Creative Habit Rule #1 - Why Socializing and Finding Your Creative Voice Do Not Fit Together

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I  have noticed that there is always something that needs to be done. Important things. Not so important things.  For others or for yourself.  Your home needs to be cleaned.  Your budget needs to be handled.  Working.  Caring for family. Friendships.  Where will you find time for your creative habit?

One place to look for time is in the down time.  Look at what you are doing in the down moments.  The ten minutes here, 15 minutes over there.  Waiting in a doctor's office or sitting in your break room at work.  What are you doing?  Chatting about the latest gossip?  Checking your phone for texts?  Checking facebook?  

These are the times EVEN IF YOU DON'T FEEL LIKE IT, that you take out your sketch pad, jot down new ideas for a story, take out your watercolor pencils and just do a little.  Just a little.  The little bits and spaces not only fuel your soul but they really do add up.  

I actually started doing this a month ago.  I carry my watercolor pencils with me and during my down time in between calls (I work in a call center)  I bring a little bit of joy into my cubicle.  By the end of the month I had completed over 15 pieces (like the one you see above.)

You Know that Thing you have be striving for? How is it going?

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"joy means the perfect fulfillment of that which I was created... 

not the successful doing of a thing" 

-Oswald Chambers

Initially I think we all buy into the idea that we can become whatever it is we want to be.  We set our sight on something that feels important or equates to what success looks like.  We strive and pursue this goal with all our energy and we make it to the finish line.  We acquire the degree.  We buy in a little more and attain that second degree.  Then we move on to certifications.  Now that those are stockpiled, where is the golden ticket of joy?

These accomplishments many times are just little illusions spinning in the wind that, unless we are able to really bring them together in light of what we are created to be, start to feel downright oppressive.  NOW what are you going to do? You spent all that money on your future, drowning in student loans and you decided you are best fit for running a catering business? You want to work with the homeless? That is not very lucrative you know.  What will your family think? Your friends?  Can you really get past the guilt of all the investment you put into that 'other thing?'

Joy.  Where does it come from?  It seems to me that it comes from a place of contentment.  Even if the title or the label do not align with the degrees and the certifications, you have to decide what you can do to bring yourself into alignment with what you are created to do. And that takes courage. It take determination. And it takes acceptance that the 'thing' you were going for really is NOT the thing

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If Joy is the Essence of Life Why is it so Hard to Define?

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Joy is the word that has been showing up in little ways in my life since this year began.  What is joy?  Why is it necessary?  Joy seems to me to be the essence of life.  The outcome of things you are hoping for but have not accomplished yet. The way you manage your anxiety and your impatience until you fully accomplish what you are working toward.  

Joy.  The whispering of the word brings a smile to my heart.  I want more joy.  I want the byproducts of joy: peace, contentment, a settling in. 

I will be exploring this word all year and I hope you will join me.  I would love to hear from you about your thoughts on joy.  How do you define joy?  What brings you joy?  What is the value of joy?  These are some of the questions I want to explore - won't you join me?

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How To Know When it is Time to Take a Different Road

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I have tackled quite a few things over the last 4 years in an effort to find my creative voice.  Over the last two years these changes have caused me to take a look at some of closest friendships and tell the truth about them... and let them go.  It has been a lonely and sobering year and a half.  When you choose to change, that choice can't help but affect the relationships you maintain.  These changes give them an opportunity to deepen... or not.

2013 feels like a year of taking what I know to be true about my identity as a woman and as a Jesus follower and be at peace with them.  To love who I am more deeply.  To stop apologizing for it.  I believe the work and the art I create this year will hold that deepening.  And I will look on it and say, "Oh! that's why the change was needed."

You Know that Moment When you have to Decide to Keep Going (or Not)

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Are you into Failing?

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Who's Your Hero?

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