Exceptional Woman: Maggie Butler

Visit her on the web at: http://www.thecelticmuse.com

Email: maggie@thecelticmuse.com

My life is a creation;  it’s my work in progress, and this is what it looks like now:
I write, design retreats and workshops to encourage and support creative potential, coach creative women, and lead creative writing groups.  And...I do all this wonderful, meaningful and fulfilling work in Ireland and Maine, while enjoying deeply enriching relationships with my family. friends and colleagues.

Some of my roles are wife, educator, mother, friend, step-mother, sister, colleague, catalyst, and GrandMother (with profound gratitude to Izzie for that life-change!). 

Who I am is curious, creative, often shy, compassionate, empowered and empowering, reflective, brave, sometimes not-so-brave, spiritual, funny, nurturing, a risk-taker, sensitive, a leader, caring and a citizen of the world. 

I know that my life matters, my creativity matters and my work matters.  I want you to know that yours does, too.

Highlights

The Celtic Muse Creative Writing Retreats, Workshops & Coaching has one soul purpose and guiding intention:  To create safe, non-judgmental havens where Muses can come out to inspire and play.  The Celtic Muse retreats and workshops will help you explore, celebrate and nurture your creative potential. Each program or coaching session is designed to unlock your creativity, and guide you along the journey to your Creative Self- that sacred place within, where words and images lay silently waiting for a voice. 

No prior writing experience is ever necessary to participate in any program.

A few things to pique your Muse and get your creative juices flowing...

• 7 Ways to Make More Room for Creativity & Your Muse!  This little e-booklet is a playful and practical look at what you can do to make your life more muse-friendly. 

• After a deep relaxation experience and an encounter with your inner wise woman, you’ll feel renewed, at peace and inspired  - with just the message you need at that moment in time.  

Wise Woman Meditation cd

Maggie Butler offers an exquisite guided meditation with Wise Woman. The gentle, soothing quality of her voice carries the listener along on a sacred path of inner-discovery. I feel supported and nurtured, each time I settle in for this journey, and each time new insights unfold. I highly recommend the Wise Woman CD both for quiet time alone and to be used in women's circles.
- Corrie Woods

• And if you’re looking for a whole weekend of inspiration, you can join us in southern Maine, April 17 - 19, 2009:

Gift of the Sea:  Inspire Creativity & Meet Your Muse! 

This delicious weekend on the beautiful - and inspiring - coast of Maine is devoted entirely to you and your Muse. Muses love the ocean, and beaches, and walks on the rocks...they are thrilled by the sounds, smells and sight of Mother Earth stretching into spring...

Personal Message from Maggie:

You can write.  Not only that, you have things to write about and they have value.  Your life is full of events, details, people, exchanges, dreams and memories, all worth writing about. 

Writing is uplifting, fun, liberating, insightful, healing, and always full of discovery.  And, in some kind of magical alchemy, creative writing stirs all creative energy, making it a wonderful tool to prime any type of creative expression: painting, quilting, designing (programs, houses, rooms, clothing, and anything else you can think of!) drawing, knitting, flower arranging and even working with a small budget.

I encourage you to pick up a pen...or pencil (or lipstick or eyeliner which can work very well, too, in a pinch...who knows when inspiration will strike?) and write.  Tell your Inner Critic (you know, the voice  who tells you you can’t write, you have nothing to say, you’re boring? ... Yes, that one) to find something else to do someplace very far away.  Throw a shoe at it if you have to - just don’t be robbed of your voice and your stories.

Recommended Reading and Resources:  
There are so many wonderful books and resources on writing and creativity out there.  However, there are two books that have had a profound impact on me in the past couple of years, and I’d like to honour them by listing them here:

• The Art of Possibility, Rosalind and Benjamin Zander
• A New Earth, Eckhart Tolle

I can, of course, unreservedly recommend The Woman’s Field Guide, and I am waiting on tiptoe for Corrie’s second book!

A Favorite Quote or two:
The first quote I’d like to share speaks to the uniqueness of our creative expression and its value to the world.

“There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and there is only one of you in all time.  this expression is unique, and if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and be lost.  The world will not have it.  It is not your business to determine how good it is, nor how it compares with other expression. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open.”  Martha Graham, choreographer and dancer.

And this from Julia Cameron:

“People ask:  What if I unblock myself and I have nothing to say?  The more pertinent question is what if I live my life without giving myself the opportunity to express what I need to say?”

Learn more about Maggie, as Corrie recommends her as a brilliant coach.

Check out more Exceptional Women!

Comment about the book, The Woman’s Field Guide to Exceptional Living

The Woman’s Field Guide is everything I love about a self-help book: it’s small, to the point, speaks the truth, is very practical, offers deep wisdom, invites me to begin making a change right now and right here - wherever that is in my life, inspires hope, makes me feel like the author is there with me, and if there’s any information there that I already know, it’s presented in a way that feels so fresh it comes to me as a new, beautifully wrapped surprise.