Social media has created a wonderful and yet dizzying concept of what it means to be 'living'.  What it means to have a 'lifestyle'.  Scroll through some images, read some blogs and there we can define ourselves by the 'living' of others.  Yet, it may never truly be your own lifestyle.  Because you didn't own it.

Lifestyle is 'how we do our everyday'.  

The practice of owning and defining our lifestyle is life altering.  The process not only creates a vision for where we want to be, but gives us a very defined outline of how to live our day to day.  Days lead to weeks, weeks lead to months and months lead to years.  

So how do we figure it all out?  

1) What's your personality pace?

Are you motivated by a busy schedule?  High stakes, high rewards?  Are you drained by crowds and being rushed?  Do you desire synchronicity in work, relationships and play?  Do you wish others would slow down or speed up with you?

2) Where do you see yourself?  

City, country, lake, ocean, mountains, fields, weekend, weekdays, cafés, malls, etc?

3)  Identify Wellness.

Mental, Physical, Emotional, Relational, Financial.  Identify one thing in each that you desire.

4) A daily gift to yourself.

What is one small thing that you can promise yourself you will do that will make you happy? 

5) Pick three words.

What are three separate words that describe your desired lifestyle?

____

If you review these five mindful questions you will be led to defining a lifestyle that fits you.

Insert Your answers.

I am a (describe personality)  _______________ , who wants to be in/at (insert location) ____________ on the weekdays and in/at (insert location) ___________ on the weekends.  I routinely need to have (mental requirement), _______ , (physical requirement)__________ , (emotional requirement)_________ , (relational requirement)___________, (Financial requirement) and (any other form of wellness) ___________.  I will daily (daily gift) ________ to feed my spirit and ultimately I will keep ______, ______, ______ in mind as I go about my day.

sparkler |ˈspärk(ə)lər| noun1 a thing that sparkles, in particular:• a handheld firework that emits sparks.• informal a gemstone, especially a diamond.• informal a sparkling wine.2 a nozzle attached to the spout on a beer pump to give the beer a frothy head.

I am fascinated by the spirits who sparkle, by the spirits who could sparkle, by the brilliance of moments that deserve to be honoured with a toast, by the dazzle of a soul who has overcome, by the mundane of the everyday becoming the shimmer of the usual.  

These are moments and people who deserve to be honoured for their rarity. 

I want to celebrate the good and the bad.  I am thrilled by making the ordinary, extraordinary. 

How to join the Sparkler Affect?

1. Buy sparklers.  

Any sparkler.  Cheap, expensive, little or large.  

2. Use them.

When you come across a moment, person, decision, day that deserves a pause. 

3. Post your story.

Find The Sparkler Affect on Instagram @thesparkleraffect and use #thesparkleraffect to spread the sparkle.  Outstanding #sparklemoments will be reposted.

4. Spread the sparkle.

Take the intention of the sparkle affect into the everyday by giving yourself and others permission to feel the moments.  Honour each other in grief, celebration, confusion, love, adventure and grace with a sparkler in hand.  Pass a sparkler moment to others and watch what happens when we let the sparks fly from our hands into the world around us.

_____________________________

The Five Main Sparkler Moments

1) Special Occasions

Weddings, Baby Showers, New Years Day, Birthday, Canada Day, 4th July etc.

2) Goals Setting / Reaching

Setting intentions/goals/visions and reaching those intentions/goals/visions.

3) Friends, Family, Your Person

A day, or moment spent with family / friends or person, a special exchange between spirits.

4) Transition/Change

 Break-up, Graduation, School End, Move, end of season, month, day, etc...  

5) Personal 

A ceremonial moment with yourself.  Only you know what this is.

thesparkleaffect | sparkle | sparkler | Celebrate | sparklemoments 

"I can't draw a stick figure to save my life!  I am not creative at all!"

"I don't have a musical bone in my body!"

............................................................

Let's lay out some ground work for creativity and fast track this shall we?

 

You are creative.

EXHIBIT A:

CREATIVE. ADJ.  relating to or involving the imagination or original ideas, especially in the production of an artistic work: change unleashes people's creative energy |creative writing.• (of a person) having good imagination or original ideas: Homer, the creative genius of Greek epic.

FINDINGS:

1) Especially in the production of an artistic work, but not discarding works of other kinds. 

2) All of you is original.  You are the only you.  No matter what you do with your life, it is going to be original.  It is going to be uniquely you in only a way that you could do it.  You will create your life in only the ways that you know how.

Goal: 

Be uniquely and originally you.  

You are the creativity.

Fear | Awareness | Bravery |  

"Who do you think you are?"

Every time I stand up to act, dance, sing or write, I have a fleeting moment that I believe I am an imposter.  I am sure that by now it doesn't look like I am struggling.  That is what being a performer is all about.  You don't show the audience your fear.  You bring out the part of you that 'could' be confident and you stand in that 0.2% of yourself.  Confident. 

This was my year in theatre school.

Twenty-four and leaving a well broken in career for early morning rolling on the floor, yelling at the top of my lungs, singing out rhythms and creating theatrical montages with my body.  

"Who do you think you are?  You imposter!"

I saw the looks, heard the confusion and I felt the judgement. 

No matter which way you cut it, I was doing something many people thought I had already gotten out of my system.  The academics and MFA majors cannot fathom why an already careered adult would want to venture into a one year training program for the stage.

I decided my fear was less important than being true to the strong calling on my spirit.  I decided I would rather be an imposter then not at all.

I spent over eight months studying the performing arts.  It was everything I had dreamed.  Beautiful early mornings stretching my body and exploring every inch of my soul.  I was pushed.  I was given the floor to explore the wounds within my spirit.  

"Reach for more!"  I was told as I danced around a dress shirt.  A symbol for the people who have left.

"You are more intelligent than you think you are."  I was pulled aside after an in-depth discussion in class. 

"You have a powerhouse voice, now you just need to know how to harness it."  He said after a practice.

Yet.

"Who do you think you are?" echoes like heels in an empty hall. 

And I am here to tell you it still does.

The dark stiletto heels echo in my ears every time I stand up and say yes to doing what I was called to do.

And every time I say yes, there will also be a crowd of people with furrowed eyebrows and whispered thoughts behind doors.

And thats okay.

I am venturing into new terriority and as a stunning spirit declared truth over coffee.

"You better know who you are, because that voice is coming the more you step out."

If you step out, the voice is going to come.

It is going to whisper over your shoulder and it will make you quiver with doubt.  But the call is deeper.  The call is raw with dew and ready for you to step into.

I am here with hands open, ready to take yours into this journey of the unknown.  Where the voice of doubt grows louder and the call keeps us running faster and faster.

I want to run with you.

I want to dance with you.

I want to light a sparkler with you.

I want to stand with you.

I am a self proclaimed musical promoter.  I grew up on musicals, swing dance, broadway and old black and white film classics.  If someone started singing "Good Morning"  I would chime in and fill in where they left off.  

No, the song was not made for a viagra commercial.  (insert eye-roll here)

I remember the Christmas my sister and I received VHS tapes of "The Sounds of Music" with Julie Andrews and "My Fair Lady" with Audrey Hepburn.  That winter those two musicals played one after the other.  On repeat.  The dancing, the singing, the corepgrahy.  We soaked it in.

I have introduced many people to the classics.  To the new and the old of the triple threat world.  Song, dance and act.  

I have a confession...

I haven't been watching musicals (albeit once in a while) or listening to my adored accapella music for almost two years.  I have a lingering fear I will never sing, dance or act again.  That every time, is my last time. 

When I was pregnant I had to stop swing and blues dancing.  Nausea was my main symptom of pregnancy and when it did let up, my body still heaved at the thought of too much up and down. 

Somewhere in the pregnancy I began to avoid musicals, show tunes, and deep deep blues and jazz music.  It cut into me like a knife.  Like watching a lover be with another.  It was impossible for me to witness.  So I avoided my favourite city theatre, took all musical music off my iPhone and instead focused on reruns of Gilmore Girls.  Let it be said, Gilmore Girls is amazing.  Their references are on point and the ease of the narrative was perfect for me to rest to. 

I avoided the stage like the plague.  All for jealousy sake.  

This is what happens when we have a passion for something and push it to the side.  

It was fear.

Fear that I wouldn't ever sing, dance or act again. 

This year I am getting back into it.  It doesn't have to look like me moving to New York and pursuing the triple threat, it is me embracing this side of me and not feeling intimidated by that which also thrills me.

So far in 2016:

1.  I have joined a once a week intermediate Swing Dance Class.  The Follow Teacher is one I have not learned from before.  She is from another country and is bringing more skills into my dance repetoir.
2. I have joined a community choir to raise money for a Syrian refugee family.  They are singing through a famous musical and it is refreshing me on the technique of harmony and the rehearsal process.
3. I have picked out pieces and theory to work on the piano this Winter.  Finger excercies, Scale work, a contemporary piece, a worship song, & 2 classical pieces from a book I played years ago.  Going back to the basics. 

I can't talk enough about Pinterest.  It is my favourite form of inspiration.  It was years ago that I found Pinterest.  My best friend had told me about it and said that she was sure I would appreciate the site.  It took me a few weeks but eventually I looked it up and of course it wouldn't let me in.  At that time Pinterest was "elite" and you needed a friends referral.

"How are you not on Pinterest already?" my friend asked.

Half annoyed at her impatience I explained how I needed a referral.  She imediatly went in and requested me through email.

That is when I finally officially discovered pinterest.  Back then it was not as populated, used or known as it is today but there was also a mystery to it's wonder then.  Everything was like a shiny new magazine.  In that moment I abandoned my old scrapbooking ways and immediately switched to online pin boards that brought even more vision to my thoughts and concepts. 

Countless times I have had conversations with people and they have said it distracts them from doing what they want to be doing.  It overwhelms them with the amount of images and content, and it intimidates them.

With Pinterest it is all in how you use it.

Here is how I use Pinterest as a tool for living:

1) I streamline my content feed to my own preferences and interests.  

I go through all of the boards and Pinners I follow on a routine basis and make sure the only images that show up on my feed are exactly what I want to see.  With Pinterest, less can be more.  Now, Pinterest will also streamline for you, but the more streamline you are, the better your feed will be. 

2) My Boards are organized in a way that makes sense to me.  

For me it is : Amys Boards, Her Boards, She's Boards , Months, & lastly Shared Boards.  How you organize your boards are up to you, but I do suggest finding a method that works best for searching.  Alphabetical or order of importance are options. 

3) Use the 'like' button as a holding place for pins you are not sure about.  

Often times I will see a pin that says '5 ways to do ___' and I am not sure if I really want to pin it to a board so I 'like' it, check back in with it and it's link later before I pin it or unlike it. 

4) Find a routine that works for you.  

I have a few action items I do weekly through pinterest.  These are :  Food, D.I.Y./Activity, Monthly/Seasonal, Mama/Baby Activity.  Every week I pick a recipe I want to try, a new project I want to attempt or research, an activity to enjoy the season/month I am in, and one new activity to do with my daughter.  I do this because I never want pinterest to be full of "One days."  I want to stay active in trying new things and being inspired. 

5) Use Pinterest as an active vision board.  

Making vision boards is not a new thing.  For years the concept of scrapbooking, collecting, cutting and pasting has kept people inspired and interested in living.  My great grandmother had millions of articles, pictures and inspirational snippets cut out.   Use the concept that has been passed down to us to create an active inspirational spring board.  I have recently taken my favourite pins for envisioning 2016 and put them in a free online collage maker.  I know what the pictures mean and inspire in me but to someone else they may be different.

6) Have fun!  

Pinterest is not supposed to insite pressure or create new moms to feel scared of their childs first birthday party.  Making a full life is about using the tools around you to be happier and inspired.

Creators.

Destroyers.

Everyone alive right now is creating or destroying something with their life.

We are creating family, a career, a project, a lifestyle, a diet, a fashion statement... the list is endless.  

or

We are destroying friendships, marriages, reputations, 

Which side of the coin do you want to be on?

Living is creating.  Creating is living.  We can't separate it.  We can try, but then we'd just be destroying something. 

New is relative.

New is perspective.

New is what you make it.

So new can be what you are now here.

Or new can be what you desire there.

Either way, whatever 2016 is whispering in your ear, don't be alarmed if your heart beats faster, your palms start to sweat and you feel like vomiting the more you think about it.

Fear is what wants to take you down this twenty - sixteen.

If it was up to fear, you would't do a thing.  You would sit on a couch, with your snacks, your smart phone and your netflix binge watching whatever it is that fed your bottomless hungry soul.

Fear would rather watch you think of something and then hide it away, dream of something and then discard it the moment you see or feel rejection.

Yeah, I've been rejected.  A LOT.

I have heard countless thoughtless comments on how unimportant creativity is.  How selfish it is to want to delve into something because I am drawn to it.  I have been ignored because I offer more of me and less of that plastic thing we call 'façade'.  Façade is safe and comfortable, we can see it and nod our heads at it.  We know it is that thing that protects that person and us from doing that thing called 'real'.  We don't want 'real' so at least we can agree to stay at a distance.

You there.

Me here.

And there is always a choice.  

Fear wants you to sleep in, past the inspiration, past the will to reach for more until you realize the day is almost over and you missed it.  You missed. it.

2016 is not about missing it.

2016 is about finding it.

Exposing it.

So I am not saying we can't admit to our fears.

Fears are real.

Fears are there.

Fears are made to be the springboard into what we are made to do. 

So whatever is new to you, is new is new is new.

Nothing is new to fear

And nothing is new to courage. 

It's all relative.  it's all apart of the game.  

Dearest twenty-sixteen,

I saw you across the room and my heart began to race.  I was arrested in the discovery of you and I must be honest, you have been escaping my grasp for far too long.

I have seen you in glimpses.  Here and there you have teased me.  A flirt at my expense and I know that to some degree I deserved this delay.  The chrysalids of my spirit was not yet ready for your obvious beauty.  I needed to walk the more complicated path, for life itself was teaching me the ways in which I needed to know I wanted and didn't want.

You may not know this yet, but, I believe we are meant for a partnership that will leave glitter in our wake.  Then again, the way you winked at me tonight when the clock turned 12:00am... maybe you know it too.

I want to dance with you like all the greatest of lovers do.  I want to listen to what you have to teach me like a student listens to their master, I want to run my fingers through your days like poet savers the lines in his poem.  I want to raise my voice and shout loud the words that we share.  

I am going to go all the way with you.  Like a secret love that can't be denied, I want to sit together our hands intwined and find the places in which no one else but us go.

Twenty-Sixteen, I have had other years, it's true.  You aren't the first, you are one of many.  Some good, and some not so bad.  Some were amazing.  Twenty-Twelve was a like holding hands with a drug addict.  I couldn't breathe, I could barely stand.  Twenty-Fourteen was like holding hands with a first-love.  Everything was blooming, evolving and becoming.  Twenty-Fifteen, well, she was like being tugged around by the hands of many.  Endless commentary on what I should or should not be feeling and doing, yet, only finding myself on those long walks and quiet.  Peace and quiet with just the baby girl and I.  No noise, no preconcieved ideas of how I would do my own life or look like, act like, be like... just the waves.  

So you see, twenty-sixteen, when I saw you across the room and we locked eyes, I was breathless.  There you were all glittery with a trail of gold behind you and I couldn't believe that it was me you were looking at.  I felt the heat of passion, hope and strength in my belly and I still feel it now as I recall the way you walked up to me.  Stopped inches from my lips.  You breathed on me, and I heard only two words in my head as I inhaled your scent.  "At Last".  

You smelled of blown out candles, salt ocean air, lavender fields and the end of bonfires.  I remember licking my lips in anticipation.  You waited until the very last second, until the last second of twenty-fifteen had left it's grip on me, and then you kissed me, full on the mouth.

I didn't think of anything in that moment.  No, I couldn't.  It was just this knowing that you were sent to me for a purpose and that somehow, our new connection will make ripples that only time will tell.

And thats when your kiss eneded.  I opened my eyes and you whispered.

"Hello,"

You never let me say anything in reply.  You simply winked one of your gorgeous eyes and went back to the wall I remember you leaning on.  But from that moment on, I stayed aware of you.  I am still aware of you.

You are here, and now I cannot ignore you.

"Hello."

Dearest Creatives everywhere,

I see potential in you.  I see you with your pocket full of creativity and I have a hard time containing myself.  I believe that everyone has a pocket of creativity and I believe it is those of us who dare to take what is in our pockets, look at what was inside, blow on it into the world who will flourish.

It is not about wether you can paint, write, draw, dance or sing.  Those are the words we have tagged on to a creative act, yes, but that leaves out other words.  There are words like, home, organize, engineer, lawyer, fashion, and cook.  These are also creative acts.  In fact, look at your life.  Your life is a creative act.  Because your life is making something.

So this 2016, I am taking a simple concept of what started as a group of women who met up once a month to share good food, wine and conversation about their creative questions, theories, work and more and I am blowing on it as if it was glitter in my hand.  

The Creatives is now not just a meet up, but a concept for a way of life.  This year I will be offering:

• Monthly Meet Ups: A monthly gathering of creative minded women to meet, listen and share. 
• A Book Club: A monthly book club meeting based on living creatively.  (4 books over the course of the year.)
• Seasonal Workshops: Four workshops led by creative and inspirational women. 
• A Retreat: Info TBA (Mid to late 2016)

And 

• Creative Mentoring Services: A four-step one-on-one program for those who want to boost their creative discovery, life and visions.

The Creatives started small, has grown, became small again, changed and evolved.  The size is not the point.  The point is for us to take what sparkle of creativity we have in our pockets and blow on it.  Give it the chance to catch a breeze and watch it land in a new and exciting location.

Join with me in the chrysalids of "The Creatives".

Amy Grace

Every year is a journey.  A chapter in our lives.

If I was to sum up this past year I would say: 

Wading through wreckage of real.  Wonder filled by miracle of birth.  Waiting on inspiration.

This year I have learned:

1) Always trust my intuition.  

Mama instincts are real, woman intuition is also a very real aspect of female functioning and to top that off with the interpreter training I have had to be highly aware of myself and those around me, I need to stop doubting myself.  If I feel strongly something isn't right for me or my family, it more than likely isn't.  Spending time feeling guilty for standing up for my instincts is a waste of my joy and health.

2) My body is a temple.  

There is nothing like pregnancy, birth and postnatal recovery that brought this discovery.  Nurturing my body for my daughters safety and then survival as a newborn has brought me to a place where I am driven by wellness instead of guilt.  What I put into my body will come out, and our bodies house our very spirits.  I want my whole self to leak light, health and truth.

3) I am intelligent.  

I have allowed for too long the idea that what I may lack is a reason for anyone to view me as unqualified, or unintelligent.  This is a lie and garbages what I have to offer to this world away.  I am a college diploma interpreter, certified and trained in theatre, student of piano for eight years, choir and musically trained vocalist, an intermediate Swing and Blues dancer, a natural baker, a beginner trained figure skater, and after all of that an untaught writer.  All of these elements of my expierence have created me to become a person who can speak on many topics and has the ability to create and work in the creative and academic environments that I step into.  I am capable and have more than enough to bring to the table.  

4) Life is precious.  

There is something about birthing a baby that gave me roots.  It's not about success, or how hard I have worked.  It is not about what I have written or if I sing well enough to move people.  It is not about the links, the videos, the pictures or what "I have done".  It's about wether or not I was present for the life I am living.  Creating a family has done wonders for my heart.  There has been a shift.  A focus.  The sound on my phone is always off and I guard my weeks to be anything but busy.  I would rather leave open spaces for the quiet moments and the not so rushed.  In the end, nobody thinks about the work they have done, but the people they loved.

5) Food brings me joy.  

As with most women, I have had a journey with food.  Eating too much sugar, not eating enough, forgetting to nourish my body in the way it needs.  Needless to say, the past few years of my life has been a journey back to food in the right way.  When I was hit with morning sickness and couldn't eat my normal diet I was crushed.  I didn't want any of it.  And although I didn't miss it then, a joy I had felt before in eating had left.  Recovering from birth Jeremy and I made a mission to introduce new and exciting foods into our diets.  And it was a journey that made me love food even more.  Food can be the best or worst thing for us.  It is all in how we use it.  

I will be taking a break this December to fast from media and mindfully consider the projects and work that I am being called to take on in 2016.  I sense a deepening and a call on my spirit to find the places and spaces that need me to go further for Grace, truth, inspiration and depth.  I am leaving my heart open to receive the inspiration as it filters in this next month and I sincerely hope that you join with me in 2016 to discover what it is that is there waiting.

There is a sparkle in the unknown and I am captivated by it.

May you look for the sparkle trail that is left for each of us like crumbs that leads to a banquet table.  May you listen to the Spirit and collapse in understanding when this beautiful life unfolds one precious day at a time.

 

Amy Grace 

Seasons come and seasons go and seasons come back again.

I used to drive my small car all around.  Coffee with a friend in the morning, driving to the ocean with another in the afternoon.  We would make dinner with more friends at night.  

There was one summer in particular that friends never left.  It was endless summer days of helping each other with our work, eating, swimming, walking and singing.  A pivotal summer, one that was a spring board into the lives we are living now.

And then that season passed.  

And that little apartment that was an open door with a couch that was getting worn by the use was left behind in fond memories.

We had a baby.

And then.

We moved.

We moved.  They moved.

New home but that same old couch.  And that couch is calling to me again.  For the door to be reopened and for more bodies to sit and 'connect'.

Wading through a season that forced us to focus inward, and now there is hope.  Connecting again.

Who can you connect with this week?  Are you in a season of 'connecting' or 'dis-connecting'?

Nicole Payzant Photography

The first six months:

New little family.  New little home.

Being parents to this little fire cracker is the biggest blessing and honour.  

We knew it was going to change us better and new, but we didn't realize how much we would change.  She has changed us.  

Her spirit upon conception filled me.  I felt her before I knew of her.   As her movements became normal to me, I took her in and felt her rythm and pace.  She was her own beat and I knew that this daughter was going to come out different, new and wonder-filled. 

I prayed then, and we pray now as we zip her into her sleep sac, wrap her up in her favourite yellow blanket, kiss her and pass her her beloved 'purple guy' which she grabs and pulls his blanket body over her face. 

"We pray you have a strong voice, an ability to discern and a strong sense of self."

So we parent this daughter who howls at any amount of disgruntlement, keeps eyes wide open for the world around her, and who leaves us amazed at what she is affected by.

It is she who is teaching us.

We are learning daily what it means to be present and aware.  We are aiming to not just suggest a healthy lifestyle, but to model it.  To model it, we have to be disciplined and determined of our own lives. 

Raising her is already days full of laughter, cries and outbursts of singing.  We are blessed beyond belief with her presence and we can only pray and continue to stubbornly demonstrate the life we want her to know.

What we have learned so far is that parenthood is not about you or about us.  Parenthood is about each unique spirit that is placed in the parents hands to raise up in a way that matches the unit that is created.  It is a her, him and I type of journey.  Each child is unique and each little family different.  

May we honour this journey and never take the blessing of her life for granted.  

Emotional / Physical Wellness

We rush and rush.  Our lists are long.  We are either procrastinating or we aren't breathing.

Christmas season is approaching.  Advent is coming.

Do we really want to be stalled on the couch watching commercials of the next meal deal?  Do we really want to be racing through the malls with a list as long as our intestines?

As December is approaching let us take stalk in our pace.

Bring it back, or take a step up.  Either way we need to go, it's our time to be paced with the advent of Christmas.

Where do you need to slow down?  Where do you need to take initiative? 

Spiritual / Social Wellness 

We see it everywhere.

This hashtag 'Authentic' thing.

But are we doing it?

Really?  Are we really being that #authentic living type of thing?

What does it mean? 

Authentic.  adj.  1. of undisputed origin; genuine. 2. (in existentialist philosophy) relating to or denoting an emotionally appropriate, significant, purposive and responsive mode of human life.

When we sit down with our friends and family are we truly being our whole self in front of them?  Are we willing to ask and listen to their whole self in front of us? 

It goes both ways.

We can talk and talk about us but if we are not willing to ask and 'listen' to the authentic across from us then we are just a mouthpiece and we loose our meaning.  

We create depth and unity when there is more then just our own air in the room.  

How are you acting out your authenticy?  Are you taking the time to respond to others 'authentic'?