by Naomi | Aug 22, 2013 | Creative Life
It’s time for a new blog series, one I’ve been planning for quite some time.
I hear it all the time in conversations, and the same longing echoes in my own heart. I want balance. I want a joy-filled life. I want to do meaningful work, to help others, to be creative, to be healthy, to have time for friends and family, to have fun time, and on and on the list goes. I don’t want to answer every “How are you?” with “Ugh. Too busy.” I especially don’t want to answer every “How’s your writing?” with an “I just never seem to have time.”
When I work with writers, young and young at heart, I hear the same story. “I want to have time for writing, but…”
Just bypassing the creative block isn’t enough. Or maybe it’s just that it’s not the start. I think the starting place is wrangling one’s life. Now, I have to tell you, working on this project has been a ten-year, maybe more, project for me. Thus, I’m not about to tell you that I’ve stumbled across some simple magic fix for balancing one’s life. Balance isn’t simple. Yet, I have spent hours and hours of trial and error, and while my life still isn’t perfectly balanced, I’ve learned some important lessons.
1. It never WILL be balanced. There’s an ebb and flow.
2. Throwing in the towel and just going with the ebb and flow isn’t the entire answer. That approach leads to either a blocked or lazy or overwhelmed life.
3. One needs a system, but it has to be loose enough to actually work with the ebb and flow. And the system absolutely can’t lead to guilt, or you’re back to the blocked, lazy or overwhelmed life.
So, what do you do when you need a system and you also need to flow? A kindergarten teacher would say you need color-coded buckets. While what’s in the bucket might still be chaotic, when you can train the kids to put their toys away at the end of play-time, there’s always that moment at the end of the day when everything is back in it’s place, where the class can take a collective breath. Then, the next day, fresh decisions can be made, new games can be invented, and everyone trusts that at the end of theday, everything will find the way back into the buckets. A spectacular mess simply can’t be made when you’re afraid it can’t be dealt with later.
It’s a simple concept, and at first glance, it may seem too simple. But why not try it out with me and see what you discover? Here’s what we’ll explore in the next few posts. I’ll tell you my story and share the exercises that worked for me… try mine, or let them inspire ideas of your own.
Part One: What buckets do I need? How do I even start sorting with the giant mess I’ve got?
Part Two: Fine. I’ve got buckets now. How do I keep track in the ebb and flow?
Part Three: Technology please? There’s got to be an app for that.
Part Four: What happens when days go by and I’ve totally lost sight of the buckets?
Part Five: Umm… I have all this creative energy now. What’s next?
Ready to dive in? Look for Part One over the next few days.
by Naomi | Nov 30, 2012 | Creative Life
Holiday Scavenger Hunt:
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.
by Naomi | Aug 24, 2012 | Creative Life
In honor of the upcoming release of Brilliant Hues, the fourth book in the From Sadie’s Sketchbook Series, I’m hosting a Sketching Challenge.
If you’ve read the first three books, you know that sketching becomes a way for Sadie to explore and ultimately better understand her new life in Michigan. Many of us are starting new, with new classrooms, new teachers, maybe even new schools or towns. Why not do what Sadie does… and sketch?
There’s something joyful in searching for a scene to sketch. As you search, your mind will start to take mental snapshots. You’ll notice just how vivid the orange clouds are at sunset, be surprised by a dragonfly’s blue-green wings, or burst out laughing at a puppy wriggling on his back on bright green grass. The ordinary becomes so much more interesting when you pay attention.
Consider carrying a camera with you. Snap real shots of moments you’d like to sketch, so you have all the details when you sit down with pencils and paper.
Start by just noticing, even if you don’t sketch yet. Vivian would say that “Learning to see is the first step in learning to draw.” If you sketch something you love, email the pdf to Naomi with a title for your image. I will post many of your images here on the blog. For the next month or two, check back for new drawing challenges. More are on the way!
Happy Sketching!
by Naomi | Jul 26, 2012 | Creative Life
Give me a “30 days to (fill in the blank)” program and I’m in. There’s something about committing fiercely and the progress that comes along with the commitment that makes me feel as though I’m achieving success. In my mind, I call this “getting somewhere.” That’s very telling. Not “getting (fill in the blank with a specific location)” but “getting somewhere.”
Where am I going? What’s the rush?
Don’t get me wrong. Tracking movement in my life and making commitments has served me well. It’s just that I’m realizing the guilt that goes along with these commitments might be stifling the creative winds that flow through my life.
I’m starting to think I should start in a different place. The truth is, anything worth learning to do isn’t done in chunks of 30 days anyway. Instead of committing to cram new information into my head, what if my goal were more authentic, less achievement-oriented? Isn’t my goal actually to live a more creative life, to let myself explore and learn something new? And if exploration is my goal, maybe I need to work on a couple 30 day programs at once, and *gasp* perhaps not complete them in 30 days. Or maybe I need to toss all the 30 day programs out the window and trek out into totally uncharted territory.
Maybe.
To tell the truth, I think we all need both: commitments to ourselves, commitments we strive to achieve, and also flexibility to go with the flow. I’ve started a new habit, one I think might just work for me. Many nights (see I didn’t say “every night…”) I take a few moments to jot some notes down about the day. Did I invest in creative exploration today? Did I invest in friends and family? Did I learn anything new? What am I grateful for today? Over time, I’m starting to see that my impulse isn’t actually to achieve some far-fetched goal, but instead to honor each day–to value my minutes and hours–by being intentional.
Do you track movement in your life in any particular way? I’d love to know.
by Naomi | Jun 13, 2012 | Creative Life
We’ve got a debate going at my house. When is the end of the year?
I believe, and have long-held, that the end of the year is the last day of school. Of course, those that hold that December 31 is the last day of the year are technically more correct. Still, in the cycle of my life, when school ends and the summer stretches long in front of me, I feel like I’ve stepped into a land of new beginnings. New possibilities spring up.
The first thing I do is bushwhack. Yep. As though my office is a jungle (and on the last day of the school year, it practically is), I hack through the piles and paperwork and clutter. As my recycling bin and donation boxes fill, and I start to see my desk’s surface, I feel my lungs open and I can finally breathe.
Clearing my desk allows me to clear my mind–always a joyful process because where there’s space, creativity is possible. When I’m in the thick of commitments and appointments and classes, buried in paperwork and email and to-do items, I simply can’t think of a single new thing. But my heart feeds on these new ideas, these full-of-hope possibilities, and creativity is generally the thing I most need when I’m in those overwhelmed, too-busy moments. So, today, I’m feeling grateful as I scan my shiny, clear desk. Anything is possible. Perhaps, today, I can get back to the important work of learning how to play.
