Creativity and discovery
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“Make music of what you can”
I always knew I wanted to be a writer. When I was a kid, I perched in the gnarly apple tree in my backyard and scribbled stories in a notebook with lined pages. In college I majored in English and journalism, but it took a few more years to find the courage (and the income) I needed to begin a real writing career. The zig-zag path that led me here was marked with detours and littered with excuses. After graduation, I worked at other jobs where I learned some valuable lessons — including what I didn’t want to do for the rest of my life. The poem below is…
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What’s your trademark?
“We are all weird in some way….Most of the time it’s what makes us so incredible. So where’s your will to be weird? Where’s your resolution to be real? Celebrate your individuality and don’t be embarrassed by it. If you’re lucky enough to have something that makes you different from everybody else, don’t be ashamed and don’t hide it. Own it!” ~Marc Chernoff, Marc & Angel Hack Life Most people cringe at the thought of appearing “weird,” so I struggled to express my thoughts on today’s quote. But then I remembered the idea of having a “trademark” — which was a recent topic in a daybook we’re reading in my…
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Sticky songs
“We become what we repeatedly do.” ~Stephen R. Covey Cher won’t stop singing “Dark Lady” inside my head. The pop tune — which was released in 1974 but happened to be playing on my car radio last week — now repeats itself on an endless loop in my mind while I’m drying my hair in the bathroom each morning. Then it starts all over again, later, while I’m chopping veggies in the kitchen. And it’s not like I’m a huge fan of Cher. What is it with sticky songs? According to my online research, sticky songs (otherwise known as “earworms”) have a scientific label: Involuntary Musical Imagery, or INMI. “According…
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Love & inspiration
“Where there is love and inspiration, I don’t think you can ever go wrong.” ~Ella Fitzgerald I’m lucky to have so many talented people in my life. One friend knits the most charming creations, including toys for my grandson. Others create breathtaking landscape art with their cameras, and a few turn their photos or watercolors into greeting card prints. Still others are outstanding quilters, musicians, painters, writers, cooks, or designers. It doesn’t matter whether or not they market or perform their work. Or if they’re published or famous. What matters is that they make creativity part of their everyday lives — and inspire the rest of us to use our…
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Who are your heroes?
“One way to remember who you are is to remember who your heroes are.” ~Steve Jobs, Cofounder of Apple, Inc. In the sixth grade, I was deeply moved and inspired by the courage of diarist Anne Frank, who earned literary fame after her death with the 1947 publication of The Diary of a Young Girl. Anne started her diary after she turned 13, recording the details of her life in hiding (from 1942 to 1944) during the German occupation of the Netherlands. After reading it for the first time, I sobbed for days at the thought of how a young girl — not much older than I was then —…
