Skip to content

Category: Creative Musings

12

Published on 12 Comments on What You Really, Really Want
At least not exactly when you think you should exactly the way you think you should. Sometimes it takes more time. Sometimes it looks different than you thought it would.

I seem to be full of songs today. Also full of rants. This is one.

There's this idea that gets thrown around in various forms a lot. Too much. I saw a version of it go by online again today. It goes something like, "If you really want to do something you'll find a way. If you don't find a way, you must not really want it or it's not really important to you."

This is garbage. It's all lies. I suspect that the idea was first put out there by someone trying to sell their very special system for helping you get what you really want.

The thing is, there's so much more to following your dreams and doing the things you really want to do than just putting your mind to it. Willpower and organization won't get around depression, anxiety, other mental health issues. They won't get around health issues--your own or those of loved ones and people you take care of. There's a lot of stuff that can get in the way of your dreams. None of that means you don't really want it, it isn't really your passion (or one of them), or that it wasn't meant to be or you're not cut out for it.

If you have a dream, if you want to create, hold onto it. Don't listen to the people telling you any of this junk about you not doing enough, being enough, wanting it enough. You are enough. Your dream is enough. Go do it your way!

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

15

Published on 15 Comments on So Many Notebooks
Detail of my writing practice notebook cover

Today is going to be a bit of a ramble, just some things I'm thinking about. I love notebooks. If you have been around my blog or any of my other online spaces for a while, you already know this.

I keep trying to find The Notebook. I keep trying to convince myself that I should pick one and go with it. But I just finished up this composition book where I do writing practice, and the Happy Planner I thought I would use as my writing practice book and catch-all notebook didn't do it for me. So I'm on to another composition book for writing practice (still need to decorate the cover!). And I've been beating myself up about having too many notebooks.

But yesterday I asked myself, "Is it really too much? Do I really have too many?" Do I use them all? Off and on. I've been using the Happy Planner (the latest in my slew of disc-bound notebooks) for my everyday book, my catch-all. So great. That one has a purpose and gets used a lot. But I love a composition book for writing practice, and I use it. So still good. I also love Moleskine cahiers. I use them for on-the-go writing practice sometimes, for notes for classes when I'm taking longer classes with lots of notes. I don't use them as much anymore, but I still use them.

I do have a hardbound faux Moleskine that I was going to try bullet journaling in, but I can't quite seem to get the hang of that, at least not yet.

There are a lot of notebooks around her. But some of them are older and used to get used. Some of them are in use now. There aren't actually that many that aren't being used. And you know what? I love them! That right there means they belong. They make me happy. I'd love to get them all into one place. One shelf maybe, with filled books on one side and empty books waiting to be filled on the other. So I could see what I have. But right now I'm going to stop insisting that I pick one kind and stick with it. That's NEVER going to make me happy.

So, lots of notebooks it is! Check that off the list, stop worrying about it, and move on to what kind of stickers I need for the covers!

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

10

Published on 10 Comments on Free Time
Photo by Ivan Sumlikin on Unsplash

I have a three day weekend starting now. I'm not even working every day right now, but those words "three day weekend" put a bounce in my step and a lightness in my heart. Why? What does this mean?

It's a freedom. And openness. Space that's ready to be filled with endless possibilities. There's so much energy in knowing you have this space and time to fill how you want. I want to feel like this more.

I don't have any answers right now. Just questions. How can I feel more of this three day weekend energy on ordinary days? How can I cultivate that enthusiasm and excitement and feeling of open space and open-ended possibility more often?

New paths start with the right questions. I hope I'll be back here, sooner rather than later, with some answers or at least some things to try.

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

8

Published on 8 Comments on What If

In a group I'm in we were talking about how "what if" can really hold us back from doing things we want to do. I joined the conversation, agreed with what we were all saying, gave encouragement. And then I was thinking about my own what ifs, and I realized something really big.

My what ifs do hold me back, but it's not only the potential bad things that could happen. I have a really huge, anxious reaction about the possible good things that might happen. Unpacked that a little more and found this big, loud voice saying that if I do have some success I won't be able to do it more than once or won't be able to sustain it. Lots of reasons about why those things are true.

So wow... is this a fear of success? Not exactly. It's a fear of not being able to be successful in an ongoing way. I have work to do, clearly, but this is really interesting, and it's very cool to have this new piece of information.

This work of growing and moving forward is ongoing, and if we stay open and pay attention we will always find new clues, yeah?

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

Published on

I've started this post at least a dozen times over the past six months. If you count all the times I've started it in my head, it's way more than that. I've let myself get trapped under the pressure of saying it right, doing it right. Perfectionism.

So here's what I've been thinking about. I miss the early days of this blog when I used to combine coaching and my own creative projects and general creativity topics. I thought I needed to be more structured and focused and professional (which I thought of as less personal somehow), so I switched to working with writers because that's my main creative outlet and stopped talking about my own creative life.

The trouble with that is I don't only do one creative thing, and trying to focus only on writing and working with writers kept me away from talking about things I love. And I really enjoy working with and encouraging painters and singers and other creatives as well as writers. I am a multi-creative, and I want to be that in this space.

With all of this (and so much more, so much!) in mind, I'm going to be talking about all things creative here. That will include writing, of course, but it will include any and every creative thing that fills my heart.

I'm also going to be adding a couple of coaching options back into my mix. Right now I'm not planning on any long-range packages, but I'm going to be offering a creative path tarot reading and some single sessions of coaching. I'll get pages up for those in the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned.

Meanwhile, I'm going to work on a schedule for writing here (because the no-schedule thing I was trying really didn't work for me--you may have noticed). And I'm going to share about my creative projects, too. Look for me here more often, and let's talk about the things we love to make.

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

Published on

Photo by JR Korpa on Unsplash

I think we all end up returning to something in our lives--a city, a person, a project, a career. Sometimes we find ourselves returning to something we didn’t even know we missed. That’s how I’m feeling about my MuseCraft™ work. I was so busy, I thought I didn’t miss it, but when things calmed down I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

But how do you return from a hiatus that you thought would be a few months but turned into more than a year? (Closer to two, I think, because my brief foray back into the blog last year was pretty short lived and unfocused.)  How do you return to something you thought you were finished with? How do you return to something you love when you’re a different person than you were when you left?

I think you return--to anything, after any time--by not trying to catch up. By just saying, “Hello, I’m here.” And then moving forward from there. Start where you are now, and take the next small step. Let what you learned last time inform your choices, but don’t try to recreate how things were before. You know the old saying--you can’t step in the same river twice. It’s best to not try.

Here are a few ideas for returning to something you’ve been away from for a while.

Step 1: Revisit what you’ve already done. Don’t make changes or edits. Revisit it as if you’re viewing someone else’s work as much as you can. Don’t write anything down. Don’t look for changes. Look at it with curiosity and appreciation.

Step 2: Make a list of what you want the project to be when it’s finished. How do you want to feel about it? How do you want your audience to feel about it?

Step 3: Make a list of steps you need to take to get it done. Make them small. Smaller than you think you should. So small they seem silly. Make them smaller than that. Small is good! (So is silly.)

Step 4: Pick a target date or create a timeline for doing the work.

Step 5: Find some support. An accountability buddy or group. A hashtag to use to share your progress with others doing similar work. Something to give you a place to check in and talk about how things are going.

Now get started. Pick that first, small step to take. Tell someone about it. Do it. Don’t look ahead to what’s next. Just do the step in front of you. After that you can pick the next one and do it. The others will still be there when you get to them, so don’t worry about them right now. Just focus on the step in front of you and start heading toward your goal.

 Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

Published on

After over a year of being away from blogging, I've been toying with ideas of what to write about for over a week now. I had it in my head that I needed to write something momentous and deep. Instead, I'm just going to talk about what I've been up to lately.

In 2016, my whole year was about taking classes and workshops to renew my teaching license. I stepped away from coaching and didn't do much writing or much of anything creative. This year, I've started substitute teaching, and I'm making time for my creative play because I really missed it, and I get cranky when I'm not making things.

To start off 2017 and shake off the crankies, I got involved in the 1 Year of Stitches project (#1yearofstitches), and I'm really loving it! I had been away from embroidery for a long while for various reasons, and I didn't realize how much I missed it until I started doing it again. There will probably be lots of embroidery posts and pics around here (the picture at the top of this post is from one of my side projects I did in February because once I started stitching again, a few stitches a day wasn't enough).

My fun with embroidery and Instagram got me thinking that I want to get back into doing some photography. I take pictures, but not the details of life and fun pictures that I used to take. I started poking around for a good way to get back in the habit, and I came across The 100 Day Project. It's not specifically for photography; it's for anything you want to do for 100 days and share on Instagram (#the100dayproject). But it seemed perfect for my photography needs right now, so I'm in. It's starting up next week, so there's plenty of time to join in.

I'm also in the process of finally unpacking all the boxes in my studio after living here for 15 months. Right after we moved in, I found out that my old office was going to be closing, and I jumped into renewing my license and getting back to teaching. My poor studio suffered and has been mostly a storage area this whole time. But now I'm finally changing that, sorting through things, trying to figure out how to organize it all. So you  might see some posts about that.

I don't have any writing projects going, although I'm reading some craft books and feeling some stories stirring. One of these days, you might hear about that, too. For now, it's mostly going to be embroidery and photography, because that's what's holding my creative attention. So what about you? What's holding your creative interest right now? Let me know--maybe there's a new project I need to try.Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail