To me, the start of a New Year always feels untouched, like a stretch of newly fallen snow. I love the way the days between Christmas and New Years Day seem to hold their breath, allowing even someone like me, who seems constantly in motion, to stop and rest. I feel refreshed and excited about the adventures to come.
Over the break, I visited Bend and went snowshoeing with my husband, Dave, and our dog, Turley. It was so much fun, I can’t tell you. Turley LOVES snow even more than he loves water, and he’s a Portuguese Water Dog, so you can imagine how much he loves water. He galloped around through snowdrifts and reminded me how magnificent it feels to laugh so hard you can hardly catch your breath.
And now, I’m back from the vacation and ready to dig back into creative work. The From Sadie’s Sketchbook Read Along took a little hiatus over Christmas, but we’re back and raring to go with the third book in the series, Waves of Light. Come join us at www.sadies-sketchbook.com for lively discussion, creative activities and lots of fun! We want to hear from readers like you.
Are you getting close to having completed your four challenges? I can’t wait to help you Award-a-Friend. Remember that you can participate no matter your age. It’s an excellent present that could never be bought in a store! That’s my favorite kind of gift.
The Holiday Scavenger Hunt is in full swing. You have 10 days left to complete the challenge. Will you make it?? I hope so.
I’ve been greatly enjoying the process of doing the hunt myself. I’ve found many, many things to give away, and my creativity is sparking on all sorts of fun, one of a kind gifts to share. I’m still looking for an extra-special charity in my area to give a boost to, though, so any of you Bay Area friends who know of one, let me know!
In the meantime, I found a place online where you can buy world nativities and handmade ornaments, supporting local artisans. Check it out here: http://www.worldnativity.com
I can’t wait to hear all of your lovely Christmas giving stories! Feel free to post updates on how it’s going below.
The Sadie’s Sketchbook Scavenger hunt is not your traditional scavenger hunt… but if you accept the challenge, you’ll turn the Christmas season on it’s head. What if you spent the month looking for ways to gift others in over-the-top ways, spending little to no money at all? It’s December, Sadie-style. Join us, and create some Christmas miracles of your own.
Here’s the scoop:
Complete four of the following six challenges, and then post a paragraph about your experience on the Naomi Kinsman Facebook fan page. People who complete the challenge and post on Facebook will qualify for the opportunity to Award-a-Friend. See below for details on this very special Award-a-Friend gift opportunity.
Challenges:
1. Look for five-ten items in your room that you can donate to a good cause–either Salvation Army, Goodwill, or otherwise, depending on what you’re giving away!
2. Watch for someone in your life who has a task or tasks that they do all of the time for you. Surprise them by taking care of this task once, twice, or even for a whole week.
3. Keep your ears open for an organization in your community that is doing something special for people in need. Give in an over-the-top way by gathering a group of friends donating together: either items or food or even a little money. It’s amazing how much more a group can accomplish than one person by him or herself.
4. Listen carefully. Is there someone in your life who needs a little more time? Time is a valuable commodity because there’s just only so much of it. But you could give someone time in a few ways. You could help someone complete a task in half the time by helping them with it. Or, you could watch your younger siblings for an afternoon to give one of your parents a few hours all to themselves. Or you could even help a parent carve out some creative or get-things-done time by designating a time during the day when you will not interrupt them.
5. Give creatively, Sadie-style. Use your special gifts to create something for a friend or family member. Do you draw, paint, write poetry? Do you have a specialty item that you like to bake? These are the types of gifts that could never be bought in a store.
6. Look for an experience you can give to someone you love. Instead of wrapping up something you buy at a store, can you give a picnic in the park, a scavenger hunt in a museum, or a snow-adventure, complete with a hike, a snowman and hot cocoa. Have the adventure now, or wrap up a description of what you will do after Christmas and put it under the tree.
Award-a-Friend:
If you complete at least four of the six challenges, and post about it online, Naomi will contact you directly about Awarding-a-Friend. You will nominate a friend (or two or three!) for a special award, such as “Chef Extraordinaire!” or “Generous Genius!” You will email a two-three sentence description of why this friend has earned this award, and Naomi will post the accomplishment on naomikinsman.com. Also, she will send you an electronic pdf certificate that you can print out and give to your friend for Christmas. The deadline to finish the challenges and nominate a friend is December 22. All awards will be posted online on Christmas eve.
The From Sadie’s Sketchbook Read Along is in full swing! This week, we’ll be finishing up our read of Shades of Truth, and starting on Flickering Hope just in time for the holiday season. Don’t miss the From Sadie’s Sketchbook Scavenger Hunt which launches soon! Join in for holiday fun. Check it out at www.sadies-sketchbook.com.
Join me at sadies-sketchbook.com for a read-along of the From Sadie’s Sketchbook series this holiday season. Starting November 1, 2012, I will be hosting a book club, blogging about the themes of the books, answering reader questions and sharing behind the scenes stories about my writing process. Stay tuned for surprises such as featured reader interviews, autographed book give-aways, and even a Twitter Q&A! The book club will run through February 2013.
In the books, Sadie Douglas, a spunky seventh grader, moves from the Bay Area to a small town in upper Michigan. Her dad’s job is to mediate between the hunters, community members, and a researcher about their conflicts over the black bears in their town. Sadie arrives in town expecting fun and adventure, but quickly finds herself on the outside. Sadie does make friends with Ruth, and the researcher’s son, and also meets Vivian, an artist. Vivian becomes a mentor for Sadie and encourages her to explore her questions through drawing and record her thoughts in her sketchbook. The four books follow Sadie through the seasons as she comes to love the bears and worries about their plight, faces the ups and downs of friendship, and learns to see the world differently as she works through her growing need to understand what she believes.
Just like the Sadie books, which raise deep questions and yet bubble over with fun, readers can expect the read-along to challenge them to think deeply and laugh out loud, too. Creative activities, fun Advent suggestions, and prompts to spark ideas for stories, poems and sketches will pop up throughout the three months. Bookmark the blog and join in on the fun!
I’m preparing for an educator workshop this Thursday at Hillsdale Barnes and Noble, wondering how to compress everything I want to say into one hour. Or maybe the task isn’t so much one of compression, but one of choosing.
I want to talk about why play helps writers access their authentic voice. I also want to provide teachers with creative games to use in their classrooms, as well as practical strategies to facilitate those games in their classrooms. I want to give them A LOT for their investment of time. However, I see how that depth of information might actually be working against my goals. I might be adding to the overwhelm, rather than providing inspiration.
Maybe the way I’m going about compiling this workshop is informative in and of itself. As educators, we have so much we want to deliver in each lesson, and yet what learners really need from us is an organizing question, a door through which to begin their own journey of discovery. Information is just that: more stuff to clutter up one’s mind. However, a new lens through which to view a puzzling question, along with an actual starting place where one can start exploring, has the power to be wildly exciting.
So that’s what I’ll do. Define the lens. Choose a few games as examples, but keep my focus tight and clear. Outline any essential strategies for facilitation for those games, and provide resources for follow up. My lesson will be an example of how I hope these strategies will spark learners rather than overwhelm them. I’ll let you know how it goes.
We think we need more time, more quiet, more focus, more creativity, more success, more support… I think all of these desires are making too much noise in our minds. The truth is, we need more hope.
In her book, The Gifts of Imperfection, Brene Brown states, “Hope is not an emotion; it’s a way of thinking or a cognitive process.” She goes on to explain that hope is the practice of believing that situations can improve, that people can grow, deepen and develop, and most importantly, that we each have the power to make decisions to bring about change in our lives.
When we make a practice of waking up every day and tuning into the mental channel that reminds of us everything we don’t have– time, money, food in the pantry, that new pair of fall boots that are just beyond our budget–we begin to lose sight of the fact that our decisions hold great power. When we make a practice of putting on our favorite pair of shoes that we do have, of taking the five minutes we do have to listen to a song we love, or spending the $3.99 we can afford on a basket of fresh raspberries, our perspective begins to change. It’s not that what we’ve been telling ourselves isn’t true. No one has enough time, money or the exact right foods in their pantry at any given time. However, the fact of the matter is, our perspective matters. It matters because our perspective affects our decisions, and our tiny decisions affect our outlook, and our outlook affects what we send out into the world in every interaction.
Consider this: I’m feeling tired, sluggish and not the tiniest bit creative after an exhausting day in which I’ve reminded myself of everything I don’t have. I get home early, and realize I have about a half-hour before anyone else will get home. All day long, I’ve been bemoaning the fact that I never have any time to simply sketch. Now, when the window of time appears, I sink onto the couch and put up my feet. My head hurts too badly to draw anyway.
Now, same day. I get home feeling tired, sluggish and not creative, but instead of exhausting my mental energy all day on the endless tirade about everything I lack, I’ve spent my time thinking about what I’d like to sketch, when I have a minute. Even though I’m tired, I have an idea, and I open my sketchbook. When my family gets home, I am refreshed and happy to see them.
I’m the last person to think that people ought to just “think-positive.” I have always distrusted this approach to life because I really just can’t stand lying to myself. I’m not talking about lying here, though. I’m talking about practicing hope in the small moments because it pays off in the big ones.
I’ve been witnessing my adult students making this amazing journey… the journey from stuck to hopefulness. I see the power of it in their lives, and I’m inspired by their courage. Practicing hope takes courage because it requires vulnerability. Skepticism and doubt is an armor behind which most of us hide. Thus, opening up to possibilities, even when we know they won’t always work out, is hugely courageous. I’m impressed with what I’ve witnessed, inspired to continue practicing hope in my own life, and encourage you to practice it in your life, too. You never know what might come of your risktaking, and isn’t the adventure worth it?
Have you ever wondered why books don’t start with the words: THE BEGINNING? We all take such joy in typing THE END on that very last page.
Maybe the reason we don’t start with THE BEGINNING is because life doesn’t work that way. Often we don’t realize an event was a beginning until long after the story is completely in motion. This week, I had the privilege of witnessing a beginning, though, and the most fun part was the realization that I was at the beginning of something very special.
I am passionate about teaching. I’ve worked with thousands of young people on theatrical productions and creative writing, but this week, for nearly the first time, I began a creative writing class for adults. I approach all my teaching with a playful style, and maybe that’s why I’ve directed my attention at young people who are more open to “getting out of their seats and moving around the room,” or using colored markers and index cards to plot a book. The fact is, many adults are hesitant to let loose and play. Yet, the power of play is powerful for adults, maybe even more than it is for young people.
Young people are often in situations in classrooms or after school classes where they are asked to interact playfully. This is not the case for adults, and so when adults are given the green light to play, amazing discoveries ensue. We all know the feeling of being stuck, of having looked at a project so long that we simply can’t see it anymore. A game provides a new lens through which to look, and a new hopeful perspective too. The questions shift. “What should I do?” and “What’s the right answer?” become “What could I do?” and “What’s a possible answer?” This change may seem small, but the implications are huge. We don’t have to be right or perfect or efficient. We can just play with ideas and see what emerges.
I asked the ladies in my class how they felt after our hour an a half. They said, “I can’t believe how much I got done! I can’t believe how much new perspective I have!” Through play, we let go of our need to be grown up and serious and careful, and somehow we made strides we hadn’t been able to make otherwise.
I’ve been listening to a new book by Brene Brown called Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent and Lead. In this book, Brene Brown shares reflections on her research on wholehearted living, on how vulnerability is essential for all people, and how shame affects all of us (whether we’re willing to admit it or not). What I’m realizing is that what I saw firsthand in my class, and what I’m hearing Brene detail from her research, all matches up with my own life experience. Opening up to experiences that make us feel vulnerable is terrifying, and yet one can’t be creative (or even fully human) without these experiences. Play is key. When we play, we shift into a mode where vulnerability is simply part of the game. We bypass our grown up critic who tells us that we might ruin our idea or humiliate ourselves by trying something at which we’re not sure we can succeed. We tap into that child we carry with us all the time, the child who loves to laugh and be messy and try new things and learn and who knows the delicious joy of discovery.
So, what do I think is beginning? Something exciting. Something huge and important. It starts with me. I’m learning that not only is learning to be vulnerable and play important for my life, it’s important for others. Not just children. Adults too. Artists. All people. I think I’m realizing what I need to start shouting from the mountaintops and what I need to share with anyone who will listen. You’re feeling stuck? Let’s play. And not in a way that diminishes the difficulty of what’s going on. Not in a naive way. Play might be one of the very most important things that a person can do. The strange thing is, the only way to play is to be willing to be silly and let go of expectations. Stuart Brown MD, founder of the National Institute for Play, insists that true play is “apparently purposeless.” The point is, you can’t create a five point plan or set a timer and tally up results afterward. You’ve just got to let go. Just play.
And in the meantime, read these amazing books by these visionary thinkers. Their research and insights will transform your daily life.
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To me, the start of a New Year always feels untouched, like a stretch of newly fallen snow. I love the way the days between Christmas and New Years Day seem to hold their breath, allowing even someone like me, who seems constantly in motion, to stop and rest. I feel refreshed and excited about the adventures to come.
