Wrapping Up

Musing...

 "All our projects are like fabulous expeditions."  Christo

 

Charise's Turn:

This is the 250th post of the blog that began January 30, 2010. Mindful of all the material that exists in the archive, I'm amazed. The amazement is twofold: first, for the discipline of writing this way for twelve years; second, for the vast amount of things to say about meeting your muse. There's really no end to the things to say. As soon as you take the perspective that creativity is happening all the time, both at the center and at the edges of your life, you can document this.

Kate and I have continued to do exactly that––document how creativity shows up in our humble lives. For a while now, we've also been distilling and expanding upon these inspirations to write a book. Our next, final, blog post will occur when we can announce the book's publication. We are wrapping up one endeavor to launch another.

 

As we round the corner from 2022 to 2023, take good care of yourselves, look for sparks of creativity, find light-hearted moments, and turn to any of the posts in our twelve year archive for inspiration. While they are dated in time, none of them are dated in terms of relevance. 

Get Fired Up:

Thank you for being our fellow musers here! Carry on, keep kindling your creativity. 

Join us in 2023 for our book launch. 🌟

www.charisehoge.com

Mystery Abides

Musing…  

“Creativity lives inside each of us, and, collectively, we create our world. It comes from the cellular level, part of our most essential survival machinery. We are creativity machines."   Matt Richtel, Inspired: Understanding Creativity

Kate’s Turn: 

I have been inspired in reading about the research this author has done on creativity. He consolidates findings on the brain science of creativity, insights from creators across many disciplines, and practical strategies that contribute to creative expression. There has been much scholarship studying creativity, trying to demystify and discover its workings. It seems like searching for the God particle, which is said to cause the Big Bang that created the universe. Scholars offer ways to access and leverage this innate power within each of us. This is the intent of this blog as well. Some of the points commonly made about traits, talents and qualities correlated with creativity are: 

1) getting more comfortable with uncertainty, instability and letting go will support creativity 

2) doubt and perfectionism undermine creativity while openness and curiosity enhance creativity 

3) creativity is essential in our evolutionary development, each creation building on previous creations, all towards human progress.

However, creativity ultimately remains a mystery. We embody this innate power and instinctively draw upon it, using the guidelines and strategies identified. Even so, at times, engaging and co-creating with this mystery, this powerful essence within, seems like coincidence, like serendipity, like magic. We are left in wonder. The outcome is greater than one can imagine. Wonder-full.

"Albert Einstein called creativity ‘intelligence having fun.’ He also said that ‘Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere. Imagination is more important than knowledge.’ It’s clear Einstein believed creativity was among the most essential of human traits.”     Matt Richtel 

Get Fired Up:

Be willing to jump into the unknown. Amid uncertainty, trust your authentic voice. Engage with the power of mystery. 

“You do not need to believe in magic. You are magic. Believe in yourself.” Author Unknown

www.kroskalifecoaching.com 

Inaction or In Action

Photo by Esteban Abalsa

Musing…

“If you do not express your own original ideas, if you do not listen to your own being, you will have betrayed yourself.”     Rollo May

Charise’s Turn:

How much to venture and how much to stay rooted at home is a current quandary. The thick of the pandemic took the venturing part out of this equation (other than humble walks and drives) and allowed for a hunkering down. For me, this lifestyle led to a collection of poems for publication––my most recent book, Muse in a Suitcase.

I have the makings of another collection, and the list of poems has been sitting on my desk for months on end. Am I waiting for another shutdown to get this off the ground? How do I pick up the renewed rhythm of life, with its social gatherings, events, and in-person work routines while also fulfilling a creative project? I’ve had a fantasy of going on a writing retreat in France but haven’t been able to realistically plan for this trip. My sensible side believes it’s possible to tackle the writing project at home. Meanwhile, home has its own demands of fresh paint here and refinishing floors there, etc. etc.

My pledge, at this moment, is to create a title page for the poetry book I have in mind––such a simple step that I hadn’t even thought of until writing this post. It will be a start as well as a place to put a manuscript into form. Voilá! I’m off to France––figuratively speaking.

“The air of ideas is the only air worth breathing.”     Edith Wharton

Get Fired Up: 

What pledge can you make at this moment that will put a creative idea into action? 

 

www.charisehoge.com

 

Begin Again

  

Musing…  

“Drink from the well of yourself and begin again.”  Charles Bukowski 

 

Kate's Turn: 

After a summer hiatus: a break from the routine, travel, outdoor adventures, easy summer living; the fall season seems to be a call back to work again. You can return to your craft when summer weather activities no longer compete for your focus. Autumn (and certainly winter) becomes a seasonal invitation to look inward. And to begin again.

I first heard this phrase when learning meditation. When the mind distracts, the practice is to begin again by returning the focus to the breath. This wise suggestion is used in many different arenas: clarifying communication, practicing a skill, designing a project, etc. The willingness to follow this suggestion depends on the commitment to what it is you are returning to. The passion found deep within will drive the energy to begin again. 

 

“Go within every day and find the inner strength so that the world will not blow your candle out.”  Katherine Dunham

 

Get Fired Up:  

Take this opportunity to reflect, regroup, and recommit to begin again. 

www.kroskalifecoaching.com

 

Listen to the Druthers of Others

 

Musing… 

“Wise men put their trust in ideas and not in circumstances.”  Ralph Waldo Emerson

Charise’s Turn: 

When you host a poetry table at an arts festival, you meet a lot of people and have many conversations. Basically, you hold court in a tent as a poet-in-residence. This year, my third at Art on Cullers Run, I tried something different. Along with poetry books for sale, and a writing activity that generates a community poem, I offered single poems to purchase for a nominal amount.

Those poems are published in journals, where they live, not part of a book of my own. Might I also add that none of these journals compensate the writer who they choose to publish? This isn’t a matter of money, however. This is about the idea of poetry as art outside of a bound book or journal––on view, perhaps framed. And it was suggested by someone who visited my table the year before. She saw a poem on display, one that had been commissioned by the organizer of the festival, and wanted a copy for herself.

I heeded the brilliant idea in this person's request. On good quality paper, with elegant layout and font, signed and also stamped with an image of an orange tassel (part of my signature), a poem makes a unique presentation. One of my poetry table visitors even bought books based on what he saw and read amongst the single poems––without perusing the books themselves. What a blessed success!

“Ideas without action are useless.”  Helen Keller 

Get Fired Up:

What suggestions are you hearing about your own work, project, creative vision?

What out-of-the-box (or out-of-the-book, in my example) ideas are you picking up on? 

 

www.charisehoge.com

 

Summer Ease

Musing… 

“Creativity without rest, and productivity without renewal, leads to an exhaustion of our inner resources.”    

Christine Valters Paintner, The Artist’s Rule

 

Kate’s Turn: 

Summer is not a time of rest in the natural world. Buds, blooms, leaves, fruit. Productivity at it’s highest, the apex of the seasonal cycle, abundance its signature. And while nature flourishes, people often view summer as a time for vacation, taking a break from routine and productivity for rest and relaxation.

 

Who doesn’t want to be in the summer season of the creative cycle all the time – productive, prolific, generating creative expression in high volume? However, constantly pushing to produce can burn you out. Waning creative energy, even being stalled or stuck, gets frustrating and is not often recognized as part of the natural cycle of creativity. These signs are actually indicators that rest and renewal are needed. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you put your art materials in storage. Taking a class, visiting new and inspiring places, experimenting with a new twist on your work – all of these give you a break from your routine and a recharge of your creative energy and resources. Your inner resources are strengthened by investing energy in your relationship with your creative nature. Allow this to be fun – let your livin’ be easy while easing up for a time on output.   

 

 “Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.”  Rachel Carson                                                                                                                                                                                                

Get Fired Up:  

How can you let the summer season be a time to restore a winter season of your creative cycle?

 

 

 www.kroskalifecoaching.com

 

 

 

Make it Up

Musing…

“I think it’s really important to always kind of stretch your boundaries and your limits and get out of your comfort zone. And for me, that’s very important.”   Joshua Bell

Charise’s Turn:

Have you, like me, lost track that it’s mid-June, that summer has moved fast upon us? I’m unprepared for this blog post. When this sort of thing happens, I typically say that life has gotten lifey. It’s totally possible to show up without a plan––without a net––as you go forward. 

There’s a beauty in stream of consciousness writing––evidence of this is the Irish writer James Joyce’s masterpiece Ulysses, coincidentally written one hundred years ago this year. You may never crack this book open but do make an appointment with yourself to let your own mind flow. I’m all for the rambling notions that want to get out and play. As narrative. As art. As conversation. As nonsense. Is ‘lifey’––the word I made up––silly, or poignant? Maybe it's both. Sometimes, a made-up word is best. Here’s one Joyce did: smilesmirk.   

“One great part of every human existence is passed in a state which cannot be rendered sensible by the use of wideawake language, cutanddry grammar and goahead plot.”  James Joyce

Get Fired Up:

Go ahead, make up a word. Let it describe what seems indescribable in your experience. Creativity will give you a handle to hold on to.

www.charisehoge.com

Inevitable Spring, Invincible Summer

Musing…  

A poem by Ada Limón

 

Instructions on Not Giving Up

 

More than the fuchsia funnels breaking out 

of the crabapple tree, more than the neighbor’s 

almost obscene display of cherry limbs shoving 

their cotton candy-colored blossoms to the slate 

sky of Spring rains, it’s the greening of the trees 

that really gets to me. When all the shock of white  

and taffy, the world’s baubles and trinkets, leave  

the pavement strewn with the confetti of aftermath, 

the leaves come. Patient, plodding, a green skin 

growing over whatever winter did to us, a return
to the strange idea of continuous living despite
the mess of us, the hurt, the empty. Fine then,
I’ll take it, the tree seems to say, a new slick leaf
unfurling like a fist to an open palm, I’ll take it all.

 

Kate’s Turn:

Spring in the Midwest has been SO slow to arrive. I saw my first magnolia blossom a week into May. No green leaves yet to be seen. Winter appears to maintain its hold. But the sun’s warmth and increasing light will have its way eventually to manifest the new spring life. Life’s challenges can sometimes linger like the winter and delay or interfere with creative expression. But patient plodding, along with your warmth alighting your garden of creative seeds planted earlier, will bring you to that inevitable spring––and then, to the blossoming and fruition of your initial inspiration. You can draw upon the invincible strength of your creative spirit to push forward in the continuous cycle of creative expression. Take it all! 

 

"I realized, through it all, that in the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger––something better, pushing right back."   

Albert Camus

 

Get Fired Up:  

How can you draw upon your inner resources to push forward and continue your creative expression?

 

www.kroskalifecoaching.com

Regardless

[Photo by Olivia Bauso]

 

Musing… 

“We are going to dance regardless, war or no war.”

 Valentina Belyaeva, member of Kyiv’s tango community

Charise’s Turn: 

April is national poetry month. I think about whether my poetry is getting enough care and maintenance. In Kate’s last post she confessed that it’s been a long time since she engaged in her watercolor art. Life has a way of getting 'lifey.' But this can become an appealing sort of excuse, especially given a neologism like that. Art is imperative. It feeds us on so many levels. Read the quote above one more time. The expression of creativity is life-affirming, and we need that affirmation, especially now. This is my pep talk to both myself and you to give your creative yearnings the utmost attention. You will feel uplifted, which will support all the requirements of daily life, even in heartbreak and hardship. 

 

Get Fired Up: 

Make way for creative expression, regardless.

 

 

www.charisehoge.com

 

Consistency

 Musing… 

“Creativity has to find you working.”  

Julia Cameron

 

Kate’s Turn:

Full disclosure: I have not dabbled in watercolors for a long time. Oh, I long to do so. I see a watercolor waiting to happen so often: puffy cotton ball clouds on a clear blue sky; or the fingernail sliver of a moon as it sets in the western sky; or a blazing sunset, the golden disc in a fiery sky, accented with winter blue clouds. I feel the tug, the pull, to capture that beauty in the play of water and color. But, alas, I have not taken the time––I have not committed the time to show up in a consistent practice. So many other things have preempted my doing so and it has left me longing. It is like having writer’s block every time I fail to pick up my painting brush. 

Consistency is about the ability to restart, again and again. My passion for this creative expression is what keeps me coming back to it. A daily devotion can stoke these embers to get fired up. I realize that the practice is not measured in productivity but rather in simply showing up to engage with the Muse. I will deepen my relationship by spending time with my creative spirit. I already experience this in my spiritual practice. My mindset in meditation is this: no place to go, nothing to do––let’s see what happens. The delight I experience when Spirit is evident in my life––that is the delight I anticipate when I spend time with my creative spirit. So, I begin again.

"Your spirit is the part of you that is essential. Worry less about what you make—that will mostly look after itself, and is to some extent beyond your control, and perhaps even none of your business—and devote yourself to nourishing this animating spirit. Bring all your enthusiasm to bear on the development of that good and essential force. This is done by a commitment to the creative act itself. Each time you tend to that ingenious spark it grows stronger, and sets afire the ordinary gifts of the imagination. The more dedication you show to the process, the better the work, and the greater your gift to the world. Apply yourself fully to the task, let go of the outcome, and your true voice will appear. You’ll see. It can be no other way."   Nick Cave, "The Red Hand Files"

 

Get Fired Up:  

How can you make time to meet with your Muse to deepen your relationship?

Pay attention to experience the magic, the fire of your creativity growing stronger. 

Consistency brings de-light!

 

www.kroskalifecoaching.com

 

 

Being Bold

  

Musing…
“Freedom lies in being bold.”  Robert Frost

 

Charise’s Turn:

With the dawn of a new year, there’s an impetus to make a resolution or set an intention. I started 2022 with a bout of breakthrough Covid, so this kind of impetus fell by the wayside. What I’ve discovered, however, is that my actions point to an intention moving through me that is new, different, and recognizable. In each and every decision, I’m being bold.

“How does the Meadow flower its bloom unfold? Because the lovely little flower is free down to its root, and in that freedom bold.”  

William Wordsworth

 

Bold is my word for 2022. I didn’t set out to bring boldness into my life; it’s been showing up organically by prioritizing the best use of my time. It’s a matter of being able to disagree without feeling like a disagreeable person. It’s a matter of putting a stopper into the draining of energy from too much doubt. And it’s a matter of understanding distinctions between self-love and selfishness. Maybe the blow to my health in January was a boon, bringing a shift in how to meet the world again after isolating. 

 

 

Get Fired Up:

What is your word for 2022? 

www.charisehoge.com

New Year, New Intention

 

Musing…                                                            

"Rest your mind upon what draws your heart."   
Rick Hanson, Ph.D

 

Kate’s Turn:                                          
Traditionally, the beginning of a New Year invites you to start anew by setting some goals you might wish to reach. Usually they involve behavioral changes, and often fade away in a month or two. If you can drill down to your underlying current of values, passions, and purpose, then you are working in the ground of your being instead of your doing. Your being, identity, and essence preclude your doing.  A life well-lived is comprised of doing what is valued by and meaningful for you; it flourishes out of your being. So, setting an intention that emerges from your deeper self has a greater chance of being realized and will feel more gratifying. Think of it as a stimulus or GPS, calling you to an expanded, fuller life.

Tending your inner garden this winter can be about both restoring your fertile ground and cultivating what it is you intend to manifest in the new year. In his Letters to a Young Woman, Rilke wrote: Tending my inner garden went splendidly this winter. Suddenly to be healed again and aware that the very ground of my being—my mind and spirit—was given time and space in which to go on growing; and there came from my heart a radiance I had not felt so strongly for a long time…

Get Fired Up:  

Listen to what draws your heart. How will you be tending your inner garden this winter?

How do you wish to grow in this next year? What do you want to manifest?  

Let your journey be organic. Follow your heart.

 

"May what I do flow from me like a river, no forcing and no holding back."   Rainer Maria Rilke

www.kroskalifecoaching.com