Practicing your way back into creativity

Cassett, Mary (1878-79). 
Woman Reading.
Joslyn Art Museum. Omaha, Nebraska.

“Creativity is the brain's invisible muscle -- that when used and excercised routinely -- becomes better and stronger.”
~ Ashley Ormon

“Practice is the hardest part of learning, and training is the essence of transformation.” ~ Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are

“Do it again.
Play it again. Sing it again. Read it again. Write it again. Sketch it again. Rehearse it again. Run it again. Try it again.
Because again is practice, and practice is improvement, and improvement only leads to perfection.”
~ Richelle E. Goodrich, Smile Anyway: Quotes, Verse, and Grumblings for Every Day of the Year

This last two years have been hard.  Hard in a way, I have not been unable to write and paint in a way that my heart, soul and hand are in concert together.  The world has made me exhausted:  COVID, political unrest, public exposure of racism, isolation, and now another war.  I am turning back to my blog hoping it has the electricity to to jump start my creativity.

Maybe it is spring and the time of awakening. Maybe it is the eve of Ares, the beginning of the zodiac.  The time of not sitting back but getting off your bum.  If this past blah I've been infected with were a shell, I want to break out of it.  I want to sing along with the spring peepers and not let anyone slow me down.  I want to touch the new buds on the American Beech trees that will shed off last year's leaves.  

I want to take a step forward, fresh with new energy that is coming my heart.    

~~~

This Is Just To Say

William Carlos Williams - 1883-1963

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

~~~

The big question is: what habits can I re-establish and put into place to light the spark?  What can I do differently this coming year?

I have been thinking a lot about these two questions.  One idea is to have a sabbatical.  I have been working in my field for over 30+ years.  COVID has shown me that I need a beak.  My work life has changed so dramatically and up to this point I keep telling myself go with the flow.  But this idea is sucking my joy away.  I have to ask myself why am I staying.  I'm not ready to retire, yet I need time to think about what I want to do next.  There are other opportunities out there for me.  I need a break to discover these.  

Julia Cameron writes in her creativity recovery manual, The Artist Way a recipe: 1) handwriting 3 journal pages, 2) walking and 3) artist visits.  I envision my sabbatical to include these elements. 

More to come.....