Thoughts on Digital Detox and Creativity

A large church in my neighborhood has called its attendees to experiment with a digital detox. I heard all about what they were doing on social media. (Wink.) 

Fantastic practice, in my opinion. Why?

Years ago, Tommy came home one day to our primary bathroom covered in long, horizontal strips of blue painter’s tape. We didn’t have much of a decorating budget; or any decorating budget, as I recall. I was tired of the beige walls and decided that painting stripes was a great solution for the blah. I started filling in the spaces between the painter’s tape in a gorgeous shade of eggplant. Maybe eggplant stripes don’t sound gorgeous to you but be adventurous with me.

When I took off the painter’s tape, the eggplant stripes had bled. There wasn’t a crisp line to be found anywhere on those bathroom walls. I was too far in to let this project get out of control. I loaded up two babies, ran to Hobby Lobby (because remember pre-Amazon prime days?), and I bought gold paint pens. Several pens and a yardstick later, I had gorgeous eggplant stripes with gold trim on beige walls. Masterpiece! 

Many houses and many rooms have come and gone since those striped walls, but I’ve always enjoyed creating a space that feels like home to me. I’ve noticed something about that brave girl inside me that jumped right into the stripes. The boom of decorators and tastemakers and influencers on social media may have captured my appreciation for their skill, but I also believe my attention toward their craft causes me to feel paralyzed when it comes to making my own creative decisions.

So, back to the digital detox idea. When do you know enough is enough? When do you know your attachment to the apps on your phone are harmful to your creative flow? When do you feel more paralyzed than prompted in your artistic expression? 

Are you consuming more than you’re creating?

We are creative beings. We need to practice our play. We need to imagine big stories. We need to make a way of beauty in this world. 

Author A.J. Sherrill asks, “Am I so connected with the entire world, that I am disconnected with my internal self?” 

Bring out the paint brushes and aim them at your bare walls. Sling your words around until they fit together, engine to caboose. Plant the rose near the hydrangea under a canopy of jasmine. Sing the song that came to you in a dream. Crack the bat with the ball, or the ball with the bat. Study the stars. 

Create more than you consume. Here to help!

Thoughts on the Loneliness Epidemic

“In recent years, about one-in-two adults in America reported experiencing loneliness,” reports US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy. 

Are you in a season of loneliness? Someone reading this must be if the statistic provided to us by the “Nation’s Doctor” holds true. 

If loneliness feels like it is bearing down on you, I am sorry. It should not be like this for you. Please know that you are not alone. This feeling is strong and pervasive in our country to the extent of classification as an epidemic. 

The etymology of words sometimes startles me. It’s as if the root of the word speaks as deeply as the word itself. The meaning of “epidemic” can be traced to c.1600 as “common to or affecting a whole people.” I know “a whole people” means a group, and that is the point of the parts of the word, but I imagine if you are feeling lonely today you feel it in your “whole person.” Your eyes frequently fill with tears. Your body aches for reasons you can’t explain. Your heart feels gloomy. Your feet seem unable to walk the simplest of steps. Your mind wonders what might be wrong with you. Your sleep is….well, what sleep? 

I am made to be with you, and you are made to be with me. And our “whole person” tells us when we are missing one another. 

I have an idea. 

If you are reading this, and you are not feeling undone or paralyzed by loneliness today, might you reach out to someone in whatever way your heart leads? I believe that we are created to live, explore, and give. I believe that to give our attention, our affection, our attachment, our appreciation, and our abundance to others is the way of healing for us all. 

If you are feeling undone by loneliness, and you simply can’t do the thing your heart would normally want to do today. It’s okay to receive more than give right now. A day is coming when you will know what I know about you; you belong. We want you here. Until then, these words are my offering of love for you today. 

“I belong with you; you belong with me. You’re my sweetheart! (Ho) (Hey)”

Here to help.

Thoughts On Holding Center

Some time ago, I heard a beautiful phrase that kept returning for my attention. I believe it was a Quaker sentiment or, more accurately, a practice called “holding center.” I could be wrong about the Quaker part, but it seems likely. 

Moving toward center is something I’ve craved for much of my life. The center seems to be a place of perspective. A place where we can see. We look to the left, look to the right, and observe well. A place where up and down are within equal distance. A place of passion but not volatility. A place safely buffered. 

I suppose I could admit and discuss that deep conviction can feel like it drives us from our center. I would say that is life’s journey at times. And hasn’t history shown us that wisdom might move our idea of where center is? What center feels like? What we need our center to be? 

I’ve lost my center before. Have you? Fear. Loneliness. Life change. Misplaced drive. Unattended pain. All common experiences that jar us out of center.

When we lose center in one area of life, we can lose center in other areas. 

Have you ever had back pain? Ugh. The more you compensate for the area of pain, the more your spine over-works to handle the load in another area. Here a curve…there a bulge…more pain! 

Holding center with someone is to remind them of the area of their deep conviction and driving purpose. The place where they can live their healthiest and fullest life. The place where the storm might rage around, but the shelter of their familiar “why” remains at the core. Holding center is moving back to that spot with someone again and again until their own muscle memory does its job of pulling them there.

We never stop needing people to hold center with us, and I am fiercely committed to the idea of you having support and community. We were made to live, explore, and give; holding center for one another.

Here to help.

Thoughts on Making the Right and Wrong Choice

“How do I know if this is the right thing for me to do or not?” she asked. Her eyes were earnest and searching. Her heart was pure. She was self-aware. Intelligent. Observant. Discerning. Stuck.

She had talked for twenty minutes trying desperately to process her way out of the stuckness.

The decision was the backboard. She’d stare at it. Walk back from it. Hold a tennis ball in her left hand, racquet in her right. She’d bounce the ball. Toss it up. Lean back. Raise the racquet. Stretch her body up, up, up. Down, swing, hit, backboard, bounce, swing, hit, backboard, bounce, swing, hit, backboard…

She was volleying facts and data to the backboard. Waiting for the backboard to send her something she could hit again with more facts and data.

I took a loud breath and let out an equally loud sigh to break the pattern.

What if it isn’t about doing the right or wrong thing?

What if it’s about doing the creative thing?

Our minds and hearts settle more comfortably with labels like “right choice” and “wrong choice.” Most of us long for the ease of a right decision and the clarity of a wrong one. Most of us will keep longing for that, and life will keep NOT serving anything that easy.

Our lives cry out for uniqueness and creativity and dimension. What if you released yourself from deciding right and wrong? What if you allowed yourself to explore the most creative thing for the moment?

Here to help!