10.25.2011

{adventure} whimsy for wendys

hello, dear guests!

your innkeeper is floating back down to earth after a whimsical adventure in the clouds...


{peter pan + wendy}

i spent the weekend flying with peter pan.

why?

because i'm a wendy.

please allow me to explain:

remember when i asked you about adventure and gushed about annie passanisi of happiness advocates?

well, annie invited me to be part of a wondrous e-book called whimsy for wendys: joy-infused living for grown up idealists.

annie's description of the project...
As I child, I was enthralled by the idea of being whisked away into the sky by a mysterious boy in tights who wanted nothing more than to hear my stories and save me from homicidal fairies. As a college student, I was seduced by the idea that I was not the only girl on the planet drawn to a specific type of magnetic narcissist. And as a gray-hair discovering, credit score monitoring adult, I was terrified by the idea that once you leave NeverLand, as everyone must, your life...just...stops.
You see, in the last chapter of J.M. Barrie's Peter and Wendy, there is no mention of Wendy ever flying again. Instead she ships her kid off year after year (when Peter actually shows up, that is) and then her grandkid and so on and so forth (which, if you really think about it, is just plain odd and a little bit gross). And what does Wendy do? Oh, she sits at the window and longs for her youth. And the Lost Boys? They get high-profile jobs in foggy Londontown and forget anything ever happened.

That is absolutely, completely, perfectly PREPOSTEROUS. Surely there was be a way to keep the wonder going, right?
And that's where the "whimsy" comes in.
I knew that whimsy, a burst of childlike joy or enthusiasm intentionally brought about for restorative purposes, must be the answer to the dregs of adulthood, but I didn't know quite how. (It became remarkably apparent to me while in England that everyone has their own unique recipe for joy...what delights one may terrify another) and so I gathered up a whole council of Wendys, the most joy-infused remarkable women I could find, and asked them to answer the same simple question, "how can we continue to fly?"
so you see, i'm a wendy!

i spent the last month researching how adventure and whimsy are magically intertwined, and this weekend, i flew around in the stars with peter pan and wrote it into an essay.

the book launches on november 9 - officially known as "whimsy wednesday." i'll be sharing more about it in the next few weeks. 

until then, you are cordially invited to join in the fun - meet the wendys, join the mailing list, and tweet about your whimsy! 

3 comments:

Jo said...

I checked out the site...what a great concept! A Wendy is a wonderful thing to be, and you make a perfect Wendy!! :)

Melissa at bubbyandbean.com said...

Sounds amazing! Going to check it out now!

Just happened upon your blog, and saw that you live in Sebastopol on your Blogger profile... A few of my best friends live there! Wonderful little town!

xo,
melissa

Unknown said...

ooh, exciting! (btw..omg...you and annie are two peas in a pod! did you connect with her in BRC?)