imagine possibility.... by Lisa DeYoung

Reading this excerpt from Mary Oliver's poem, Wild Geese, gave me pause to reflect my sense of place in the world.

I truly feel at home where I live – the wide open sky (which is in the photo above), the sound of the river flowing, the mountains that surround me, my friends and community, the little house that I share with my hubby, my studio and online community...

And yet sometimes I feel lonely and out of place – comparing myself to others, feeling I am not enough.

I love the idea that the world offers itself to your imagination.

Our imagination holds so much possibility.

When I find myself feeling lonely and out of place, I will turn to my imagination – and possibility.

How can your imagination help you discover your sense of place in the world?

Artwork Note: If you've seen my first few posts on Creative Dream Journals (here and here), you will know that each includes a piece of my lettering art. It is my intention to share a piece of my art each month – as an exploration in my love of lettering, and turning to my imagination for possibility. My imagination, and trust, will be key in this sharing as I draw inspiration from other artists, strive not to compare myself, and shed feelings of not enough. Thank you for coming on this journey with me. I'd love to hear your thoughts on my work!

Lisa, aka the mountain mermaid, is a creative, independent spirit who loves to explore and play outdoors. She lives in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Embracing her creative life is an ongoing adventure, a journey that she loves and trusts more each year – and hopes to inspire others to do the same. She is also an entrepreneur providing innovative business support, including graphic design services, for passionate creative entrepreneurs.

Finding your place – the identity crisis by Glenda Myles

Our theme this month is Finding Your Place. When I first heard it, I thought about the journey many of us are on to find our true place, that place where we exist as the best expression of ourselves, the place where we can be.

Part of that journey for me has involved a bit of an identity crisis. If I am looking for that place where I can be the best expression of myself, don’t I need to know who the heck I am first?

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i·den·ti·ty

1. The collective aspect of the set of characteristics by which a thing is definitively recognizable or known.
2. The set of behavioral or personal characteristics by which an individual is recognizable as a member of a group.
3. The distinct personality of an individual regarded as a persisting entity; individuality.
(source: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/identity)

How are our dreams rooted in our identity? Or how are we held back from fulfilling our dreams because of the attachment we have to an identity? Is that identity a true reflection of you?

Do you identify as an artist? Does this impact the choices you make, the clothes you wear, whether you have a tattoo or not, how you wear your hair, or the friends you have?

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I remember about eight years ago, someone sent around this game at the office. For each person, you had to put a few adjectives that best described them. It was meant to be fun and light-hearted. When I saw the words that people used to describe me, I was shocked and devastated.

Now, don’t get me wrong. They weren’t “bad” words, no one thought I was evil or anything (or at least they didn’t say that at the time), but they weren’t words that I wanted to have etched on my tombstone either. Ambitious, driven, hard-working, etc.

It was how I got work done, but I was more than my work, wasn’t I? This wasn’t me.

It wasn’t long after that I was in a car accident that changed my life. In fact, I often think of my life in terms of pre- and post-accident, like these times are separate entities somehow. With time off from work, a broken body, and a loss of who I thought I might be, I had to come to terms with my identity.

If this was how people saw me and I didn’t want it to be, what is a true reflection of who I am really? What could I do to present that to the world and have it reflected back?

Flash forward. Many people may still use some of those words to describe me, it hasn’t gone away. But I don’t think it would be the only words they would use. I have stripped myself of my attachment to many things and continue to do so. I now make decisions not based on external norms, but based on what I really want. I live in better alignment with how I feel inside and how that is expressed externally.

As I begin to better understand who I am and who I want to be, I am able to find the spaces, places, and people that support me, that nurture those things that I wish to emulate, that accept me for all of who I am. I am also able to let go of my need to be accepted in places that don’t.

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Are you dreaming of a life that is vastly different than your current one and are frozen with fear because in order to change you need to release your attachment to your current identity? Sometimes we need to tear down walls in order to build something new.

Glenda is a healer, coach, and teacher as a doula, educator, reiki practitioner, dance facilitator, kundalini yogi, and earth-medicine creator. She facilitates a new group called Awe-Inspiring Women, a community based on respect, support, education and, occasionally provoking a conversation, so that we can take responsibility for the world we've created and encourage a better world.

Finding Light in Darkness by Susan Cadley

"I wish I could show you, when you are lonely or in darkness, the astonishing light of your own being." Hafiz

Have you ever been awakened from a deep sleep frightened and shaky from a nightmare? If so, the first thing you probably did was to turn on the light. When the light is turned on, the scary imaginings disappear and we are calmed eventually.

Being in darkness in our waking life can encompass many things including; depression, feeling stuck, lost, experiencing grief, or unending anxiety. When we feel hopeless, faithless, and empty it may seem we cannot even reach for the light, though it is always available to us.

I was recently listening to a radio show called “Speaking of Faith” on NPR about spirituality and recovery. The guest was a Native American from the Lakota tribe in South Dakota, named Basil Braveheart. Basil talked about his alcoholism and the last 30 years being in recovery. What struck me most about what Basil shared was his culture’s belief in embracing darkness, or in his words making it a “relative”, a member of his family by acknowledging it as his greatest teacher. He said that for him, this is when answers appeared and miracles occurred.

If you find yourself in a dark place, next time try to be aware and stop yourself from finding the fast fix. Sit with it a while and allow the message it has for you to appear. You can learn about who you are in this lost place. Your soul may be stopping you in your tracks for a reason. Listen.

The most common fear about acknowledging darkness is that it will never leave but quite the opposite is true. By ignoring it, it has to get louder to get your attention. It may feel as if you’re not moving, however there is greater force at work under the surface, a force that supports you on your path always. Marianne Williamson in her book Everyday Grace reminds us that “There is a light in all of us.” When we forget this, it is time to reach out to a friend, a favorite book, a community, to take your hand and help you see in the dark. When things feel hopeless, others can hold out hope for until you find your inner light again.

The dawn eventually returns.


Susan is a Licensed Psychotherapist and Soul Coach and sole proprietor of Living From Within, LLC. Through counseling, coaching, creative workshops, book studies, and writing, Susan guides you to hear and live the messages of your soul.

Happiness in Me by Valarie Budayr

As I look back on my life and even now in my life, I’ve never been one that fits in. I’ve always phrased this as “ I’m not normal”. This usually mystifies people because I look like any other suburban house wife until you get a little bit closer.

I’ve always had my own way of doing things. I’ve never wanted to be like anyone else except when I’m wanting to be “normal and usual.” There was a time in my life after I got married where I really tried to be like everyone else. What followed was a deep depression, and a sense of failure. I just didn’t feel good or right in my own skin.

One day my husband looked at me and said, “Why not just be you? Those that love you will be right here and those that don’t get you don’t need to be. “ Such wisdom at the morning breakfast table.

It was then that I found my sense of place in my “work”, my creativity.

Whatever I’m creating is the right place for me. It’s when I’m at my happiest.

It’s become my habit when I’m feeling out of sorts or kind of funky, “Who are you trying to make happy ?” The answer to that question should always be “me”. Always. Yes there are those times when a child needs me, a neighbor, family members, but every day has to have a moment in it where I make me happy.

Today’s happiness came from taking this photo of the winter’s sky.

Valarie Budayr is the founder of Audrey Press and the award-winning and best-selling author of the book The Fox Diaries: The Year the Foxes Came to our Garden and The Ultimate Guide to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. She is passionate about making kid’s books come alive and you can find her doing that on her popular blog and website, Jump into a Book. When she isn’t being bookie, she is very happily the mother of three uber creative children, married to a wonderfully patient man who has come to love yarn, and caretaker of one adored cat. Other creative interests are music, travel, knitting (a bonafide yarn harlot), and gardening. She loves living a daily creative practice, where even a good cup of coffee is art.

Home is a Creative Practice by Julie Gibbons

Here's a question for you : how much stuff do you know, compared to how much of it you put into practice?

I am so often guilty of gathering the knowing and forgetting choosing not to do the practice.

Learning all of that cool stuff and not putting it to good use is a wee bit akin to owning an exercise bike and using it to hang up laundry.

My home is filled with stuff we've gathered to practice with. It's infused into our everyday, into every space, every room.

Most of it isn't left untouched for long, but I've been wondering : if home is a creative practice, can it still be called a home if no one is practicing?



I'm challenging myself to figure out how to put all of my knowing into practice this month.

It includes unearthing the exercise bike from the laundry ;)

Here's another question for you : what fabulous teachings have you learned which you could choose to practice more often?

Julie Gibbons enjoys art journaling, journal therapy and mixed media. Her passion is self discovery through intuitive, creative practice, to reveal personal patterns, symbolism & archetypes of the true self.

Blog & Website + Etsy

Finding Home by Helen Yee

I grew up in the suburbs, in a predominantly white community and from the beginning I never felt I fit in. The taunting and comments about my Asian features, or my glasses, or being a “brain” cleaved within me a rift of otherness that was never to be soothed in the full comfort of belonging, feeling at home among my peers in the town I grew up in.

Those early conclusions that I’d never fit in didn’t make me completely miserable, but they have been annoying, muddy footprints trailing me in too much of my life experience. You may have heard that childhoods like this create people with a different point of view on the world, and maybe these odd ducks are more likely to become artists and creatives. At times I found a small corner of comfort in this idea, but mostly I still wanted an expansive yet enveloping feeling of home that I imagined everybody else just automatically had.

These days I feel I’m almost home but not quite there yet. From where I stand I can look back at the voyage I’ve taken, each step leading me closer and closer to knowing the nirvana I sought. I moved away from the hometown, met interesting and open-minded people at university, moved to a large and diverse city where I could blend in, met new friends, found some artistic communities that welcomed me. And after a long time I also found love. A friend once asked me what this kind of love feels like. My answer: “It feels like home in a person.”

Yes, most of the time I know my life is really good, and I’m grateful for true love, great friends, interesting and fun creative projects, talented collaborators, and a cozy and welcoming apartment in a fabulous city where people can be who they want to be. Yet those old muddy footprints continue to haunt me. If I’m still not feeling completely at home where will I find it?

I think I’ve already looked everywhere around me so now I’m left with the question: “What if the only way I’ll find home is if I know it within myself?” Hm. It looks like I’ve begun another journey toward home. Does this remind you of any stories, folk tales, myths?

Helen Yee is an improvising violinist, multi-instrumentalist and composer. Currently violinist for the eclectic string trio, Trio Tritticali she also performs on yangqin with Music From China. She considers the practice of improvisation in all its forms a profound teacher in art and in life.

Your Infinite Creative Potential and Why it Means All Your Dreams Are Possible by Andrea Schroeder

With a paintbrush in one hand & a glitter-gun in the other, Andrea lovingly mentors men & women who want to lead creatively abundant lives — and do ‘impossible’ things, with ease & joy.