Hello,
Sometimes I wonder if you can spend too much time learning?
It is really easy for me as a rug hooker to listen to podcasts and ideas as I hook. It does not take any extra time to learn while I bring my wools together to make a wave, or an ocean. there is a kind of synthesis.
Sometimes these sessions lead to good ideas of my own. Sometimes they are just a bit of company.
Sometimes I need to listen and sometimes I need the quiet.
I purposefully walk without my phone. I don't listen to any podcasts or music. I just listen to my own thoughts. I have done that more this week than most weeks. Just let the silence speak to me a bit. You know, oddly enough, it often has something to say. It is worth listening to.
This week it told me how much I actually love this old house I live in. It told me that a day with a novel is well spent. It told me that it is ok to step back. All I had to do was turn down the noise.
Noise is everywhere. I make quite a bit of it myself.
And I believe in it and value it.
I just want to make sure that I am creating and listening to a beautiful noise.
I want to make sure that it is there to feed me, to nurture me and enrich me.
Unlike years ago when I had to listen to whatever everyone else was watching or listening to now I get to choose from an enormous buffet of thoughts, lessons and ideas. We all get to make our own channels.
Just like a buffet it is important that I choose carefully. That I take in what is good, what is healthy, what will energize and renew my creative energy. That I don't take too much, or choose unwisely. That I don't load up my plate with too much cream.
I am always looking for something beautiful to keep me company, an online course, a podcast, or an audio book. As much as I like to turn down the noise, cause that's important, I always come back in search of new thoughts and ideas. It makes me feel a kind of communion with other creatives. I am equally inspired by solitude and by community.
I love to learn as I work. It has led me down garden paths. I have crossed oceans and big divides just by tuning in as I make. For me it is as much a part of how I grow as is the walk alone in the quiet to sort it all out. I push the muscles a bit, then I try to rest them.
Turn it up, turn it down. The most important thing is to make it your choice and to be conscious of what you are choosing.
Over the last several months I have been busy making something for you. Something that is completely free. Over the last year especially, you have showed up in my life. You read these letters, you watch my Thursday lives, you comment and post on our facebook and instagram.
And I am so thankful to you.
I wanted to give you something beautiful.
Later this week we hope to send you the Creative Spirit Sessions, a project that I collaborated on with Angela and many artists and creatives about the importance and value of creativity in your life. It will be something to keep you company throughout the summer as you hook and make. You will receive the link and password in an email from us this week.
I hope you will find it a comforting hum as your hook pulls loop after loop towards that beauty you are creating.I hope it inspires you and leads you to new thoughts and ideas. I hope you'll find it a beautiful noise.
Thank you so much for supporting and encouraging my creativity. We all need that,
Deanne
PS. The Wednesday Live Zoom workshop is coming soon!!! Have you registered? See below...come spend a couple of hours with me and learn to hook the kitchen flowers.
