A Tip From ‘Ol Blue Eyes

A surprising gift from the year of building birdhouses is this blog about creativity.  The title “Creativity For the Rest Of Us” came to me about three years ago – the summer I got a pair of binoculars and took up bird watching in my garden. (It’s amazing the insights that come in stillness.)  I didn’t understand what the title meant at first.  It stayed with me and I played around with it from time to...

The Mystery of Fog

The Northern California coast where I live is famous for its fog.  Mark Twain’s line about “the coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco” is a popular quote used by locals.  When my Irish cousins come to visit, our first stop is often to buy a pair of long pants or a sweatshirt (for warmth not as souvenirs). In my quest to stop whining about things I have no control over, I chose to adopt a...

Teachings From the Banana Slug

On a recent outdoor adventure, I had the opportunity to spend some extended time up close and personal with a banana slug. Here’s what I learned. Move at your own pace and with the intuitive rhythm of nature.  Sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly and never in a straight line, slugs get where they’re going with grace and ease.  With curiosity, they investigate everything that crosses their path.  They also stop to...

The Bamboo Dance

I’ll be blunt.  If you don’t develop flexibility, you are in for a rocky road.  There is more change coming at us faster than we’ve ever known and it is not going away anytime soon. Consider the bamboo reed – whipping about in the wind, bending so far at times as to touch the ground before springing back up – but it doesn’t break.  Bamboo is the very definition of flexibility – ready and able to change so as to...

Creativity and Artistry

Creativity is about much more than being artistic.  I was in a group last summer with a bunch of talented folks who you would classify as artists – people who draw, photographers, musicians, poets, writers, videographers, and the generous pixies who created the luscious and hospitable space for us to play in.  Those were the visible forms of artistry – the designated artists. I had an Ah-Ha moment when one of...