Two years ago I started writing morning pages, described by Julia Cameron as three pages of longhand, stream of consciousness writing, done first thing in the morning. According to creativity expert Cameron, morning pages serve as a bedrock of creative recovery. On day 4 of my newfound creativity practice in barely readable cursive I penned, “So far I’ve just written two pages per day but I’m sure I’ll get to three! Keep writing! Keep the pen moving and just write! Can I refill my coffee now? It’s 7:30 a.m. Okay, just come back quickly.”
Awakening creativity in this mama includes a lot of self-talk and caffeine.
After a first page of blabbering about my waking dream and the groovy new purple gel pens I’d bought at Target the day before a shift happened. It’s as if my pen was writing to me, or dare I say to all of us:
Creativity isn’t an aspect of your life; it’s WHO YOU ARE. It’s your truth. It’s your expression. Your divine nature. Your birthright. It may be expressed in infinite ways and isn’t just the words you write, the story you tell, or the picture you paint. It’s the spirit of your soul. You ARE A CREATOR and your expression yearns to flow through all parts of your life.
Kimberly’s morning pages, August 30, 2021
What followed were the practical and energetic steps to declare, nourish, express, and remove blocks of creativity in my own life.
Did I sit up straight in my chair and implement these key steps to ignite my own creativity immediately? Um, no.
Rick Rubin describes the Source of creativity as a cloud. “Clouds never truly disappear, “he writes. “They change form. They turn into rain and become part of the ocean, and then evaporate and return to being clouds.”
My own ideas about creativity that bright morning were burgeoning cumulus clouds floating over me, raining down wisdom on my morning page, and then moving on. I’ve come back to the precipitious words many times over the last two years but never moved the inspiring ink to action. Until now!
Over the summer I’ve cultivated a series of “Playshops” and an offering called Reimagining the Sandbox: Connecting with Your Creative Essence. I’m THRILLED to offer this series, to help myself and others reconnect with our essential nature as creative beings. The six-week series will support our creative goals (no matter how small or big) and provide an environment where we can playfully express and expand our creative abilities.
To find out more about what we’re going to get messy with as we reimagine the sandbox of childhood days past, please visit: https://www.newyorkminutes.org/sandbox/
