Hello Sweet Muser!
It’s August, which is a very special month for me. Not only is it my birthday month, but I have two fun events to share with you! If you are in the Orlando area, come say hi.
For the last two weeks in a row I have pulled the same tarot card: The Knight of Wands. It’s a card all about following your passion with haste, connecting to your own excitement, and being bold in how you move forward.
This has happened before (you might remember my run in with The Hanged Man while drafting Wrecked & Rising) so as you can imagine, it gave me pause. The more I thought about it, the more the essence of the card stuck with me.
I love the idea that my own aliveness is a force driving what I create.
But when I thought about how it shows up in my own creativity, it was a bit of a foreign concept. So much of novel writing is about planning and crafting complex interwoven stories. Then you throw on top that a project takes months, and it becomes more of a testament to tenacity than anything else.
But why not make space to create more wildly?
The Knight of Wands felt like a chance to try things a different way. So last week my daughter Ivy and I did a little ice dying. In case you aren’t familiar, ice dying the process of putting ice over fabric and sprinkling it with powdered dye. As the ice melts, the water activates the dye, and sends it bleeding down into the fabric. I made these desert totes using the same method last year.
Ice dying was the perfect opportunity to let abandon take over. We selected dye based on their enticing names, and flicked color onto the ice with abandon. Then with each passing moment, we watched as the color fragmented into the dozen pigments hidden within it.
The whole process felt like a rebellion of sorts. There was a fire whispering in me. Toss a little more down and see what happens. I couldn’t help but smile while I worked, like I was somehow breaking the rules.
The result was something neither of us could have curated even if we tried. It was gravity and water and intuition at work. Ivy is now thrilled with a set of transformed sheets and I have the blue stained hands to remind me of a day spent creating wildly.
What I love about this approach to creating is that it flips the script. It’s not about searching for the “right mindset” or the “perfect conditions” for our work. It’s about connecting to our own essence. Our emotions and our instincts are at the wheel.
Throw paint on the wall with ferocity because your angry. Use moody colors when you paint because you feel blue. Life a bit out of control? Relax into watercolors and let them do the work.
The possibilities are endless.
Moreover, it’s one more way to make creativity accessible to us.
Interested in ways you can create more wildly? Here are some ideas:
Daydream an idea and explore every what if.
Hide clocks and time telling devices then create without a limit.
Fill a notebook with day dreams you leave half finished.
Break a rule you typically follow. Write without punctuation. Use only one color to paint. Invert how you draw.
Doodle until the whole page is full.
Get messy. Use extra supplies and leave cut paper on the floor while you work.
USE GLITTER.
Channel the word wild.
Connect in reverse.
Enjoy a deliciously risky chance to try something new.
Is your curiosity piqued? Something itching under your skin? I’d love to hear about what you create wildly.
Keep on creating,
