I have been very fortunate to have read some wonderful, thought provoking, life inspiring books this year on my journey with the Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod.

As a side note, I will share links to where you can find the books I talk about in my posts-I am not being sponsored and I use Amazon links because its where I purchase my books from.  I encourage you to look for the books-if the quotes or my descriptions move you to-at wherever you normally buy your books.

Disclaimer made, we shall move on…

I set up this blog over six months ago as a place to share one of the things I love most to do-write. I waited years to do it, talked myself in and out of it a dozen times.  This year, right after my forty-fifth birthday, I dove in.  I read blog posts on what to do before, what to do after, what to use, what to not use-even how to come up with a name that would reflect what the blog was about. I was excited and shared the link-with no posts at the time-with a one or two close people.

Then it took the better part of a month to write my first post and months in between for additional posts.

Yikes.

My courage and valor dissipated as if they had never existed.  After hitting publish on my first post all kinds of negative thoughts started running through my mind-WHAT WAS I THINKING????  Who could possibly want to read or even CARE about what I had to say?  All of those insecurities rushed in leaving me like a cowering little girl.  Ergo, the huge gaps between posts.   It took a while to get up off the floor and figure out where my courage went.

At this particular point I find it important to say that when it comes to others, I passionately encourage them to express their creativity in whatever outlet calls to their hearts-art, I believe, is so many different things to each individual person.  I also believe that everyone has an art inside them.

As with most things, I am never one to much heed my own advice.  No matter how good it is.

I am also a firm believer in the fact that God chooses the perfect ways of conveying messages to each of us-knowing our hearts, He knows what or who will draw our attention in such a way that we can not ignore who the message is for.

I recently read Girl, Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis-a completely unplanned read, but that just goes to show what I said about God’s message.

I love the way that Rachel Hollis wrote this book.  It is like a conversation with a really good friend-the one that has no filter, whose words come straight from the heart and hit home with such a force you cannot simply walk away unaffected by them.

Rachel Hollis titled the chapters of the book after hurtful lies, and the one that hit me on the subject of creativity was the one that she entitles “I’m A Terrible Writer”.

I wonder why?

“Someone else’s opinion of you is none of your business” (page 147; the emphasis was Ms Hollis’)

Um…WOW.  Straight shot right where it needed to go.

She goes on, on the same page, to talk about the importance of these words especially when we are creating:

“You work and work and then you close your and cross your fingers and hope it finds recognition.  But here’s the thing about that magical, mystical thing you’re making: You create because you have a God-given ability to do so.  You create as a gift to yourself and to the higher power who blessed you with those abilities.  but you can’t make people like or understand it” (Girl Was Your Face by Rachel Hollis, page 147).

Are there things out there to be afraid of?  Sure.  The unknown can be very scary.  Uncertainty can be enough to make us hesitate, maybe even step back.  But fear of what someone else thinks of something that we have created from the deepest places of our hearts is not a reason not to create.  It is not a reason to suppress what is in our hearts and not share it with the world.

I have been off for the last several days-I found my fountain pen and ink cartridges, and, in case I needed any additional affirmation, I received several journals this Christmas.  I have handwritten in cursive-you know, that lost art?-several pages about my journey this year.  Maybe I will do a post quoting some of these.  My journals have always been something I hold sacred and dear because they are where I spill my heart, read my thoughts, and oftentimes work through things that did not make sense until they were in black and white.  My hope with them is that one day, when I am gone, my daughters will read through them and maybe gain a little more insight into their mother.

I’d like to leave you with this final quote from Rachel’s amazing literary work:

“As an artist or a creator, you have to decide.  You have to choose a path or live the rest of your life slowly killing your ability to do great work for fear of what others will think.  You have to decide that you care more about creating your magic and pushing it out into the world than you do about how it will be received” (Girl Was Your Face by Rachel Hollis, page 148).

This post was inspired by Sir.  I would like to dedicate it to him and to my beautiful in-house artists, Abbey and Emily.  To Michael, who not only inspires, but ensures that everything we need to create is always readily available.