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The Art of IS – Improvising as a Way of Life
Imagine a white canvas in front of you – and a vision in your mind of blues and greens and purples. So you begin to paint, carefully placing your brush on the canvas as you blend the colors – and suddenly, you knock a jar of brown paint onto your palette. What then?
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Ten Poems for Difficult Times
Our world seems to be filled with chaos and confusion these days – with many people searching for purposeful meaning and a deep desire to find their place in the midst of it all. This is where art comes in. Whether it’s on the page, the canvas or the screen – art has a way of bringing meaning to everyday challenges and to a complicated world. It allows the darkness to be filtered through a mechanism of creative self-expression that brings light to a deeper understanding. Poetry has often served in this way, as an artistic vehicle for capturing life’s most complicated abstractions – weaving them into a symphonic language that feels meaningful and comforting. In my work with highly-creative women who are on soulful…
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Dancing with the Contrast of Darkness and Light
Our lunar goddess is rich with wisdom. Through her phases, she teaches us how to move from darkness into light with the gracefulness of a ballroom dance. We step in, we step out – and we circle back around again. And with each step of this dance, we gain a new experience – a new awareness. What do we receive in darkness that we may not see in the light? And how does the light magnify what’s tucked away in darkness? This is where the gift of contrast comes in – and how the wisdom of the moon serves as a wonderful teacher. Imagine looking up at the night sky during a first quarter lunar phase – and seeing a moon that’s half lit. It…
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Creating in the Messiness of Life
Life is always ebbing and flowing. We may find ourselves at various points – moving in and out, up and down, exploring and experimenting – and circling back around to where we started, but with a heightened sense of awareness and understanding. The same is true in the creation process. Creativity ebbs and flows – with surprises and new discoveries always being made, regardless of where we’ve started or the journey we’ve taken. There’s always something new that wants to be noticed – and it seems to come when we least expect it. On my daily five-mile walks, I’m always noticing how nature communicates with me. And this week, after the storms we’ve had here in the Northeast of the United States, I noticed the…
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From Anxiety to Love
Ever since I began my entrepreneurial journey, I’ve been told by business coaches and consultants, “People pay for speed.” I’ve watched companies compete for contracts saying, “We can do it faster.” I’ve observed executives and managers pushing their employees and team members to “get it done NOW.” And as a mother of two teenagers, I’ve noticed this same obsession showing up in the area of education. I’ve heard countless politicians, analysts, and various experts go on and on about “the race to the top” – where states (and countries) race to get student test scores to the top of the list as quickly as possible. I’ve even noticed in the medical field, our tendency to over-prescribe medications, looking for that “quick-fix.” No one has the…
