Today’s offering is my finished version of AEDM 8’s coloring page.  In case you can’t tell, I was playing with an Impressionist color palette.  I hardly every use pink but it seemed to fit in here so here’s to a first for me (my pink crayon has now been used).

Wholehearted

I am reading Brene Brown’s The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are.

I discovered Brene via a YouTube passing around the internet this past month (where I learn a lot of things these days – better than the news on TV!) 

Let’s just say that for me she’s definitely hitting the nail on the head in many ways.  She has coined the term “Wholehearted” as a way to speak of a life that is happy and fulfilled – and how people arrive there.

Here she is on Creativity (which, until her breakdown/breakthrough, she notes, she held in disdain).

“Let me sum up what I’ve learned about creativity from the world of wholehearted living and loving:

1.  ‘I’m not very creative’ doesn’t work.  There’s no such thing as creative people and non-creative people.  There are only people who use their creativity and people who don’t.  Unused creativity doesn’t just disappear.  it lives with us until it’s expressed, neglected to death, or suffocated by resentment and fear. [emphasis mine].

2.  The only unique contribution that we will ever make in this world will be born of our creativity.

3.  If we want to make meaning, we need to make art.  cook, write, draw, doodle, paint, scrapbook, take pictures, collage, knit, rebuild an engine, sculpt, dance, decorate, act, sing – it doesn’t matter.  As long as we’re creating, we’re cultivating meaning.

“Literally one month after I worked through the data on creativity, I signed up for a gourd-painting class.  I’m not even kidding….”

“If creativity is seen as a luxury or something we do when we have spare time, it will never be cultivated…When I make creating a priority, everything in my life works better…I think it’s so important to find and be a part of a community of like-spirited people who share your beliefs about creativity.  Take a class.  Risk feeling vulnerable and new and imperfect and take a class.”

There, in a nut shell, is my philosophy of life. 

What do you think about creativity?  How does it impact your life?

Wylde Women’s Wisdom

Brene Brown:  The Price of Invulnerability  (“joy becomes foreboding” “Disappointment as a life style:  it is much easier to live disappointment then to feel disappointment.” “Perfection has nothing to do with excellence. Perfection is a tool we use to protect ourselves.” “We live in a culture that tells us that..we are not good enough, safe enough…extraordinary enough.” “We are not aware of how many images of scarcity we collect in a day.”