Famous

 "I want to be famous in the way a pulley is famous, or a buttonhole, not because it did anything spectacular, but because it never forgot what it could do." ~poet Naomi Shihab Nye

In the fall of 1995, I packed my bags and headed for the Green Mountains of Vermont to pursue a second Masters Degree, this time in fine arts. I'd already been a published author and a national magazine columnist, but I'd convinced myself that I couldn't be, would never be, a real writer, unless and until I could write and publish fiction. Up until that point, I had one highly acclaimed book of informational non-fiction under my belt, another at the publisher, and I was a respected marketing columnist for a national trade magazine. 

So I applied and was accepted into this competitive graduate program, this two-year low residency immersion, with the intention....(wait for it)....of becoming famous. I can laugh now at the horror on my first semester advisor's face when I showed up for our first workshop armed with colored-coded notecards, highlighters, outlines, and books on craft (oh, so many books on craft!), ready to pen the Great American Novel.

I did graduate, on time in 1997, with an MFA in Creative Writing, but I got so much more than a framable piece of paper. I learned that the artist's way is not one of rigidity, gripping, holding on tight, following a blueprint or a mind map. Rather I learned that creativity, is about letting go, about trusting the process, about allowing spirit to move me. 

I still bring myself to the page every day, but I no longer wrestle, do battle with those demons  Instead, I have dialogues with the divine. I don't fret about page count, I don't subject myself to unrealistic and unnecessary deadlines. I simply show up. I stay. I allow. Because what really matters more than fame is kindness--to myself, to the process, and to my readers. 

Here's the poem, Famous by Naomi Shihab Nye, that I read at my 1997 graduation:

The river is famous to the fish.

The loud voice is famous to silence,   

which knew it would inherit the earth   

before anybody said so.   

The cat sleeping on the fence is famous to the birds   

watching him from the birdhouse.   

The tear is famous, briefly, to the cheek.   

The idea you carry close to your bosom   

is famous to your bosom.   

The boot is famous to the earth,   

more famous than the dress shoe,   

which is famous only to floors.

The bent photograph is famous to the one who carries it   

and not at all famous to the one who is pictured.   

I want to be famous to shuffling men   

who smile while crossing streets,   

sticky children in grocery lines,   

famous as the one who smiled back.

I want to be famous in the way a pulley is famous,   

or a buttonhole, not because it did anything spectacular,   

but because it never forgot what it could do.

Solitude: Creativity's Best Friend

 

“Solitude is creativity’s best friend, and solitude is refreshment for our souls.” ~Naomi Judd

In her 1992 groundbreaking work, The Artist's Way, Julia Cameron speaks eloquently about her relationship with the divine, the muse, spirit, the universe, God—whatever name you wish to give it. Cameron is unapologetically convinced that all one has to do is show up with an open heart and an open mind, and the creative process will unfold in magical ways.

I have unfolded and flown on creative wings enough times to endorse Cameron’s claims. Spirit can and will move you to create if and when you allow it a place of honor in your life. But it won’t reveal its secrets when you're flitting from one Saturday errand to the next. Nor will it feel welcome when you're belly-up to a bar surrounded by loud patrons. You must make welcome this mystical experience.

Originally used by the Quakers, the phrase, "When the spirit moves me," acknowledges an active relationship and reliance upon a higher power. Quakers believe that they do not need a mediator, a priest, pastor, or the eucharist or water baptism in order to interact with the divine. Theirs is a hotline straight to God. Back to Cameron,

"We are, ourselves, creations. And we, in turn, are meant to continue creativity by being creative ourselves."

How to access this wellspring, this fount of creative genius? Allow yourself quiet, uninterrupted time. Stop. Stay. Listen. Allow yourself to be moved, to be whispered to in unimaginable ways. You will hear a still small voice beckoning you to follow, to explore, to stretch, to reach, to create. Don't deny yourself the magical connection between you and the divine. Some days when I'm tempted to give my muse short shrift, I imagine her sitting in a corner watching me, waiting for me to notice her, waiting for me to pull up a chair. If I dash out the door without honoring her presence, I imagine her smile fading as I once again deny her existence, her generous offering. 

"But Carol," the pushback begins, "I don't have a creative bone in my body. I don't paint, dance, act, write poetry, or make music." Dear hearts, your life is your masterpiece; your very existence warrants creative vigor and expression. We are all gifted; don't be one of the people who never opens their package.

As the late metaphysician, Wayne Dyer, once said, "Don't die with the music still in you."

(Curious about the practical benefits of meditation? Join me on Sunday and Wednesday evenings at 7:00pm EST and Friday mornings at 8:00am EST. https://www.heygo.com/the-footloose-muse)

Step into your purpose

Photo by Jesse Bowser on Unsplash

"What inspires you? What excites you when you wake up in the morning? Go do that!" 

~Carol Mossa, How to Live a Wildly Creative Life

As a certified meditation teacher, I hear it all the time, "I can't meditate; I can't quiet my mind." Somewhere along the way, folks got the idea that meditation was all about relaxation, all about quieting the mind, and that if they couldn't quiet the mind, they couldn't develop a consistent practice or become effective meditators. I have spent years trying to dispel this myth, this misplaced notion. We've made it so hard to just sit, to sit and notice, and then without judgement, to allow the thoughts, sounds, and sensations to move on by. Those distractions? They are the gold. They are the practice. https://www.heygo.com/the-footloose-muse

It's the same thing with this notion of purpose. Once again, myths abound. Finding one's purpose has become a mystical quest, a head-scratching conundrum of confusion and inaction. We need to keep this simple. Let me try to get to the heart of the matter. What do you love to do? What's the one thing (perhaps there's more than one thing), the pursuit that if you gave yourself permission to do, you could do without hesitation, with passion, with vigor, with enthusiasm often and without guilt?

Your purposeful, purpose-driven life is right under you nose.

I'll use me as an example. I love photographing abandoned buildings, in fact I live for these outings. Hands down it's the one thing I could do every day. Urban exploration; that's my thing. So where's the purpose in that you ask? Over the years, through my camera lens, I have been able to share some of the most decrepit, rundown, sadsack buildings (most with horrific histories of abuse) with my followers, and in so doing, I have been able to uncover and reveal the intrinsic beauty among the ruins. 

I'll give you another example. I am a creative midwife. I help people give birth to their creative ideas. It just so happens I am uniquely qualified to carry out this work because I have given birth to countless creative ideas of my own. I know what keeps us stuck, and I know how to unstick you. Combined with my writing and communication skills, I get to live a purpose-driven life: spreading the word among followers to stop making excuses and reach for the creative stars we all came from.

So how do you derive satisfaction? How do you express your creativity? What gifts and talents can you offer the world? In other words, what inspires you? What excites you when you wake up in the morning? Go do that!

Can we make a deal? Can we stop mythologizing the notion of purpose, can we stop pretending we don't already know how to forge passion into intention? Can we just do what we love, share it with gusto and unabashed enthusiasm with the world? Step up, step into your purpose, step into your power.

I'll end with this quote from Rumi: "Let yourself be drawn by the strange pull of what you love. It will not lead you astray." 

Namaste.

If not now, when?

Photo by Dayne Topkin on Unsplash 

"The trouble is, you think you have time." ~Jack Kornfield

I read somewhere that Leonardo da Vinci painted his Mona Lisa on and off from 1503 to 1519,  leading some art pundits to posit that procrastination can be good for creative people since it allows the ideas to percolate in their minds before they are expressed elsewhere. This is not the kind of procrastination I'm writing about today. I'm all for laying down tracks, walking away, coming back tomorrow, and even many tomorrows after that. In fact, that's how my weekly columns here begin. I finish one and almost immediately begin prepping for next week's, knowing that edits and revisions along the way will make the piece stronger. There's a certain alchemy to this creative process; a vague idea gets fleshed out over time (yes, even over years), and may even morph into a completely different topic or project. 

It's the procrastination laden with excuses, weighed down by perfectionism, that is deadly to the creative soul and process. It's the people who never begin, the ones who lament they don't have the time, talent, finances and/or resources, who suffer the most.  I'll even go so far as to venture that we all suffer when these individuals fail to step into their creative skins. Why? Our creative spirits need to be fed, nurtured, loved, maintained, and like any hunger, left unsatisfied, all sorts of emotional maladies (and perhaps physical ones as well) surface: anger, depression, frustration, complacency--the list goes on. 

Who are these blocked creative individuals? They are you, and me. Each one of us is gifted in some way (often in multiple ways), but some people never open their package. Please step into your bright, wonderful creative self. Here are a few gentle reminders.

If not now, when?

Stop making excuses.

Life won't wait. 

Do it now. 

Just start.

Do the work.

Why not try?

Go for it.

It began as a mistake.

Wisdom begins in wonder.

You said, "tomorrow," yesterday. 

Linger Longer

 "If you're always racing to the next moment, what happens to the one you're in?" ~Nanette Matthews

My third book, a photo book, was published in 2015. 

Linger Longer: Lessons from a Contemplative Life is a compilation of photographs and inspirational quotes I amassed during a solo cross country trip in 2014. For the first time in my life, I was left to my own devices, free to wander, unescorted, unimpeded by anyone else's schedule, expectations or agenda. It was bliss. When my publisher and I discussed naming the book, the thought, linger longer, fell off my tongue in a moment of divine inspiration. Those two words summed up my experience perfectly. Of course, there are other ways of expressing the same thought; Stop and smell the roses. Slow down you're moving too fast. Live, breathe, learn. Enjoy the scenery. Life is a journey, not a destination. You get the picture. 

The experience of lingering longer has practical as well as artistic benefits. Just this week, I received an answer to a perplexing problem while examining the petals on a rose bush. Then yesterday, on the Reiki table, I got a great idea for my hosting business. It matters not where that still small voice comes from or who it belongs to. All I know is that whether you are a regular meditator, a solo voyager, or you have a practice that welcomes quiet contemplation into your life, slowing down, tuning in, and listening to your higher self, your muse, the universe, spirit, God—whatever you choose to call it—will  provide fertile ground for ideas and answers to make their way into your consciousness. 

Don’t deny yourself this gift.

Gifted

 "Everyone is gifted, but some people never open their package." ~Wolfgang Riebe

In October 2020, with Covid's uncertainty touching us all, I shuttered my private massage therapy practice in seaside Charlestown, Rhode Island, and I moved all my wellness offerings online. I applied for and received a large grant from my state of to pivot. At that time, I created a private Facebook group for women called The Footloose Muse and here I invited women to get excited about living wildly creative lives. Through daily inspirational quotes, online workshops, a monthly book club, retreats, weekly meditations and blog posts, we grew into a bright and beautiful creative community. 

Fast forward not quite two years later, the group has grown as have my offerings. With the exception of paid six and twelve-week online courses, I have joyfully donated my time and my talent. Guided by the late Wayne Dyer’s quote, Don’t die with the music still in you, I have endeavored to inspire women to embrace their creative birthrights. My own limitations have prevented me from reaching out to more men and I wish to correct that failure on my part by extending a warm welcome to all the men who need the same gentle nudge women do.

So ladies here’s your reminder, and gentlemen here are my ABC’s of creative freedom: 

Don’t die with the music still in you. 

Do what you love and make adjustments in flight. 

Everyone is gifted, but some people never open their package.

As a gifted writer, teacher and photographer, I will dazzle, challenge and encourage you. I will not, however. cosign your bullshit when you tell me you don’t have the time, the talent, or the financial resources to follow your creative path. Your health and well being— emotional, spiritual, physical— depend on me convincing you that creativity is your birthright.

Let’s go!

It's Fun Friday...

and your muse is dying to spend time with you!

Pick any relationship—the one you have with your partner, the one you have with a family member, friend, or work acquaintance—and you’ll agree that they all have one thing in common: they require the three Cs: communication, commitment and cooperation. The relationship you have with your muse is no different. You cannot relinquish it to a corner of your mind, and expect your creative life to magically evolve. So this week, today, this Friday, devote some time, some solo time just hanging out, playing, having fun with the child within. Author and creativity maven, Julia Cameron, calls it an artist date. Don’t make this difficult; don’t overthink it. Visit a bookstore, a gallery, a winery, any place your senses can be heightened. Your ego will throw up all sorts of reasons why you should blow off this activity. Do it anyway; then come back here, leave a comment and tell us about your artist date.