Tiny beautiful acts—a 100-day creative challenge
[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”] [et_pb_row admin_label=”row”] [et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text”] Could devoting yourself to tiny acts of beauty, gratitude, or creation for 100 days change your life? It did for Suleika Jaouad, a writer who, in her early twenties, invented a 100-day project to help her deal with her leukemia treatments. In her book Between Two Kingdoms: A […]
Six questions to expand the creative you
Does your creative spirit ever feel tamped down or just-around-the-corner-but-out-of-reach? When that happens to me, I have two approaches to rediscovering my groove. The first is to get into action and start making—anything. I may not feel “creative” but I have to remind myself that creative is a label or an adjective and “to create” […]
We Don’t Need to Know Before We Go
One of the cool things about artists is that they often start their pieces (and I’m defining artist in the broadest possible way) before they know where they are going. Not all artists perhaps, but the ones I want to emulate—poets, writers, painters, and sand castle-at-the-water’s-edge makers. They may have an intention, a direction but […]
Finding magic in my pencil
There are many ways to get to know someone, even someone we haven’t met, and this week I’ve been playing with one that has proved particularly meaningful to me. I draw faces. We live, or at least I do, in a world of judgments, mental constructs, expectations, and prejudices that influence how we see people around […]
Lessons from the Harvest
I love fall with its colors, coolness, beauty, and the poignancy of knowing that winter is coming and the rains will start. It is also the time of harvest. At harvest time, I no longer work in nature. I work for her. Or, specifically for the Harvest. And believe me, the Harvest is one tough […]
Setting Myself on Fire, or the Power of Moments
Some events in our life stand out like none others–so disorienting that they challenge us to know where we are and maybe who we are. I had one of those events this week: I set myself on fire. It wasn’t hard to do. I was fixing my husband Steve a special supper the evening before […]
Sing the Song that Wants to Come Through You
LLast week, a friend thanked me profusely for a two-word expression I shared with her seven years ago: “both/and.” The words helped when, after her husband died, people asked, “How are you?” She didn’t have to choose between “I’m great” and “I’m feeling so sad.” She could be both. “Both/and” is an approach to life. On […]
Finding the Secret to Magic
This week, I had a brief encounter with magic. It came from reading a book, and remembering. When we were children, if we were lucky, magic lived in us. We might have found it when we were playing outdoors, making up stories with a friend, or reading a book. For me, magic was wandering alone through […]
To care without despair
How to avoid depair as we continue to care? And create without hate? I’ve had to meter my news so that I don’t go numb while trying to stay informed about what is happening in Ukraine. To allow my heart to feel, I’ve turned to song. The creators of these four pieces turned their strong […]
Using the fire of anger to create beauty
Uncontrolled anger kills. Combined with political motives and manipulation it starts wars. It’s challenging not to be angry and scared by Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. Yet, I don’t want to forget that anger, with its heat, can also be used to create art. At the Tacoma Art Museum, glassblowers demonstrate the art of glassmaking in […]
