Kat Eye Studio

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What do you do with Defeat?

Being defeated is often a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent. 

 – Marilyn vos Savant
I was struck by this quote as I read it in The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women this morning. Think about what constitutes defeat: Rejection, criticism, negative comments – these are all external factors. These are not of us, they are what comes at us from other sources. 
Giving up, however, is all internal. It is a choice, a decision we make. Our choice is what makes the “defeat”  permanent.
This is something important to remember. As artists, we are all going to suffer defeat. We have a choice in how we respond. If we give up, we cannot point to anyone other than ourselves as the reason, no matter how much we might want to blame the defeat.
The images in today’s posts are from a Sunday excursion into Milan, using my phone camera for the current Mortal Muses theme. Visit me at Mortal Muses today to see another subway shot that captures something uniquely Italian.

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So Many Angles

Lately I’ve been thinking about time and space. I’ve started to see more personal time free up, and I have not been intentional with how I spend it. I’ve spent it on the computer, hopping around on the internet, reading blogs and getting “caught up.” That certainly fills the time, but leaves me without the space for dreaming and scheming, letting the new ideas come and flow. Letting creativity take me where it will.

This line of thought, about how I spend my time and energy, is not new. It’s been with me for a while as my Dramatic Cropping post will attest. These thoughts are a natural outcome right now of finishing my work on Find Your Eye as well as participation in Christine Kane’s Uplevel Your Life Mastery Program. My brain is filled with a lot of thoughts about being clear and intentional about my time and energy.

I have no answers right now. There are just too many angles and directions to sort out in this moment. But I am aware and asking the questions, and that is always the start. Taking the first step, to start close in.

Image is from Nice, France.

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Momentous Work

I truly believe that ignorance is bliss. I believe there are times starting things without a clue as to the work involved is a good thing.

Being full of uneducated optimism, we start down a path. We don’t ask people who know, who have followed this path before, because they might say, “Wow, you have no idea what you taking on.” And they might tell us, and burst our bubble. Or if they do tell us, we don’t listen, being so full of our wonderful idea.

Bringing an idea into the world, whether it be a novel or a business or a painting, is hard enough work without knowing the full extent of the effort. Having the courage to take things on and start, one little bit at a time, can sometimes seem momentous on its own. Once you are caught up in the wave of creative expression, you find you believe in your idea and want to make it work, at any cost. You are willing to surmount any obstacle to get it done and out in the world.

I’ve learned a small piece of this truth lately, with my Find Your Eye class. I’m celebrating a little bit this week because I finished the final edits on the course two days ago. Yes, the class has already started, we are in week three. No, my schedule did not go as planned. “Finishing” ended up being much more work than I expected. Than my family expected. Most of my free time in the last month was spent in editing, rewriting and finalizing the material. Considering I work full time, have a family and we travel quite a bit, that was limited time.

Would I do it again? Absolutely, in a heartbeat. I am so proud of how the material has come together into a cohesive whole. I am loving the class, seeing these ideas and tools in the hands of new people who are finding value in them. I know that this was the right thing for me to do.

Would I have started, had I known the real work involved? It’s hard to know, but I suspect not. If I had known I would give up so much of my precious free time in Italy for this at the outset, I might have thought, “Oh, I’ll just start that when I move back to Oregon.” The problem is, I needed to do it now, while the ideas where real and fresh to me. So, like any starry-eyed person with an idea, I started without knowing the effort involved.

I believe that this is one of life’s little tricks, to allow us begin on a path without knowing the full extent of work we will have to do. It may be the only way to get us invested at the outset, so that we bring new, good, amazing ideas into the world to share. If we truly knew the cost, we might stay on the couch and read a book. Instead, we create.

Ignorance is bliss. I’m a firm believer. How about you?

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The Spiral of Creativity

This photo of Parco di Monza in summer has been coming up in my mind lately, which means I need to share it. I loved the cloud formations on that day, the spirals I saw. I didn’t see the clouds as spiraling inward, but moving outward. I saw in the clouds a spiral of creativity, where ideas are born at the center and then gain momentum as they spin toward the outside. The ideas eventually break free and are sent off into the world at high speed, flung with the creative energy they attained through the spiral. All that, read in the clouds on a summer day.

I can see why this image has popped into my head, because the whole idea of the spiral of creativity fits perfectly with some reflection I’ve been doing. As I work hard on finishing my Find Your Eye class, I’ve realized that I have moved to a dramatically different place in the creativity spiral. The place where the ideas are about to completely break free, and move off into the world.

I decided today I would share these fresh thoughts on the creativity spiral. These are the different places or phases I’ve experienced, so far. I’m curious to know, is this how you have experienced it too? Where are you in the spiral?

The first phase of the spiral is Absorbing. Opening yourself up to all of the creative ideas that exist in our world, and absorbing them into our creative center through reading, observing, learning. This is an active step, because you have to seek the ideas out and expend energy into taking them in to yourself. This may also be the absolute center of the spiral, like the eye of a hurricane, the place where there is calm. You need peace and quiet to absorb.

Processing is the second phase. I think the phrase I like to use, “I have all of these ideas swirling around in my head,” fits perfectly here. This is where the ideas you absorbed begin to be transformed. You think about them, write about them. You are seeking where they fit in with your life, your experience, your philosophy. You are in the spiral proper now, beginning to really move.

After Processing comes Practicing. You begin playing around with your creative ideas. You give your creative self a playground, a safe place to explore and practice. You delight in the discoveries you make. It is through this practice and play that new connections are made in the ideas you’ve been absorbing and processing. Brand new ideas are born.

At some point, Practicing transitions into Acting. Some of the ideas that are born during play will become ready for action. Things are really moving now in the spiral. Dreaming of how to bring the idea to fruition becomes doing. You begin to take the next steps, to make the ideas real and get them ready to release into the world.

Finishing comes next, very close to the outside of the spiral. You are moving quickly, putting the work into completing the remaining actions to send the idea into the world. This, in some ways, is the hard part, because it’s not all swirly fun and play. It’s the nuts and bolts of getting things done. There are deadlines and external requirements at times. The excitement is still there, but it is different, tempered with effort. In this phase, your commitment is tested. Will you really launch the idea into the world? Or will you let it sink back into the spiral?

I find myself in the Finishing phase of the spiral right now, with my Find Your Eye class. It is interesting to discover, even with the effort it is taking, that my commitment is stronger than ever. Each time I work on the class, no matter how much I still have yet to do or how much I see that I need to improve, I find myself saying, “This is good stuff. I need to get this out to people.” This one idea, of the many that are born in my spiral of creativity, will be launched into the world.

What comes next in the spiral of creativity? I don’t know yet. I can only see the parts of the spiral I have been through so far. I don’t know what happens when the creative idea is launched into the world, but soon I will. Have you launched your creative idea? What has come next for you? I would love for you to share your experiences with me, to let me know what phase comes next in the creative spiral.

While I don’t yet personally know what comes next, there is one thing I do know:  In order to work, the spiral must always be kept in motion. In order to keep the momentum, even for one idea to launch, I have to be Absorbing and Processing and Practicing too. Without that continual creative energy fueling the movement, the spiral will die. Like clouds on a sunny day, it would will eventually blow away, disappear into the sky. So I keep reading and journaling and writing here, sharing my little insights with you all, so that my spiral of creativity continues.

Today’s 9 Muses Musing prompt is SHARING. This is the post I needed to write today, regardless of the prompt, and I’m surprised that it even is remotely related.  Tomorrow’s prompt is STORIES. 

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It Takes a Village

Welcome to Legano. Located in the north of Italy, in my son’s bedroom. Legano is a Lego town, the name inspired by our visit to the town of Lugano, Switzerland, right after Christmas last year. Brandon came home from that day trip and started building this village with his Christmas Legos.

He hasn’t stopped since. A year later, the town is thriving, if different. It changes every day. Some days, it’s only a small detail added. Other days, it’s a complete overhaul. Every day, it is part of him processing our adventure here in Italy, dealing with it from the perspective of a 9 year old.

It started early in the year as we built the different buildings that every town needs. A commune (town hall), gelateria, pizzeria, school, hospital, police station, fire station. Sometimes I would help him build the buildings (I like building the buildings – the police station is my proudest accomplishment), and sometimes he would work on his own. The town changes and grows as he does.

After we visited Rome in the spring, an entire section of Roman ruins cropped up. (Good thing for those Indiana Jones sets!)
As I was studying for my Italian driver’s license, street signs and signals began to appear all over town, in abundance.
Friends houses have appeared and disappeared, as his friendships grew and changed – old friends moving away and new friends moving in.
There have been piazzas with umbrella covered tables in the summer. Airports with security and international destinations. Trains and trams and funiculars and buses.
There’s even me, with a camera in my hand.

If I ever wondered about the value of play time for children, that wondering for me, is over. When I see piles of trash heaped up in the streets (a la Naples, our latest trip) or have my son explain that the little Lego statue he’s showing me is The Discus Thrower, I know that this play is not just childhood fancy. This is where he processes and integrates all of these new things he sees all of the time, things that used to be outside of his experience. Legano provides, for him, what my photography and my blog provide for me.

Have you heard the saying, “It takes a village to raise a child?” I think, for the child, it is the a village of their own creation, where they raise themself and grow up whole.

The prompt for 9 Muses Musing today is VILLAGE. Tomorrow is SWEETS. I hope you’ll come join us!

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Into the Unknown

There is a place on my normal walking route in Parco di Monza, were I sometimes find myself in the middle of nowhere. On foggy mornings, all I can see is the path I am on and the empty field around it. I am suspended in a place where nothing else seems to exist.

Our journey through life can be like this too. We can find ourselves on a path, where all we can see is just a little bit right in front of us. The rest is utterly, completely unknown. The only thing to do, is to take one step forward, and then another, on the path that we can see clearly. We have to trust that the path that opens up before us will lead us to good things. Take the steps in faith.

I’ve been revisiting part of my creative journey recently, as I prepare the material for my Find Your Eye course. It has been an enlightening exercise. By looking back at my journey, I can see that each little step into the unknown was leading me exactly to this place, where I am today. I can see every action, leap of faith, “aha” moment clearly in retrospect. It all fits together, what was unknown is now known. The fog has cleared.

Do you know what I’ve learned, more than anything else, by retracing my steps along this journey? That whenever I find myself in the unknown – that place where I can’t see the end of the path – I need to just take the steps. Put one foot in front of the other, along the stretch that I can see in front of me. I can trust that all will be revealed in time, and it will be good.

Today the 9 Muses Musing prompt is JOURNEY. Tomorrow’s prompt is VILLAGE. Come by and share your journey, or visit the links to see those that are shared today.

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