Creativity

I announced my decision to retire just before my 65th birthday. It wasn’t my first retirement. A divorce forced the sale of my business at the crack of Covid. My emergency back-up career in real estate served me well, but reaching Medicare age gave me a nudge…

Have you awakened smack dab in the middle of the night only to have runaway thoughts start flooding your mind as an endless loop of worries, frets, self-criticism, financial doom, or any number of problems you need to solve? The trick of the trap when that happens is that the looping, ruminating thinking is very […]

Every person has a unique life story. There is no such thing as two life stories being the same. As a life story writing coach and memoir teacher, I believe everyone should take the time to put their story on paper. Forgive yourself for past mistakes…

We live in such an amazing time, a golden age of literacy. We are not relegated to just the stories of books and films, but have the capacity to share our own stories in written form. This is powerful and sacred work, a tool for understanding our condition within the human condition. Writing can be a portal into what Plato called “the examined life.” And writing leaves in its wake a personal and cultural her-story (history) that can inform future generations…

Organic gardening offers a variety of benefits: the food is free of chemicals, additives and unnatural ingredients; working in the garden is great exercise and can also be meditative and emotionally rewarding…

You applaud your friend Mary Jane’s exuberance as she describes her delight with her new-found hobby, tap-dancing. OK, she’ll never be Fred Astaire, but she’s thrilled at what she and her fellow tap students, not a one under 60, are accomplishing. You listen appreciatively as your sister-in-law waxes enthusiastic over the writing class she’s joined. How wonderful…

It’s the rainy season here in Costa Rica and it makes me think of comfort food. Only one small problem, it’s hot out! So I am dreaming of a hot bowl of soup. I love lentil soup with a dollop of pesto on top, or maybe a good vegetable soup. Oh and some bread…

Remember drawing your sixth-grade teacher with devil horns in your notebook, or doodling hearts, flowers or stars, during a boring business meeting? I’ve been guilty of these scenarios. But happily, I no longer feel like a complete slacker…

How are you using creativity in your daily life? Each of us is continually creating our world. Creativity isn’t something that happens somewhere else; something that only certain people have. Every time you draw a breath, you interact with the whole Universe to make life happen…

June 1st marks the beginning of meteorological summer, a prelude to the solstice and a promise of endless hours of sunshine ahead. In this season of growth and green, there is no better time to recommit to our creativity. Here are five steps to doing just that – and the power of each one is in the intentionality we put into it…