Creative Spark
Unleash Your Inner Artist
A 12-Week Course
based on The Artist’s Way
March 1 – May 24
“Let yourself be drawn by the stronger pull of what you really love.” ~ Rumi
Whether you are an entrepreneur, musician, lawyer, writer, stay-at-home parent or currently unemployed, creativity plays a vital role in your life’s work.
- Maybe you’ve longed to visit the museums of Paris.
- Maybe you’ve secretly written poetry for years and are feeling the urge to send it out to the world
- Maybe you’ve been dreaming of starting your own business.
- Maybe you’re a manager hoping to inspire your team
- Maybe you’ve found yourself in need of inspiration these days…
Within each of us, there resides an inner artist. While some may have been dormant for years, it is not too difficult to brush aside the ashes and discover the still-burning ember that you can use to ignite newpassion and enthusiasm in your life.
Your artistry could be speaking or sculpting, making business decisions, acting or writing… It doesn’t matter what form of expression you choose; what is imperative is that you express.
Creative Spark: Unleashing Your Inner Artist is a 12 week course that will walk you through The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity. This book sat on my shelf for YEARS before I finally worked my way through it in 2006. Since then, my whole world has changed, and I wish I would have picked it up sooner! Now you can join me on a journey to discover your imaginative, inspired self. The work is still yours to do, but I’ll provide support and answer any questions along the way.
See my Courses page for full course description & registration information.
Sunday, February 21st is the last day to lock in your early-bird rate!
How to Consult the I Ching
Happy Chinese new year… Here’s to the year of the Tiger!
I use the I Ching frequently so I made a video to describe how it’s done. Hope you’ll find it helpful…
Blog Challenge: Best Book
from Gwen Bell’s Best of 2009 Blog Challenge 
The Question: What book – fiction or non – touched you? Where were you when you read it? Have you bought and given away multiple copies?
I’m re-reading Marianne Williamson’s A Return to Love right now and it’s pretty much altering the way I perceive everything — again. Of course there is the famous quote that is always a good reminder…
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us, it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
But there are so many other, equally potent gems scattered throughout the pages. My copy is already filled with underlines from the first go-around, but I’m finding new ideas on almost every page that somehow resonate with me in a way that is both novel and familiar.
Want to play along? Check out the list here and blog about your favorites for ‘09 all through December:
http://www.gwenbell.com/blog/2009/11/30/the-best-of-2009-blog-challenge.html
Creating Order
In The Success Principles (which I highly recommend) Jack Canfield mentions how his friend Martin Rutte told him that whenever he wants to bring in new business, he thoroughly cleans his office, home, car, and garage. “Every time he does, he starts getting calls and letters from people who want to work with him.”
That got me thinking about the state of my home office. If it’s the epicenter of my work and creativity in my home, it would serve me to get organized and allow the flow of energy a clear path.
Then, in a completely unrelated conversation with my awesome astrologer friend Tony Howard, he mentioned that it might be helpful for me to consider how, in Japanese culture, great care is taken in the placement and order of every item in their home.
All of this within the last few days. Hmm… noticing a theme?
And then, in a conversation last night regarding Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich, someone mentioned this line: “Resolve to throw off the influences of any unfortunate environment and to build your own life to order.” He may have meant order as in made to order, but the first thing that came to mind was ORDER, i.e. the opposite of chaos.
This is how the universe teaches me… through the people in my life and the material I read. It shows me the same lesson, time and time again, in a different presentation, until I get it. My job is to listen, learn, and take action.
Done!
Breakfast in Bridgetown
My interview with Paul Gerald, author and publisher of Breakfast in Bridgetown: The Definitive Guide to Portland’s 
Favorite Meal, aired yesterday on pdx.fm. I love that he has a whole radio show dedicated to breakfast!
We talked about all my favorite breakfast/brunch places in Portland, and which restaurants the PDX Breakfast Club meetup has visited to enjoy their first meal of the day.
My top picks: Tin Shed on NE Alberta and Veritable Quandary downtown. Holy yum!
If you missed the show, grab the podcast here: http://www.breakfastinbridgetown.com/?p=641
Consulting the I Ching
Today was an interesting day, so I threw the I Ching tonight for a greater perspective on what’s been happening. This could not have been more accurate and helpful/hopeful… also, so in alignment with today’s tarot reading from Adrianna…
Ming I/Darkening of the Light
Darkness reigns in the external world now. Disengage from negative feelings and maintain your inner light.
This is a time when darkness and inferior energies surround you. The image is that of the sun completely swallowed by the earth. The only light left is that inside your own heart, and you are counseled to return to it, maintain it, and quietly nourish yourself with it.
It is in dark moments that a correct attitude is most important. If we fight against the darkness, we are swallowed by it and suffer great misfortune. If we react to the lack of visible progress with despair and negativity, we extinguish our own inner light and block the aid of the Creative. If we try to persuade others that they must return to the light, we exhaust ourselves in vain now.
In a time such as this, it is wise to adopt a stance of outer disengagement and inner perseverance. Do not focus on or interact with the negative influences around you; this only strengthens their grip on you. Step aside, yield, let go, allow people and events to pass without attachment. Direct your attention inside, to your inner light, your devotion to what is right, your conversation with the Higher Power.
Progress may be slow, but there will indeed be progress. Remember that much of the work of the Higher Power is hidden from us, and that we enable and assist it by remaining detached, accepting, and reserved in the face of negative influences.
5th: An external darkness cannot be escaped now. You are wise to yield outwardly while maintaining strength and purpose within.
6th: The darkness has reached a climax. If you are firm in holding to acceptance, balance, and correctness, you will emerge successful.
This from The I Ching or Book of Changes: A Guide to Life’s Turning Points.
Book Release Party Success
Thanks to everyone who showed up for last Friday’s book release party. We had such a great time that evening and are glad you could join us. It’s been an exciting year so far for the co-authors of Wake Up Women. Here are a couple pics from the party.
Mindie Kniss reads from the bestseller Wake Up Women
Zen Archery
Eugen Herrigel, in his book Zen in the Art of Archery, wrote, “The archer ceases to be conscious of himself as the one who is engaged in hitting the bull’s-eye which confronts him. This state of unconscious is realized only when, completely empty and rid of the self, he becomes one with the perfecting of his technical skill, though there is in it something of a quite different order which cannot be attained by any progressive study of the art…”
So too in writing.
MFA Notes: Kwame Dawes
I can still hear poet Kwame Dawes saying, “born at de right time,” in his smooth Jamaican accent. He opened his craft talk with a brief biographical sketch: born in Ghana where he heard stories of glorious Jamaica from his father. When he moved with his family to the island, he discovered a far different place and culture than he had imagined. “I was trying to find home,” he said. Was he a Jamaican living in Africa or an African living in Jamaica?
Questions surfaced regarding the search for self in art. How do we fit into the works created by authors in other lands, other cultures? How does their writing define our own culture? Or how do we place ourselves in art that does not typically include people like us or cultures like ours?
I did not realize at the time that Kwame’s book on the lyrics of Bob Marley is the most authoritative text on the subject. Kwame spoke of how Marley wrote the narrative of Jamaica and the culture through reggae. It was a “present music” including both the collective history and the events of the day. We were left with a reminder to “be engaged in what makes the times what they are.”
