As a kid, my mom always had me write thank you notes to family and friends who were thoughtful enough to give me a gift for Christmas or my birthday.  I can recall being quite young, maybe 9 or 10, and wondering why in the world I had to endure hand cramps writing thank you notes to each one of my very large family after a holiday.  They saw me open the gift, right? They could tell how excited I was, couldn't they? Why did I need to write it down all over again? On top  of that, I suppose it also felt very vulnerable to put down my feelings on paper and send them to someone else. Would someone think I was too mushy?

As an adult, I am so grateful for this habit my mom passed along to me. It's a wonderful thing to receive a special gift just for you, picked out and given so lovingly from someone you love who loves you right back, and maybe even more wonderful to get to send them a personal note of gratitude afterwards. When I receive a thank you note, it makes my heart glow. It feels so good to create a small but mighty memento of thanks and put it out into the world. 

Many of us probably write thank yous to people we know, but what about thank yous to the creative people in your life you admire and have learned loads from that you have never met?  Do you ever include them in your thank you habit? I never used to, because I feared being perceived as too mushy, emotional, intense, weird, or stalker-ish (yup, that's a word now).  But I slowly realized that gratitude and enthusiasm are not things to be feared, but expressed. If I never said thank you to a wonderful teacher or mentor or artist I admire, they would never have an idea of the extent of their magical powers to affect others and the world with their gifts. I've seen too many wonderful humans rightfully praised at their memorial services, and all I can think is "Did they  have any idea about these expressions of thanks while they were alive? Did they know how much they meant to other people?" Why do we wait? Why not share it NOW, when the person is still alive to hear it?

Nowadays? I am a Gratitude Queen.  I still try to keep up with  my holiday and birthday thank yous, but have also sent thank you notes and cards to anyone and everyone whose words, actions, or work move me in some way, regardless of whether they are a stranger or not.

High school music teachers.
Professors from undergrad.
Theatre teacher mentors.
Graduate school professors.  
Old bosses.
Old co-workers.
Authors whose work I love.
Musicians whose work I love.
Actors whose work I love.
Politicians whose efforts to support human rights I admire. 
Podcasts that I listen to and that have helped me immensely.

I once gave Elizabeth Gilbert a homemade card at a book signing she hosted in Portland, Maine. When I gave her the card, I said "I'm such a dork, I made you a card." I was so nervous. Would she call security? Nope. She looked at me and smiled and said "Oh my gosh. You made me a CARD?" and later gave me a huge hug and told me I was lovely. I nearly melted. I was so glad I went for it and let her know how much her work and life has truly affected the way I live my life. The butterflies I had in advance were worth it. 

I also got to shake the hand of Matthew Caws, the lead singer for Nada Surf, one of my all time favorite bands once after a show in Boston. I didn't bear hug him or freak out too much, but I let myself grin pretty big and tell him that their album Let Go really helped me during a dark time in my life. "Thank you." I said. He smiled back and said "Thanks. It helped me, too." Is there anything cooler than connection?

When I was thirteen, I *may* have also sent a fan letter to Leonardo DiCaprio letting him know I knew we were meant for each other, and if he could just get over the geographic divide and age different, I know he'd be convinced, too. I imagined him reading it and taking a long walk on the beach to think through how our first date would go.  In reality, as an adult, I am guessing it was probably an unpaid intern who sat in an un-air conditioned office in Burbank, CA who saw this truly creepy letter I wrote, and tossed it into a giant garbage can of other creepy letters from other star struck teenagers (they may not have recycled in those days).  Oh well. It was cathartic for me at the time. 

Push aside the fear that your high school chemistry teacher will think you are strange for tracking down their email or that your favorite actor will have you hauled away for sending a short and sweet expression of thanks for being so awesome via Twitter. Think of the last time you made something and someone actually contacted you to tell you thanks, that is helped them in some way. How did it feel? Most likely, if they were were polite and succinct, you savored the moment of connection.  So why not give that gift to someone who has given so much to you?

Note: It's also wonderful to send a note of thanks to someone who is just starting out with their world changing, to let them know you're really enjoying the podcast, blog, music, or whatever it is that they are making.  Let them know that you look forward to following along! Support early in your artistic adventures goes a LONG way, and I suspect that your note might just make their day. 

The way I see it, life is about sharing stories and experiences to let other people know that they are not alone and that what they are doing every day matters to someone. Go ahead. Embrace the vulnerable part of yourself and choose someone (or three or four people!) today to send a short thank you to. Heck, with technology being the way it is in 2017, you can choose from snail mail, email, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram...the list goes on. Whether they write back or not, I promise you that you will feel good about it. 

Have you seen this video yet? It's so full of raw generosity and is well worth a few minutes of your time. I promise you.

The moment where Florence sits on this young cancer patient's bed and holds her hand as she sings right to her perfectly captures the indescribable power of one human being to connect with another human being, and from within the trenches of illness, to spark joy from something as simple and endlessly complex as a song. I adore when they start to sing together.

What greater gift can an artist (and human) give? Lull us gently away from our earthbound pain with sweet songs, be unafraid to step into the middle of the mess and take our hand in theirs, and even just for a few minutes, allow us to be free of our bodies and our selves.
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For those who deny the power of art, especially artists themselves--we spend so much time doubting the magic of what we make-- please realize that making art is not about being famous or wealthy or even known. It is about connecting to another human being and gifting them with something so immaterial but so desperately vital, something that outweighs anything that we have the ability to measure.

What would happen if we start to use a different measure for art?

​It's been about a week and a half since I finished the Creative Challenge Week here on the blog, and I've taken it easy since then, giving myself time to think about what the experience of committing to making something small every day for five days in a row was like for me.  After mulling it over, I do have a few thoughts I want to share, plus a question for you. In case you missed it, you can go back a bit and read about my call for Creative Challenge Week.

A few observations about the experience of holding myself accountable for creating something every day during the Challenge:

• I tend to obsess over thinking about what I am going to make, making it hard to actually get to the making part.  Remember, thinking and doing are two different things!
• I tend to believe that there is a "perfect" or "best" idea and this cuts me off from trying things that sound fun or interesting out.  Instead, I tried to aim for "good enough".
• While it seemed tough to find time to make something every day initially, I actually discovered that it was less about finding a huge uninterrupted chunk of time to create, and rather steal a few minutes here or there throughout the day to draw, write a poem, snap a photo, etc.  In fact, on the Monday Challenge day, I took my shadow photo during my brisk walk from the subway to the dentist office. Stolen moments add up!
• It felt good to announce my intentions on social media, as it helped hold me accountable to sticking to the schedule.
• Often the thing you set out to make at the start doesn't look like the thing you make by the end, and this is really cool to experience.  For example, I set out photographing bicycles in Cambridge, thinking I would create a bicycle collage, only to find that my spontaneous shadow photo was what I wanted to share.  Be prepared to be surprised!
• Many of the activities that I was drawn to were outside my normal area of art, the theatre, which is something I did not expect. Get outside of the creative box.

Realizing that my creations from the week were not plays or set designs or performances or much related to theatre at all got me thinking about an earlier blog post where I talked about the important of getting outside of your own creative genre to recharge and discover something new.  For me, this concept not only makes sense on the page, but in real life play as well.

In fact, I enjoyed the drawing day so much that I started to think about how long it had been since I had gotten out my sketchbook. My paints. My easel. Too long. 

When was the last time I wrote poetry?

Or walked around the city, with the sole purpose of taking photos?

It's been easy for me to make creativity all about the theatre or when I do choose something else to play with, convince myself that I have to be good at it, really good at it, make it into a serious pastime, and share it with other people to be judged worthy.

But.

What if I decided to start drawing again as a hobby? With the sole intention of enjoying myself and taking a little creative vacation from my theatre work? In other words, folks, a HOBBY. 

This summer, I want to actively start trying out some different hobbies to see if I can find one that helps me to relax and take a much needed break not only from my day job and my daily life, but from my theatre work itself.  Some hobbies I want to try out are:

• Pottery/ceramics
• Learning some basic Italian (I have started using Duolingo and it's really fun!)
• Needle felting tiny animals  (aren't they adorable?)
• Making my own cards and stationary
• Watching more classic Hollywood movies 
• Setting a goal of reading a new author every month

I think it would do me a world of good to give myself the freedom to make something without the pressure of needing to put it onstage, share it at a conference, or even necessarily share it with anyone else if I don't want to.  Of course, I would love to be able to share some thoughts about this ongoing experiment with you all, to see what new creative or life insights it might bring forth. Experiments are so helpful in allowing me to reexamine how I am living my day to day life and what I might want or need to tweak to find a deeper sense of peace and joy.  It's all creative living, isn't it?

What about you? Do you have a hobby, one that isn't linked to your creative work or projects? I would love to know if you have any ideas that you think I might have fun trying out, especially if they are inexpensive, or better yet, free! 

It's been rainy and foggy here, and as I walked home from work yesterday, my umbrella didn't exactly hold up as I willed it to. When I arrived home, I was pretty soaked.

As I changed into dry clothes and got a pot of green curry bubbling away on the stove, my husband played a brand new album, The Nashville Sound, from one of our favorite music makers, Jason Isbell. It was so cozy listening to the music and the rain blend together, and it occured to me how perfect rainy days are for listening to good tunes.

Here is my rainy day playlist, in hopes it allows you to embrace the fog and storm in stride.

Searching for the perfect greeting card for someone you care about is tricky.  Why not make your own greeting cards instead? Especially when one has embarked on a creative challenge week? 

Sure, you can get fancy and sketch something fun on a blank notecard, or you can go simple and print out an image from the interwebs or even use some pretty patterned paper from a local craft supply store to cover the front of the notecard. Boom. One-of-a-kind card and a crafty project at the same time. 

I didn't see the Father's Day card I was looking for at the drug store this week, so I decided that a blank notecard (I keep a stash of these in my desk year round) covered with a wonderful vintage image of the Beatles, my dad's favorite all time band, would be perfect. I added a handwritten "Happy Father's Day!" at the top and voila! 

There is something so soothing about using your hands to do a craft project, whatever it may be. Is there something you can make yourself this week instead of purchasing it? ​

When I was a kid, I had a special little bound journal that I would write poems in.  I remember carrying it around with me and writing out my lines of poetry as if they were small secrets that I desperately needed to get out onto the page.  It felt romantic and dramatic and those were two of my favorite ingredients for pleasure.

I haven't written poetry in a long time.  Part of the reason has been a fear that I'm not doing it "right" or that someone who is a "real" poet might see them and not only laugh at me, but become highly offended that I would have the audacity to hijack the form and execute it so poorly.

Sound dramatic? My younger self is clearly still with me.

This morning, I discovered the idea of six word poems and the idea seemed simple enough that I was tempted to try. This is a creative CHALLENGE week after all, and a little outside-your-comfort-zone stretch is good for muscles, no?

I often think I need to set aside loads of time for a creative project. Can you relate? Yesterday afternoon on  my walk to the dentist, I decided to take a photo of my shadow on the sidewalk, for no reason at all. Time invested? About 10 seconds.

I love this photo of my shadow. It reminds me of Charlie Chaplin's Little Tramp, hat and all.  When I first took it, I worried that maybe it was too plain, too boring for today's creative challenge. Then I was reminded of Chaplin himself, who often said he would edit a film as if he was shaking a tree. he believed that if you kept shaking and shaking, all the stuff you didn't need would fall to the ground and you would be left with the parts that really shone.  Hence, this photo. Unadorned, unfiltered, and with nothing except shadow, sidewalk, and the slats of a building. 

Creativity creeps into cracks in our lives, whether we want it to or not. On your walk home today (or drive, or bike ride, or subway ride), don't be afraid to stop and take a photo of something just for the pleasure of it.  Who knows what you may capture?

Happy Monday and welcome to Day #1 of Creative Challenge Week! All weekend, my planning brain kept saying "What are you going to make for Monday's challenge? You need to figure it out. NOW!" I pushed this thought out of my head as best I could.  Instead I tried to commit to the idea that sometimes, spontaneity is key and trust that I would know what I wanted to make when today arrived.  Incredible how hard that can be. 

I took a nice long walk on my lunch hour this afternoon and was suddenly struck by how fun it might be to illustrate some of my thoughts on the life on an artist instead of writing about them. I used to draw and paint A LOT as a child and even into my early twenties, but it's been a long while.  It's never too late to come back to an art form, right? 

What are you making today? Instead of journaling or making a list, is there a way you can draw it out?

Happy June, My Friends! Where has the time gone? I've been MIA on the blog in part because I've been trying to write, write, write, and finish up my little book on creativity. So close! My working title is "The Perpetual Visitor: A Field Guide For Everyday Artists" and in honor of being on the homestretch, I wanted to do something a little different here on the blog this week both to motivate myself to keep going, moment by moment, and in the process, hopefully inspire some of you to find tiny ways every day to be an Everyday Artist.  Are you in?

Drum roll, please....introducing the Creative Challenge Week here on the blog! This week, Monday through Friday, I am going to challenge myself to post something new every day.  BUT.  Here's the catch. Today is the only day that I will be writing a traditional style blog post. The rest of the week's posts will consist of new ways to express my day, each and very day, and no two days can be the same. I might write a poem one day, sketch a cartoon the next, and so on and so forth. The idea is to break myself out of my own creative box I have felt stuck in lately, and give myself a little room to play in a way that isn't sticking to the same old writing process. 

With that, I'm off to enjoy the sunshine and divine breeze floating through my newly planted rose bush.  I will be back Monday with something new--even I don't know what it will be yet. Half the fun of creativity is being spontaneous and the planner in me is just going to have to come along for the ride this week as I decide on a whim how I feel like expressing myself. Road trip! 

Hoping you will join me for the week of creative challenges, and wishing you a weekend full of whatever makes you feel recharged!