What will you teach the new generation about creativity?

{"Create" Original Mixed-Media Painting}

Over at Scoutie Girl it's We Scout Wednesday and this week Tara Gentile asks,

"What will you teach the new generation about creativity?"

Ironically enough, as part of the thesis paper I'm working on, I've been exploring the idea that we are all innately creative. Every single one of us possesses an incredible creative capacity. Have you ever made a meal? Decorated a house? Made up a song? Written a sentence? Done an experiment? Spun around the dance floor to your own rhythm? Made a baby? Made someone laugh? Made something else? Congratulations, you have created! You are a creator! You have flexed your creative abilities! I believe that one of the main features of being human is our ability to create. In the past, our species has created fire, tools, methods of communication, social systems, and incredible structures to live, work and worship in, just to name a few. We come from a long legacy of creators. But over the course of life, we often become disconnected from our creative power, disconnected to this element of ourselves that is ultimately our link line to a greater power source. Our creative abilities disappear from our view under the layers of who we think we are.

I believe that our work in this life is to unearth who we really are from those layers. Each experience we encounter becomes yet another stage to perform that very act. Part of the fun of life is in the re-discovery of who we really are: bright, expressive, full, creative beings.

So, I will say to a new generation, to you, and to myself:

Do the work of unearthing the creativity that you possess and that is your birthright. Know you already have all the tools you need to find it and that doing so will make the world a better place. Make art. Make music. Practice. Dance. Move. Take in beauty. Make a meal. Make up a song. Make a positive change in your life. Make an offering to someone. Play. And don't ever give up.

What will you teach the new generation about creativity?

What will you teach the new generation about creativity?

Applesauce and Artlessness

I'm still cranking out writing/ideas/brainstorm papers for my grad study and although it's about a topic I love, I am feeling a little Artless, especially with no clear frame of time in which I'll be able to get out my paints again....Not to worry though, I'll be back at it soon enough... 

For today's post, I thought I'd share what I did this past weekend during a few quick days at my parent's home in Vermont. I was still pretty sick from last week, but I did get out for a little late season apple picking. With those apples we made homemade applesauce!

{me, bundled up to pick apples...it was pretty cold out}

{dropped apples floating in puddles left from the nor'easter the night before}

{back at home, we cut the apples up and let them soften in a pan over heat}

{once the apples were soft, we put them into the "squeezo" machine. We had to push them down into the funnel with a mallet as we turned the hand crank}

{that pushes the apple guts out through a hole}

{and leaves all the sweet, mushy goodness to fall into the bowl}

{and then you have warm, delicious applesauce. And the whole house smelled good!}

This is one of the reasons I love fall. It was also fun to do a project that had an end in sight and that I was actually able to finish! 

Now, back to work on my grad study....

Happy Tuesday!

Applesauce and Artlessness

Dear Life

Dear Life,
You have been moving along very fast lately. I can't seem to keep up with you. If you could slow down a little bit, I would really appreciate that. If you could give just a little more of the time I need to finish some of the papers for my graduate study, time to make some new art work and update my etsy shop, and time to create better planned yoga classes this week, I would be forever grateful. Also, if you wouldn't mind doing laundry for me, that would be really awesome too. Thanks so much, Life.
With Love and Graditude,
Eliza

Dear Life

Friday Five: Glimpses from my week!

I am sitting here wondering what happened to this week!

It's been one of those weeks that has felt as though I can't keep up with life. I am still a little bit under the weather, but getting better. For today's friday five, I thought I'd share five glimpses into the happenings in my life this week:

1. I have been hard at work on a part of my thesis this week. It has taken precident over my art-making for the time being as I try and make some good progress on it. I'll go back to art-making soon and then float back and forth between the two.

2. My brother has been in town! He spent the summer in Alaska, but is back for a bit and it has been a blast having him around!

3. We made delicious homemade pizza

4. We went to a back yard barb-e-que (perhaps the last of the season) dressed in warm sweaters and sat around a campfire. It was wonderful.

5. I received my "Registered Yoga Teacher 200 hours" id card in the mail! I'm official! Hurray!

I hope you had a wonderful week and have a wonderful weekend!

Friday Five: Glimpses from my week!

"Regard everyone you meet as a purposeful character in the movie you've scripted...." 
~Alan Cohen in Wisdom of the Heart

Impossible to Embrace
On Tuesday, Kristen Walker, reader and blog friend (can I call you my blog friend, Kristen?) asked for advice in embracing the people in our lives that seem impossible to embrace. It's such a good question, I decided to write about it in a post! It's one I struggle with as well. 

I too have/have had people in my life who know how to push my buttons, drive me crazy, and make me angry and upset. They are the people who set me off so quickly, that all my well intentioned beliefs of being compassionate and seeing the good in others, go right out the window before they even have a chance. 

I recently read this wonderful article in the newest Yoga Journal (November issue, I think) by Sally Kempton that had some great advice about dealing with people in our lives that we have difficulty with. The article was referring to family specifically, but I think the advice could apply to anybody we come into contact with.

Everyone is a Teacher
In the article, Sally suggests that we begin to regard everyone we meet as a teacher. The most difficult people in our lives often have the most to teach us about ourselves. She suggests looking at the people we have difficulty with and asking ourselves: "what do these people show me about myself? What do I have in common with them? What do they teach me about how to live?"

She says that the answers to these questions tell us a whole lot about ourselves and help us to not only accept and embrace the other person a little more easily, but also accept and embrace those parts of ourselves that we dislike. 

To me, that's what "embracing the whole spectrum" means. Not always easy to do, but it's something we can experiment with...