Gentle Inspiration

I am a really, really creative person - as far back as I can remember I have always crafted something from nothing or other bits of something. Creativity has also been the driving force behind my spirituality - particularly in leadership and program development, and creating authentic ways for people to connect to the holy. Finding ways for my spiritual self to live in the what has become the rush of my creative endeavours has been challenging. Finding ways for my creativity to thrive while learning about small business management, spreadsheets, toy safety, trademark and patents, importing/exporting laws, ETC!, has been even more so.

The past months have been so successful - not monetarily! I'm no closer to retiring than I was when I started the organic soft toy collection, but one day, one day! - and everything has happened so quickly that when December came I knew that I would need a break. I took two weeks off from the sewing machine over Christmas and decided that this January would be time for me to regroup spiritually and creatively, to make some plans and space for balance, joy and the sacred. We have a set of steep stairs in our new house and when Ruby navigates them I remind her "slow and steady, slow and steady". I know that I'm reminding myself too - it's so easy to get sucked into the rushing, capitalistic merry-go-round of being an entrepeneur, and that's not exactly where I want to be. And it's not the playground I want Dress Me Up to exist in. By the end of my holiday events and last-minute Christmas orders, I felt weary and terribly uncreative and needing inspiration.



So, I asked for the book "The Creative Family" by Amanda Soule. I didn't get it, and that's okay - I bought it for myself on a delightful late night bookstore trip without husband or child. Sometimes, a lot of the time, I have to do these things for myself, by myself and that is part of recharging too. I have been reading a few pages of the book every night, and every night I have something exciting to tell Nathaniel even when he's got the pillow over his eyes to keep out the light. There are so many simple things from Amanda's writing that are sparking new energy in me, and she shares invitations into simple, family creativity that I can't wait to bring into my own family's life. She also offers many things that are a gentle reminder of a creative truths that I already know, and that's an affirmation of the creative life I have lead and am leading as mother and artist.

Warm thanks, Amanda Soule.