Category Archives: Creativity

Secrets to Success

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Happy New Year! A scheduling snafu at work granted me 3 extra hours today. I’m dusty from sifting and editing Pile #1 of  6 that have taken up residence on my writing desk. Finding a March 2009 copy of Writer’s Digest I look for my literary signal — a triangle page corner bent down indicating I wanted to keep something in the magazine when it surfaced.

Debut Author: Rhodi Hawk said her secret to success is, “Keep the focus on the writing and the story. All the advertising, marketing and promotion in the world are meaningless unless you’ve got a tale people want to read.”

Creativity and wellness message for today: Use gifts of time to their fullest.

Shuffling the Cards

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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.

New Thoughts on Self-Promotion

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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

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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.

Building a Bridge

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In Twyla Tharps’ book The Creative Habit, she talks about the importance of stopping before you become exhausted. As creative individuals we can get caught up in the verve of our endeavors, and can tire ourselves. Tharp shows the value of stopping before that point. She says that while she works herself, and her dancers hard, she always ends a rehearsal before everyone is fatigued. That way a bridge is built to the next day.

I know a minister who takes July and August away from emails. He responds to emergency calls, but in the summer, he takes everything down a notch in order to have time for reflection and rejuvenation. I feel the same way about this blog. I am going to take a break from writing it this summer. What’s funny is that I am not exhausted or burned out. In fact I have a pile of 26 purple, blue and white handwritten notes in various sizes and shapes on my desk, ready and filled with ideas for this blog. I’m glad to end the season on a happy, fertile note and to build a bridge to September.

During the summer months I will still be working and writing. If you miss me you can follow me on Twitter where I write about creativity, wellness, art, books, writing and reading. Or just tune in when I return in September. Until then, I hope you enjoy your own summer.

Creativity and wellness message for today: Take a breather before you need to.

Immersion

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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?

Openness

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It’s cool and wet here in New England today. Isn’t May supposed to be mild? I keep on adding layers to get warmer but my hands are still cold. There’s a lesson for me in this and that is to stay open. I can’t change the weather nor will Mother Nature lift the lid of her suggestion box to read my opinion on the matter. In temperature as in creative endeavors, if I can refrain from trying to control the situation, I may be surprised by the outcome. When I fully accepted that it was chilly and that May should not be this cold, a light bulb went off in my brain.

My shoulders no longer shiver and my fingers are more flexible because immediately before I sat down to write this blog, I turned on the heat. What  a simple solution, one that took me several hours to get to. All morning, while working at my desk, I kept on fighting the cold. Once I opened to its reality, all I had to do was turn a switch.

Creativity and wellness message for today: Be receptive to what is.

Share Your Gift

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Last Monday night I saw a fabulous Native American Storyteller. Tchin was mesmerizing and engaging. His sonorous voice, coupled with his graceful dramatic flair only deepened the quality of his performance. During his program I heard that stories are really “lessons” and that “words are sacred.” Tchin played a variety of traditional flutes and I learned that the flute pre-dates the drum. I was transported by the sound and quality of his music to a place of inner connection, as if I had just come out of a long meditation.

Tchin’s program was filled with Narragansett and Blackfoot traditions and humor. He is living proof that you can be an artist, educator, musician, flutemaker, folklorist, entertainer, clothes maker, jewelry designer and be nationally known and award-winning. Tchin demonstrates for people of all ages that you don’t have to live inside the box of how other people may label you. You can be all that you are and show it.

Creativity and wellness message for today: Connect with all the facets of your creative self, then share those gifts with the world.