This week’s photo challenge is minimalist, explained as: An artfully executed minimalist photograph is anything but mundane. It illustrates a moment in time, or an artistic perspective, with simplicity and grace. Minimalist photography is characterized by a large portion of negative space, a fairly monochromatic color palette with good contrast, and an interesting subject that…
At some point, every writer wonders if his or her stories are important, and if anyone will ever care about them. . . I told him writing, like Tai Chi, was internal, not external. It is about feeling and honesty, if something wants to come out, it needs to come out. One has to set…
Pick a direction, start marching down that path and see how you like it. Time brings clarity and if you find you don’t like it, you can always change your mind. It’s your life. – Gary Keller & Jay Papasan, The One Thing The Short Version After reading “The One Thing” by Gary Keller and…
It’s not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is, what are we busy about? – Henry David Thoreau Among the things I’ve done recently to nurture my creativity is to finish the book, “The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results” by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan. I’ve been…
I had fun with my daughter these last few days, but after a late night flight yesterday and working all day today, the best thing I can do to nurture my creativity is go to bed at a decent time. In her blog, The Happiness Project, Gretchen Rubin writes repeatedly about the importance of enough…
One thing that helps nurture my creativity while traveling is to decide ahead of time what my expectations are. I recheck them nearly every day while I’m on my trip. Did I do what I wanted? If not, do I still want to do that? If so, what do I need to do to enjoy…
A not-so-funny thing happens along the way to extraordinary results. Untidiness. Unrest. Disarray. Disorder. . . Messes are inevitable when you focus on just one thing. . . One of the greatest thieves of productivity is the unwillingness to allow for chaos or the lack of creativity in dealing with it. Gary Keller and Jay…
In chaos, all is possible. Every incoming idea is welcomed, with no regard for reality. Forget time, money or reason; embrace a brimming universe! Because if you start with rules, your creation will be stillborn. Philippe Petit in “Creativity: The Perfect Crime” Along with the learning curve is the inevitable chaos that accompanies it. It’s just…
This is the essence of Rembrandt’s advice to Van Hoogstraten: the authentic craft develops naturally from one’s own experience. So, it seems reasonable to suggest that the search should not be for the lost secrets, but for one’s own practice. This is in fact easy, you start making things. At first they might not be…
Living The Seasons 