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I had never thought of myself as a perfectionist, but in a recent conversation with a friend who’s known me for many years, she casually said, “You’re like me. We’re both perfectionists.” We are? I am? What is a perfectionist anyway? I’ve always understood it to mean that you set high standards for yourself and [...]
I haven’t posted for over a year. I could say it’s because I’ve been otherwise productively engaged or I haven’t had anything pressing to say or my focus has been more inward than outward. Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? The deeper truth surfaced today in a short dialogue with my Muse, a.k.a. The Creative Consuela. [...]
Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone! This is not just a day for people in romantic relationships to exchange sweet somethings, but a day for celebrating love in its many forms. It’s been a real joy today to say “I love you” to my mom, my sister, my friends; to this fiercely windy rainy day here in [...]
I began this year by honoring my creative urges in a way that I’ve done all too rarely in my life. Returning home from bringing in the New Year with creatively inspiring friends, Claudia Holt (who picked up the fiddle for the first time in her 50s and is now playing in a band) and [...]
This dispatch comes to you at an auspicious time, the Winter Solstice, described by my Solstice-born friend and songspinner, Pauline LeBel, as a time when “the womb of darkness reaches its fullness…when we rest, when our dreams are seeded, when we ready ourselves for the lengthening days.” Traditionally this is a time when we make [...]
Below is a talk I gave at the launch of Cathy Sosnowsky’s book, “Snapshots – A Story of Loss, Loss and Life,” on Sunday, October 24, 2010. Cathy Sosnowsky’s Snapshots inspires, supports, exemplifies, sustains, and celebrates the mysterious relationship between grief and creativity. As she describes so beautifully, we’re helpless in the face of our [...]
I recently heard about a little girl whose number one rule for a new club she was forming with her friends was “No not having fun.” Can anything be more fundamental than this simple piece of wisdom? There is nothing less fun than not having fun. By fun, I don’t necessarily mean going through life [...]
Yesterday began well. I had a big to-do list – and felt inspired when I created it. I had planned to glean through my old journals, work on articles for my creativity coaching business, make strides in some of my projects-for-hire. But instead I spent the day making soup, watering plants, contacting family and friends… [...]
Lately I’ve been in the habit of spending my days fulfilling my commitments to other people – writing assignments, creativity coaching sessions, responding to correspondence, etc. It’s all good work that I enjoy, but there’s been a nagging sense of something missing – a barely perceptible existential cloud. Not serious but not great either. So [...]
As a child growing up in the 1950s, the phrase, “Whatever your little heart desires” was one of my first encounters with irony. What was really being said was, “Dream away, kiddo, but dreams have no place in this world.” The adults surrounding me were dutiful, conscientious people whose life force was devoted to fulfilling [...]