Opportunity for Creativity...even in Darkness?

I've talked about and have sung the praises of writer Patti Digh and a few of her books in past blog posts. My favorite of hers so far is Life is a Verb - it changed my way of living and looking at how we spend our days, our moments.  She's also written Creative is a Verb and I picked that up again two nights ago because I finished a novel and NEEDED to read something before bed.

I started rereading but I paid special attention to lines and phrases I had highlighted in the past.  This one really stuck out this time:  "Every single moment of your life is an opportunity for creativity. Even the darkest moments. Perhaps especially them." (p. 14).  Pretty profound as many people think only certain people are creative and I guess I typically think of making a physical piece (painting, book, floral arrangement, etc.) as expressing our creativity.  But these words make me think it's way more than that.  I've had some dark moments mainly due to health concerns and now I just got some test results that aren't so great. Friday I find out what the next step could be as I see the doctor to discuss the results.

Hmmmm...I'm wondering that along with my word of the year "faith" and this quote about dark moments being opportunities for creativity, can I handle this?  Can I handle possibly bad and scary news in a different way?  A different way than I'm used to - catastrophizing and thinking of every worst possible scenario and playing them over and over in my head.  I'm not sure how this can be an opportunity for me to use my creativity but I'm hopeful that I'll find a way.  I hope I can infuse this obstacle, this fear with faith and creativity.

I truly don't know what that will look like, but I plan to keep it in my mind in the upcoming days.  I'm wondering if anyone else actually sees creativity as a "tool" so-to-speak to help with potentially really dark and scary times in their lives.  If anyone has any ideas or examples I'd love to hear them.  I know reaching out is a start because connections between others truly helps when healing is involved.

Project 137 with Patti Digh

Before I took the leap from teaching middle school full-time to pursuing my art whole-heartedly and working part-time I discovered Patti Digh and her book Life is a Verb.  This was almost three years ago and at the time I decided this was my new favorite book.  I pretty much tell any 

reader I know about it.

It's hard to have just one of course, but this one really affected me.  I honestly can say it changed my life, or at least my outlook and how I now TRY to live my life.  This book (she's written others since then that I have) is full of essays written from her heart and her life's experience.  It's hard to "sum" them up here, but I found them inspiring, heart-warming, gratitude-infusing, eye-opening, humorous, at times sad, but truly life-changing.  She also fills her books with readers' artwork.  Love that so much.  I've talked about Patti Digh before in my blog, and now she's at it again.  She has launched something called Project 137 and I knew I had to be a part of it.  She is calling all of us, including herself to "love well, live fully, and let go deeply" and to "make a difference in these precious 137 days."  I'm there.  She has inspired me and so many people so far, now I get to put some of this into action through her daily prompts.

One thing that really stuck with me today and inspired me to have a great day no matter what was her saying that "living fully is embracing the laundry and the carpool as deeply beautiful."  Wow.  Profound.  She is teaching us to accept what is and to even embrace it, to celebrate it and I thank her for that.  I've always been the type of person to want to change "what is" and if I couldn't I'd wish it away until I couldn't see straight--which never works, does it?

I'm wondering if you try to "live fully" what that means to you?  Today for me, on my drive home from meeting my husband at his work for lunch with our daughter, I saw these amazing windmills (wind-power generators), and I pulled over to the side of the country road and just stood to look at them.  They were huge, powerful, yet so simple and beautiful slowly spinning in the warm summer sky.  I had to stop and just drink them in.  See, on the way there I kept tell my daughter how amazing they were and that I wanted to pull over, like I do many times when I see something breathtaking, so finally after lunch on the way home, I realized I had to-I have to stop "driving by" things that interest me, literally and figuratively speaking.

What Gives you Joy?

Patti Digh of Life is a Verb says that, "...it is about doing small things that give you life, bring you joy, help you inhabit the stories of your days--and by extension, help change the world and the others around you...To fully live, you must be present in the biggest way possible."  That's a lot to ponder for sure.  I really do agree that small things really can bring joy if you stop to notice them and breathe them in.  These little things are the ones that make up our real lives, the ones that can make your heart swell.  The giggle from your baby, a vase of fat white lilacs in May, hearing your daughter read aloud to you at bedtime.  What are the small things that truly bring you joy?  That stop you in your tracks and make you feel so damn lucky sometimes?