Seeking Second Grace

Creativity and social change: Working toward Real Wealth

Well Hello there!

I've been deeply immersed in a project that has taken me (what I thought was) far afield from my Second Grace world... but I've suddenly realizing that the very notion of a "Second Grace world" that exists in some field outside my own journey of creativity and authenticity is just boloney, pure and simple.

The Real Wealth Community Presenters Pilot Project

So what I've been up to is designing a massive (from the development perspective, not the audience perspective!) slide-presentation based on a book called "The Real Wealth of Nations:  Creating a Caring Economics" by a woman named Riane Eisler, who is perhaps best known for her book The Chalice and the Blade.  

Next month, something like 75 people will be coming from all over the country to meet at Seattle University and be trained (in part by me) to deliver this presentation to audiences in their home communities. 

If you are familiar with Al Gore's Climate Project, you'll recognize a similar idea of training people to go out into their communities to engage a grassroots conversation about a pressing social issue.  In Gore's case, of course, that is global climate change, in this case, the issues are about moving toward an economics that actually supports social well-being, human creativity, and the sustainability of our natural environment. 

I'm so excited to be part of putting together this pilot of the Real Wealth Community Presenters Project.  It feels like a timely and constructive way to create a grassroots mind-shift from thinking about economics as the discipline concerned with financial wealth, to a vision of the function of economics as a vital support of quality of human life and sustainability of our human and natural resources.  If you are intrigued by the possibility of raising your voice for a better world, please read more about it and consider signing up to be a presenter!

The creative and the political  

The fact that I have been shy of sharing about this creative project here is evidence of some arbitrary line in my head between my "creativity work" (making art and coaching creative people) and my "other work" (writing, editing, developing presentations, etc.).  

Also, if you've travelled at all in the arena of "living your creative passion" books and blogs, you'll notice that they have a very a-political flair... and perhaps properly so.  In fact, a central topic in the whole arena of creativity coaching is to help people move away from dichotomous thinking like "I can either make art or serve the world" or "I can either honor my creative self or can work for social change."

And really, who wants a creativity blog telling you to make politically-motivated art?  Blech.  

An opportunity to explode the categories

For me, though, this Real Wealth project has been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work in a way that refuses to honor any of the arbitrary fences I tend to place between my art self and my socially engaged self and my teacher self.  Suddenly, here comes a project which requires that I put it all together, and it has changed how I see the world.  

From the vantage point of this project, I can see that the division between the creativity of self-expression and the creativity in social change is artificial.  In both cases, we make visible our longing for a better world, we explore what it means to be ourselves, we seek to use the materials at hand to move the world outside our heads into a better approximation of our best hopes.  We try to make our vision for something beautiful and true come alive.

Authentic means whole

I get it more clearly now that being authentic means NOT cutting off the part of me that longs for a more socially just and humane world from the part of me that wants to create art about my personal small joys and inspirations.  My creative spirit does not recognize a difference between the personal and the political dimensions of experience, it just wants to be part of making things that move people.  

So, I will no longer cut off that part of my life from this space, either!

If your creative spirit feels a longing to express your hopes for a more caring, just, and sustainable world, please consider joining the Real Wealth Community Presenters Project.  You can read more about it and apply to participate by going to www.partnershipway.org.

And, now that I've broken the ice, I'll tell you more about it in the days to come.

In solidarity with all those working for caring, creativity, and consciousness, 

SS

Push me pull you

I have officially hit the wall with this summer business.  

I feel like this two-headed camel who, when faced with the impossible choice between caring for the people she loves and getting the work done that pays the bills, finally just kneels down on the sand in complete impasse.

The difference between dropping Annie off at school so we can both go about our days, and walking out the door while she is still home, still in pjs, still un-brushed and sleepy-sweet, is a huge difference.  And it is wearing me out.

School, as it turns out, is an excellent container for children that makes it possible for their mothers to concentrate.  When that container is gone, every day is rife with complicated choices - leave for work a little later so we can have breakfast together?  come home a little early so I can get in on the trip to the pool?  Or suck it up and wrench myself into the orbit of doing-what-must-be-done and miss out on the good parts of summer.  Being in my "work head" is more uncomfortable when the rest of my family members are living an entirely different storyline - Annie is in flow while I am en force.  Guess which I like better?

I just thought I'd share that in case there are others in the "Moms who are ready for School to Start" club.

By the way, my Hearts for Anna piece sold on the first day of the auction!  My one little artistic intervention of the summer bore fruit for a fellow artist in need.  (The auction raised $14,000 for Anna.  WOW!)  I couldn't be happier about it. Talk about a win win win win win win win situation.  I love those, and I hope the BIG win is Anna's health.  Certainly the outpouring of support and hearts for her must go a long way to shift the balance from "I'm powerless in the face of these evil $%$#@$ing insurance companies" to "wow, the universe is a loving and supportive place."  

Wishing all you two-headed parents a relatively painless series of compromises between now and school start (that's September 8th for us - 21 days - but who's counting?)...

- SS

A Wee Box for Anna

Sooooo, a very long month ago in my last post, I wrote about the Hearts for Anna campaign and auction.

Here's a peek at my contribution to the auction - it's just a wee little box (5" tall by 3" wide and 2" deep), repurposed from something...maybe tea?  

Here's what I wrote to go with it:  

"The sides of this cheerful little box are covered in paper-cut swirls and dots, in homage to the beautiful organic motifs in Anna Millea’s pillows.  The colorful, mixed-paper collage continues in the hearts on the front door, and mounted on the box top are a series of bead “monuments.”  When you pull open the door using the bright orange ribbon, you’ll discover that those whimsical beads on top serve a functional purpose – they anchor the 17 little red hearts that dangle freely on the inside, almost in reach of the open, reaching hand.  On the back of the door, a Gary Zukav quote is mounted in a fetching paper frame:  “Eventually you will come to understand that love heals everything, and love is all there is.”  My hope is that this piece will bring its eventual owner a ray of good cheer, and a sweet reminder that the healing power of love is at our fingertips, always."

I can't wait to see all the other "Hearts for Anna" pieces in the auction next week - it starts on Wednesday the 12th at www.artfulhome.com.  

July was a wild ride, with big work stresses, family health stresses, a gnarly heat wave, and wonderful stresses like Annie's 8th birthday party.  I'm proud that I was able to eke out a little art in the midst of the crazyswirl. I'm finding that I miss writing, though, and look forward to getting back to this space and back

into my Second Grace head as I'm able.

Cheers to the rest of summer, 

Sara

Hey, it turns out you don't need to wait to preview the auction - pics are online here.

Hearts for Anna - get involved!

Hi everyone!

A friend recently alerted me to a marvelous opportunity for artists and art-lovers to help a woman artist in need. 

Anna Millea is an artist who shows her work through the Artful Home website.  She is suffering from a return of breast cancer, which is now in her bones.  Because this is a recurrence, her insurance will not cover her 18 rounds of chemo plus other expenses.

Her friends at Artful Home have developed an upcoming "reverse auction" event to raise money for Anna's medical costs.  They are soliciting donations of small-scale original artworks (no bigger than 5" X 7") on the theme of "hearts for Anna" to sell in an online auction.

The 5-day online auction will take place between August 12 - 16 and ALL the money will go to a fund for Anna's medical bills.  The first day of the auction, all work will be $100, days 2-4 all work will sell for $75 and day 5, the work will go for $50.

If you want to donate a small artwork, the deadline for submission is August 7th.  You can download the submission form by clicking this link.

I initially thought - "no way can I make something in such a short timeframe," but then I thought, "Geez, how can I complain about working extra fast at something I love for someone who is fighting hard to survive both a powerful disease and a completely ()*$%$#ed insurance system?"  I'm starting a piece tonight.

Of course, donating a piece of art is only one way to help... you can also help by 

• browsing what I'm sure will be a wonderful array of small artworks and buying one that you love for no more than $100 and/or
• passing the word to your friends and family to tune into the auction at www.artfulhome.com between August 12th and August 16th.

I'm sure you don't have to look far to find a cancer survivor or victim in your life - please think of them as you send some love Anna's way.  

Thanks!

- SS

A lovely talk on Creative Process by Author Elizabeth Gilbert

My dear darling sister Shannon emailed me today with a link to Elizabeth Gilbert's TED talk on Genius and Creativity, and I thought I'd better pass it along.  

I've been captivated by Elizabeth Gilbert not only through her writing (Eat, Pray, Love), and also through her personal appearances on Oprah where I found her incredibly articulate, charming, and clear (not automatic qualities even in wonderful writers who sometimes are far more gifted on the page than in conversation.)

Her talk centers on the idea that creators would suffer less and relax more if they were to simply ditch the idea that "genius" resides in an individual person and, instead, go back to an earlier model where "genius" was believed to be a spirit or spirits external to the artist:  creatures who visit and play with the creator.

Click here to view Gilbert's 18 minute TED talk.  (And, if you haven't discovered TED talks yet, click here to learn more about this supercool resource of great minds and speakers.)

If you've ever allowed yourself the thought "If only my work could be massively successful on a global scale!" - Gilbert reminds you that - without the right psychic frame - the experience of success is no less threatening to an artist's well-being than the experience of non-success.

See what you think - are you ready to get your genius out of your "self" and back into the walls where it belongs?

Me, I'm just mule-ing along...dreaming of the Ole moments that can't possible come if I don't do my practice.

-SS

Assemblage Artist's Guide to Life: A Poem

Hey everyone, here's a poem I've been working on - 

it might be done, or it might not.  

(You can tell by the four stanzas devoted to the pain of completion that finishing is not my favorite part of creating...)

In the name of imperfection and process, I thought I'd share it today.  Then, if it gets better in time, I'll share it again and we can all laugh at how rough it once was.

The Assemblage Artist's Guide to Life

Of course you have more than will ever ever fit.

Don’t panic!

Over-abundance is the condition for your play.

Study the shape of your foundation 

What container are you pouring into?

Test your platform for sturdiness – can it take the heat?

Gently now, begin to sort:   rummage, place, rummage, squint, reject, rummage, test...

See what sticks.

For god’s sake, take your time.

Don’t overthink it, though. 

Don’t think it at all.

You are a safecracker, listening with your toes for the click.

Flirt with the alchemy of exquisite combination:

What element turns aimless flotsom into artful prayer?

How does the sushi grass fit in?

Practice the special courage of ugliness,

The first (crucial) layer is invisible, so be brave.

Patina depends on hideous underlayers.

Blur your eyes to see the button as the sun,

monopoly thimble as offering bowl.

Embrace the startling fluidity of the identity of things.

Remind the button and thimble they are not alone,

This is an art of relationship. 

In right company, the mutest bits are known to burst into song.

It really helps to but some light in. 

A touch of gold, a mirror, some sequins. 

Everything’s just better that way.

In the end, yes, you will fix it all in place.

A necessary violence to assert a final resting place

You must learn to take a stand.

After all, this impulse is wanting to be something,

not everything.

You can cherish all the possibilities and still, finally, commit.

So gluing-down becomes a time of letting go

Each fluid piece, once affixed, becomes rigid again

Every flow will have its ebb.

And then this one will be over.

This thing you’ve made might be pleasing, or not.

Try not to fuss over this dead and just-born thing.

Just notice the next threshold rising to greet you.

Remain the bride of amazement,

ever yearning for the next first kiss.   

Sara Saltee

June, 2009

How Does Authenticity Reshape Identity?

Kindred spirits I've never met

I am so grateful today for this crazy blogging technology that builds, link by link, a community of souls who, in another time, might've spent their whole lives wondering if anyone out there shared their way of thinking and feeling and being in the world.

Through the Soulemama blog (which I've gushed about before)  I found a link to a blog called wishstudio, with the subtitle "Seeds of Inspiration for Creative Women."   Mindy, the site's "creative editor and hostess" has brought together a lovely community of columnists and contributors who share wisdom and inspiration on living the creativity-centered life.  I like to think it is the kind of blog I would have created if I were about 25% more extroverted and 10% less ego-centric.  Thank goodness for the extroverted community-builders among us!  I admire your gifts.

Mindy posted recently about the pangs and joys of living a life outside of conventional identity labels.  I recommend her story of her non-linear journey to anyone carrying any shame about business plans that never came true. (Oh, let me count the plans....)

It was a link from wishstudio that led me to another blog which had a beautiful little badge on the side with the words "I choose authenticity."  Through that charming portal, I entered a gorgeous site by Dr. Brene' Brown, who has done something which I would have sworn is impossible:  combined an academic career with a determination to focus on authenticity, soulfulness, compassion, and wholehearted living. 

Brene' has a fantastic authenticity pledge on her site that I highly recommend you immediately download, print, and post where you can see it daily and absorb it fully.

Rethinking Identity

The combination of  Mindy's post about the winding journey of a life beyond labels and Brene Brown's bio (in which she comments on how difficult it is for others to come up with descriptions of who she is) have made me hyper-aware of a larger shift in how we all conceptualize identity these days.

Both women's stories, like my own, reveal two big insights:

1.  If you choose the path of authenticity, you will, by definition, be drawn to an array of things which are connected only by their relationship to your personal journey, and those things will be in frequent flux as you continue to grow and change.  

2.  This combination of multiplicity and fluidity will make it very difficult to make yourself visible and coherent to people who just want a short answer to simple questions like "what do you do?"  When you insist on living the whole truth of who you are, you will inevitably begin to defy the simple categories we rely on to define identities.

It seems to me that while it has always been true that we humans are bigger and more than the labels we use to define ourselves, there is something truly defiant and revolutionary in the unwillingness to even try to fit into those old boxes.

It is the powerful difference between saying: 

"Oh dear, I don't fit very well into existing labels, so I'll figure out how to diminish myself until I fit better" 

and saying 

"I'm so committed to living my own truth that the only label I'll accept is 'evolving human' so you'll have to forgive me if I confuse you with my complexity."

Bravissima to all the brave women in this brave new bloggosphere who are modelling this second option and giving us all a whiff of what real freedom smells like!

Yours in complexity and fluidity, 

SS  

Summer Lovin'

How do I know it is Summer?  My weekend contained the following:  

• 1 Lemonade Stand in the front yard (which required 50 cups and yielded $2.00 in profits)
  
• 2 trips to the community pool (which mysteriously seemed to yield 863 towels drying on the deck railing)
  
• 2 medium bags of popcorn shared by 1 nonplussed Mom and 2 wide-eyed girls at Monsters vs Aliens (not terrible, but certainly not good, either)
  
• 250 new freckles on my sweet Annie's nose 
  
• 1 jar of sun tea 
  
• 6 ears of corn on the cob scarfed down in less than 20 minutes 
  
• At least 4 hours of planning for Annie's summer schedule 
  

That last one got me thinking...how often do we grownups spend that much time planning for our own summer fun?  

So, for my little creating your life group that is meeting this Friday, I ginned up the following prompts to journal on or just reflect about this week:

1.  Some of the best summer moments I've ever had have been...

2.  The parts of me I most want to allow myself to express this summer are....

3.  When I look back on this summer on a cold, dark and rainy day next February, I want to remember....

4.  If the Sea Goddess of Double Bluff rose out of the water to grant you three wishes for this summer, what would you wish for?   

The truth is that the last two summers, I've been working so hard that I didn't even notice the season except as an extra hassle of coordinating the life of a kid not in school.  That is not acceptable!  I don't care if our lives don't necessarily stop to make room for three months of vacation, there's no excuse for not finding ways to personally extract all the joy of the season.

I urge you to set your own intentions for the next three months - not only the "productivity" intentions, like what you want to accomplish, but the "creativity" intentions, like what is the quality of the experience you want to have this summer?  What do you want to create out of the raw materials of sunshine, watermelon seeds, beach sand, and long light days?  

William Carlos Williams writes:  "In summer, the song sings itself."  Can you allow yourself to stop trying to be the singer and simply tune into the song?

Yours in seasonal bliss,

SS

Barefoot Days

by Rachel Field

In the morning, very early,
That’s the time I love to go
Barefoot where the fern grows curly
And the grass is cool between each toe,
On a summer morning – O!
On a summer morning!

That is when the birds go by
Up the sunny slopes of air,
And each rose has a butterfly
Or a golden bee to wear;
And I am glad in every toe –
Such a summer morning – O!
Such a summer morning!

But I Neeeeeeeeed it!

The Biological Drive of Creativity

I've said for years that creative practice - for me that's mostly art-making and personal writing, for you it might be cooking, or gardening, or rearranging furniture, or sewing, or dance, or or or - is a non-negotiable part of my wellness.  I feel it as a physical, emotional, and spiritual urge that is a tangible drive, like hunger or sexual desire.

The other day, I ran across this little gem that sums it up so perfectly:

“…Art can be plausibly considered a biological need that we are predisposed to want to satisfy, whose fulfillment gives satisfaction and pleasure, and whose denial may be considered a vital deprivation.”  

- Ellen Dissanayake in Homo Aestheticus

Did you catch that?  Art as a biological need?  Whose denial may be considered a vital deprivation?  

Are You a Creative Anorexic?

I believe that too many of us have inherited from our culture a kind of creative anorexia - we habitually deprive ourselves of vital biological nourishment we need to be well - and we justify this deprivation in moral terms borrowed from the ethic of productivity:  "I'm far too busy" "I have IMPORTANT work to do" "I don't give in to those sorts of urges, I must stay focused on what everyone else needs of me..."  You know the drill.

Creative Embodiment

Lately, I've been drawn to branching out in fulfilling my biological need for creative movement.  I find myself fingering yoga fliers and noticing different kinds of dance and body work opportunities from belly-dancing to ballroom dancing to tennis lessons.  I even watched more than I like to admit of the last "Dancing with the Stars" contest just to see pretty bodies in motion.  

I noticed the other day a banner in the gym at my daughter's school saying "If you don't take care of your body, where do you plan to live" and it rings so so true...

...and then I tell myself I can't afford the money or the time.  I'd probably have to change clothes, I might get sweaty and have to shower, I might feel too tired at the end of the day, but don't want to interrupt the flow of the middle of the day and don't really feel like getting up early.  I might not be there at a time when my daughter needs me, I might fall behind in my work, I might get sore, I might be embarrassed because everyone else is thinner and fitter, I might even cause physical damage...

And of course, that is all Grade A bullshit (sorry but no politer word will suffice here...).  

The truth is that for all my rhetoric of creative fulfillment, I'm an anorexic when it comes to physical creativity.  I'm so in the habit of self-deprivation when it comes to physical movement that I have made a identity of it.  If I'm going to live by my own philosophy of inner-directed growth and creative joy as life-fuel and direction, it would seem that I might need to be willing to crack open my too-small identity as a physical being.

Damn.  This is going to be a hurdle, but I know enough about creative hurdles to know that there is pure pleasure on the other side - the hurdle is about the anticipation of the pain and discomfort of change - a pain which 99.9% of the time has nothing to do with the experience of the activity itself.  And anyway, can the pain of an expanding identity be an it be worse that the discomfort of a body lacking joyful movement?

Hmmmmmm....

I so didn't mean for this post to become a public declaration of an intention to explore creativity through movement..but there it is.  My words have led me here.  Will I have the courage to move my posterior over the hurdle?  

I can say for sure that I'm open to finding the right opportunity to jump into the realm of embodied artistry.  And I'm pretty sure I'm willing to act on the opportunity I find.  Eeek!

What is your biology calling out for?  What creative pleasures have you held yourself apart from for too long?

Your fellow Homo Aestheticus, 

SS

Dream Parenting

Starting Fresh

You know how when you go too long between letters to a friend, the task becomes exponentially more difficult as you have ever-more ground to cover in addition to the undertow of guilt over not having already written until at last it comes to seem utterly impossible to even think of communicating with that person ever again?

Hello friend.

I'm back from a long journey through Charlotte's Web and teaching Leadership Principles and other side-trips on the road of life.  And, like any good traveller, I'm back where I was, but not as I was.  Things look a little different.  

Back in March, I saw the writing on the wall and decided that it would be better to completely let go of my expectations of creating practice (including art-making and blogging)  for a period of time rather than insisting to myself that I must force it into increasingly miniscule cracks in my life.  

Three Months Sans Art and Blogging

Determined to keep my creative practice pleasurable and not pressure-full, I gave up my 15 minutes a day for art for the first time in seven years, and I released myself from any expectation of writing in this space.  

As long as I was consciously choosing to step out of my creating groove, I thought I might as well think of it as an experiment and try my best to observe the effects on my experience of life.  I watched as my studio space piled up with un-artful crap migrating from other, more used, parts of the house.  I noticed that I spent my evening art-time grading papers or staring blankly at the TV, exhausted from afternoons spent in enclosed spaces with too many children.  Without the centering anchor of creating practice, I observed myself feeling kind of shallow and floaty, moving through my days with an odd sense of disconnection from my self, and my experience.  It's not that everything was awful, just muted somehow.  And, without the fuel of inner joy, I definitely noticed that everything else felt more fatiguing and I spent lots of time just wanting to lie down.  All very fascinating.  

A New Groove?

I was kind of hoping that my hiatus from art would be like taking a break from sex or ice-cream.  You know how returning feels so incredibly good you can't imagine why you ever left?  

And it does feel good now that my space is re-organized and clean, and I'm picking away again at projects, and at least the door is open to making art again.  I must say, though, I'm still not in the groove.  Maybe that's because the groove is changing?  Maybe I'm ready for more change and challenge in my art-making?  Maybe the change and challenge are coming from new directions?  

Or maybe my inner artist is sulking a bit and struggling to make sense of the mixed messages I've been sending.  If that part of me matters as much as I often say it does, how could I walk away from it?  How could I not schedule any shows this year?  What is my dream for my art-self?  My writer self?

Parenting your Dreams

The miracle of iPod's shuffle function brought together two songs recently that have helped me to think about my relationship to my dreams in a new way.

The first song is that classic Indigo Girls song with the lyric:

"My dreams came in like needy children, tugging at my sleeve, 

I said 'I have no way of feeding you, so leave.'"

The second is a wonderful Martin Sexton song "Thank You Failure" with the lyric:

"Thank you failure, for making the dreams that chose me come true."

These two images of dreams - as needy children, and as choice-making beings who select you to be their host, have been rattling around in my head ever since.  

To combine the two metaphors - what if we think of ourselves as the parents of our dreams, our longings, our ambitions, our sense of destiny or soul-journey?  

What if we think of the novel that wants to be written, or the paintings we want to create, or the poems that creep at the corners of our consciousness as little beings (perhaps with little wings?)  who have chosen us to raise them up?

When the Going Gets Rough

It's not that hard to parent your dreams in the good times when you are feeling strong and flush - you can easily smile sweetly at them and make them lots of heady promises.  "Oh, you are such a pretty little thing.  Someday, we'll go all the way, baby!"  

But, in hard times when income needs take precedence or when you are feeling tired and hopeless, do you really want to be the kind of dream-parent who kicks the little beings to the curb shrieking "get out of here!  you're driving me crazy!  I can't attend to you so Shut Up!!!"  

When I equate this kind of dream abuse with child abuse it is easy to feel how violent an act it is to our dreaming selves when we shove them away or stomp them down.  I know my inner dreamer is far happier to hear "I love you and I need you to be patient for a while, I'll be back soon, I promise"  than "get out you lousy beast!"

A Dream is a Changing Thing

And one last thought in this vein of tips for dream-parenting:  Just as my child is changing constantly, so are my dreams.  To be a good parent, I must strive to be present to my child or dream as they are right now, which means that I must let go of who or what I imagined I was parenting yesterday and be ready to respond to who is actually before me.

If my dream last year was to participate in an art show, and today that is not my dream, I can be upset and feel like I'm failing myself, or I can listen more carefully for the dreams that are choosing me today, even if I don't quite recognize them.  Maybe my dreams sometimes outgrow the forms and guises in which I'm used to seeing them, just like my daughter's wrists and ankles seem to keep extending beyond the shirts and pants that contained her perfectly last summer, and her toes seem to require bigger spaces in which to wiggle.

 I still dream the dream of making things and writing about the creating process, and I have other dreams, too.  On a good day, I have food and shelter enough for all.  And now I see that on a bad day, I can comfort and explain and set new expectations for the sweet little dreams that picked me to bring them up.  I don't have to kill or wound anyone.  I find that to be a great relief.  I hope you do, too.

Happy dream-parenting!

See you soon!

-SS