and project managing the Healthy You in 2022 project.)
See 50 quick TikToks from my first WWOOF experience (of many to come both in the USA and globally). Here are two videos I created that the nonprofit farm I was serving reposted as Reels on Instagram:
Fun facts: My analytics soared these past two weeks (95% increase in video views; 148% increase in profile views; 164% increase in likes; 160% increase in shares) so, hello media outlets and potential sponsors — folks are definitely interested in this.
Here’s a quick peek of when I arrived and then when I left:
Below are two of the nine trending videos with the fastest growth. I have a lot of fun participating in actual trends on TikTok and really enjoyed the #PumpkinHeadPhotoShoot challenge. A group of tweens found the pumpkin head and cut their own awesome video afterwards — a good reminder that folks don’t always join in right away but yes, we all have ripple effects.
Please note I currently have almost every privacy control on due to past harassment so I haven’t even come close to the potential impact of my outreach. (That’s the case for most women, by the way — have you noticed all the private accounts? So when you judge our social media numbers rather than content creation expertise when considering us for jobs, please realize the inequities involved). I am evaluating how best to handle that during this project.
I learned a ton useful for planning my 2023 multiplatform project ‘Round America with a Duck (title inspired by my fave book of all time, ‘Round Ireland with a Fridge). It’s a hopeful, joy-based journey around a country-at-a-crossroads by a 70s child facing 60 — from Couchsurfing to cowboy ranches, Workaway to wildlife sanctuaries, goat cheese dairies to llama day rentals, swamis to Sisters of Peace, and everything in between via bikes, buses and trains.
Oh, and also, I quit Twitter. No more “constant barrage of death while riding bikes and cities that refuse to change” comin’ at me (not to mention all the other drama happenin’ there). As a road violence survivor and daily transportation bike rider, it was continually triggering and not a way for me to positively engage anymore in my purpose here on earth. If we were connected there, I hope to cross paths with you elsewhere. Thank you for all you do to change our current dangerous-by-design country.
Also, tomorrow ends my two-year term as the first Metro Atlanta Bicycle Mayor as part of a global consortium of more than 130 others with the Amsterdam-based social enterprise BYCS. Hope I helped. Go get ’em, tigers.
Onward!
P.S. I’m getting numerous private messages about my availability for gigs/writing assignments/contracts for content creation prior to departure for my cross-country experiential research currently scheduled to start in March 2023. I am considering very select opportunities at my consistent hourly freelance rate since 1995 ($150 an hour content strategy and creation/a buck a word editorial). Possible flexibility in pricing and partial-barter deals for B-Corps, nonprofits, and projects I simply love. Trust me — I knock things out of the park for you. You need me on your team, especially to do that thing everyone else considers impossible (note: it’s not). Sell me on your project.
Oh, and yes, there are product placement and underwriting opportunities coming for my coast-to-coast in-person multi-platform outreach. Stay tuned!
Traveling at the Speed of Bike 