Books

The Creative Sweet Spot

/ still a dreamer / 5 Comments

For most of us, our lives were built around the security of routine. For us creatives, routine can become a prison. Where is the sweet spot between the necessity of routine and stepping outside it to create? I’m working at finding that balance.

It’s an established fact that children thrive on routine. In our earliest years, it provides stability, safety, and a kind of certainty that life is predictable.

Photo thanks to: Arthur Krijgsman / pexels

School provides more of the same. Our earliest schedules prescribe the beginning of our day, the order of subjects, teachers and classes, and a 3 o’clock bell. In time, we evolve to work – get on the train, the subway, in the car to arrive at work at 9, finish at 5 (or some variation.)

The one-time comfort of routine can easily become a sturdy fence of limitation around us. Even when schedules shift, there may still be an insistent subtext.

Where and when is the space to be creative? Does it have to wait until the end of our day or the weekend? I still struggle with this even though I freelance from home. While I continue to mostly work a traditional workweek for clients, I do have some flexibility.  

Yet I wonder – can I just leave what I’m doing at the computer and go draw or write in my studio for hours at a time? Can I just leave my desk and go walking and take photographs? And as crazy as this sounds, can I take a Monday-Friday “workday” and spend it cleaning, or cooking and baking – instead of doing something work-related?

Changing our habits is how we grow. To create is to step outside our comfort zone, to let go of what feels safe and secure, and take a leap, of whatever size it may be. To break a habit is to rewire our brain, one which, for many of us, has been wired for life to fit a schedule.

Breaking that kind of habit can be a challenge, and while I wish it were otherwise, it often still is for me. I’m pushing through, little step by little step, often grappling with guilt, but it’s the only way out. I actually have no idea what my sweet spot will look like, only that it can’t be this, and for now, every little push has to be enough.

Do you struggle with breaking the habit of routine to find your creative self?

What’s in A Name?

/ still a dreamer / 2 Comments

One thing we are all given upon arrival in this world is a name. That name will follow us, with rare exception, throughout our lives to the day we die. Others respond to our names, as do we. What would the effect be if we didn’t have one?

This is something I wondered about when I finished this book. Why didn’t the story, which was both emotional and urgent, have any feeling of emotion or urgency? And I questioned one unusual quality in the book – none of the characters had names. Only a dog, who was left behind when his family was taken, was given a name by the writer.

Written in first person, the writer was nameless, as was her dearest friend, who is only referred to as “the old man”, and her beloved editor, who is only known as “R”. This depersonalization by the author is obviously intentional, but what was her intent?

The book’s premise hooked me – an island where things are constantly disappearing, and people’s memories along with them. The disappearances are enforced by the Memory Police, a somewhat Nazi-like army. The editor, R, is able to retain all his memories since childhood despite so many of the related items having disappeared from the island. This is sure to make him a prime target to be “disappeared”, so the writer and the old man construct a secret room to hide him.

This has all the elements of a great story; but something was lacking – connection. Did all the characters remaining nameless make a difference? I think it did. Only the rescued dog was given a name – Don, and each time his name was mentioned, I perked up. Oh – what’s happening with Don?

Names are important. They are the first step in how I know you, how I call you. Who are you without a name?

Reminded of Gratitude

/ still a dreamer / 4 Comments

It’s still early this morning, and I sit in my favorite journaling spot by the front windows as I always do.

I’m not feeling 100% – just one of those mornings one needs to take a little extra time to breathe, and let the day unfold gently.

The sun is rising slowly, brightly illuminating the left side of the porch posts outside; birds are singing their celebration of a new day, and I am listening to this music, so calming with the water running in the background –

Despite the fact that I am feeling pretty far from where I’d like to be at this precise moment, and am not even sure where exactly that is, I also realize that there are thousands, maybe millions, of people who would give anything to be sitting where I am right now …

… to be able to sit calmly and safely; and have the ability to push the day back just a bit before actually starting it; to sit with a cup of coffee and watch the sun slowly lighten the sky. We can forget how much better off we are in our own little lives than so many people in the world. Especially now.

I humbly and gratefully accept all the good I have right now, and trust that my life is unfolding exactly as it should be, no matter how that may feel at any given moment. Even a gentle morning is a gift, and a reminder of abundance. And so it is.

Artist Date – Part 2

/ still a dreamer / 11 Comments

Admittedly, I had to go to this location for an appointment, but moseying around town and taking some pictures, which I love to do, was my Artist Date.

This is the very charming little hamlet of Frenchtown, the river town just south of the one I live in.

There are several such river towns dotting the Eastern side of the Delaware River – we are the two northernmost.

Frenchtown abounds with small, unique shops, and plenty of good places to eat, get coffee, ice cream, pastry, and much more.

I obsessed a little over these two dogs, and took quite a few photos of them. But, hey, it was my Artist Date, and my chance to do what I love.