Sacred Glitches

note: The above image is a Black Faery stencil offered for your enjoyment *_^ Print, and cut carefully along the black lines, then paint, or spraypaint through the newly stenciled lines to imprss the image upon a tee, backpack, wall, or etc. Three new stencils have been added to the print omnibus now available here.
(It will return to Amazon shortly through a new publisher)

In recent times, as some of you know, I've experienced some glitches submitting the new cover /title page for The Books of Zambarau- Maji Omnibus. Files that have been accepted with a certain publisher without a hitch since 2008 (and through another publisher in 2006) for the Omnibus and books therein, were suddenly not translating with the publisher's system, and even after 3 emails, I couldn't get the simple question answered: 'Has your system changed since December, and if not why aren't my files going through when they're formatted as they usually are when they're accepted?'

Throughout the process of trying to make sure the book became available again for readers who notified me of their interest in purchasing copies, my spirit sank with each frustrating auto-responsed email from this publisher leading nowhere as it repeated the same unhelpful sentiments with little variation, issued by a rep that didn't seem to know how things worked at her company, as too much time passed.

Persevering, and refusing to become overly discouraged I looked for the silver lining, figuring it would be wise to have another alternative available even if it was temporarily out of print, and reformatted the omnibus as an e-book for Smashwords.com instead (a wonderful place I recommend to all scribes/publishers).
The formatting process took some focused attention, but wasn't nearly as complicated as it seems (if you're very freaked out by it, drop an email. We may be able to barter services *_^).

And another glint of silver revealed itself in my return to Lulu.com, a company that has grown, and still works with a much simpler process for submission, without all of the hassles of the previous publisher, though they are much more expensive unfortunately (This may change, or an able competitor may emerge). Wordclay.com might be an option I look into as soon as they begin to accept pre-formatted .pdf's...

So even though the problem loomed, there were other options. The beauty in this sacred glitch is that I would have likely waited for a long time to place my book on Smashwords.com, and probably would have never returned to Lulu, which has great services to offer their indie authors.

Instead of caving under the pressure, seeking a solution with unwavering determination proved fruitful, if laborious. This isn't to say my mood is completed uplifted after this experience though, having remedied the problem for now, I find myself thrown off track by several weeks, exhausted, and fighting to keep my spirits in a clear place.

It's led me to think about previous glitches of various kinds that have for whatever reason stood in between myself and desired goals. Determined and good at meeting deadlines, glitches that are too abundant have added to frustrations that have come at very poorly timed moments, but reviewing the past, as I have over the weekend, I realize they all served a purpose that wasn't apparent until much later.

It's all too easy to abandon hope and assume everything is too difficult to accomplish, and nothing will ever come smoothly and fairly, but the reality is every glitch, or illness (energy imbalance) serves us.
How would we know what we need to exercise, smooth out, or refine, if everything we attempted came up roses? Visible imbalances give us the opportunity to move forward, and effect change within ourselves for the better. They tell us what stands in our way, if we can release our negative reactions, and look a little closer at the symbolism in whatever glitch rearing its head during our process towards a goal.

The hope in this is tremendous. When we move forward intent to improve, after having packed away our pity party favors, and projections of future doom and gloom, we can soberly look at our state, and map out a path to the state we would most thrive within.

Our illnesses are sacred, because they tell us the truth. Maybe they don't tell it blatantly, but they do give us riddles with golden paths in their answers.

Are we feeling unfulfilled? Why do we feel unfulfilled? How did we get here? What decisions brought this state about? What past experiences resemble this state? What choices did we make then? Are they the same choices we're making now? Do we want to progress? If not, why? Is there an experience we need to make peace with before we're ready to move on? Is there someone to forgive? Questions we need answered?

We have to communicate with ourselves, but buzzing about through our rapidly filling day to day when do we honestly do that, and how can we expect to know ourselves or where we should be headed without this dialogue?

When we're beset with a problem, there's always grace in the path to its solution. There's you as hero, overcoming the problem, and you as 'victim' being saved by that inner superpower. In most cases, we don't know our superpowers exist until something challenging comes along demanding it to come out. But if we don't commune with ourselves, will we care enough about ourselves to stand up and face the challenges that threaten our equilibrium?

The world isn't out to get us. And maybe we're not understood, but do we want to be? Are we secretly in love with the familiar gloom of feeling under-nurtured or underappreciated to the extent that we select situations that will continue to deliver that uncomfortable comfort zone?

There's always a reason for everything that takes place, even in those seemingly hopeless and excessively ridiculous situations, where it is necessary to take another look at what the universe (or Divine consciousness if you will) is trying to tell us.