Arthur C. Clark is the British science fiction writer who wrote 2001: A Space Odyssey. You might have seen the movie. He raises some great questions. What if Earth is the only planet sustainable for life? It is a tremendous…
Creative people are notorious for getting wrapped up in their work. Especially when we love what we do. I know I’ve missed coffee dates and meals when in the middle of writing an exciting scene or am almost done with a painting. The worst is when I put off going to the bathroom because I’m on a roll. How sad is that? (Yes, there were a couple close calls. But I’m a grown childless woman. Accidents don’t happen at my stage in life.)
After a while of being sucked in, we may notice our work has become a little stagnant. Our paintings don’t have the unique perspective as they used to. Our novels don’t have the voice or plot lines we strive for.
We pull our heads out of our work to figure out what the crap is going on. And we realize we’ve become so wrapped up in creating perfect scenery we forgot to actually go visit some scenery. Or we tried so hard to perfect that snappy line of dialogue we haven’t entered dialogue with another person in a long time.
Our brains need space to play, especially as creative people. We forget to splash in puddles, squish mud between our fingers, listen to the waves crashing, or even try a new flavor of tea. We need to experience life in order to be inspired by it. Without playtime, our creative work can become colorless and rote.
Which is why I’m taking a road trip.
I loved this quote. I think he should've also added: "Never ever give in to doubt." As creative people, self-doubt is a natural part of the process. I certainly have to beat back the Self-Doubt Monster with my nebula keyboard…
Many thanks to Emy Sukenaga for nominating me for the Liebster Award! I didn’t even know it existed. But the award is a way for bloggers to nominate other fellow bloggers and help spread your name a little bit. I thought it’s a cool idea.
These are the rules I need to follow for the award:
Here are the questions Emy asked me:
1. What is one lesson you’ve learned in the past year?
Considering I just finished my certificate in Christian Formation and Soul Care, like, two days ago this has been on my mind. . . in the past year I’ve been really amazed by how similar the creative process/doing art and giving soul care is. They overlap A TON. Both are a form a listening and receiving. I’d love to explore this further, especially since I’m creating every day.
2. How have you changed/grown in the past 5 years?
The biggest thing is probably a change in priorities. Growing up, I used to be a “go big or go home” type person. Until my body collapsed. Migraines weren’t new to me, I’ve had them since I was born. But they continued to grow steadily worse until they turned chronic. In the past 5 years I’ve really had to learn how to prioritize my body. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should. Though I still dream big, living big has been replaced by living balanced. I’ve discovered this is a healthier way to live.
3. What is your favorite sport/activity/hobby besides blogging or writing?
PAINTING!!! watercolor mostly 🙂 Also reading. And eating brownies. I’m a professional brownie eater. And hot tubbing. With a good friend or family member. If I can eat brownies AND read WHILE in the hot tub WITH a friend = 8D.
4. What do you do when you have free time (again besides write or blog)?
I’m going to answer this a little differently. Because I have chronic health issues, I frequently have what people consider “free time”, or time I’m not writing or blogging. However, I don’t consider this free time because I can’t blog or write or read. When I have this “free time”, I usually listen to books on tape, or I paint, or turn down the volume waaaay down on my keyboard and play, or watch Netflix, or sleep. Or I hook up an IV to my arm and just inject liquid stories. Whatever gets it into my system faster 🙂
I feel like the kid who collapses at the end of the race and has to lie there hyperventilating for an hour before he can move again. Now that I’ve had a week-long gap of breathing room after the A to Z Challenge has finished, I can actually get up and go snag my victory ice cream cone. (Your victory cone is the much asked for yak :D. I named him Yiddie.)
When my CP (critique partner) first suggested I do it, my eyes bulged all goldfish-like out of my head. 26 posts for each letter of the alphabet in one month?? And I only had a four day head start before the month of April began.
But I’m glad I did it.
I couldn't really think of anything awesome for "Y" besides drawing a cartoon yak. Which is only awesome if you're half-asleep. So I thought I'd fanangle this letter into one last giveaway. Not very big, but hey! at least it…