I’m reading a new book, Big Magic, by Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray Love. You might like it. It is about living the creative life and is mostly geared toward writers, but also other artists.
Some of it gets a little out there for me. The idea of your muse being a magic being who hangs around your shoulders pushing you forward – I’m a little too practical for that. But I do agree with most of what she says, and she is a great proponent for living the creative life. Creativity comes in all shapes and sizes. Some people say they don’t have it, others can’t live without it. But I believe most people have a creative spark within them, they just shove it down while they work hard at other things. Take it from a practical person, the creative spark is in there.
I spent a lot of years living and working in an environment that didn’t help support my creative muse. But I’ve always loved the feeling of creating something, whether it was a craft, a flower arrangement, sewing a garment, or something else that didn’t bring home the bacon. It was my outlet after a long day of keeping my nose to the grindstone.
But with retirement brought the opportunity to do as I please. No more 8 to 5 (or 12-hour days) only to come home, cook dinner, clean up, and deal with growing children. I was too tired to hardly fall into bed sometimes let alone create something.
Now, I can write and create all day long. And yet sometimes I don’t finish a project because I get bored with it, lose track of where it’s going, or get side-tracked with another. Melissa Gilbert is great at showing you why you need to keep pushing forward and learning more and more about your craft. So, what if your creation isn’t a NY Times Best Seller. What you create is a part of you. And it should be finished so you can get on to the next.
Check out Big Magic, by Elizabeth Gilbert if you’re interested. It might encourage you to let that creative spark bloom again.
What are you reading this week?
I spent a couple of days this week at the Oklahoma Heart Hospital South. No there is nothing wrong with my heart. But my spine is another story. My neurosurgeon works out of that hospital and he gave me some new scaring, my third back surgery, and I have some new fusion in the L4 L5 area.
Sandhill Island is a mythical place – a place in my mind. But I could live there. I would love the slow pace and the self-reliant people who live near and on the water. They have adventures, romances, and lives of every type. They are islanders. As I write about them I can smell the salt air, and hear the relentless waves washing up on shore.
IT’S HOT OUTSIDE! And I’m not talking about the political scene. The temperatures in Oklahoma have reached the century mark and the humidity is trying to keep up with it. If you’re going outside, do it early morning or late evening. I’m sure it’s the same wherever you are.
If you follow my blogs you know they’re normally light. I talk about the current book I’m promoting or the flowers blooming in my garden. But today, I had to say something serious.
I’m sure the rest of the world is having as much trouble staying home and doing nothing as I am. But this is getting ridiculous! It’s not as if I am doing without, we have food to eat and a nice home to live in, but I really want to travel. And I can’t at this time.
Last year when The Wild Rose Press called for submissions for novellas based on a fictional Vermont Inn, the noise of mad scribbling and typing could be heard around the globe. Not all of The Wild Rose Press authors live in the United States. The story would be built around a quaint Vermont Inn nestled in a tiny town with lots of eclectic characters.
It’s Mother’s Day and today we celebrate mothers everywhere and their contribution to the world. I looked for a picture of my mother in the stacks that desperately needed attention and came up with this one. She was young, maybe unmarried, I don’t have a date on it. She married Dad right after WWII and they had my oldest sister a few years later. Eventually they had 3 daughters. I resisted using the one of her in a bathing suit. She might have come up from the grave to chase me with a stick! She was a piece of work.
The second picture is my daughter who is now a mother too. This adorable photo was taken when she was about two years old. She has been my lifelong friend as well as my daughter. I had her with I was barely 20 and I had to practice motherhood on her. But when her brother came along was when I really became a mother. Women with one child are mothers, but women with multiple children should be canonized before death. I have a niece with 8, my grandmother also had 8, and I have a friend who raised 5 on her own. I only thought I was stressed. Stressed, but blessed. I couldn’t have survived without them.
Last week in my blog I talked about the Heavener Runestone 
The Heavener Runestone 
Peggy Chambers "Views from the Hammock" site 