Love Letters to Creative Souls

Dear Creative Tribe,

Firstly, I want to thank all of you for faithfully following my emails, classes, and art shows. I really appreciate all of you out there. Some of you I see regularly, and others, just a few times a year, and others drop me a note here and there....and others I have never met.

I know I am a teacher/facilitator/ artist but I hope you all know how much I learn from you. Thank you for being there, guiding and teaching me in many different ways.

What has come up for me in the last year, in teaching, creating, and in publishing the book, The Light Within, with my dear friend and illustrator Sandra Lamb, is that when we ask ourselves the question “What would Love do?” everything shifts. (A wise person taught me this question last year, and I continue to return to it again and again.)

When we ask, “What would Love do?” there is a softening that happens, clarity can come, and, at other times, we realise a fierceness is needed. It seems that asking this question awakens compassion for ourselves and others. It shows us the way, when before the way appeared blocked or uncertain.

For those of you who are unaware, we launched the soft cover copy of our book, The Light Within, in December at my art show at Blue Moon Winery. Thank you to so many who showed up and purchased the book...and also to those who bought art. It was such a memorable day!

Also, many of you who were unable to make the show, have contacted us to purchase the book-thank you!! You can also find us on Facebook-“The Light Within-book”. If you do not live in the Comox Valley, you can order the book on-line now at www.SmallCandlePublishing.com .

Writing and publishing the book, has been a real lesson in trusting the process, and in just accepting and loving what is at the time. It was truly a labor of love as it took so many years ( I say 10yrs, Sandi says 7yrs!) to fully come to fruition. There were many stops and starts on its journey. Sandi and I each had things we needed to confront, look at and choose how we wanted to move forward. When I look back, each time, I believe we chose Love as a way to move forward, each accepting where we were at and trusting the time would be right to take the next step. This took alot of courage on both our parts as this is not a “normal” book that fits into a certain genre. And, funny thing, that is the message that comes through. “Love is always within you. And you can choose to open or close the door to your heart.”

Often when we paint or create, our biggest judges come to roost and natter away at us. This is where Loving ourselves more, wherever we are at in our Creative Process, can shift things. Even if we feel blocked, or frustrated, or unhappy with our results, loving ourselves at whatever place we may be at, softens everything. It can bring non-judgment in, acceptance, and some space to work through whatever it is that feels blocked. When we consider moving forward from a place of Love, it re-arranges things. This re-minds us of what we are here to do, which ultimately is to Love ourselves, be ourselves.

It is from this place of self-love that we can more deeply and authentically Love others. It is so much easier to Love others first-our children, parents, friends and others, putting them first on our list (at least it has been in my case!). However, if we do not Love ourselves, ultimately we burn out, we grow restless, tired, irritable, unhappy, disinterested in life. We have lost touch with our deeper selves and what we truly desire in our lives.

For me, to be creative is one of the most important ways I can give the gift of Love to myself. It fills my heart in some way and from there I can Love More.

I wonder, dear Reader, what things you can do in your life to Love yourself More? Consider bringing some of those things into your daily practice and see how it shifts things for you.

Loving ourselves more means extending that into every avenue of our daily lives.

I wonder what it would look like for you to extend more love towards yourself in the stuck places?

How might that shift things?

It only makes sense to me to continue this exploration of Loving More in the painting classes. For those of you who might be new to Pure Process, know that wherever you at in your creativity, it is welcomed into the group. It is always lovely to have new energy brought in. And for those who have painted with me recently, you will be familiar with this as we have touched a little bit on this before. In this session, I would like to dive deeper with you all in this, taking the challenge to see just how Loving ourselves can support this Life Journey we are on.

May your 2015 be filled with Love and Light. I hope our paths will cross soon.

Kind Regards,

Lisa