Category: Creativity

The power and peace in honoring all that we feel.

Helping Kids Cope in Difficult Situations

On By Soul of the SeasonsIn Creativity, Embracing Our Emotions, FearLeave a comment

It cannot be denied that the current pandemic situation is the very definition of “trying times.” With all the uncertainty flying around, it’s easy for adults to be anxious, imagine what it must be like for our children. But, resilience and endurance are excellent traits that can be modeled to those not yet experienced in challenging life situations.  

Several of my more recent posts have been dealing with fear, and how we can ease our worried minds. Children tend to be more sensitive to what’s going on in their environment and, especially to what the adults around them are saying and feeling. Below are a few tips on engaging with children–and adults–during stressful situations.

Talk openly about your feelings and invite them to talk about theirs: Children need to know that what they’re feeling and thinking is normal and that they can lean on their elders for wisdom and support. Above all they know that they are loved and that you will get through this together.

However, if your anxiety has sent you off the rails, it would be best to talk to them when you are calmer and can be open to whatever they have to say. Get guidance, if you feel you need it or have a good friend offer you calm reassurance before engaging in a conversation with your children.

Turn the experience into an adventure: Children love adventure. One of their best qualities is to look at the world through curious, innocent eyes. This is a trait we, as adults, would do well to learn from our children.

Join them in writing, drawing, painting rocks, or making a scrapbook concerning the things they see going on around them. Ask them what they think should happen or how they could help. Make it fun. If they can’t play with their friends, maybe they can video chat with them or better yet, have them send a letter or a card like you might have done when you were younger.

The curious mind is a creative mind and a creative mind finds unique solutions to challenges!

Tell stories: Tell your children stories of challenging times that you faced when you were a kid and how you dealt with it. Invite them to tell you their stories. It’s okay if the stories are made up, all stories tell us something about ourselves.

Have them draw pictures or make a video to go along with their stories. Start a group where they can share their stories with other kids. My grandson once drew a whole story onto a rock and then regaled me for twenty minutes about what all the figures meant. It was quite an adventurous story!

Harlon’s Story Rock

Go outdoors! Fresh air, exercise, and sunshine are the best medicines. This goes for the adults, too. Take the adventure outdoors. Teach your kids to be observant. What critters or plants or rocks do they see? Have fun looking them up and identifying them.

One of the best adventures I had with my grandchildren was to have them make their own Plant ID books. We went out and gathered a few common herbs–just a few leaves and/or flowers, then pressed them between layers of newspapers. I asked them to have a conversation with the plant and see if it had anything to tell them. (Their answers were amazing!) After the plants were sufficiently dried we glued them into a scrapbook with notes on what they might be a remedy for.

Later that summer one of my grandson’s friends got stung by a bee and he said, “Here, let me get you some plantain!” He had his friend chew the leaf and press the paste onto the sting. Within minutes the pain was gone.

  • Plantago Major

NOTE: There are many SAFE uses for common plants. Get a book on medicinal plant identification or go to Eat the Weeds.

Above all, teach your children the value of treating Nature with gentleness and respect.

Learn something new: Learning is an excellent diversion from stressful situations, especially hands-on learning. Teach your kids how to plant a garden (you can easily grow food in a pot), cook a meal, how to make a campfire, do the laundry, perform simple car maintenance, balance a checkbook, or any other practical life skill they may not already know. YouTube has an unlimited supply of How-To videos. Productive activities build confidence and assurance that anyone can manage during difficult times.

Create Routine: Like everyone, your family’s lives have likely already been disrupted by this pandemic. With so much of the future unknown and uncertain, routine helps to create comfort and reassurance, that there is something tangible we can count on. Even keeping simple things like meals and bedtimes on a regular schedule will go a long way to soothe your children’s minds. If you cant stay at home with them, let them know you’ll be checking in regularly to see how they’re doing. Perhaps a trusted neighbor or family member can also check in to see how things are going or just to chat.

Pray or Meditate: Studies have shown that prayer and meditation are wonderful practices to calm and soothe. Anyone who regularly engages in these practices can verify these findings. Simple mindfulness can steer the mind away from anxious thoughts and toward inner peace. Trusting in a power greater than ourselves teaches us to let go of things we annot control and lean into quiet acceptance. When the mind is calm, we can more clearly hear our inner wisdom and know the right thing to do and the right time to do it.

These are just a few suggestions to keep your children engaged, relaxed, and open to possibilities. I’d love to hear your ideas.

Blessings and Prayers for Peace,

Melody

The Five Seasons of the Writing Process

On By Soul of the SeasonsIn CreativityLeave a comment

Note: Although this post is written on the Writing Process, the stages outlined below apply to any creative endeavor.

Life passes through seasons, and everyone and everything are influenced by them. My upcoming book, Soul of the Seasons, discusses the seasons (Winter, Spring, Summer, Harvest, and Fall), the wisdom that they provide, and how our inner lives reflect them.[

As an author, I have found the above to be truest during the writing process.  Like all of life on earth, each writing project possesses a birth, a period of new growth, a time of maturation, a time of harvest, and a time for things to fall away.

Winter: Gestation & Germination.

Writing begins with an idea, a fertile seed that falls softly, seemingly randomly at times, into our consciousness. We might read a headline or overhear a conversation; or we may observe something unusual, and an idea begins to gestate.

Sometimes these seeds lay dormant for years until they germinate, and this period of dormancy is the creative cycle’s Winter season. Things are dark here, and it seems like nothing’s happening. But the fertile ground of our imagination provides the perfect environment for our sprouting ideas, and a tiny root is sent deep. Soon, we’ll see if our idea has what it takes to move to the next season of the writing cycle. It’s good to remember that not all seeds sprout or grow into mature plants.

Visions of Spring.

If our story idea has enough potential, it will poke its head above ground in Spring. We get excited. Ideas spill out everywhere. We might find ourselves scribbling notes at odd moments and daydreaming about characters and storylines. Our vision starts to nag at us at all hours, begging us to write it down! Writing furiously during stolen moments or late into the night, we create our first draft. It’s gangly and wordy and rambling, but it’s finally down in tangible form.

Summertime: Maturation

After a season of explosive new growth, our story needs our help to mature. We now must shape and structure our story idea. If we are not careful to support our seedling story, it may wither and die.

Summer is when our visions are brought to fruition. We notice a particular scene that has wandered into a dead-end alley or a character who needs more development. We might realize the plot needs a better foundation so that the story is logical and cohesive. We prune here and feed there. We water, cull the weeds, and pull up withering plants. We might invite others who are wise in the ways of tending stories to help us. We revise and revise. And revise. It becomes shapely, full-bodied. Our piece begins to resemble that glorious vision we first saw in Spring. It’s nearly ready for the picking.

An abundant Harvest.

Harvest is the time when we find sweet satisfaction in all the hard work it took to bring our project to this place. Though we might still tweak things a bit here and there, it’s time to share with others the product of all our efforts. During this phase, we might send our manuscript to beta readers for their feedback. We hope that others see our work, passion, excitement, and dedication. We dream that, in some way, it will feed their creative seeds too.

Fall: The Great Letting Go.

Now, we must let go. We send the fruits of our efforts to editors, agents, or publishers, generously sharing what we have created with the world. Fall is the time to evaluate what needs to be kept and what must come to an end.

Many authors speak of a sort of post-partum depression when they release their work into the world. Grief, the natural emotional response of letting go of something you love dearly, occurs in the season of Fall. The longer you have worked on a project, the deeper the grief may be.

Often during the writing process, we come across seeds for new story ideas, and we carefully tuck them away until they are ready to sprout and take shape. These ideas will give us something to ponder during our next Winter season of the writing process. But, for now, we can respect and honor that we had what it took to create, shape, mature, and produce our work. In Fall, we value all we have received and all we have been given during the arduous creative process. Soon, we will once again begin the mysterious, magical, rewarding cycle of creation.

About this post: I first learned of these concepts when I began to study Plant Spirit Medicine, a healing modality that blends Five Element medicine (a traditional Chinese Medicine) with indigenous plant spirit healing.  Five Element medicine is a dynamic system of balance and harmony based on the premise that, “Everything has to do with everything.” Like the pieces of a mechanical clock, the dynamic system of life is comprised of seemingly endless parts, all moving and shifting together with precision. And, just as the separate parts all have a purpose and function, they only perform this function as a part of the whole.  

Melody A Scout is a plant lover, speaker, teacher, spiritual advisor, and a writer of both fiction and non-fiction. During her Plant Spirit Medicine course she began writing her soon to be released book, Soul of the Seasons. Melody continues to engage with the healing power of her plants friends through her healing practice, as a teacher, and, as a landscape designer and consultant.

Contact Melody at:

seasons@sparkolife.com 

Facebook Pages:

A Spark of Life Landscaping

Plant Spirit Medicine by Melody

Why I Write

On By Soul of the SeasonsIn Creativity, Embracing Our EmotionsLeave a comment
Recently, a friend who was interested in putting down some of her stories, asked me about the writing process. What follows is some guidance I offered on what a writer (or artist) might encounter during the process of making their art.
So, you want to be a writer? Easy Peasy.
Writing is easy.jpg     First, Getting started:  Even though you might be jazzed about your subject, don’t be surprised if you struggle to know where to start and once you get started you won’t know where to end. You might hem and haw and plot an outline for a few weeks, a few months, or a few years, before actually creating a single sentence.
     If you’re writing non-fiction you can look forward to hours of research about the subject of your work. A lot of what you find will likely be contradictory or misleading or just plain goofy. You might discover research to be an excellent time-sucking diversion from actually writing your story.
     If you’re writing fiction your characters will, no doubt, amuse, befuddle, infuriate, scare, fascinate, sadden, and delight you. They will keep you up at night, whispering their stories into your ear. You might start talking about them to others as if they’re troubled friends you can’t puzzle out. You might begin to ask random questions of friends and family that will give them pause, such as, “If you hid a body in a manure pile do you think anyone would notice the stink?” or “How many people do you think you could have affairs with at the same time without getting caught?”
Unless you’re committed to a life of clean living, you will likely consume gallons of coffee or adult beverages or take up cussing, or do all three. If you haven’t begun already, you might consider starting. While writing you might forget to eat or shave or get dressed–sometimes for days. Those unfamiliar with the creative process might tell you to get a job or a date or a therapist.
     
     During the revision process you’re liable to chuck whole paragraphs or pages or even chapters. (I completely rewrote the beginning of my book four times and once abandoned an entire 350 page novel.) You will face periods where you will wonder if you have anything relevant or unique or interesting to say.
     If you’re lucky enough to have an good editor they will be your best friend and ally throughout the writing process, and quite possibly, throughout life. During the course of finishing your work your editor is bound to make you simultaneously praise, weep, hug, and slap them. 
    Friends or family or respected elders to whom you have eagerly given your work for feedback might frown or stammer or shrug. They might tell you that you have a nice hobby but not to quit your day job. They might shake their heads and tell you they don’t get it, or worse yet, they might refuse to read it at all. Agents and publishers alike may repeatedly (and sometime cruelly) reject you and/or your work. 
     Frustrated and disillusioned and filled with self-doubt, you might throw your manuscript into a drawer (or bury it in the bowels of your computer) for months, perhaps even years. Your fears will have you wondering if you have anything of value to offer anyone, ever.
     But, if you keep at it, you just might discover that you have fallen in love with your craft. You’ll love the magic and the mystery of creating a story that takes you to places you’ve always dreamed of going. It will lead you through dark passages you swore you’d never enter. You might come to love the the adventure, the uncertainty, the excitement, the grief, and the joy. Telling your own story, in your own words will uncover a pleasure and  deep satisfaction and you might even feel more alive than you’ve ever felt before.
     You’ll know that you’re really, really committed to your craft when you gladly and repeatedly subject yourself to all of this and more, and you can’t imagine yourself doing anything else. You do it because finding your voice through writing allows, and, at times forces, you to look at the world through different eyes. 
     
    And, when you have finally completed your work and release it out into the world, you will likely to never have worked so hard on anything in your life. It will have matured and softened you in the best possible ways and you would do it all over again in a heartbeat.

The Art of Making Mistakes

On By Soul of the SeasonsIn A Winter's Rest, Creativity, Embracing Our Emotions, Fear, Joy, Summer Fire1 Comment

Barb Psimas
Artwork by Barbara Psimas, Fine Artist

There’s no way around it, pursuing art and opening to our creativity involves risk. Any time we consider beginning a piece of artwork we must become willing to take a chance. We must become willing to enter into the unknown. We must become willing to be wrong. We must risk feeling silly or embarrassed, of making a mistake.

In my conversations with fellow artists of all types I find that we share similar anxieties or “fear Gremlins”, as author and researched Brene Brown calls them. Fear Gremlins are those insidious creatures who live in our psyches. Whenever we put our hand to a brush or a welder’s torch, a spatula, or the keyboard–basically, any tool of creativity–these annoying fearful critters of the subconscious begin to prattle incessantly, bringing to the surface our deepest fears and insecurities. They blather on with their accusations…

“Who do you think you are?”

“You can’t do that!”

“You don’t have what it takes!”

“You’re not enough! You’re not enough! You’re not enough!”

I’m sure you could add a few of your own.

In Five Element medicine Summer is the season represented by the element of Fire, and Water represents the season of Winter. Both Water and Fire are essential elements that support and nourish our creative spirits and, where we often experience the most conflict. In their balanced states Fire and Water temper and support each other. In the natural world the sun’s heat is tempered by the moisture in the atmosphere. Water sources such as seas, rivers, streams, and lakes, evaporate in the heat of sunlight. Their moisture then falls in the form of rain and snow over great areas, replenishing the earth, allowing plants to germinate and grow, for new life to begin. Forest fires reduce dead plant material to ash, fortifying the soil. These same fires are also essential in activating certain plants and seeds, allowing them to germinate.

Fire is the element that represents the emotional states of passion, joy, and creativity. Fire generates heat and light; physically, emotionally and spiritually. Our creative work requires warmth, tenderness, trust and deep courage, all important attributes of this essential element. Just as a physical light reveals the details in our artwork, spiritual light reveals the deepest recesses of our hearts. Expressing our creativity involves shining a light into the depth of our soul, revealing who we are at our very core.

Water, by contrast, is the element that symbolizes darkness, mystery, and the emotion of fear. Water is about caution and contemplation, stillness and gestation, risk assessment and fluidity. It is also where death resides. Our fears are here to serve us by alerting us to possible danger. They show us where we feel most secure and, what makes us tremble.

Water quenches Fire and Fire disburses Water. In this way, these two elements keep each other in balance and create an environment that is not only inhabitable, but pleasurable to live in. An imbalance in either of these two powerful elements can create havoc. Think: Forest fires and deserts, floods and avalanches. Spiritually, the element of Water tempers our enthusiasm and passion with time for contemplation and rest.

Though not unique to artists, one of our deepest desires is to live a life filled with warmth and juiciness, with  happiness and joy–but also with the calm reassurance of security. Experiencing a life such as this requires us to develop a delicate and dynamic relationship between the elements of Water and Fire. Too much fear (Water) and we’ll never pick up a tool. Too much passion (Fire) and chaos is the result.

Art is a container for our creativity.

Winter streamWater is of little use without a container. We need a cup from which to drink, pipes to carry water to our homes, rivers and streams need their banks. In art, as in life, one of the most critical aspects of creating is knowing where to begin and knowing when to end. We have to not only pick up a tool and give birth to our work, but also to give it a good death by finishing our art and then sending it out into the world. Or at least out into our living rooms.

Fire spread2Fire, on the other hand, provides the heat of passion that is necessary to carry out our creations. This essential element both warms our hearts and our homes. It brings light to our work, our vision, and our soul. Light shows us the unadulterated truth, revealing our flaws, and our brilliance. Both physical and spiritual light are needed to carry out our work. But too much enthusiasm (Fire) and we’ll keep working and reworking our art until it becomes a muddled mess.

An imbalance in either of these two elements inevitably creates difficulties. Too little Water and we become frozen, unable to take a risk, afraid we’ll make a mistake. Too much Water and our work (and our life) spills out everywhere, our art becomes watered down, soggy. Too little Fire and we lack the creative spark, we will find little joy in our work. Too much Fire and we work without ceasing, leaving only ash in our wake. We may create, but we as we do, we burn down everything in our path including our health and our relationships.

MistakeIf you find yourself stuck in either an excess or deficiency of either Fire or Water, consider how you might bring a little more balance to these elements.

If you are frozen and experiencing a creative block, try engaging with your creative passion. View great works of art and commune with other artists. Make passionate love with your beloved. Take small risks. Start out small. Paint or write for only fifteen minutes. Walk in the sunshine. Give yourself permission to make a mistake, permission to fail.

If you find there’s no beginning or end to your art, that your work (or your life) is in constant chaos, or that you tend to begin, and then discard your work too easily, (a Fire imbalance) try including periods of quiet contemplation into your routine. Sit by a body of water or listen to a calm and reassuring mentor. Spend time meditating. Take breaks. Sit in the dark. Trust that your art will be there, alive and well, when you return to pick up your pencil or awl or keyboard.

“Before every creation there must first be destruction.” — Pablo Picasso

Art is a continual cycle of death and rebirth. Ask any accomplished artist and they will tell you: creating art requires a continual balance between trust and vulnerability, between passion and the willingness to take risks. I am often challenged to find a balance between Water and Fire in both my writing and healing arts. I have found I need periods of solitude balanced with periods of lively interaction with friends and fellow artists.

I invite you to develop a more intimate relationship with your Fire and Water. Strike a good balance between your creativity with your caution, your joy and your fear. Make  a place in your life for both a season of Summer Fire and a quiet Winter’s Rest. When you begin to understand the dynamics between the season of Summer and Winter it cannot help but be reflected in your art, and your life.

 

Blessings and Grace,

Melody