Carrie Kenner – Carrie Kenner: Doula Trainer. Writing Coach. Sacred Feminine Guide. https://carriekenner.com Carrie Kenner helps people manifest their dreams as doulas, writers, or as the divine feminine. Fri, 13 Dec 2024 22:52:38 +0000 en hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://i0.wp.com/carriekenner.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/cropped-heart.png?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 Carrie Kenner – Carrie Kenner: Doula Trainer. Writing Coach. Sacred Feminine Guide. https://carriekenner.com 32 32 196118485 NEWBIE AUTHOR LEARNS THE TRUTH ABOUT BOOK PUBLISHING! https://carriekenner.com/2021/09/08/newbie-author-learns-the-truth-about-book-publishing/ Wed, 08 Sep 2021 18:45:17 +0000 https://carriekenner.com/?p=1139

How many of you thought - like I did - that to get a book published you:

  1. Sit down and write the book
  2. Edit your book – once – after you’re done
  3. Find a publishing house
  4. The publisher edits your book one final time and gets it ready to publish
  5. The publisher promotes your book
  6. You make a lot of money from your book sales

If you have never published a book before, you wouldn’t know any different, and you can join the “oh my god there’s so much more to writing a book” club. In fact, there are many more steps, and half the steps above don’t even happen anymore!

Here’s what I learned (and am learning) about what it takes to get a book published:

First, let’s start with the untruths..

Publishing houses don’t promote your book for you. Wah wah. They expect you to have a following (and if you don’t, you better start building a following before you even try to find a publisher because they probably don’t want you without one!), and to do your own promotion.

Publishing houses don’t necessarily edit your book. They usually have a professional proofreader on staff (which is a final step after numerous edits). They might format or design the cover. All these things are ‘maybe’s that you need to check out before deciding on a publisher and knowing what you are spending your money on.

And speaking of money, unless you already have a huge following or are a famous author, you are not going to make a lot of money off your book. You will get anywhere from 5-70% of sales (called royalties), depending on the publisher (which could be YOU, that’s how you get those higher royalties), your contract, and if you received any money from a publisher up front.

Now on to the half-truths...

It is true that you do need to sit down to write your book. But you don’t write it from start to finish. You just write stuff. And write. And write. And write some more. At some point, you say “I’m finished.” But you’re not. You have to review, and revise, and add some here, and take away (a lot) from there.

At this point, you could send your manuscript to beta readers for their review, input, and edits. Or you could wait until after your developmental edit (see next paragraph). Beta readers are a group of folks who like to read, and may or may not be your target audience; they are often friends and acquaintances who are willing to do you a big favor. You have to beg them to not be nice to you, and to give you honest feedback on what works and what doesn’t. They also catch all your bad grammar, spelling errors, and typos. Basically, beta readers are angels.

Most of the big editing is done by professionals, who have enough distance from your book (and expertise) to tell you what is good or not. A developmental editor will help you develop your book into a cohesive masterpiecemanuscript. That means it will flow well, the characters will be well-developed, the dialog will be tight, the story arc is intact and complete.

You will revise some more based on their feedback.

And by now, perhaps earlier, you will start to promote this book of yours that still isn’t close to being done.

How do you promote a thing that doesn’t exist yet?

You start building interest in it. You tell all your friends and family. And you start doing things to attract your target readers – things like posting on social media, blogging, offering free chapters of your book in exchange for getting on your email list, running contests, appearing on podcasts or YouTube or Oprah!

After you do a few more rounds of reviews, you send it back to your beta readers for their final input and make it as good as you can get it. You are now ready for your copy or line editor. These professionals go through your manuscript line by line and whittle it down to just the right words, said in just the right way, and hopefully no more. They are supposed to refine your manuscript into a masterpiece.

Cool. Are we done now?

Nope. Now your book gets proofread. Then it is formatted with fonts and headers, and illustrations and side boxes, so it looks clear and organized and interesting on the page.

And you get your cover designed; that part is fun! You want it to look and feel good in the reader’s hands, right?

Now can it be published? Yes! But who did you choose to publish your book? Learn about the process of choosing a publisher in next week's blog post...

Carrie Kenner is a first-time author of a forthcoming book on how to be a birth doula. The first draft of her book is complete and she is now in the revise/beta reader stage. Her book will be published in 2022. Click the orange link below to get newsletter updates on her book's progress.

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]]> 1139 Be Revolutionary! https://carriekenner.com/2021/09/02/be-revolutionary/ Thu, 02 Sep 2021 19:47:39 +0000 https://carriekenner.com/?p=1125

I was recently filling out an online dating profile (yes, I’m looking’ for love ♥), and one of the profile questions took me back to a birth I attended eight years ago. The question was:

What’s the favorite compliment you ever received?

My answer: “You are a true revolutionary.”

Okay, I’m a sucker for anything radical, out of the box, un-mainstream, and bucking the status quo, so I was thrilled to hear someone think I was revolutionary!

The person who delivered that compliment was my doula client, who had just given birth by cesarean a week prior. She had planned to birth at home, but a fever sent her to the hospital where she was rushed into the OR because of an infection soon after arrival. I hardly expected her to think I was great as a doula (after all, she didn’t have the birth she wanted and some people tend to blame their disappointment on the doula)... let alone think I was ‘revolutionary’.

“Why do you say that?” I asked.

“Because you, and my midwives, are in the trenches, helping people to have the kind of birth they want when everything in our society is set up against that. You came to my home, you supported what I wanted, you helped me and my husband work together. You come at all hours and answer the phone whenever I call. You do what you believe in. No one else does those things. You are true revolutionaries!”

Wow. Okay. All that was true. But if we were revolutionary, then she was too.

She was one of the less than 3% of people who chose to birth out of the hospital in the United States that year. In barely more than a century, birth had moved from 90% at home (1900) to 97% in the hospital (2018).

The majority of births in the early 1900s were attended by midwives. And then a political smear campaign against midwives was run by the medical establishment to discredit midwives and encourage white people to birth in the hospital. Black, indigenous, immigrant, and poor white birthing people were primarily still attended by midwives until the 1930-1940s. By 1950, 80-90% of all babies were delivered by doctors in the hospital.

There is a long line of revolutionaries that lead to modern home birth midwives, and doulas; at the head of the line are the Black Grand midwives who continued to serve their communities after white male physicians took control of birth in the early 1900s (see for example, Margaret Charles Smith and Onnie Lee Logan). Following in their footsteps are the people who resurrected midwifery and fought to legalize it in the 1970s and 1980s (and to this day), the leaders of the modern family-centered childbirth education movement, today's midwives who continue to push back against the medicalized birth industry, and the doulas who support birthing families wherever they choose to birth.

Bringing birth back into the community, and out of profit-motivated hospitals, is revolutionary. The work of home birth midwives and doulas is revolutionary. The choice of home birthing families is revolutionary.

If you want to be part of the revolution to change birth in your community, contact me for more information on organizations and training to support you. Long live the revolution!

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]]> 1125 Solar Eclipse 2017 https://carriekenner.com/2021/08/22/solar-eclipse-2017/ Mon, 23 Aug 2021 05:48:33 +0000 https://carriekenner.com/?p=1113

We woke up at 4am, put a case of Mason jars filled with rain water in the trunk of the car, grabbed my moonstone pendant, and headed down I-5 to Salem, OR. That was four years ago yesterday, and my son and I were on our way to witness a total solar eclipse.

It was a straight 3-1/2 hour drive. We found an area where we could park by a big field with no trees to obscure our view. We placed our jars of water on the roof of the car, my moonstone occupying one of them, climbed into our lawn chairs, and piled on the blankets to wait.

The eclipse started at 9:05am. It was absolutely surreal to watch dusk fall over us just a few hours after the sun rose. The "totality" occurred at 10:17am on August 21, 2017. For 1 minute and 54 seconds, it was totally dark, except for a thin halo of light. And then the sun emerged for the second time that day. It was breath-taking.

The drive home was a merciless 9 hours, weaving through backroads trying to make progress among all the other dedicated sky-gazers. But it was worth it.

I treasure the moon water, and my moonstone is still alive inside.

8/21/2017 - My post to Facebook:

"Gratitude for the glorious pas de deux between Grandmother Moon and Grandfather Sun today. Thank you Holy Ones for letting us witness your dance. Grandmother, you showed us how to court slowly and steadily. Grandfather, you stood steady while She led this dance. Your union showed us the answer - the Divine Feminine front and center, the light of the Masculine crowning Her. You let us peek into your deep mystery for just a brief moment. And then your exquisite exit... My breath was taken. You have shown us the way - The Divine Feminine will lead this dance. (Notice in this photo that our eyes are trained to see just one object, when in fact there are two. The descending moon looking just like a pregnant belly, the sun glowing as if a crescent moon.)"

 

]]> 1113 How Do You Like to Work? https://carriekenner.com/2021/08/12/how-do-you-like-to-work/ Thu, 12 Aug 2021 19:50:58 +0000 https://carriekenner.com/?p=1102

I like to do things BIG, all out, no half-stepping. I take on huge projects, plan and organize them, implement them (usually with lots of cursing throughout), and then I’m done. Making a pottery studio in my home. Remodeling my house. Creating an urban farm (three times). Starting my own business (twice). Doing a van conversion. Those are the types of projects I do. I feel a lot of pride looking back on what I’ve created. And then I rest until the next inspiration hits me.

I learned this about myself when I worked in the corporate world. One of my jobs was a project manager in healthcare administration. I loved planning and implementing new computer systems, work flow processes, and business structures. We’d have a celebration, and then I’d walk away, pleased. What I hated is if I had to stick around to manage the system after it was implemented. It was the same old thing, day after day, and it bored me. I thrived on the huge-ness of a project, sorting through all the tasks it would take to complete, and leading the way.

Know what you like.

A key to daily happiness is not only doing what you want, but doing it how you want. Look back on work you have done that has flowed the easiest, kept you engaged, brought you a sense of satisfaction, and fit well within the rest of your life.

If you like structure and same-ness, work that is similar every day will feel good to you. If you get bored easily, new clients or projects may appeal to you. If you get overwhelmed with many details and moving parts, smaller projects or areas of focus will be gentler on your mind and less stressful. Look for ways to steer your work in the direction that suits you best, delegate the unpleasant parts if posible, and continuously strive to improve your work life.

My most mentally-challenging project.

Creating my first doula curriculum was one of the most mentally challenging projects I completed. I had to identify every topic, learning objective, teaching aid, and resource for a 24-hour course. It was daunting.

My first curriculum weighed in at 55 pages.

But I wasn’t done. I soon expanded my doula training to 32 hours, to include racial and social justice content. Then I turned it into a week-long residential retreat filled with art and ritual. And finally I added more hours, creating my enCircle Doula Training, a 42-hour, seven-week series.

My latest project.

You may have heard I'm writing a book (if not, click here for the announcement, and here to read about our journey). With my book, I  capture that entire doula training that I created, and deliver it in a book. This will definitely be my longest project to date! I started in March 2020 and expect it be published in March 2022. Writing it has been like putting all the flesh, sinew, tendons, every vessel and nerve cell and organ, on the bones of that original doula training curriculum.

I'm breathing life into so much of what lived only in my mind, so that it will live on its own out in the world.

My upcoming book has traveled with me thru three pandemic shelter-in-place locations, weathered a career change, and captures my twenty year legacy as a birth doula and doula trainer. This will be the first book that provides everything a person needs to know to work as a birth doula. Follow along with my book progress here.

 

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]]> 1102 Gestating My Book https://carriekenner.com/2021/08/06/gestating-my-book/ Fri, 06 Aug 2021 18:41:59 +0000 https://carriekenner.com/?p=1089

The response to my book announcement has been overwhelming! The concept of putting a book out into the world had been abstract for me, until now. All the positive feedback has made it so much more real. Thank you readers!

So, let me tell you a bit about the journey my book and I have been on...

In March 2020, instead of writing a book, I was supposed to be embarking on a 6-month counter-clockwise road trip from Seattle, WA: down the West coast, across the South, and up the East coast of the United States, crossing through Canada, and ending in Alaska, with a ferry ride home through the Inside Passage back to Washington State. I intended to teach along the way, and check out places in the country that I might want to set up a homestead.

Instead of going on that road trip, there was a pandemic.

I didn’t have a home other than my van, and nowhere to park it to live in it, so as news of a lockdown spread, I spent the weekend - which grew into weeks, then months - on my son’s couch (thanks again, Rahsaan and Sonnie!). Surely the pandemic would be over soon, right?, and then I could get back on the road...

While waiting for the pandemic to wither away, I wrote. Every morning I would wake up on the couch, turn on my laptop, and write. I wrote nearly every day until May 30.

After two months of taking over my son’s living room, I decided to make my way to a friend’s house. She was sheltering in place and had a spare room I could stay in (thanks, Margaret!).

As I settled in and we established our Golden Girls routine, my writing waned. It became apparent that the pandemic wasn’t ending any time soon, and the work I had been doing – traveling around the country training childbirth educators and birth doulas – was not coming back. I needed to find new work. I gave myself permission to put my writing on the back burner until I had figured out my next career.

In July 2020, I trained to become a Certified StoryBrand Guide. Over the summer, I launched my new business, Storyline Marketing. I also found a beautiful place to park and live out of my van on Whidbey Island.

And my book patiently waited until all the necessities of my new life were settling and I could focus on writing again.

In March 2021, I opened my manuscript, read through the 32,460 words I had already written, and picked up where I had left off.  To give my book the chance it deserved, I enrolled in a 9-month coaching program for writers called Get Your Book Done. The program has been incredible. I have learned so much about the craft of writing, the process of creating a book, and the industry of getting books to market (editing, cover design, promotion, publishing, layout, and more). I chuckle at my naiveté when I started writing - how I though I’d just sit down and write the book from start to finish, and then get it proofread - yet so grateful I had that beginner’s mind or I may not have ever started writing.

Now that I'm settling into the role of being a writer, I see the rest of this journey unfurling before me. It is a long one. I hope you will follow along and celebrate with me at the end.

Thank you for reading, and thank you for being you!

One of the lessons I learned during the pandemic is how precious time with my family is; I can’t bear to live too far away from them. Prior to the pandemic I assumed I could fly home once a month to visit; now, we can’t take flying anywhere for granted. Do me a favor and tell someone you love - especially if they are far away - how important they are to you today.

You can subscribe to this blog, or sign up for my newsletter to be updated on the book’s progress. All the links to take action are below.

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]]> 1089 I Wrote a Book! https://carriekenner.com/2021/08/02/i-wrote-a-book/ Mon, 02 Aug 2021 18:33:48 +0000 https://carriekenner.com/?p=1071

On March 22, 2020, one week into lockdown for the COVD-19 pandemic, I decided to write a book. I’d been thinking about writing for many years and had a few ideas. Being stuck at home seemed like a great time to start.

That day, I wrote the first 1,751 words of my book. And today, I wrote the last of 119,668 words, the first draft of a book that has been on quite a journey with me.

In the coming weeks, I’ll tell you more about that journey, but for now, let me tell you about my book...

It doesn’t have a title yet, but it does have 31 chapters and nearly 120,000 words.

It’s a ‘How To Be a Birth Doula’ book, based on the doula training I developed and taught for 16 years. I am no longer training birth doulas, so this is what I offer to the world instead. I know how crucial doulas are to changing birth in our culture, and I want folks who want to be a doula to be able to access training in a book.

My book will be published sometime in 2022, I’m hoping for March.

There’s still a ton of work to be done: deciding if it’s going to be one book or two, developmental edits to put the book into a more cohesive structure, adding stories from my years of attending births, a round of edits to put it through an anti-racism lens, read-thrus by my beta readers, more edits, promoting it, and creating a forum to support the community of readers who want to become a doula or support others at birth.

I wouldn’t have known I had to do all that if I hadn’t decided to join a 9-month writing program, one of the best decisions I ever made! Cami Ostman and The Narrative Project, and my critique group (thanks Dana, Isabel, Lauren, and PJ!) have been invaluable in helping me become a better writer and helping my book come to life and find its shape.

I waited to make an announcement about my book until the first draft was done and - yay! - here I am! Now I’m going to be talking about it a lot! I hope you will be cheering me on from the sidelines, and I ask you to share this blog post with anyone you know who is interested in becoming a doula.

Please follow along in the coming months as I share the progress of my book, along with lessons I learn about the publishing journey, tips from my marketing and copywriting business, and tales from life on Whidbey Island.

I hope you’ll enjoy reading. If so, please subscribe to my blog at the bottom of this page, and get my blogs delivered right to your inbox.

Thank you for reading, and thanks for being you!

]]> 1071 A Love Letter to the Seattle Birth Community https://carriekenner.com/2019/07/23/a-love-letter-to-the-seattle-birth-community/ Tue, 23 Jul 2019 19:53:36 +0000 https://carriekenner.com/?p=642

An Open Letter of Love and Gratitude…  As I close the doors to Big Belly Services, sell off my belongings, and prepare to drive off into my new life, I am filled with so many memories and so much gratitude for the Seattle birth community.  My midwives who started me off on this path, Suzy Myers and Marge Mansfield; my doula trainers, Sandy Szalay and Dana Blue; my local mentor and friend Penny Simkin; my old crew at Big Belly Services Alex Sarason, Angie Dobbins, Rebecca Shepherd, and Amity Kramer; my friends and colleagues at Seattle Midwifery School/Simkin Center Annie Kennedy, Sharon Muza, Kim James, Teri Schilling, Laurie Levy; my hardcore doula pals Alissa Wehrman and Debra Shelden; and so so so many other doulas, childbirth educators, midwives, nurses, physicians, lactation consultants, and all the massage therapists, chiropractors, and acupuncturists who kept me standing for so many years.

But the people I want to thank the most are the thousands of doula students who have graced me with their presence over the past 15 years.  Without you, Big Belly Services would have been nothing.  You showed that a small class size, sitting in circle, and a no-agenda course could produce the best doulas out there.  You helped me manifest my vision of creating heart-centered doulas who were schooled in how to weave anti-racism and social justice into their birth work.  You are the stars in the milky way to me – shining your lights in an otherwise gloomy world and making huge impacts to birthing families and humankind.

So who will continue the legacy that I started with Big Belly Services?  I am passing the torch to my dear friend and colleague Amity Kramer, who nurtured the childbirth classes once offered at Big Belly Services and made them into a successful and continuing venture at Thresholds.  Now, Amity will offer the 7-week and 4-day immersion enCircle birth doula trainings that I once offered.  She will continue my focus of training birth doulas to be racial and social justice advocates in birth work.  She will also offer in-person continuing education for local birth professionals.  And she has many ideas for bringing in local experts on new topics of interest to birth professionals.  Please check out her services and support her at www.thresholds.info.

And what will I be doing? During all my years as a doula and doula trainer, I have had people comment on the way I say things, the types of questions I ask, they way I phrase things.  All that comes from my years of training with Birthing From Within, and the work of my mentor and dear friend, Pam England.  This is the organization that changed my life and made me who I am as a birth professional, and as a person.  I am now so proud to be co-owner of Birthing From Within (along with Erika Primozich and Nikki Shaheed), and one of its lead trainers around the country and internationally.

In February, I was asked by DONA to step down as one of its approved birth doula trainers since I was also training for Birthing From Within.  That was a sad day, as I believe we can manage multiple roles and enrich them all through cross-fertilization.  But it was a good day too I suppose, as it reaffirmed my focus and dedication to Birthing From Within.

I love Birthing From Within. It is the most relevant birth organization today, in my opinion.  We offer online courses and inclusivity scholarships so it is accessible to all. We train not just childbirth educators and doulas, but also nurses and midwives and other perinatal professionals. Over and over again, we hear from seasoned (and often burned out) birth professionals that “this is what has been missing all my career!”  We provide training on processes and skills that doulas and childbirth educators can use right away to actually prevent birth trauma.  And our Birth Story Medicine training is the most effective way I have ever encountered to help folks process birth stories and trauma. Birthing From Within is truly ‘Changing the conversation about birth”.  You can learn more about my work with Birthing From Within here.

I’ll be back in Seattle in November to lead Birthing From Within’s signature retreat, Crossing the Threshold, for aspiring and experienced birth professionals.  Come see this new work that I am doing!  The retreat will be followed by a 5-day birth doula training.

I have traveled around the country training doulas, meeting other birth professionals, and learning about regional birth practices.  It is common knowledge that birth practices in the Seattle area are progressive compared to other parts of the country.  But more impressive (to me) is how the Seattle birth community is such a rare treasure.  Because of the way we were ‘brought up’ – to be collaborative and supportive, rather than competitive and back-stabbing – we have created an open and sharing community that truly GROWS more of the same.  I see new doulas reach out for help daily and receive support.  I see experienced doulas offer their wisdom. I see different types of care providers come together to share perspectives and skills to solve problems.  Pat yourselves on the back and keep it up. Please don’t ever let that change.

With love and gratitude, Carrie

 

]]> 642 Making the Cut https://carriekenner.com/2019/07/22/making-the-cut/ Mon, 22 Jul 2019 18:28:29 +0000 https://carriekenner.com/?p=635

When I was a little girl, I’d lie on my back on the living room floor and look up at the ceiling. The tops of the built-in bookcases became the bottoms, the light fixtures became mushroom caps, the ceiling beams became thresholds to different rooms, different worlds. That ‘ceiling’ was the floor of my private world, my own living room where I could fantasize about how things would be if I were the grown up… if I were the one running the show.

I’ve always been a dreamer, a conjurer, a creatrix. So it’s no surprise that many of the things that made the cut to go with me in my van are for creativity and creation. My sewing supplies (yes I’m bringing a sewing machine!), carving tools, shell bead making kit, and of course, my laptop for writing and creating online courses.

For months now, I’ve been fantasizing about what my van will look like on the inside. There are hundreds of websites, videos, and forums where ‘boondockers’ or ‘van-lifers’ or 'caravaners' post the evolution of their designs. It’s pretty amazing that no two vans are alike – even though they start out with the same metal box.

What things are most important to me? Surrounding myself with art. Colors. One precious shelf of books. A well-supplied kitchen. A real refrigerator. Lots of storage (I have to haul my teaching supplies everywhere with me). Multiple options for power (solar, battery, propane, and an extension cord). A cozy bed I don’t have to make every day.

The hardest part of my preparation has been getting rid of just about everything I own. When I finish my travels I plan to live in a tiny house, so I’m not storing furniture or household items. It’s been a grueling process of going through EVERYthing to see what few things I keep for the future. I’ve had seven weekends of yard sales. They are physically and emotionally exhausting. It’s surreal to sell things you actually like and watch someone drive away with your perfect lamp, the end table you love, your beloved books, or the desk you’ve sat at for 16 years.

One night I spent 4 hours going through 18 years of greeting cards – birthday cards, Mother’s Day cards, holiday cards - from friends, family, past clients. It was heart-wrenching to not keep them, but really… I had them for 18 years and this was the first time I looked through them. It was a love fest reading them all, so with tears of gratitude and prayers to all the senders, I let them go.

I’m almost done with the sorting. I saved the kitchen for last. We’ll see which utensils make the cut, and what has to go in a box for later.

]]> 635 This is it. https://carriekenner.com/2019/07/21/this-is-it/ Sun, 21 Jul 2019 14:05:35 +0000 https://carriekenner.com/?p=587

If there’s anything I am drawn to…. it’s CHANGE!  I know change can be an uncomfortable proposition for many, but I have always leaned into it and actually thrive on it.  For those who know me well, they’d even say I go out searching for it.  And they are right!  My biggest fear is being static, not changing.

As a young adult, I was always looking for the ‘next thing’ to do.  I vowed I’d have a new career every ten years so I wouldn’t get bored (and I did).  As a parent, I loved the new challenges each developmental phase introduced (most of the time).  As a doula, I thrived on guiding my clients through the changes that happen during pregnancy, birth, and new parenthood.  And as an emerging elder, I love the changes in my spirit, body, and psyche (most of the time).

All this is shared to preface a big announcement about a major change happening in my life…  At the end of July I will be leaving Seattle.  I will be divesting all my worldly possessions, and traveling the country in a camper van, training birth professionals along the way, for a year or two.

I have lived in the Northwest all my life, and in Seattle for 37 years.  There are so many places I have never seen or visited, and I’m curious what Vermont looks like, what the folks in Kentucky have to say, to see the soil of the South, and on and on… My youngest son is 18 now, my oldest grandchildren are all moving away, I am done with city living – all signs say the time is now!

What’s happening to my business, Big Belly Services?

  • Big Belly Services is known for its enCircle 7-week series and 5-day immersion birth doula trainings.  I couldn’t fathom those going away, so I have been working with Amity Kramer to continue the enCircle doula trainings. Over the next few months, the birth doula trainings will be transitioning to Amity, who is a doula, birth and parenting educator, former Big Belly Services instructor, and founder of Thresholds.
  • Amity will continue to offer this community-based birth doula training focused on social justice and anti-racism principles, offering certification through Big Belly Services and PALS Doulas.
  • I will be serving in an advisory role while I am traveling, and look forward to having a bit more freedom and flexibility that this change will allow.

If you’d like to follow me, I’ll be documenting my travels through this new blog at carriekenner.com. Please sign up here and follow the articles about my van conversion and preparations to leave Seattle.

]]> 587 How did this come about? https://carriekenner.com/2019/07/20/how-did-this-come-about/ Sat, 20 Jul 2019 16:03:09 +0000 https://carriekenner.com/?p=631

I had been waiting for my youngest son to graduate. I made an agreement in 2013 that I would stay in Seattle until he finished high school, and then I could leave.  I’ve been wanting to live in the country, on land, in a yurt or tiny home, homesteading, for many many years.  As his senior year began, I started to listen for the call. I had many ideas of places I might ‘land’, but none were calling to me.  It was radio silence.  Hmmm, this wasn’t something I could force, and yet I desperately wanted out of the city.

In early November, as I was filling out a questionnaire (probably the fiftieth one about ‘What Do You Want To Do With Your Life?’; I do these sorts of questionnaires every few months because I’ve always loved filling out forms), I noticed again the things I love – solitude, open expanses, no set schedule, teaching, working with a team remotely – and the things that I didn’t love – too much time indoors, too much time in front of a computer, teaching the same thing for 15 years, paying rent even if I’m traveling for a month.  And while I absolutely LOVE my house and the urban farm I created, being in the city is stifling for me.  I know these things about myself, but it’s always good to write them down.

Swiftly, a vision came to me where I was on the road.  I could see incredible vistas, and have hours of solitude.  At the end of the day, I would cook a simple meal and snuggle in my bed. I could spend a few hours a day on my laptop, in between exploring the parts of the country I’ve never seen. Perhaps those were the places that will call to me, I thought.

The vision was so clear and so alive, within a few minutes I was googling ‘camper vans’ and making lists. I adhered to my “3-day rule” (I have to wait three days when getting any big idea or big feeling or big anything to see how it settles before acting on it).  And then I told my son about my idea.  And then my sister.  And then a friend.  And then another son.  Everyone responded, “Oh yes, that’s totally you.”

So I kept making more lists, and started drawing plans for my van.  By the end of the month, the announcements had been made and a timeline was drafted.  I would start looking for a van in early 2019, start divesting myself of belongings in Spring, and be on the road by late June or July.

Of course, it didn’t unfold quite that way.  But that’s for another story… In future posts, I will detail the process of finding and converting my van.  I’ll share about the emotional excavation I experienced when I gave up my household (and how I found a renter to take over my urban farm).  And maybe I’ll soon have enough distance to describe what it feels like to walk away from the business and community that have defined me for the past 18 years.

For now, I can only speak to the act of following an idea, and being pulled into a new way of life that is calling me.  I am physically and emotionally stretched, apprehensive, excited, and eager to be on the road.

 

 

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