it’s sunday – which means it’s creating dreams come true day. creating dreams come true is a free ongoing e-course and creative community to support you in living your dreams. if you are new, please feel free to join in. the more creative dreamers the better!
hello you beautiful dreamers! i am so deeply and completely appreciative of the support, kindness and love you have sent my way as i was going through a most difficult time these past few weeks. know that your words have meant a lot to me.
as i am settling back into my life and into my work i am looking at our dear creating dreams come true e-course and seeing a few places where i can make some improvements.
my ultimate aim with this is to create a space of support and inspiration for every aspect of living authentically and joyfully with our dreams. to that end, i am doing away with weekly creative dream assignments. i’d like us to focus more on being with our dreams, and focus less on getting homework done on time. creative dream assignments are still important, and they do support you in becoming a more powerful creator of dreams come true, so we will still have them from time to time – but not every week. every week we will have creating dreams come true posts right here with ideas, resources and inspiration for creating and living our dreams come true, and an invitation to check in, share where you are and receive support.
this week i want to look at being present, and how being more present with our obstacles, our pain and our struggles can actually help us to create our dreams come true.
the past few weeks have really thrown me off center. in my shock and grief i have been unable to think clearly, be focused, create new art, keep up with my laundry, cook meals, go to work, be around groups of people… this list could go on and on. this is the truth of where i am right now.
sometimes life hands us things that we feel are in the way of us living our dreams. for me right now this is my grandmother’s unexpected death. but it can be all sorts of things. it can be a lack of finances or a job that drains our energy, it can be a business deal that went sour or an illness. whatever it is – it’s in our lives, and it’s in the way and we don’t want it there.
i am surely tempted to “fake it till i make it” into being happy, productive and energetic. there is a desire to do everything i can do change where i’m at right now, because it’s so damn uncomfortable.
however, the way through is always to be present with what is. denying the reality of our situation, avoiding the pain of what we’re feeling only puts up new walls. in the moment we feel like we need these walls to keep the pain away but once they’re up, they only serve to separate us from our dreams.
so instead of pushing it aside i am inviting the grief in. i am taking time out of my regular life to feel what i feel. i am listening, really listening, to my feelings and body.
i am choosing to be with my grief, to be with my feelings wherever they flow and move and shift.
this means lots of stillness and a home that is slowly getting messier than i’ve ever seen it. i am taking spa days and lots of naps, i am going to for long slow walks and sleeping in. i am letting the dishes and laundry pile up and only moving as fast as i feel ready to move. and i am finding tremendous gifts in this. there are *always* tremendous gifts in this because life always gives us exactly what we need. some of the gifts i am finding in this right now are:
- a new perspective of my life based on wisdom and clarity
- motivation to make new some changes in regards to where i have been putting my time and energy
- the inspiration to start sewing again
- discovering that i am loved and supported in a lot more ways than i realised
- slowing down enough to really appreciate the little things – watching geese swim in the river, admiring a sunset, enjoying a latte
and the biggest gift: my heart feels broken open.
i am slowly gathering these gifts together as i discover who i can be and what i can do next. without being so present with my grief and sadness i wouldn’t be able to fully appreciate and receive the beauty of these gifts. like joseph campbell said, where our struggle is, our gold is also.
i feel like i am getting ready to move on, ready to take all of these gifts into what i do next. and it feels like what i do next is going to be fueled by a heart that is open more fully than it ever has been, and nourished by inspiration and clarity and wisdom. it feels like my next steps are going to be so beautiful and perfect and amazing thanks to the gifts of this difficult time.
beneath the grief and sadness and stillness, there is great excitement.
and i have found the most beautiful tool to help me with that next step:
danielle lapointe is a creative fire starter, and i am so impressed with what i’ve seen of her work so far, i signed up to be an affiliate for the fire starter sessions. so if you click on this link, and join me in starting your own creative fire, you’ll also be supporting ABCcreativity.
creative dream check-in
please join the comments below and let us know how you did with the last assignments (planting money seeds and/or creating a list of ways to be creative, real and true to yourself when everything sucks) and share where you’re at with living authentically and joyfully with your dreams. you can also share any thoughts or ideas that come up for you in relation to being present with what seems to be in the way of your dreams.
my check-in:
i am simply slowly setting back into my life and my dreams. my grandmother’s death was so unexpected and sad. now that the business of being with her in the hospital and then planning her funeral and going through her things is over, this week i am being gentle with myself, taking some time to play in my garden, do some art, maybe start a sewing project, take naps and knit.
i did plant some flower seeds – including lavender seeds. i love having my little greenhouse in the kitchen, and checking in on it each day to see if anything is sprouting yet.
i am looking forward to catching up with you!
andrea schroeder creates creativity workshops, downloadable creativity kits, art and guided meditations to support you in knowing and remembering that you are a creative being and you can create anything.
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honouring your wisdom and your wonderful self Andrea
Hi Andrea
well your post is very timely also for me – also in the midst of grief and having had to take two weeks out on another continent to go through important steps of that process, I’m now back finding my life in disarray, many vital things with major consequences (e.g. financial) undone and worries springing up all around.
I am trying to combine slowly moving through some of the ‘to dos’ with an acceptance that some of it will work out and some of it won’t. This has definitely been a time for much thoughtfulness about where we are and what we are doing with our lives. I’m not sure radical change is on the immediate horizon, more a gentle shakind down and letting go of stuff that really didn’t matter so much but that has been draining time and energy and getting between us and love.
xxx
I have been working on both the seeds and the list simultaneously…I wrote a blog for the seeds:
http://lion-art.blogspot.com/2010/04/sewing-seeds-of-abundance.html
and am working on one for the list. I keep thinking about how I have my down moments with trying to achieve my dreams…but it can’t compare with some of the hardship I’ve seen around me. Such as the loss of a Grandma (((Andrea))) or my poor little 2nd cousin who has been battling cancer since he was 5 and now there’s nothing more that they can do…it’s been 6-7 years of battling and now they can’t do any more. I can’t imagine how much things must be sucking for his family facing that loss.
I posted my list :)
http://lion-art.blogspot.com/2010/04/self-care-in-difficult-times.html
I got word yesterday that my little cousin passed away… So sad.
(((lee ann))) i’m so sorry to hear about your cousin. that is so sad.
helen gentleness and healing to you.
jane you are a sweetheart.
This was just what I needed to hear this week as well. Major changes are in the wind, and as I have been contemplating them, I’ve realized that because of a series of accidents and deaths, I’ve been in crisis mode for about ten years. The last one (my closest friend’s divorce) was last summer, but it turns out that I’ve forgotten how to get out of crisis mode. I’ve also had to “just keep going” through it all, and have never truly processed any of it. I have a nice chunk of time off due me, and I think I need to spend some time remembering, mourning losses, and allowing myself to feel what I feel and cry as many tears as necessary to get to the place of moving on.
And speaking of those major changes — I’m having a brainstorm party on my blog, and you’re all invited. http://pinkgargoyles.blogspot.com/2010/04/brainstorm-party-blog-post-1.html
I’m beginning to feel pulled in too many different directions. :o( I can’t keep up with my art blog, my facebook fan page, the facebook clay group I started, my website, AND create art every day, build that portfolio, learn about illustrating, learn about art licensing, and create art for both and pursue opportunities in both, oh plus continue to write – which I still really want to do, etc.!
I’ve been primarily a clay artist for the past 20+ years, and one of my seeds of income has been the clay dog jewelry and figurines I’ve sold on ebay for the past 10 years. For several years, I worked as a freelance clay artist for the craft industry doing projects for books and magazines. I’ve been contacted by the clay company I used to do freelance work for, and I would really love to get back into doing how-to projects for them again, too. Would love to do another how-to clay book. I also would love to break into illustrating children’s books with my clay illustrations. But I’d also love to license my art, and the clay doesn’t lend itself well to that endeavor, so that means working on drawing and painting art for that area. BUT, I also rediscovered writing a year or two ago, have been writing a romance and I LOVE the writing too, and don’t want to give that up. See my dilemma here? LOL
This was the reason I didn’t want to list 100 dreams, LOL. I have enough trouble going after the dozen or so I DID list!
It’s like I get things going smoothly in one area, but then I focus too long in another, and the first area loses whatever ground I’ve gained. I still haven’t figured out how to keep all the balls in the air at the same time. Yet we’re constantly told how important it is for an artist who wants to be a WORKING artist, to have that blog, and to network, and blah blah blah. Well, my blog is suffering big time and I’m getting nowhere in building that following. So maybe it’s time to narrow down the dream pursuits a bit. I need to really, really focus and figure out what is it I want MOST right now. Because I honestly don’t think I’ll get where I want to go if I don’t pinpoint my focus in one or two areas. :o(
Still sending loving thoughts and hugs your way, Andrea.
Those smiley faces were meant to be unhappy faces by the way. LOL Those are not things I’m smiling about at the moment!
(((pink))) sending gentleness and support your way. while i know it’s really difficult it also sounds like you are coming into a place of great power. and i love the online brainstorm party on your blog and encourage everyone else to join in: http://pinkgargoyles.blogspot.com/2010/04/brainstorm-party-blog-post-1.html
ginny i do hear you. in terms of being present – maybe there can be a message or information in the overwhelm. i am going to write some stuff for creating dreams come true about tuning into our hearts for direction and guidance. our hearts know which directions to go in and which paths to put aside. it’s true that we only have so much time and energy and saying no to some things means saying yes to others. i think you’ve really got it when you said “I need to really, really focus and figure out what is it I want MOST right now.”
Thanks, Andrea!
Ginny, have you seen the link to Julie Stuart’s Eggs of Possibility that Andrea posted on her FaceBook? http://www.makingideasvisible.com/blog/visioning/the-eggs-of-possibility/comment-page-1/#comment-429 I love the way she describes having the eggs on her desk, checking in with them, and waiting for them to hatch at the appropriate time. Maybe a project like that would help you think through your choices? It sounds like you have very exciting projects in the works!
I am in the same state of mind Ginny is in. I have a lot of different balls in the air and am trying to focus on what’s really important to me right now.
thanks pink!
hello lynn. i’m sending you calm centered support in helping you focus. and i must say i really love this visualization you did about your illustrations: http://redheadedstepchildblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/visualizing-my-goal.html
maybe spending some time sitting with that each day will help you to stay focused. you can also use it with the visualization meditation i made here: http://www.abccreativity.com/2010/02/07/creating-dreams-come-true-seeing-your-dream-come-true/
I hope you feel better now Andrea. Today I just focused on my joy and hope, art-journaling about the theme :
“Every Day Opens a Swirl of Possibilities”, you can see the page here :
http://eveil-creatif.over-blog.com/article-journal-creatif-celebrer-la-joie-50524616.html
thank you so much for the course
Dear Andrea,
I can relate to your pain as I lost my parents within one year of eachother and was so full of grief. I just want to say that one of the gift’s life gave me through that experience was the knowledge of how supremely blessed I was to love and be loved so deeply as to feel the grief so. The depth of grief is a mirror to the depth of love. It is a sign of a well lived relationship and is to be celebrated…that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt..it is to me, a beautiful rose that is handed to me…the rose has some thorns and even though they may sting me and I bleed, I still can appreciate the wonderful qualities and blessing that the rose brings me. I think I will paint this image into life!
oh thank you scylliane.
bertie that is so beautiful. thank you. what a beautiful image you are going to create.
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