A few weeks ago I walked out of our local art supplies shop with a set of acrylic paints and a new blending brush. I’m not a painter, and I spent way too long staring at the rainbow of paint choices, wondering what I should choose. Eventually I picked out a set of colors and … Continue reading Finding my inner creative child
The Beginnings Books aren’t always crafted in a linear fashion. In fact, my own personal experience shows that this is rarely the case for me. This year I am planning to launch the first part of my fantasy trilogy, the Sitka Saga, a story that has evolved and changed through the ten years I’ve spent … Continue reading The world needs your magic: Why I’m writing the Sitka Saga
I don’t know who needs to hear this, but if your energy has been low lately, you’re not alone. Up here in the northern tip of Minnesota, we’re finishing yet another month of freezing in below-average temperatures and being buried in feet of snow. The only vitamin D I’ve been getting is from supplements, and … Continue reading Reminder: It’s normal for your creative energy to change with the seasons
After months of change, uncertainty, and disruption of all my plans, I'm finding the strangest thing is happening: my creativity is invigorated like never before.
It's 100% okay if a global pandemic and economic crisis isn't the setting where you feel your creative best.
After several moments of scathing self-criticism, I stopped, horrified at what my mind was doing. Here were the words I had written with such passion during one of the most meaningful and amazing experiences of my life. And rather than looking back with appreciation and love for the girl who set off to take on the world, all I was focusing on was the negative and everything I wanted to change.
Once we started traveling, we began to see firsthand what it looked like to live out our dreams. Through beginning our shared life in such a foreign context, we began to challenge our assumptions that life would move fixedly and predictably from one stage to the next. We began to develop instead a growth-oriented mindset of creating whatever future we wanted.
I know I'm not the only one who struggles with a fear of embracing the creative life. Embracing this role as a creator is hard work, and no matter where you are in your creative journey, taking the leap to the next level can be daunting. It's personal and different and daring, and all those delicious things that usually accompany the goals and dreams we long for most.
In fact, my reluctance to own the title "writer" may have actually held me back from the kind of bold moves that I secretly wanted to take.
To have a creative soul is to be a boundary between two worlds. It is to glimpse the radiance of eternity, the food of inspiration, and bring it back to heal this existence.