Today my lovely friend, Falon Webb, is guest posting. We first met on a beach. Little did I know how a big part of our friendship would be centred around that place – where land meets water, where the edges of the defined blur with the edges of the unexpected. We shared a beach in Costa Rica for a month. We share many homeschooling days on her beach between the months of May and October. And we are now sharing different beaches but the same sunrise during her 21-day project that can be found on instagram under #salutethesun21
Thanks to her love of love and love of all things living, I was able to find beauty in the howling 4am monkeys, those precious seagulls that swarm envelop me with their own kind of love, and in a kale smoothie…
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Intangible Creator (n): One whose creativity is unable to be touched or grasped; not having physical presence.
This is me. I also like long walks on the beach, a good cup of coffee, seagulls and a nail-biting game of Jenga.
On Creative Routine
Routine and I are….well, there’s no bad blood between us, but we’re not close. Maybe one day but we are on different paths right now.
That being said, one thing I do (most of the time) is morning writing. Those pages are priceless in the clarity they bring. I use them as a way to express gratitude,which I don’t think we can ever have enough of, and also as a way to work out any issues that may come up. It’s as though a conversation starts coming through on the page and whatever I was feeling before begins to make a bit more sense and “fix-its” tend to present themselves. It feels like I am in cahoots with someone who is always one step ahead of me. Life-changing!
On Expressing Creativity
Know when to “change your lighting”.
As an “intangible creator” my creativity is expressed through out many different parts of my life . For starters, I am a lover of relationships, relationships of all kinds. My relationships with others, my relationship with myself, other peoples relationships with themselves and one another, my dog’s relationship with sticks and other gross, slobbery objects. Beautiful! Navigating through these relationships with the intent to make a positive imprint often requires a “change of lighting”, considerations of creative timing and knowing when to white out your canvas and start again.
On Creative Ruts
Hug a tree, watch a wave.
Aside from meditation and my morning pages, I am nature gal. We have a quiet beach nearby which I visit daily when the weather allows. It is like a reset button for my soul.
Love and happiness act as a perfect compass to guide us on our creative paths through life. When I’m off course it’s often painfully clear. I need to get outside stat!
On Creativity
I am fortunate to be surrounded by extraordinary people creating unimaginable beauty; artists, musicians, writers, dancers and designers of all things lovely.
This glorious cocoon of people who make tangible beauty appear like magic has had me call into question my own contribution to worldly splendour.
I am not a dancer. I am not a designer of pretty things. I know when I love a painting so much that I am forever changed, yet I couldn’t choose “the right shade of white” to save my life.
I had spent my whole life believing these were the ways to express creativity. I have always felt a deep, strong creative pulse which was ultimately met with frustration and consequently pushed aside until it reared up again. Creativity is a stubborn monkey who just would not leave me alone despite my many pleas. I began searching. Searching for something that would give me some closure and allow me to lay this pesky creativity thing to rest once and for all. Then I found this:
cre.a.tiv.i.ty
noun
the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns,relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc.; originality, progressiveness, or imagination
At that moment, I learned that creativity can be expressed through many forms. Follow what is true and beautiful to you and share it. Releasing your creativity is a bold and courageous move, one that changes lives and makes the world a beautiful place. Don’t underestimate its power.
To those of you who share so freely, I am deeply indebted. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
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Falon’s creative prompt:
Go outside. Sit. Breathe. See Beauty.
Repeat when necessary.
Thanks for sharing today, Fal.
A quick aside: Her sunrise challenge is probably one of the most rewarding additions to my creative routine. 4am get-up isn’t so hard when you know that you will witness the smallest miracle of the sun rising each and every day.
So an added challenge would be to go sit and watch a sunrise or a sunset.
Sit, breathe, and see beauty.
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You can leave a comment below or join my top secret life explorers group on Facebook if you want to share any discoveries or explorations. Friend me and I will send you an invite! You can share your thoughts or your creative expressions there. You can also post on Instagram using #may_BE2015
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