The Blank Page

Image by Jorge Stolfi (http://www.link.cs.cmu.edu/splay/)

  

Words aren't coming this morning. I'm in Portland, Oregon, visiting my children. The house is set on a hill inside a rain forest. The autumn foliage drips color as if Jack Frost breezed through and the color scheme this year is earth tones - beige and moss green, splashes of russets and mushroom umbra, yellow. I've been up for hours and got to spend time with both night and day. There's a chill in the air and it has seeped into the room where I sit. Thanksgiving has come and gone. I'll be on my way home tomorrow. Taking advantage of the quiet and my new surroundings, I sit down to write. The words are slow to emerge.

Obviously there are a few; I just typed them. But where is my usual jumpstart phrase? Why is the voice in my head silent and shy?

I think I am not yet used to my surroundings. Having traveled a fair bit, I know there are those first few days spent adjusting to the terrain. I hear voices muffled in discussion in the adjacent room. If I am to have writing time, it is limited. I reach again for the words knowing they are there but not finding them.

This is a scenario I've lived before and one I will live again. I've started paying attention to When and Where it happens in order to get to the Why. It is from that familiar place I plucked the first words on this page. There is nothing strange or mystical about it. I must be patient and allow the creativity to flow. It's not Creativity's nature to be forced or contrived.

At home, I write in two places, my couch and a cushy chair in my art studio. Both work for me. I'm surrounded by familiar things that bring comfort and inspiration. Usually I can count on them for the charge that gets me going. When they don't do the trick, I get in my car and drive to a favorite coffee haunt, order my decaf and see if a local conversation or friendly face triggers a thought.

The last resort when the drought appears is to give up the ghost and upset my routine, dispelling any need for writing at that moment. Some days it is hard to give in to this. Other times I welcome the relief and the day opens up with unexpected time to do something new or unplanned. I am practiced at this and I can count on the words coming forward at some point. I'm a decent writer but my old friends - letters, words and sentences - sometimes give my brain a rest, inactivity it obviously needs.

I had planned to come up with some sort of poignant seasonal sharing about gratitude and family and taking stock of what is and isn't in our busy and ever-changing lives. It felt trite and so the words didn't materialize. Instead, what is leaping onto the page is this idea of not having words readily available and the notion that with helpful tools, they will and do return.

I'm using writing as my metaphor to illustrate a process that happens in all forms of creating: business, playing sports, homemaking, art, cooking. It is especially prevalent in lifestyle design and although there are more variables and possibilities in Life than in writing, the metaphor is just as apparent. As a writer, I can come to the page one morning and what usually comes easily is suddenly blank, or worse - it is dull and uninteresting. The same thing happens in our daily lives. We can be rolling along with gusto and BAM! one morning there is nothing that excites us. Life looks bleak and quickly works its way into overwhelm. Just as the writer who in the second hour of staring at a blank page doubts he has anything worthwhile to say, we begin to question our career choices, our love relationships, the paths we've chosen since birth. We forget the flashes of brilliance in the article written last month for that travel magazine, the business deal we closed for the company last week, the joy we felt seeing our loved ones after spending a long week on the road! The phenonmenon of not being able to create hits us hard. If we work for someone else, we feel pressured by this. If we work for ourselves we beat ourselves up for not being able to produce as cleverly or as easily as others. These feelings can spill over into our personal lives and it is easy to lay blame, point fingers, find fault.

There is more than hope at these times. Those of us who have experienced it repeatedly, who have faced a blank page in life for weeks on end and have persisted through the help of the simplest of tools, know this. We also know that the tools cost nothing except faith in the process, the courage to give it a try and the energy to keep it going. The tools have names:  Music, Exercise, Time With Friends, Good Food, Reading, Walking The Dog ... or maybe, Taking A Trip, Being Of Service To Someone, Buying A New Dress or Journaling. The list is customized and one of the most fun parts is that we get to choose whatever tool works best for us at the moment.

The point is Change. Change your routine. Your blank mind/disinterest in life is whispering this to you. It is saying "Do something new!" and it lets you decide what that might be. If you are one who has a hard time because of guilt or an overly scrupulous conscience or perfectionist tendencies, you will need this exercise most and will, most likely, respond to its results more passionately than others.

Creativity - whether it is in writing or business or inside your life - is a living thing and in that sense, must be nurtured, loved and allowed a variety of expressions. Any kind of blockage is a serious sign that a change of pace is needed. The result can happen quickly and you can be back to work/life in no time. But you have to give the change a chance to work its magic. I warn you, it's fun and once you give it a go, you will come to crave the opportunities the blank page offers you! Some times take longer than others. This requires more faith and more patience. It works unfailingly if you allow it. Sometimes you need someone/something else to give you a nudge. Think about what might work for you, let it in, and enjoy the ride.

I have literally awakened in the wee hours of the morning with words swirling in my brain. Phrases that sing like the sweetest song; nouns waiting to be painted with adjectives and led somewhere magical by verbs of every imagined action. Most of the time it has happened after a long hiatus from the blank page. The sooner I begin my quest for tools to awaken my creative mind, the faster I am back to the page, filling it with thoughts as fast as my fingers can fly across the keys!

See? The words are here after all. I had to look around me and let my beautiful surroundings join in the fun. Suddenly there are too many words that will require editing when I'm finished letting them all flow onto this page ... into my life and yours!

Kittie invites you to share experiences in life when you felt blocked - at work, at home, anywhere it might have happened. We learn best from each other! Be sure to check Kittie's website and  http://tiny.cc/blurb821  to review Kittie's latest books ...

Plunge In and Quit

James Marcus Bach has written a book called "Secrets of a Buccaneer Scholar". His book is about how to learn. Well, it's about a lot more than that but the goal is to kill the evil dragon that breathes the message "THERE IS ONLY ONE WAY TO LEARN!" James is an engaging writer and leads his readers through a labyrinth of related topics. We walk, get ambushed, waylaid and suddenly find ourselves back on the path - walking taller, more confident, ready to greet the next learning adventure!

It is his notion of "Plunge In and Quit!" I'd like to open for discussion. 

By James' definition, "Plunge In and Quit is a way of approaching any difficult task when you don't know exactly how to do it or even if you can do it." In my world, friends have heard me say, "I just dive in and learn along the way." Even when I knew I was drowning, the times I refused to quit were due to one of two things: Either I wanted things to happen my way ONLY or I was listening to the advice of well meaning others and not to my intuition.

James lists three elements in his theory: 

NO PROMISES
Do not have expectations and do not be attached to the results. 

TACKLE THE HARDEST PART, NOW!
Dive in and do it. Learn along the way. Because you've not set an unreasonable standard for yourself, you can do this without drowning. 

IF IT DOESN'T FEEL RIGHT, STOP.
Listen to your intuition. Many people are uncomfortable trusting this practice. There's no hocus-pocus here. You know if it's working or not! Stopping doesn't mean it won't work. It means you are taking a break to see if it's worth it to continue. Need to reframe your plan, rework your idea? Time to start over, go back to the drawing board? 

Picture yourself inside a specific challenge. Big or little, stop and picture it right now. 

For example, I'm seeing myself, standing in front of a giant wall of letters that spells

                                     M A R K E T I N G 

and even though I need to be informed, for some reason it seems the more I read, the more intimidated I am, the BIGGER THE WALL BECOMES! I feel small and insignificant  and I hear myself telling me "it's useless. The internet is so vast and I'm not well known and no one wants to read my writing or hear my tunes. I'm just a nothing ...." WHOA.  STOP RIGHT THERE. See where this is leading? Self-deprecation and cowardice. Scaredy Cat!

Instead, I take 10 deep breaths to clear my head and I see it for what it is. A game. Marketing is just a game. It's playful and fun and I have lost my sense of humor in all of this. Marketing is communication. It's letting people know about my products and services . It's sharing and community oriented. I was VERY good at that according to my kindergarten report card! Marketing is my swimming pool right now. I'm learning a lot of new strokes by gathering information and trying things out. It's not hard at all and I'm already getting positive results! I plunge in, gather information through reading and talking with people who have been successful in this area. Then I plunge in again, start talking about my work/projects in present tense, trying different things, asking for help when I have exhausted my knowledge/expertise and when I get really frustrated or seem to hit brick walls everywhere I turn, I look at quitting as a viable option.

Each of us has walls to climb. Some walls are bigger than others. The current economic times are bringing forward new challenges in every arena. Some of the tried and true ways aren't working any longer and we are forced to find creative ways to make a living, to view and adjust our lifestyle, rearrange, replace, rework ... so we don't fall through the cracks. Plunging In and Quitting is a great way to explore new territory, discover new things about ourselves and best of all, to grow and learn.

I watched Ken Burns' series on our National Parks last weekend. Margaret Gehrke, wife of Edward Gehrke, was a writer and kept a fastidious journal during the years she and Edward worked to preserve the American land they so loved. She muses in one of her journal entries after describing the perseverance and diligent efforts people make in their lifetime .... "What else is there but to dream and do?"

That about sums it up for me. 

"A dream is a wish you make on a star. It makes its way from your mind to your heart. Your body will help by acting it out, bend and stretching ideas about. That is the moment the magic begins ...."  (pages 2-9, What Color is Your Dream?) 

Kittie invites you to comment below (click on comment and a window appears!) and to become a follower of this blog on the right hand side of the page. Be sure to add your URL and share with others your online presence! In the spirit of marketing, please forward to friends or colleagues you think might be interested in What Color is Your Dream?



 

 

Finding Your Way ... Creatively

Havasupai Indian Reservation

Last week, I posed the question: Where does a dream begin? to artists (painters, sculptors, photographers, directors, dancers, writers, musicians) and business executives, teachers and students, parents, doctors, people in marketing, accounting, manufacturing and construction. The response was not only brilliant but overwhelmingly similar! Each person expressed either his own process or what she thought might help a person begin.

It is no small task to share the wisdom that came forward! With permission, I am reproducing postings from 2 people who are professionals in creative fields and have practiced imaginations. Each of them shared personal experience with dreaming I think is valuable - practical, playful and profound. Also with permission, I am publishing observations from other professionals from a variety of vocations in the comments section of this blog posting. It is my hope that YOU will add to these with a comment of your own, sharing from your own experience what works for you so other readers and learn and can be inspired!

The first posting is authored by a musician/composer/film director, Ben M:

"Dreaming is everything to me. I, like many others actually look forward to sleep just so I can dream. On your blog, I read about information overload and I couldn't agree more. We are over-stimulated and the effects can and are negative if we don't learn to find the stillness in the midst of chaos. One of these conditions is known as "paralysis by analysis". Over thinking is a disease and I am an over thinker.

In my field of work I am often required to conjure up ideas out of thin air and manifest them into reality, be it an idea for a music video or how to better a commercial script or treatment, or when thinking about and writing my own movie script ideas. I have to use my imagination gland all the time and sometimes it can get overly taxed ... and just shut down. Imagination cannot be forced and ideas have to be allowed to come when they come. It is up to us to create the right atmosphere that allows the fickle ghosts of imagination to wander in and bless us with their jewels. From my experience, the imagination bunnies like a quiet place to wander into, with maybe a warm breeze to boot.

I usually find that if I think about something long enough and deeply enough, I can most of the time find my answer. Not always, but most of the time ... this may take minutes, hours or days; there are no guarantees.

After I watch all the movies, read all the books/magazines, listen to all the songs and completely overload my senses, I find that enough is enough ... and too much of a good thing will harm you in the end. I constantly have a need to regulate my stimulus intake and lately have found that looking inward for inspiration is often more fruitful than my local bookstore!

In my teens, I discovered that nature was the only thing that quieted my mind, body and soul. Frequent trips into nature were a must, be it forest, desert, ocean or the mountains. I am particularly in love with the desert and much like Georgie O'Keefe, I find it has an instant way of transforming me and causes me to contemplate my meaning of existence within hours of staring at a sublime rock formation. Camping in New Mexico for a week can charge my battery for almost a year.

As I got older, I discovered meditation - TM - as an extremely helpful tool for quieting my overactive mind, as a way to tap into my subconscious anytime, day or night, as long as I committed my 20 minutes of sitting. I admit that I have discipline issues and that I have not stuck to my twice daily necessary meditation ritual as much as I need it. However, I do recognize and have experienced the tremendous benefits of doing so. I am a huge believer in visualization and I use it daily whether I realize it or not. There is absolute truth in the saying that if you can visualize something, you can achieve it. Olympic athletes do exercises where they picture themselves making that score, crossing the finish line, etc., and this absoltuely helps on so many levels. Dreams are a dialogue with your subconscious that can and often do manifest into the real world. I am sure many people do this, but when I go to sleep I think of whatever it is I am wanting to solve or get further clarification on, be it creatively or personally, and most times I end up controlling what I can dream about ... at least in the beginning and usually by morning time my mind has drifted into a Salvador Dali painting of subconscious abstractness.

It has been said that "knowledge is what you learn in school and wisdom is what you remember". I could go on and on but I hope this does the trick, Kittie ... I guess sometimes all it takes is for someone to ask the question."

Ben

Ben shared the photograph that heads this blog posting. It's a place that replenishes and inspires his creativity. He frequents it and other places in nature when he can ...

The next post is from artist Lucy Boody. Lucy's mediums are textile, watercolor and pastel, photography and words. Lucy lists some of her goals and not all of them are in her professional life ...

"An excellent question and I'm up for the review. Sometimes dreams come into the world with us. For example, I always knew I would be a mother. I knew I'd make a nest (home) for them. I hoped to have my home paid in full, long before the maturity of the 30-year mortgage ... and I did. These are lofty images and they altered my life.

Okay, when your dreams are accomplished, how do you replenish the ever-important list of goals, aka 'bucket list?' There may be years of practicality and commitment involved in order to realize your dreams. Some gain importance and momentum along the way while others go by the wayside. Envisioning them is part of it. If you can imagine it, you can make it happen. If you are a "yeah, but ..." sort, the likelihood of fulfilling dreams becomes less because you are your own worst enemy. Or, if you need a pill as a quick fix to get the job done, again, you are sabotaging both the opportunity and the process. Open mindedness and greeting each day as a gold gift of opportunity is key. Surrounding yourself with positive energy, starting with yourself, is critical. People respond to energy fields, and negativity is just as infections as positivity. You choose how you think ... choose your friends wisely. 'If you want to change yourself, change your mind.'

When the primary bucket list is realized, there is sometimes a "now what?" phase.

Well, enjoy reaching a goal and reward yourself. Take a break and sit back, then when you're ready, begin the process again. Decide what captures your attention. It's as individual a process as the unique design of a snowflake. Just make it happen. Without sorrow, it is said, there is no real joy. We all have our ups and downs. Life is like that. It isn't so much the situation as much as how we deal with it that matters. 

As creatures of habit, how can we expect different results by doing the same thing over and over? Only you can shake things up and get the ball rolling. Want to meet new friends? Join a gathering where there is a common interest - a knitting group, a book club, take an art class, travel. Make yourself do it. A good quote: "Is what I am doing today going to get me where I want to be tomorrow?" So you seem directionless. Nothing seems to turn your head. Try editing the things you know don't work for you and focus on being in the present.

This musing is loaded with others' pearls of wisdom, but they make sense to me. Here is one I read today .. 'If I am suffereing, it is because I expect a different outcome than what is.' Look at yourself in the mirror and try to grasp the idea that what you are seeing is what others see. Is the outside a reflection of the inside??

A dream can be as short as the time span of a quickie day dream. It doesn't have to take all night to experience it. Test things out. See if momentum builds or wanes. Was there something that turned your crank at some point in your life? What was the process you experienced that made it fulfilling? Spend some focused time with vision. Of course, you have to have a vision. Volunteer your time so others can benefit from their dreams while you are working on yours.

I'm often skeptical of those who give so much credit to luck., 'Oh, you are so lucky to live here, or have that'. You can be sure that very little of life fell into my lap without my help. Yes, luck exists, but not when related to accomplishments. 

Some folks are natural path makers. Others prefer walking the established road. It's all good as long as you are enjoying yourself and feel a sense of comfort, joy, peace. Passion enters the picture when you are ready to pay for it. The currency used has many shapes, colors and sizes. It doesn't matter if you gather inertia like a snowball or with baby steps. Some have loftier dreams than others. They are all important. Webster's definition of 'DREAM' has a number of meanings. Choose the one that works for you and go for it.

It doesn't have to please anyone but you.

 

   Lucy Boody/Telluride, CO

THANK YOU Ben and Lucy! Thank you, too to those posted in the comments section! Be sure to check the comments section of this post for other 'pearls' and PLEASE be sure to add your own!