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'?   

We have gotten that crisp Autumn in our veins.  

We went deep.

We gathered small this time.  We gathered with our real and our raw and sometimes that leaves some of us breathless.  

We hesitate with our words, our art hangs in the balance of our honest moments and yet somehow blending it with others interrupts us from our safe place.

We are safe, yet we are in danger.

Us women who gathered were in danger of collapsing into what we are all scared of.

Judgement.

The pain and anguish of releasing ourselves into a wild feminine unknown.  Like lionesses we are barring our proverbial teeth, blood dripping with the kill and we have to protect ourselves from those who want what is rightfully ours to bring to the pack.

This may seem dramatic in words... this imagery of female prowess but in truth? It is not.

We Creatives are powerhouses of creation and the spirits we house are wild, daring, seductive and striking.  

Each woman different and dynamic addition to 'our pack'.  

A creative sits on the divide between pain and ecstasy.  We may differ in how we choose to label it, discuss it or entertain it, but it is there just the same.

This month the creatives entered the divide and we came out on the other side one step closer to comprehending what it is we have pitted ourselves up against.

These are the warrior women I am proud to welcome into my home.  These are the spirits who strive to take the divide and make it seen.

I stand in the elements with these wild ones.  

Emotional Wellness

We live in a world of 'Yes'.  

"You can have it all."  

Is this truth?

Everything comes with perspective.

What happens in a world of 'yes', when we say 'no'? No to the pressure, no to the perfection, no to the impatience and no to the expectations?

There is resistance in 'No', in this world of 'Yes'.

What if 'No' was good for us?

What if a 'No' was the word that was going to keep us from the next meltdown, car accident, overtired day, extra weight on the scale?

Is there value in saying 'no'?

Discipline and boundaries dare you to try it.

Saying 'no'  doesn't have to be the cringing word that slinks away after a guilt trip.  

Saying 'no' could be an empowering tool to keep us truthful.  Honest.  Real.

What have you said 'yes' to that you should have said a truthful 'no' to?  Have you been lying to others and yourself by saying 'yes'?  

Physical Wellness

Just when you thought it couldn't get anymore green with avacodos in our supermarkets ...Kale made it's grand entrance.

I am so glad it did.  

With its cancer fighting contents, anti inflammatory and detoxification goodness this green leaf has the power to punch a healthy streak into your diet.

I wasn't a Kale fan at first.

Bitter.  Blech.

And then during postpartum we found Kale Smoothies.

A beautiful way to blend it up and get all that green goodness. 

So join us in Kale-ing it out.  (We find protein powder, cold bananas and ice cubes are essentials for our favourite K-Smoothie bliss)

What green have you been ignoring?  Have you tried a Kale smoothie recipe before? How can you put Kale into your diet?

Emotional/Spiritual Wellness

During Thanksgiving weekend (for us Canadians) we can know we are thankful but may not feel thankful.

Knowing is important.

Feeling is also important.

Some may say feelings are unnecessary but in fact, feeling is a very important aspect to being human.  

Identify what we are feeling.

I felt. 

Nothing.

I could see the blessings.

But could not feel the blessings.

So we counted.

We counted to a hundred of our 'Thankful Things' and found the feelings in the counting.

We smiled as we thought of what blessings we have encountered and have in our lives.  We were made fresh in our joy and our thankfulness.

What are you feeling lately?  How can you identify your feelings in a healthy way?  Pick a number and count it out.

1) Zoë.  

I am learning her everyday and although she is fifty percent me, and fifty percent him, she is one hundred percent her own person.  She beats to her own drum and I love that.  I love her expressions, her ability to make herself known and her unique voice.  

2) Mom.

The ease in which I have been able to become 'mama' in front of my own mom.  It was that first moment when she walked into the hospital room and saw us together.  New mama and babe.   "How are you?"  Those first three words although so simple in the midst of her 'New Grandmother' role, created space and room for us to grow as Mother and Daughter with Daughter.   

3) Nature.

We prayed for nature at our new home.  We craved it.  I, especially, felt the call to the ocean.  I did not know why, or how it would be possible but the ocean was in my heart.  Now, moved and still in the midst of renos and settling, we are blessed with the atmosphere around us.  Daily hour long walks along the ocean have given my spirit a whole new resting place.

4) Inspiration.

The muse comes and goes.  All creatives know this struggle.  How to wait and be patient before the next project alights on us.  I continue to dabble and work on the side projects that keep me alive but have 'heard' my next long term project and it changes me.  It gives this new stage a purpose beyond the present.  I am inspired.

5) Jeremy.  

The past few months of our lives as a couple have been some of the toughest to date.  A marriage that works is one that takes communication, sacrifice, forgiveness and overflowing grace.  We have been passing the grace cup between us for months now.  Urging this season forward and putting boundaries down where we have needed.  What may look like us being overly private and especially quiet has been months of hard and solid work to keep our marriage and little family alive.  Never underestimate the time it takes to feed into a real life.  Jeremy is a man who dedicates not just his physical presence into our marriage but his emotional presence.  I am so thankful for our growth, discovery and journey together. 

Emotional Wellness

Becoming a mama only put "multi-tasking" on overdrive. 

Was this necessary? 

Yes.

Is this maintainable forever?  

No.

It is time to take a step back and "mono-task".

One thing at one time.

It means I will be even more slow at responding to emails, more unavailable to social media and more hard to pin down.

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury.  We are all guilty of saying 'yes' to much and 'no' to little.  We are all guilty of scrolling through our latest 'feeds' while sitting next to a loved one when they were watching us...waiting for the next moment we would (maybe) tune in.

I am tuning in.

We need to tune in.

This multi-tasking life is taking over our lives.  

The TV flashes with the news blaring when family is visiting, the phones dinging with 'notifications' in the middle of a conversation, the minds running over lists and lists of to dos while a child twisting and turning, learning how to move and we are too busy 'catching up' with the world to be present in our own.

Mono-Task.  The ability to do one thing, at one time.

Try it.

When have you caught yourself checking out of your present life to check into places you are not actually 'in'?  How can you tackle your day to day being present in one thing at one time?