Tag: creativity

Creatives

I saw this beautiful passage the other day. It’s all over the internet but unfortunately, I do not know whom to attribute it to – maybe the artist/writer did that on purpose??? The other day, I purchased a fabric/textile piece of art on eBay. I haggled with the seller because as much as I was intrigued by the item, I did not recognize the artist’s name. The eBay seller had a lot of flea market, vintage type items and I assumed that this piece was something which they had picked up at a yard sale or such. The seller sold it to me at a lower price, but when I received the gorgeous, one-of-a-kind item, I got a note from the artist. This is an excerpt from the note: “Dear K, I just wanted to say thank you. These are my creations and not massed produced. I go by a pseudonym to keep my identity private. I have been creating art in various forms for many years. Fiber arts is my newest medium. My work has been featured in Time Magazine and other international publications. I’ve sold to clients around the world, but it was time for a change . . . . .Blessed be (and it was signed with the pseudonym in parentheses) P.S. – You can reach me through my friends on eBay for now.”

My fellow creatives (and that includes just about everybody, in one way or another), don’t dim your light. Don’t be your own harshest critic. Hone your own beautiful, unrepeatable, “unique brand of magic.” If this is too daunting for the self-recriminating, self-conscious part of you, create a pseudonym. Get an alter-ego. Have a pen name. Do whatever you need to do to release that part of you that is dying to connect with the Creative Intelligence which is energizing and teeming, all over this world. We are all part of it, and we all need the fullest version of your part of it. I saw another quote that goes along with this theme and once again, I can’t find its source:

“Applaud creativity, even when its results bother you.”

Creativity is Life.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Here is the question of the day from 3000 Questions About Me:

2330. Have you ever played the bongos?

Your Masterpiece

I got back to art class yesterday, after a few weeks off for Christmas break. It was great to be back. I painted the little guy above as sort of a “warm up”. I thought that I would share him with you. He makes me smile.

The best part of getting older is coming to the proven realization that the end product of anything truly doesn’t matter. The real joy always comes in the doing, in the process, in the flow. Yes, a successfully grown family, business, career, marriage, homestead, project, craft etc. can give you a sense of satisfaction and pride and maybe even some accolades, but those feelings are such a small blip of feelings versus the myriad of feelings and experiences that go into the process of forming and building and creating and experiencing all of the works of your life. There’s peace in this realization. Your life is your main product. And it doesn’t end, until you end. And none of us really know what “when you end” means, if we are honest with ourselves. We all have beliefs and hopes, but none of us truly know the mysteries of what happens to us after we die. So, in the meantime, we are living our ongoing creative product – our lives. And this product is a collaboration with the entire world around us. Our main creative product, our individual life, has the support of the whole entire world which only benefits when our creative product brings more individuality and beauty and imagination and our own uniqueness that is unrepeatable, to the whole of it.

I’m a middle-age, empty nester who is attending art class for the fun of it. I’m not graded. My output doesn’t matter. It’s even okay if I don’t particularly enjoy my art class on any given day. If I spill some paint, so what? If I never frame my art, who cares? The joy is in the doing. The joy is in the exploring. The joy is in the accepting. The joy is in the gratefulness for the experience – every bit of it.

Your life is your only creative product. Everything else that you do is part of that product. Be joyful in “doing” your life. Explore. Accept the messiness and the so-called flaws of it all. Mostly, be grateful for having the experience of being able to create your one and only masterpiece, and also be utterly grateful for all of the wonderful beings who are co-creating with you. If our world isn’t a creative masterpiece of miracles, than what is?

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Here is the question of the day from 3000 Questions About Me:

583. Do you prefer blue or black inked pens?

Soul Sunday

It’s poetry day on the blog. The finalists for the National Book awards were announced early this past week. John Lee Clark, a deafblind poet is one of the finalists for his book, How to Communicate. John Lee Clark says this:

“Slateku is a form I invented. It’s simple: It is a poem that is written, or could have been written, with the classic Braille slate and stylus. The slate has four rows of twenty-eight cells each. Some think of it as writing backward, pressing down right to left to make dots stand up on the other side, but I think of it as writing forward in a different direction.“

How wonderful to not only write poetry, but to have created a whole new style of poetry! This is inspirational and challenging. Why do all of your stitching in only classic stitches? Is there a dance you could create that wouldn’t fall in the traditional dance categories (hip-hop dancing only came about in the late 1960s)? What about art? Is it possible to do an acrylic-watercolor fusion? What would that look like? What would it be called? The fusion restaurants are everywhere these days, mixing all kinds of traditional food recipes, with other completely unique cultures and traditions. So today, don’t just write a poem, think about creating a whole unique form of poetry. Here are two of John Lee Clark’s slatekus:

What is the point of travel

For a DeafBlind person

Other than the food the people the shops

And all that

And here’s another kind of cheeky one:

The mutant four-fingered carrot

Is in the pot and growing

Sweeter as it relaxes

Its grip

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Kind Eyes Friday

So, if you clicked on the Google Doodle this morning, like I did, you will see they are celebrating the posthumous birthday of this man, Mihaly Robert Csikszentmihalyi. Dr. Csikszentmihalyi is the professor and the psychologist who coined the term “flow” which is that state of being we get into when we are completely focused and immersed and creative and productive. When we are in our “flow” it is almost like we leave our bodies and become one with our projects. The first thing that I notice when I looked at pictures of Dr. Csikszentmihalyi are his beautiful, soulful eyes (Robin Williams had these same kind of “kind eyes”). His eyes seem to come out from something deep and soulful within himself and then they penetrate something deep and soulful into whomever he is looking at with a soft, knowing intensity. When glancing over his Wikipedia, this information intrigued my interest:

“One state that Csikszentmihalyi researched was that of the autotelic personality.[19] The autotelic personality is one in which a person performs acts because they are intrinsically rewarding, rather than to achieve external goals.[21] Csikszentmihalyi described the autotelic personality as a trait possessed by people who can learn to enjoy situations that most others would find miserable.[22] Research has shown that aspects associated with the autotelic personality include curiosity, persistence, and humility.”

I honestly believe that if you can live your life with an autotelic personality, you will achieve true peace. Live in the moment, and notice everything. The process of living is its own reward. That’s really all there is to it.

Okay, I know that this is a little deep for my Favorite Things Friday blog tradition. Sometimes my “inner deep” just keeps seeping in. On Fridays, I usually keep things light and I talk about the tactile, sensory stuff in life that makes “the process of living” wonderful. So without further ado, my favorite for today is a device I purchased from my acupuncturist to help with pain and discomfort in my neck. My favorite for today is called the CranioCradle. You can buy a CranioCradle on Amazon. It seems pricey for a firm piece of foam, but so far, I’m finding my CranioCradle worth its price. I’ve used it for about a week now in various positions on my back and my neck, mostly at bedtime, and I do find it helpful and enjoyable and relaxing when using it. My acupuncturist also recommends using the CranioCradle in the car.

I hope that you have a wonderful weekend – one that is full of flow, friends. May the eyes of life look upon you kindly and may you seep it all in. See you tomorrow!

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Vacationing All Wrong

“I’ve always been skeptical of the staycation. The coinage is too cute for what feels like a consolation prize: While other people are off exploring the Blue Lagoon by camper van, you get to stay in your very own home and go to your usual supermarket for Cheerios!

So I was intrigued to discover, thanks to my colleague Catherine Pearson, that I have been vacationing all wrong. Evidently, my tendency to stumble into time off without a plan is unlikely to produce a restorative effect. Instead, one should imbue the time off with the urgency of a weeklong trip. Jaime Kurtz, a psychology professor at James Madison University and the author of “The Happy Traveler: Unpacking the Secrets of Better Vacations,” advises asking oneself, “If I were moving away soon, what would I most want to do, and who would I most want to spend time with?” – from a The New York Times article by Melissa Kirsch

This article caught my attention immediately because it took a quote from a professor from my alma mater, James Madison University. (Go Dukes!) Now that we are empty nesters, my husband and I have found comfort in not having to schedule our major vacations during the summer months, due to our kids’ school and sports schedules. Our kids are grown. My husband and I can take vacation any time of the year that we want to vacation. By traveling mostly in the fall and in the spring, we often miss major crowds and major heat. It’s a relief. It’s relaxing.

So essentially, when we have time off in the summer, my husband and I do tend to “staycation”. However, I like the idea of treating a staycation with more intention and preparation. My friend told me recently that she and her longtime partner have made a pact to schedule at least one day-trip a month, to a location they have never been before. There is much less hassle, packing and expense with these day trips and yet they still have the thrill of anticipation, novelty, adventure and escape.

Pick a day this week that you don’t have a lot scheduled and treat it as if it were a vacation day. Use the professor’s question above to help guide you: “If I were moving away soon, what would I most want to do, and who would I most want to spend time with? (and don’t let your practical mind take over with thoughts like, “Well, I would tidy up, dust and start cleaning out drawers”, unless these activities are what you really enjoy doing on your vacations.)

And on an entirely different note, I watched this TED Talk yesterday and it is one of the best TED Talks that I ever watched. For those of you who consider yourself to be creatives (which should be all of you), this is a “can’t miss”:

And final thought of the day from the movie, Wine Country:

“From one old lady to another, get over all your shit, ‘cause it is later than you think.” -Lady Sunshine 

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Do Your Favorites Now

Friends, I don’t have it in me right now to do one of my traditionally frivolous Friday posts. I know that “the show must go on,” but I’m not a good faker. I never have been. We are on the brink of unexpectedly losing another extended family member and it’s a lot to bear right now.

The truth is, I love to play around with pretty things and fun products and to read excellent books and to get engaged in interesting movies, because I love life. Even in the tough times, I love the experience of being alive. I love the sensations of seeing beautiful things, hearing lovely music, smelling amazing scents, feeling all different sensations on my skin and tasting wonderful food. I make no apologies for being happy, and actively and fully loving my life and looking forward to each of my days and experiences. It’s what we’re supposed to do. I love Aliveness and it hurts to see people lose their gift of Aliveness, no matter what the state of their physical health. As we all know, it’s not really the things in life that matter. It’s the people whom we love, and the very act of being in love with life itself.

Today, this Friday, please do at least one of your favorite activities with at least one of your favorite people. Feel what it is like to be fully immersed in the feeling of love, and of joy and of awe, and of passion, for the experiences that you are having, living a life here on this overwhelmingly beautiful and abundant world. Have compassion. Be kind. Stay in the moment. Find serenity in your faith. Have the courage to feel your feelings fully. Make your own precious life your most absolute favorite possession, and decorate it and celebrate it and submerge yourself in it because one day, it will be gone. And all that matters in the end, is that you savored and favored your life when you had it.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Soul Sunday

Good morning. I played with my words today. I took the time to write my own poem today. (For my new readers (and welcome!), Sundays are devoted to poetry on the blog.) My poem isn’t great, but it isn’t awful, and I feel excited to have woken up, and to have created something out of thin air. Create something this morning. Make an omelet. Write a poem. Draw a doodle. Plant a seed. Sundays are about doing the things that soothe our souls, and the things that awaken our most inspired energy. The world is a better place when we gift it, a small piece of our own inspired creativity and light.

Here’s my poem for today:

“Acceptance”

There’s a storm brewing.

It’s been stirring and tossing all of the ingredients,

Of a torrent, gloppy mess, for quite some time.

I’ve denied its existence, shading my eyes from its obvious glare.

I’ve railed against it. To come at us, like this, is terribly unfair.

I’ve tried to make a deal with the storm in my mind,

If you leave us alone, I promise to be kind.

I’ve cried about it, again and again.

Tears ruining the words, as I take this to pen.

Until finally, it all becomes incredibly clear.

Yes, there’s a storm brewing. The time is near,

And a quiet, still voice is softly whispering into my ear,

You shall survive all that this storm brings to you, my dear.

There is no peace felt, like the calm after a torrential, raging storm.

Perhaps these are the wise, parting gifts of storms that transform.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Intelligent Fun

“Creativity is intelligence having fun.” – Albert Einstein

“An expert is someone who is humble and disciplined enough to explore deeply for a long time. An expert is someone who cares more.” -@ValaAfshar, Twitter

Saturdays are perfect days to hone in on our creativity. Many of us are experts at our jobs, by the time we reach middle age, but what else are you an expert in? Do you allow yourself to create some expertise in your favorite hobbies? Some of my friends and acquaintances are experts at quilting, and butterfly releasing, and gardening, and biking, and working out, and meditation, and running, and dancing, and fantasy football, and water colors, and photography. What is something that feeds your soul enough that you have inadvertently become somewhat of an “expert” in it? Being an expert at something, doesn’t even mean that you have to be particularly great at your favored hobby or vocation or interest. Being an expert just means that you happen to know a great deal about your activity, and how to do it, because the process of exploring the said project/pursuit, and the actual doing of it, feeds your soul, and stops time for you, like so few other activities in your life are capable of doing. Being an expert at something, means that you have taken the time to fuel your passions. That’s called living life! Add to your creative expertise today. You won’t regret it.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Monday – Funday

credit: @david_perell (Twitter)
credit: @david_perell (Twitter)

“As a society, it’s as if we’ve read too many blog posts about the 80/20 rule. When you strip away too much of the non-essential, you lose the kind of craftsmanship that endows an object with soul and makes the world feel alive.” – David Perell

I read a couple of interesting articles about the homogenization of society, over the weekend. In modern society, we want everything to be fast, easy, cheap, and to look like an Apple store. And the price which we are paying for this is the loss of creativity, uniqueness, and cultural diversity. A lot of this has happened due to our greater globalization, and it’s not all bad. We have a lot more conveniences, worldwide, than we ever had before. Still, I think that it is important to notice a phenomenon when it is happening. I think that it’s okay to rebel against this a little bit. I think this is why there are those of us who like to peruse antique stores and flea markets, and pick up an object and say out loud to ourselves, and to whomever else may be near, “They don’t make them like this anymore!”

This week make sure that you dress yourself, feed yourself, and surround yourself with items that have soul, and make you feel alive. Don’t be a sheeple.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

A Thought Collection

Sometimes I look at some of my journals which are filled with thoughts that make me ponder, make me feel, make sense to me at a deeper level, and that’s all that is needed. I don’t need to expand on someone else’s genius. I’m just grateful that they shared what needed to be said. Here are some of my favorite latest thoughts, gathered from other brilliant sources:

“He who has peace of mind disturbs neither himself nor another.” – Epicurus

“What some people call stress, I believe is rebellion of the heart.” – Iyanla Vanzant

“Rejection is almost never personal. Though it comes naturally to treat it as though it is a barb aimed at our very being, that instinct is confused, mistaken and does absolutely no good to heed. That reason most rejection is not personal is that it can’t be. Most people don’t even know us well enough to reject us personally. They are usually saying no to a small sliver of what we offer the world. More often than not, the reason they say no is that the offer does not seem like a good fit for them and their needs.

If you are a size 10, you’ll have to pass on the size 3 jeans. Even if the size 3 jeans are the best in the entire world, the jeans are of no use to a person who cannot wear them.” – Holiday Mathis

“With a few flowers in my garden, half a dozen pictures, and some books, I live without envy.” – Lope De Vega

“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” – Maya Angelou

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.