Birthing a New Era

Vivian Josephine Lamke in the 40s

Maybe I've mentioned it before, but I've been working on compiling my Grandmother's memoir for quite some time now. It all began in April 2018, after a visit to her apartment on the South side of La Crosse. Around this same time I had increased my focus on reconnecting with my spiritual side and so as I left her apartment on my drive back to Illinois, I recognized receiving a download.

A download to me is a clear, concise message that just drops into my head. I can't even tell you anything about the visit with my grandma that day or if we talked about her memoirs. But driving through the farmlands of Western Wisconsin, I had a clear message "You should write her stories." 

At the time I was working as a Marketing Manager for a resort and although I wrote a lot of content, I didn't necessarily consider myself a writer. I definitely hadn't been thinking about writing a book. But looking back, I guess I was always a writer.

I remember writing short stories in elementary school, poetry in middle school, and philosophy in college. I picked up blogging in 2007 because I was bored and have continued on and off this journey since then, most recently resurrecting my blog when I embarked on what would become a Soul Journey last summer.

That soul journey was designed to help me tune into my own inner guidance and let it lead me. If you followed along on my journey, you may have noticed that I experienced a multitude of magic thanks to following that call. 

But rewind to 2018. With the excitement of a fresh, new idea, I quickly picked up my grandma's memoir books and folders filled with scraps of paper on which she had hand-written her thoughts and stories. And just as quickly, I was overwhelmed with the magnitude of this project. How was I going to piece all these little tidbits into a cohesive story when some of the papers were very difficult just to interpret?

I set everything aside and let the universe bring to me what I needed. In June of 2018 a man came to meet with my General Manager and me to pitch us advertising in a hyper-local magazine. During that meeting he told us that they were just starting up and hoped to have their first issue out by August, but they needed a Content Coordinator. My General Manager piped right up, to my surprise, and volunteered me. 

After the shock wore off and some consideration, I sent the gentleman my resume and in July I was writing for a magazine. My job was to take questionnaires that had been filled out by a local resident and piece their answers into a one-thousand-word feature article. Without any efforting on my part, the universe had hand-delivered my training.

Well, working one very busy job and having a part-time writing gig on the side provided little time to work on Grandma's stories, but all the while I had an awareness that the time was purposeful and I was learning the tools I needed to eventually make it happen. 

When the resort I was working for closed in early 2020, I had every intention of diving into my writing, but the world slammed on the breaks when COVID-19 really hit the fan. I experienced, as I'm sure many people did, a brain fog descend over me. Maybe it was too much to handle without a certain detachment? I did spend some time in the early days of COVID documenting my experience in writing, and ultimately this time, I like to refer to as the "pregnant pause," was like a chrysalis stage for the me I was becoming.

While my logical brain sometimes thinks, this project should not have taken four years, my heart tells me that all of the experiences over the last four years have brought me to this very moment when I had no other choice but to birth this book into being.

Last week on Monday, January 17th under a glorious full moon at exactly 4:44 a.m., I woke up out of the blue, had a thought about writing Grandma's stories, and my computer turned on. According to phychnewsdaily.com, "444 is a spiritual number that signifies the end of one phase of life and the beginning of another. The number 444 is often interpreted as a sign of spiritual change, either in oneself or others. And being aware of this spiritual awakening can only help you, as great things lie ahead."

Without hesitation, I threw off my blankets and sat down at my computer. Doubts started to pop up like "You'll never be able to focus at this hour....without coffee." and "I'll just see where this leads and then I'll go back to bed." I opened the file on my desktop and asked myself what I should work on. I received a clear message "The Farm." 

Great. I had been putting off this segment because it was quite lengthy and in a serious state of jumbledness. An hour passed quickly and I was shocked how productive and focused I had been. I added slippers and a fuzzy sweater to my pajama ensemble and went to the kitchen for my first cup of coffee while the rest of the household was still in slumber. 

With a steaming hot mug of cinnamon dolce coffee and vanilla coconut collagan, I sipped and continued to work quickly. By 6:45 a.m. I was rendezvousing in the kitchen with my dad before he headed out to work while I made my second cup of coffee. At this point I had a feeling I was up for the day. I took my morning vitamins, brushed my teeth, and made my bed before heading back to the computer. 

This piece of the story that had felt insurmountable to this point was halfway done by the time I hit the showers for the day. And after dinner when I usually become unproductive, I went right back to my computer and finished it by 11 o'clock. Even as I recorded the day's events in my journal before bed, I was having a hard time believing what had transpired over the last 24 hours.

As the week progressed, I felt the undeniable force of this thing that needed to be birthed. It was coming out whether I was ready or not. And here I sit just over a week later and the entire memoir is finished! I do still have work to do, but my goal is to have it in print for purchase. I assume the universe will take care of the details. In the meantime, check out my new Book page on my website for more information about the story to come!