You Are Worth the Time
Posted on | June 16, 2010 | 5 Comments
I’ve been having computer problems since Monday and instead of getting frustrated about it, I’ve taken it as a cue to spend more time with my projects and recently-purchased books. In the meanwhile that Troy is making sure that my computer doesn’t mess with me anymore anytime soon, I’d like to share this very inspirational video about ‘creating’ which is also transcribed below. Enjoy!
“It’s not easy these days making time for our creative work. Voices call us from everywhere demanding our attention, our energy, our time. And many of us, somewhere along the path, got the message that making art was self-indulgent so we relegate it to the bottom of our list. It becomes the thing we get to when the laundry is done, the kids asleep, the groceries bought and put away. We get so caught up in the flurry of our lives that we forget the essential thing about art – that the act of creating is a healing gesture, as sacred as prayer, as essential to our spirit as food to our body. It is our creative work that reveals us to ourselves, allows us to transform our experience and imagination into new forms – forms that sing back to us in a language of symbol – who we are, what we are becoming, what it is we have loved and feared. This is the alchemy of creation that as my energy fuses with the source of energy, a newness rises up in the shape of who I am and I myself am altered in the course of its release. I am never the same in the wake of this work. As I create, I come into my power and wisdom, into my deeper knowing, into that newness which becomes the gift which I share with the world. As a result of the time I spend at my work, there is more of me to give, more awareness, more joy, more depth. I become centered in the process, focused on the interior, attuned to the inner voice. Life is no longer about time, and demands, and errands. It is about the extraordinary metamorphosis of one thing into another. What begins as cocoon emerges a butterfly. What once was sorrow may now be a song.
As I am changed by the art that passes through me in the process of becoming, so am I changed by the creations of others. Having felt the truth of your cobalt blue, my red will remember and its voice will be clearer. In the turn of your phrase, the tenor of your voice, the pulse of your poem, I find fragments of myself I have long forgotten. It is to you I look to find myself. In your words I find the courage to write my own.
Making time for creative work is like making time for prayer. It is a healing act, a leave-taking from the chaos as we move from the choppy surface towards the stillness of the center. To be an artist it is not necessary to make a living from our creations, nor is it necessary to have work hanging in fine museums, or the praise of critics. It is not necessary that we are published or that famous people own our work. To be an artist, it is necessary to live with our eyes wide open, to breathe in colors of mountain and sky, to know the sound of leaves rustling, the smell of snow, the texture of bark. It is necessary to rub our hands all over life, to sing when and where we want, to take in every detail, and to jump when we get to the edge of a cliff. To be an artist is to notice every beautiful and tragic thing, to cry freely, to collect experience, and shape it into forms that others can use. It is not to whine about not having time but to be creative with every moment. To be an artist is not to wait for others to define us but to define ourselves, to claim our lives. Our cities and towns are full of poets, playwrights, composers, and painters who drive buses, work in offices, wait on tables to pay the rent. Few of us are paid much for our creative work so we squeeze it into the hours we have left after working other jobs. We write our novels in the wee hours of the morning, work in our darkrooms through the night, write poetry on subway cars, finish essays in waiting rooms and parking lots. We rarely think of ourselves as artists, though it is our creative work that brings us to life, feeds our spirits, and sees us through the dark. We may feel alone but we are not alone. There are hundreds, thousands in the night doing as we do, trading this sacred time for the bliss of creating. There are a lot of things we don’t have in life but time is not one of them. Time is all we have, one lifetime under this name to produce a body of work that says, “This is how I saw the world.” Your work is worthy of whatever time it takes.”
- Jan Phillips
What You’re Doing Matters
Posted on | June 9, 2010 | No Comments
Powerful words from a brilliant author …
“What I would tell her if I knew what to say …
You are a miracle and I have to love you this fiercely. So that you can feel it even after you leave for school. Or even while you’re asleep. Or even after your childhood becomes a memory. You’ll forget all these when you grow up. But it’s ok. Being a mother means having your heart broken. And it means loving and losing and falling apart and coming back together. And it’s the best there is. And also sometimes the worst. Sometimes you won’t have anyone to talk to. Sometimes you’ll wonder if you’ve forgotten who you are. But you must always remember this:
| What you’re doing matters and you have to be brave with your life so that others can be brave with theirs. |
The truth is being a woman is a gift. Tenderness is a gift. Intimacy is a gift. And nurturing the good in this world is nothing short of a privilege. That’s why I have to love you this way. So I can give what I have to you. So that you can carry it in your body and pass it on. I’ve watched you sleep. I’ve kissed you a million times. And I know something that you don’t yet. You are writing the story of your only life every single minute of every day. And my greatest hope for you, sweet child, is that I can teach you how to write a good one.”
| - Katherine Center |
| {To my two lovely girls who changed my life forever.} |
What Would You Do?
Posted on | June 3, 2010 | 15 Comments
| “What would you do if you knew you wouldn’t fail?” |
That’s the question given to us in Kelly Rae’s Flying Lessons. For me, the specific question I struggled with for years was “What would I do if money was not a concern?” I’ve always been creative. I’ve always been entrepreneurial. But only when I stopped obsessing about money and started focusing on what I really wanted did I get an honest, unclouded answer.
But before I could answer the what, I had to understand the why – Why would I do what I want to do? What do I believe in? What tugs at the deepest core of my heart? What drives me to action?
And the answer I got from the depths of my soul is this – I believe that the only way to live life is with passion. Passion for oneself. Passion for family. Passion for work. Passion for the Earth.
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This is at the core of everything I do now. I know and encountered so many people devoid of passion – simply existing to pay the bills or to conform. I’ve been there – trapped in what others expected of me. Once I found the courage to break away from expectations and pursue what I really wanted to do (which was in itself a journey of self-discovery), I felt freer, more alive.
So what do I want to do? I want to make art. More importantly, I want to inspire. Inspire others to find their passion and pursue it. Inspire others to practice self-expression and self-exploration through creative endeavors – help them let go of the mental bonds that bind them.
“No matter where you are in life right now, no matter who you are, no matter how old you are – it is never too late to be who you are meant to be.” – Esther & Jerry Hicks
How will I do this? First and foremost by example. Then reflected through my blog, by publishing a book, through intimate creative workshops, and through my photography and artwork. These are my goals. (I’m keeping the specifics to myself for now.)
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Of course there are fears and apprehensions and anxieties. The mere act of posting about this is scary for me. There’s the “Who does she think she is?” or the “I’m not good enough.” And it paralyzes me at times. But I have to keep faith and believe in myself because if I don’t, no one is going to believe in me. I have to start with myself.
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So onward I go. Always moving forward, one step at a time.
“Eventually I discovered for myself the utterly simple prescription for creativity: be intensely yourself. Don’t try to be outstanding; don’t try to be a success; don’t try to do pictures for others to look at – just please yourself.”- Ralph Steiner
Wait. What about money? I still have to eat, right? And pay the bills. And support the family – although Troy is doing a pretty good job at this. And travel. And buy more art supplies – lol! Well, again, I keep faith. I know it will come. As long as I keep doing what I love doing. It also helps to have a very supportive husband. {Thanks.}
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And now I ask you, “What would you do if money was no concern or if you knew you wouldn’t fail?”
Celebrating the Modern Renaissance
Posted on | May 4, 2010 | 3 Comments
After months and months of posting seemingly random ramblings and hodge-podge projects to help me decide which of the things I like doing I should focus on for my next ‘passion-filled career’, I realized (or I guess, I started listening to Troy) that I don’t have to choose. Everything I do defines who I am and, in the past, when I tried to build a business out of each of my interests, I was miserable because I felt incomplete. Then again, I was insecure about being branded jack-of-all-trades because as the old saying goes “One who tries to do everything is capable of doing nothing.”I thought of Leonardo da Vinci and the concept of the “Renaissance Man” – well-educated and excels in a wide variety of fields. If I don’t want to be thought of as a jack-of-all-trades, I most certainly would embrace being a Renaissance Woman. I felt it’s time to squash my inner critic and start believing in what I can do. (It helps if you have a husband like Troy who is very encouraging and supportive.)
Everyone has an inner critic – most people call it the gremlin. Mine is monstrous. I squashed him but he’s still breathing. (Who knows when he’ll recover.) It’s time we realize that these critters in our minds are not us. When we listen to them, it manifests not only in our actions but also in our tendency to procrastinate or in our proneness for perfection. We can choose to ignore or silence them. Only then can we liberate ourselves from our fears and live a more fulfilling life.
“When we listen to our Gremlin, we become rigid and hold ourselves back restricting us from being creative, resourceful and living life to our fullest potential.” – Christie Clipper
Tags: modern renaissance > personal growth > self-improvement > the creative mind
The Modern Renaissance
Posted on | May 2, 2010 | 2 Comments
A rebirth of my blog …
The Renaissance, spanning 14th to 17th century, was all about the awareness of human potential and the passion for discovery. Today, in a capitalist-driven society, stimulated by rapid developments in communication and technology, we are threatened with a life devoid of passion and interconnection as we struggle with the monotony of clockwork and the burdens of day-to-day responsibilities. We need a more soulful existence that balances logic and imagination, body and mind. Only by achieving this balance in our lives can we experience more meaningful relationships with family and friends.
Hence, another cultural movement – The Modern Renaissance.
No matter how good we are in our chosen careers, we all need to nourish our creativity because creativity fuels the imagination, and without imagination, we are dangerously restricted. It is time to liberate ourselves – dismiss the preconceived notion that creativity is only inherent to the artistically-inclined and start believing that all of us can cultivate creativity through observation, study, practice, and play.
At the same time, we need to nurture our bodies because a healthy mind can only dwell in a healthy body. We need to re-educate ourselves on how to eat properly rather than caving to the seduction of take-out and processed foods. We need to understand that a good healthy meal can be easily prepared at home.
As a Modern Renaissance man or woman, it is also important that we are globally aware and environmentally conscious. We live in a society where people behave as if they own the Earth. If we just realize that all of us are interconnected and each of us have a responsibility towards nature, and act on it, we will leave a better future for our children.
Journey with me through this cultural revolution as we infuse our lives with creative play, good food, and green practices for a more passionate, well-balanced life. Let’s make our lives a work of art.
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| My Mind Map (You’d probably put career in yours. For now, I’m trading mine with homeschooling which helps feed my mind.) |
Tags: modern renaissance > personal growth > self-improvement > the creative mind
A Lesson from Anne Sullivan
Posted on | April 19, 2010 | 1 Comment
We recently watched Disney’s 2000 TV adaptation of the movie “Miracle Worker” – the story about a young Helen Keller and how her teacher, Ms. Anne Sullivan, broke through the barrier of Helen’s deafness and blindness to teach her the concept of words and language.
In the movie, Anne Sullivan was getting frustrated, not at Helen, but at Helen’s parents who would rather spoil the child than deal with her tantrums and teach her manners. There was a line that Anne Sullivan said to them that’s worth remembering:
| “She’ll live up to just what you demand of her, and no more.” |
This is a very powerful statement. It not only applies to how parents should raise their children but to individuals, as well.
When I was growing up, my parents set very high standards for me and my siblings. They taught us not to settle for mediocrity. Now, as working professionals, we still continuously push ourselves, always testing the limits of our abilities. (Of course, as I mentioned before, I gave up my profession in pursuit of something more passionate and fulfilling – which is actually proof that I’ve learned not to settle.)
As a parent, and a homeschooling parent at that, this is what I want to instill in my kids – to continuously hunger and strive for self-improvement because I want them to make a difference in society when they grow up. Helen Keller’s life also serves as an inspiration to them. If a deafblind girl can learn to communicate and grow up to be a world-famous speaker and author, imagine what a person with no physical handicaps can accomplish.
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© 2006-2010 Johwey Redington.
Please don't steal my text or images, it's disrespectful and you'll be subjet to karma! If you want to use any of the images, please email me for a written permission. Thank you.
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