And you know what? It’s been nice. A bit luxurious, even.

As you can see at the top up there, this blog is called The Creative Life. But what is the creative life, really? First of all, living your life creatively means vastly different things depending on who you are. Secondly, it depends on the willingness to keep your eyes and ears open to the tiny details of life where you might get an idea for a story or a blog post or a new tapestry piece.

My creative life? I’m busy. I know you’re busy, in fact, busy is kind of a dumb word…we’re all busy, all the time! And I, like a lot of you, have a lot of irons in the fire (although I’m not taking blacksmithing…yet), which means that sometimes the creative life can be tough. Everything gives me an idea for something new and sometimes it’s hard to turn that switch off. But… like lightbulbs, the switch needs to go off sometimes to save energy.

I love my penchant for creativity and the way it makes me see the world, but sometimes worry about keeping up with blogs or posts or other online things gets in the way of it. I’m not someone who can write 4 posts a day and keep up with the people that post that or more each day, that’s not how my brain works. And I get sad when I think about having blogs and not fulfilling my “duty” to readers. But wait a second here… aren’t I supposed to help people embrace, work through, fall in love with their creativity? How in the hell can they do that when they’re reading blogs that are constantly being updated or inundated with pattern ideas via the web? Don’t get me wrong, I love the internet and blogs and posts. They are super helpful and awesome.

But the creative life can be hard. And murky. And deep. And fuzzy. It can also be beautiful and joyous and make you feel whole! So, I’m wondering what you, reader, (if anyone’s still reading this right now? Holla!) want to see from me. Here. Exploring this creative life. I’d like to post here and continue the dialogue with you, but also extricate myself from the unwritten contract that if I don’t post every day the world will shut down. ‘Cause it won’t. You won’t. Everything will be okay.

Do you have guilt about what you should be doing online vs what you should be doing offline? If you do, I give you permission to go out and make and do and see. And then come tell me/us all about it online with a Tweet, a comment or a blog post. Take an extra minute with your cup of coffee. Go take pictures of the leaves. Go hug your dog. Then let it sit for a bit and work its creative way through your brain and become even more beautiful. Then share. Blame me for not signing on your computer this afternoon. Go do. Go see. Go make.

Alternatively, if you think this is all poppycock, and that I should be keeping up with 4 posts a day and that I’m just lazy, feel free to tell me so. Just wanted to remind you to take a minute out of life to be creative. And not worry about if someone’s writing a tutorial write now this minute about a similar idea, thus stealing your thunder. Another great idea will come, perhaps one even better. You just may have to slow down a little bit to find it. Trust that first great idea, and your creativity, that it means that more great ideas will come. To you. Stop worrying.

What’s your creative life like? How do you sustain it?

Hey there!

Can I just say that I love the fact that you “barf out” stuff! I do, too, and it just feels so damn good to get it OUT and down on paper/screen!

Glad to hear the writing switch flipped! In one of her books, Natalie Goldberg talks about “filtering” (I’ll have to find this quote now that I think about it*), how things happen and they are stored in your brain but they have to stay up there and be processed and mixed in with memories and new experiences so they can then be spit out in the written word. I like the idea of thoughts and ideas kicking around in your brain until they’re just right. That being said, I need to learn more control of my writing this year. Ever get those moments when it’s kind of like a wild horse running and bucking all over the place? My problem isn’t so much about giant leaps, it’s about keeping a train of thought and not writing about this one time when I was trying to catch a chicken and then wrapping up with my favorite type of coffee mug. I guess we should be thankful, though, that the flip switches on at all?! (Why do I suddenly feel geriatric?)

You can still write when you’re traveling! Just keep a notebook handy and write down snippets to capture later. I also like the days when I’m not writing and come up with phrases or ideas (when I wrote short stories, it used to be dialogue!) and have some time to kind of play with them a bit in my head. Traveling is so good for reframing your thoughts and references and habits, it will be great! I also like having my camera to get shots of tiny details that the trip brings.

Sorry this is all so disjointed, I’m sleepy so I’m a bit more all-over-the-place trying to make sure I don’t forget what I was going to say…which officially means I need to go get some sleep now.

More soon.

xo
betsy

*I found it. And oops! She actually calls it “composting” on page 14 in Writing Down the Bones: “Our senses by themselves are dumb. They take in experience, but they need the richness of sifting for a while through our consciousness and through our whole bodies. I call this “composting.” Our bodies are garbage heaps: we collect experience, and from the decomposition of the thrown-out eggshells, spinach leaves, coffee grinds, and old steak bones of our minds come nitrogen, heat, and very fertile soil. Out of this fertile soil bloom our poems and stories. But this does not come all at once. It takes time. Continue to turn over and over the organic details of your life until some of them fall through the garbage of discursive thoughts to the solid ground of black soil.” This to me, is the very heart of all creativity.

Hi you.

Okey dokey. Sometime last week the switch flipped in my head about just wanting to write—with the added bonus of the next bit being, you know, actually writing—and for the first time in weeks I’ve been getting some things done.

Really, a part of that is that I did what I always forget to do until I’ve done some good suffering—I scaled back. Not “scaled back” as in giving up or downgrading, just as in taking properly sized steps instead of tremendous leaps. My brain works in tremendous leaps, but my mere mortal physical self can only move in steps.

I find it very ironic that I’ve finally hit a groove and we have to leave town Thursday for a massive trip back east. I’ll be away for 2.5 weeks! All I want to do is write! Sigh.

xoxo
Kim