This is the first year I’ve designed a really good ornament.  I’m loving these sea nettles (that would be a Charlie Brown tree they’re hanging on…really:  that’s it’s name).  I credit committing to Art Every Day Month for this burst of creativity.  Just in time for the last 3 shows before Christmas:  Dec 4 Market Days at AnnMarie Garden, Dec 10 First Night at SeaScapes in North Beach and Dec 11 Prince Frederick Art Walk where I’ll be at Bead Boutique (who sells my ceramic focals and perhaps, now, my sea nettle tops for other beaders – would work for me!).  The great thing about these nettles is that they are not only an orgnament but also a lovely little year round sun catcher!  How’s that for value?!

Today I’m going to share some Patti Digh with you.  I am reading her book Creative Is a Verb.  Perfectly enough I discovered her because Leah of Creative Every Day (creator of Art Every Day Month)  had art in Patti’s first book and I bought the book for the art, not the book.  Then fell in love with the book and Patti’s thought processes.  So it fits.  And Patti has a way of putting things I know into simple terms that I can keep in front of me so I don’t forget.  (Was it Annie Dillard that said “we are always waking up and going back to sleep”?).  Plus this little bit I’m sharing reminds me of my mentor when I was learning community-based organizing.  He always told me that life isn’t black and white, it’s shades of gray.  That I should use both/and, not either/or.  One of my really big life lessons.  And she includes “story.”  My passion.  Well, one of my passions.

So I hope you enjoy this excerpt!

(from Creative is a Verb by Patti Digh)(also serving as today’s Wylde Women’s Wisdom)

….People will laugh.  They will tell me their children could do better.  They won’t buy it…

Each of these is a story we are busy telling ourselves about ourselves.  They are all stories of comparison, perfectionism, or lack.  Not good enough, must make better, don’t have what I need (time, money, space, materials, ideas).

Which ones are your story?

Do you want that vast, fabulous canvas called your life to be a story of comparison, perfectionism, or lack?  You could, but that would keep you out of happy, fulfilled, creative fun.  Instead do you want your life to be a rambunctious story of uniqueness, imperfect beauty, and abundance?

Underneath all these deflections is a belief that our lives are divided into two parts:

The Real Part, and

The Creative Part

Maybe those shouldn’t be separated in the way we’ve been taught.

Maybe the Real Part is the Creative Part.  and maybe, just maybe, the Creative Part is the Real Part.

Maybe there’s no real separation between them.

Maybe we shouldn’t have to lumber through algebra to get to art class.  Maybe algebra class should be more artful.

Imagine that [my note:  indeed!  Please DO imagine that and how our schools, still striving for industrial work lines, might look if we not only imagined that but put it into practice!]

…What if what keeps us out of that deep, rich, redolent source of longing for creative spirit is our either/or way of seeing the world?

…What if life is both/and, instead?

…I can write poetry on the backs of insurance claims, on Post-it notes at my desk in my cubicle.  I can post a new quote on my computer screen every morning to buoy me. ‘Write it.  Write.  In ordinary ink on ordinary paper,’ begins a haunting poem, “Hunger Camp at Jaslo” by Wislawa Szymborska.  What if we just write in ordinary ink on ordinary paper on each ordinary day?

What’s the alternative, really, if you don’t want to die with your song inside you?