The other day, my grown children and I were watching a 1939 Bob Hope movie, The Cat and The Canary, with my aunt. In it, the cast of characters is trapped in a creepy house with a killer. You know, it’s the type of movie where the secret passageway creaks open and a hand slides...
Tag: creativity
New Video – An Open Apology to My Creative Self
Enjoy my newest video revisiting one of my most popular posts from this blog, “An Open Apology to My Creative Self.” Feel encouraged again to embrace your creative energy and the joy it brings to your life!
You Make It Look Easy
Beginner’s luck is defined as “unexpected success for someone who has taken up a new pursuit,” and we have all experienced it. For example, the first article I wrote after quitting my job to become a freelance writer was picked up immediately. The second article landed on the front page, and was quickly acquired for...
Spontaneity vs Planning
I was sitting in a focus group the other night, and the facilitator threw out an icebreaker question: “What do you miss most about being a kid?” I said, “I miss spontaneity. You know, deciding you were in the mood for tag and then knocking on doors until you found someone who could come out...
Operating on “Artist Time”
The other day, I had scheduled a mid-morning coffee with a friend. I did my exercises first and checked e-mail, leaving myself a full hour to get ready. But sometime during that designated time, my creative mind decided to take a walk. I wound up spending twice as long in the shower as I intended...
Outside The Box? What Box?
I was one of those kids who listened carefully when the adults were talking. I took in as much as I could, trying to understand the world around me. Every now and then I’d hear someone refer to “thinking outside the box.” And, in the literal way a child sometimes thinks, I would picture boxes...
The Brilliance of Illness
It’s hard to be brilliant when you are sick. Remember when you were a kid and became ill, and your mother made a bed on the couch, turned on your favorite cartoons, made you chicken soup and told you everything was going to be better soon? Is it wrong that right now I wish I...
Do You Trust Yourself?
Yesterday I was interviewing Terri Norvell for the radio show I co-host. She’s an expert on inner trust. She made a comment that really stuck with me. She said, “If you can’t trust yourself, you can’t fully trust other people.” And oh, how we need other people if we want to succeed. She went on...
The Hardest Easy Job
I attended the National Speakers Association convention this past weekend, and heard a presenter refer to speaking as one of the “hardest ‘easy’ jobs there is.” Made us all laugh. A friend of mine recently sought a speaker for a 30-minute keynote to kick off her event. When he quoted her a $5,000 fee, she...
Sing it again, Mom
I love to sing. That’s not to say I’m great at it. I can carry a tune, and I’m game enough to massacre a song or two on karaoke, but my favorite way to use song has always been to get my kids’ attention. As they were growing up, whenever they were ignoring my directives...