(This post is from May 2023)

My family is 7 days away from a cross-country move from Atlanta, Georgia, to the Oregon Coast. We are wrapping up school, finishing my teaching year (both homeschooling my own kids and teaching Spanish at our hybrid school), packing, seeing friends, wrapping up my current Artist’s Way group … ok, I’ll stop there. You get the idea.

In the midst of all the things, I’d like to tell you that my creative practices are keeping me sane. But that wouldn’t be the whole truth.

My creative sisterhood knows that I’m struggling to keep up with my morning pages. My husband can tell that I’ve been dropping my centering prayer routine. And my kids keep asking if I’ve worked on my next children’s book. My practices are currently rather non-existent.

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And yet, my creative practices are keeping me sane.

“Wait! What?” you say. “The practices you aren’t currently practicing are keeping you sane?”

“Yes!,” I reply.

“How?” you ask.

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Because I have a stockpile of sanity that seems to be on reserve whenever I need to step back from my practices for a season. It is my anchor in seasons when I can’t find the time I usually have.

This sanity stockpile takes the shape of comfort within the discomfort and an ability to use my “big girl voice” when I need help.

Like a call this week to a dear friend (you know who you are) just to say that I was afraid that this move was a huge mistake and could she simply hold space for my fear.

You see, your creative spiritual work is about so much more than art, my friend!

It’s about tapping into a well that exists deep inside you. A reserve of tenacity, grit, patience and persistence.

We move in 7 days.

I cannot wait for my early morning writing sessions to start up again, coffee in-hand, watching the sunrise come up with a Pacific burst rather than a Southern drawl.

I cannot wait to send you all a picture of the Pacific sea spray!

Now to ask you: How do you keep your sanity stockpiled in seasons that feel particularly stressful?

I’d love to know!

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This Month’s Creative Spiritual Exercise: “Bloom”

This month, my Artist’s Way Alumni Group got a little flowery. We used items from nature to create art and wrote some haiku’s to go along with our blooms. If you want to try this exercise at home or with a group of friends, the steps are outlined below.

What you’ll need:

A blank, white sheet of paper

Any outdoor finds: flowers, pine cones, rocks, feathers, dirt, leaves

A journal and pen

To start, take a read through the following quotes from The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. These will be the jumping off point for this exercise.​
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“Creativity is the natural order of life. Life is energy: pure, creative energy. There is an underlying, in-dwelling creative force infusing all of life — including ourselves.”

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“Creativity is the natural order of life. Life is energy: pure, creative energy. There is an underlying, in-dwelling creative force infusing all of life — including ourselves.”​
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“We address the fact that creativity requires receptivity and profound trust — capacities we have developed through our work in this course.”

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“Each of us has an inner dream that we can unfold if we will just have the courage to admit what it is. And the faith to trust our admission.”

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“A great affirmation is: ‘I know the things I know.'”

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“Mystery is at the heart of creativity. That, and surprise.”​
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“We are an ambitious society, and it is often difficult for us to cultivate forms of creativity that do not directly serve us and our career goals. Recovery urges our reexamining definitions of creativity and expanding them to include what in the past we called hobbies. The experience of creative living argues that hobbies are in fact essential to the joyful life.”

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Write down 3 good things that are present in your life right now?

Next, write down one emotion associated with each of those good things. ​
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Use your blank sheet of paper and your nature findings to capture these feelings. Don’t force it. Put on some music and just arrange your nature finds and see what comes. Don’t glue anything down. Arrange and Rearrange. If you need a set amount of time to know when to stop, set a 10-minute timer. Snap a picture at the end.

If you’d like, take a look at your nature and and write a haiku to go along with it.

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Haiku: A Japanese poem of seventeen syllables, in three lines of five, seven, and five, traditionally evoking images of the natural world.

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Here are some haikus that I love!
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“A World of Dew” by Kobayashi Issa

A world of dew,

And within every dewdrop

A world of struggle.

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“Lighting One Candle” by Yosa Buson

The light of a candle

Is transferred to another candle—

Spring twilight

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“A Poppy Blooms” by Katsushika Hokusai

I write, erase, rewrite

Erase again, and then

A poppy blooms.

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Now take a look at what you’ve made and do a little writing around it. You can free write. Write a poem or a haiku

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Here are some of the beautiful creations the artists in the Alumni Group came up with …

I hope this inspires you to try something new to stockpile your sanity through regular spiritual, creative practices.

Goodbye from Atlanta (for now)!