Chilly waves lapping
this morning at my sneakers
happy to be there.
Creativity and wellness message for today: Be present . . . then share it.
Being in the Moment
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Category Archives: Writing
Shuffling the Cards
Today is cold and blustery, the autumn leaves danced and crackled around me on my before-work walk. Keeping up my pace I changed my normal route to allow for passing a mailbox. Like in playing cards when the dealer shuffles the deck, that is what this morning feels like. I am doing everything I usually do, from personal to professional responsibilities but the order of my day is slightly different. The mix has changed and I like it. A buoyancy of sustained energy is keeping me going. I had no intention of writing this blog today and yet while I walked it wrote itself.
Creativity and wellness message for today: Allow for a different arrangement to your day and see what creative spark ignites.
Quote for the Day
A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What one can be, one must be. ~Abraham Maslow
Creativity and wellness message for today: Be who you are.
New Thoughts on Self-Promotion
Today I’m thinking about the regal white heron. If you live near the water you have witnessed the majestic and stately grace of the heron waiting patiently at low tide, watching in the stillness for its breakfast to swim by. No ripple appears around the heron’s legs, it seems immobile. When the right fish ventures too close the heron rapidly thrusts its beak into the shallow water without hesitation and immediately snatches up its meal.
In today’s world of power marketing and social media we are bombarded with what I call the “all about me” mentality. I’m shifting my focus and learning from the great white heron. It draws no attention to itself, as it stands, stock still keenly observing. Its sustenance comes to it, not the other way around.
As an artist and writer I am guilty of the “See Me!” method of promoting my work for the return of dinner on my family’s table. Currently I heed the great white heron’s wise counsel. I am standing still.
Creativity and wellness message for today: Be patient, silently observe, then strike with precision at just the right moment.
Starting Again
Hello everyone, I’m back to writing my creativity and wellness blog, after enjoying a break from it this summer. If you are a regular subscriber to this blog, welcome back! If you are reading it for the first time, I hope you find something you like and visit again. In once-a-weekish short essays I’ll share inspiring quotes, messages, and revelations geared to enrich your thinking and sometimes soothe your soul.
After having a busy summer, filled with deadline-oriented professional responsibilities and a truckload of personal ones, I’m getting my feet planted in this new season. I was reminded over the weekend how easy it is to slip back into old habits, ones that aren’t good for me. My vulnerability is going into an emotional place that I call the wounded victim. It’s that place in which I consider my glass half empty instead of half full. It’s an old familiar place of discomfort and I see that I have more work to do digging myself out of my own pit. Writing this blog entry actually helped me clarify my thoughts and in turn my spirit lifted.
If you find yourself in an old habit that doesn’t serve you, use the metaphor of going back to school as your guide. Start again changing your frame of mind or commit to applying paint brush to canvas, or hands to wet clay. Pick up your unfinished manuscript and start where you left off.
Creativity and wellness message for today: Just like an artist with a sketch pad full of empty pages, let yourself create a new sketch.
Immersion
Watching a scarlet cardinal splish and splash in the bird bath this morning caused me to stop my responsibilities of the moment and just be delighted by the scene. The image of the red bird wriggling from head to tip of tail in the cobalt blue ceramic dish, with a background of emerald green lawn appealed to me.
I was struck by the bird’s total immersion in its activity. It reminded me of my day last week at BookExpo America. BEA is the largest North American publishing trade show. Just like the cardinal I dove into the trade show experience full on. You can read more about it in the Fairfield Writer’s Blog where I penned a report.
This morning, the ease of the cardinal in the bath reminded me of those things that help an artist or writer be in their zone of creativity. At BEA I heard the author Cornelia Funke speak about her writing process. What fascinated me was learning that she started her career as an illustrator. This explains her use of visual objects to inspire her writing. She writes in what she calls her “writing house,” a small building on her California property, formerly owned by the actress Faye Dunaway. Built-in shelves originally lined the walls to hold Dunaway’s dramatic awards. Funke now uses the shelves to hold bits and pieces of color, texture, symbol, and shape as fodder for her imagination. As an artist I can relate to the comfort zone of using the visual to enhance the written.
Creativity and wellness message for today: What is your zone of creativity? What can you use to expand your awareness and deepen your expression?
Start at the End and Work Backward
“When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life so that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice.” -White Elk
Creativity and wellness message for today: Take inspiration from how you want your story to end. Then work in reverse to make it happen.
Simplify, Simplify, Simplify
Earlier this morning I was racing against a deadline to finish an essay, and I was overwhelmed by my task. The theme of the publication was “Love,” the big picture Love, the spiritual, oneness, vastness Love. Maybe if it had been the romantic kind I would have found it easier. I could have related humorous anecdotes or memories of heart-felt woes. But the topic of “Love,” the big kind and how it can help a person find their purpose in life, that was daunting.
I previously wrote what I thought was going to be my submitted essay, but my writing critique group told me in no uncertain terms that it was not up to snuff. Hence my racing against the clock this morning. I finally solved my creative dilemma, on what the heck to write, by simplifying. I stated how big the topic was in the essay’s first sentence. Then I went on to say that I was going to pare it down to three thoughts. Once I simplified, my fingers flew across the computer keyboard.
Creativity and wellness message for today: Simplify.
You Can’t Judge a Book by the Cover
A few weeks ago, I read a good memoir and it came in the guise of a cookbook. The Pioneer Woman Cooks by Ree Drummond caught my eye at the local library. The photographs (all taken by Ree in her own kitchen) are stunning and the recipes looked beyond delicious. I am not a connoisseur or collector of cookbooks, but there was something about the book that stayed with me. The cheese, meat, potatoes — all comfort food, and all food I shouldn’t eat, made me sigh with longing as my mouth watered. While I flagged over three dozen pages, I confess I will never make any of the recipes but the book inspired me as an artist and writer.
What is special about Ree Drummond’s cookbook is that it includes down-to-earth photographs, (all taken in natural light by Ree) of her children, her husband who she calls her Marlboro Man, and their cattle ranch. The pictures share private family moments but her husband’s face is always covered by his Stetson hat . . . very provocative and creative! Ree is funny and self-effacing when she writes about her own failings in developing some of the recipes. I learned more about Ree and her courtship, marriage, family and friends by reading this cookbook then I have learned about other authors through their official memoirs.
Creativity and wellness message for today: You can’t judge a book by its cover. Let yourself be surprised by the unexpected.