I'm Colleen Wainwright, aka "the communicatrix"

This site is where I (used to) filter random intake through my off-kilter consciousness in an effort to be useful and/or amusing (which, let's face it, is often the most useful thing of all).

So how is this crap potentially useful?

I wondered that myself for a long time. And when my need to understand finally outgrew my fear of asking for help, I put the question to the people who read and comment here regularly. They are very smart, these people—seriously, the comments on this site are often vastly superior to my own observations—and very nice, too. (You are probably very nice if you are still reading this. There's a way things work.)

Working from this feedback, I've distilled down to a savory essence why you might enjoy this site.

Some people connect with stories, not how-tos.

I wish I could remember the source, probably one of the amazing comments I am fortunate enough to get on a regular basis, but I read something somewhere about biographies being the best kind of self-help books.

Boy, did that strike a chord with me. As a big reader and equally big self-improvement nerd, I spent much of my life seeking books that would help me become a less miserable human being. There is a boatload of literature out there on self-improvement, but most of it is less than compelling. (And some of it is downright harmful.)

Biographies, on the other hand, are usually written by someone good enough to get a contract, and about someone who had a fair amount of actual obstacles that they actually overcame. (Obstacles = compelling drama—a little lesson I didn't learn until after I got out of the screenplay business, unfortunately.)

So you learn at least as much reading good biographies as much as you do by reading self-help books, with the bonus-extras of:

(a) Proven theories
(b) Slightly better odds for objectivity
(c) An actual story, sometimes with salacious details
(d) Writing good enough that you do not feel the urge to stab your eyes out with a fork

What I did here was put my life on display, not as an exercise in vanity, but as a kind of science project, albeit with more jokes and swearing than I remember from high school chemistry. The truth is (and I was obsessed with the idea of truth long before I became a practioner), I was accidental winner who couldn’t figure out why she kept acting like such a loser for great swaths of my life. Living my life out loud and in public was not directly responsible for bringing me to the peace I’ve come to at 60—more on that later, I hope—but the practice of awareness and honesty it helped cultivate did. Hopefully, it’s a breadcrumb on your own personal trail (or at least entertaining).

Some places to start exploring...

...or...

Thanks for coming. I hope you enjoy my site. I hope it makes you happy, fulfilled, fit, outrageously good-looking and rich. But mostly, I hope you get something from it that makes you feel more connected, less crazy, and (oh yes please) inspired to share your own journey somehow, with someone.

xxx
c

Updated January 29, 2022. Million-year-old photo by Thomas Lascher.