Today, I’m taking your questions…
About Life, about Creativity, about God, about work, about ministry, about you, about me…whatever.
I’m not promising that I have all the answers and fixes. But, let’s see if we can help each other out today, somehow.
I snapped this shot of a restored vintage Ford camper van when I was at the grocery store this week.
I enjoyed the brash van, and even more I enjoyed what it stood for.
Today remember this 1 Thing:
• Make sure you have your own Big Pink Van Moment. Maybe once per week, if you can’t handle the good medicine of once per day.
That means, screw convention, and say, “Heck with the norm.” Everyone does things a certain way. We fall in line. We act like sheep in the flock of sameness. We dress with the conventions. Drive a conventional car. Live in a conventional home. Eat conventional meals. Find conventional entertainment. Know conventional people. There’s no rule that says you have to do that. I’ll go further:
Conformity is a threat to innovation and full-bodied creativity. (Click to tweet this adage.)
Conformity becomes an unconscious mode of operation. It’s stifling. We must break out of that, routinely. Otherwise, it’s like we get involved in a slow creative death deprived of the oxygen of innovation.
What did your last Big Pink Van Moment look like?
What dream do you have that falls into this category?
I’m writing as “Sparky Pronto” (my alter ego) who has the wisdom of the Muses to spark your creative muse and give you encouragement.
• Ignore insinuations that creating isn’t part of your reason for being here.
• When you make good art consistently, eventually you will be rewarded.
• Only a few people will “get you” and what you’re doing, if any do at all. That is no reason to stop creating.
• If you feel alive when you create, it’s crazy to stop or let it lag. Don’t.
• Creativity is like water. Jumping into a creative flow will be messy. Know that going in.
(This birdie card is an original creation: A Superb Snail Mail postcard I’m sending out to a savvy lover of mail.)
So now that there’s enough interest in Superb Snail Mail to keep me busy, I thought I’d post about the power of birdies.
Like a whisper Twitter started chirping and soon journalists learned to scour the twitter feeds for breaking news. One of the first big breaks was the tweeted death of the King of Pop, Michael Jackson.
Twitter bucked the wisdom of online gurus and what was already working on the interwebs. Twitter simplicity was so elemental that it felt restrictive. Quick tweets (remember “a little birdie told me”) were held to just 140 characters, even for direct messages. It had its critics and could be exasperating, but it worked.
The same thing will work for you. Think of your message and your creative endeavors like a diaspora of ideas. It doesn’t take a loud voice to get the word it takes lots of little birdies…chirping.
Should we spread this message through Twitter? That would be cool. Click the twitter button.
Word of mouth is fine too. I don’t mind being old fashioned.
Sorry to send you into a sugar coma with the cuteness today!
Today’s question is “What Quiets YOU?”
I was pleased to hear blogging and leadership superstar Michael Hyatt give out some serious props recently for naps and people who take them. I like working late, but my family needs me early. I need my naps. No, I don’t get them regularly. When I don’t something happens. I fall asleep reading. I go right into REM sleep too…as you might imagine.
I must feel safe.
If threats loom I am disquieted.
Trust is what quiets down my soul so I can wade through the rest of it, and lay me down to sleep. Trust in God, Trust in myself, and Trust in others.
In finding what quiets our souls we find not just peace, but vitality, and fullness. (click to tweet that reminder)
The hush may come from acceptance, wonder, rest, or satisfaction from a job well done, but it must be found.
Without it we just keep on wandering.
Feel like sharing? What surprising thing calms your soul?
