The Creatives 2014

We evolve.  We know this.

At least, we should be evolving.  Evolving shows growth, adapting to the life around us and depth inside us.  

Over the past year I have been sensing a change and a needed shift for The Creatives.  I have struggled to identify how to create that appropriate change.  We still need each other, that never changes.  And yet, how we interact and communicate needs to change.

Most of the women who began this group with me were students.  Together we faced our lack of knowledge and we levelled up in education, projects and facing fears.  Then we graduated and began the journey of 'now what'.  We rallied, we traveled, we moved, we life shifted and then we were left with those who were still in the area to meet.
The truth.

We have evolved.  I have evolved.

It's time to acknowledge this.

The Creatives has a place in the now and I have to admit that it's place is not in the same format.  It's time for a new and fresh place for this project.  How?  I am not sure yet.

And thats okay.  It's a bit exciting.  To know that the world is wide open for the creatives again.  That in truth there is a wide open space and there is a corner out there for it.  

I need to raise my glass to the women who came around me for this in the beginning.  Jasmine Alexander, Nicole Payzant, Tasia Craig, Breanne Bandur and Danielle Doiron just to name a few.  And those that joined along the way and graced my home and tinkled wine glasses as we encouraged eacother through the fears, the unknowns.  I honour them.  I respect them.  I am in awe of them.  I truly believe that it was those friday nights at the end of every month that allowed me to gain awareness of myself and my craft.  

And to the next phase?  I raise a new glass and pray that I will be able to stay humble, grounded and sensitive to those who will journey alongside with me yet again.  

Stay shiny, stay vibrant and stay tuned.  

For there is always more where this came from.  

 

In all honesty, showing up to "The Creatives" is a rebellious act towards fear.  I see it on our faces as we gather around a table and silently admit to each other that our fear almost had us not here today, but something inside each of us said, 'showing up is worth more than what fear would have done to me tonight'.

That is what I aim to see cultivated with us even more this year.  It's a silent but 'actions-speak-louder-than-words' type of battle cry.  The battle cry of women.  Women who are creative.

Truly, that is all of us.  For those of us who show up, it is something we dare to embrace.

Hosting these events, I admittedly feel clumsy, awkward and an imposter.  It's the nature of the beast.  "Don't let them see my nervousness, because they might catch on I have no idea what I am doing." 

Thats the truth of it.  I don't know how to host the Creatives.  I rarely ever feel strong in this role.  But it's important.  It gives us life, and so I press on, and I believe and trust that what God puts in my heart to do, will have a place in this world.

And it does.  The joy we discussed this night was lovely to behold and the struggle to move past our fear was a beautiful part of us that needed us to be tender with it, to hold it gently and give it honour to the energy it takes to be fearless, even for just one minute of one day.

Out of anything for 2017, I sense those who attend The Creatives will deepen in their inidivudal awareness of their own creativity and in doing so we will discover another layer to The Creatives Collective that hasn't existed before.

Stepping into the territory that is ours one day at a time.
 

It was comical.  To have a small group of women and no real voice to use to communicate with them.

It was that time of year.  When spirits start to sag, immune systems go down and suddenly, although Spring has arrived the weather has not yet fully turned and we are anxious.  

For myself, attending a film workshop the day before and being sent home due to not being well enough to be in front of a camera.  Debilitating.  An artists spirit is to work and when work is like a slug how do we cope?

I laid the question on the table.  Knowing they would see.

"What are the struggles so far in 2014?"

Each arrived and suddenly I heard a quip.

"Do you want me to write an essay?"

It seemed the timing was right on mark with these Halifax Creatives.

The answers?

• Comparing myself to others
• Accepting, transisiotning out of things and into new things
• Feeling inspired, yet lacking the desire to follow through
• Self Doubt
• Physical distractions (Sickness etc.)
• To be clever
• Money, or lack thereof 
• People
• Condifence

And as one so perfectly put it:  "Well, theres the whole 'life' thing..."

How do we overcome our personal issues and use them to benefit our work and energy rather than getting bogged down by them?

Simply that

Use it.

Take the lack of confidence and turn it into a piece about 'simply that'.

Get at work whether it feels good or not.

Creatives are not brilliant because every piece they create is brilliant.  No,  they are brilliant because they work at their craft whether it is understood or not.  Whether it is appreciated or not.  Whether the pay is there or not.  Whether they are healthy or not.  

Creatives create because they were called to.

We began to listen to one another, and listening during a season of 'lack' can be exactly what a spirit needs.  Listening to the heart beat of another, the doubts of your inner self...

"Doubt is a signal of the creative process.  It is a signal that you are doing something right - not that you are doing something wrong or crazy or stupid.  The sickening chasm of fear that doubt triggers to yawn open beneath you is a huge abyss into which you are going to tumble, spiralling downwards like you are falling through the circles of hell.  No, doubt is most often a signal you are doing something and doing it right."  - Julia Cameron 'Walking in this World'