Extract from The Rainbow Way: Cultivating Creativity in the Midst of Motherhood

I am so sorry things are so quiet round here - I am proofing The Rainbow Way for the final time before I send it off to the publishers to edit and proof all over again! It is currently out with a number of my heroines awaiting possible endorsements, so do keep your fingers crossed for me!

 So whilst I don't have the time or energy to be writing a post right now, I thought I could share some of my words from the book with you, as I know so many of you are dying to get your hands on it!

Summer Dreams - Lucy H Pearce

Catching Creativity 

Often inspiration comes at the most unlikely of times – when you are driving the kids to school or changing a nappy, making dinner or falling asleep. Creative mothers recall with a laugh, writing ideas down on the nearest thing to hand, old envelopes, shopping lists and even toilet paper, so that they did not disappear forever. That was certainly my experience in writing this book. This is because the conscious mind is not in charge of creativity – instead it emerges when the mind is relaxed and the body is engaged in a repetitive, habitual activity, or is deeply relaxed, so that the brain is ticking over, but not fully engaged.

Like falling in love or giving birth, the creative process has been described by thousands of voices over the years. But each of us can only touch on the memory of this elusive experience. We cannot transmit it to others through words alone. This is where the power of metaphor can help.

Catching creativity is like catching butterflies – fast-flying, bright coloured sparks darting here and there, it requires quick wits, good eyes and desire to net them. And once you have them, you need to act fast. An idea, like a butterfly doesn't last long: it is ephemeral. It is here, and now it is gone – so quick, grab your laptop, your pen and paper, your Dictaphone, your sketch pad, whatever your mode of expression or recording, swoop and catch.

Another metaphor – it is like spotting wild horses in the desert, all is quiet and calm on the horizon of the desert mind, a dust storm here, a vulture here, then suddenly over the horizon there thunders a herd of wild horses. Where they came from is not known, nor where they are going. If you spot them you can follow them on foot, running fast to keep up, you might get a sense of their size, their energy, their number and colour, and then they are gone, as quickly as they arrived. You are left with the bones, the bare bones in the desert. Your expression will never be the horses, it can never match them, it will be your impression of the horses. You will always be matching it up to that illusive, fleeting perfection of their vision when you saw and felt them. No one else saw them, so no one else can really know. Only your expression can, in some way, communicate these wild horses to the world. And if you choose not to chase them, because you're too busy, you didn't know how or you weren't ready, the image of these escaped horses may haunt you, lurking in your creative mind forever more – you will see other horses, other landscapes, but those horses, that desert, that day, are gone for good.

Catching creativity is like hearing the music of the carnival in the distance, carrying on the wind. It sounds enticing, though you cannot see it, you can imagine the colours, the smells, the energy of carnival. The wind changes direction and you lose the sound again. All you have is the impression, the memory. Without the sounds there to reawaken your sensory memory it's more challenging to recall it and recreate it, but when you do, the sounds waft closer, the carnival is alive in your mind.

Copyright Lucy H Pearce, this extract is from  The Rainbow Way: Cultivating Creativity in the Midst of Motherhood, out late 2013, published by SoulRocks.

OOO

The Rainbow Way…

• o   Embraces the many different shades of creative mother and provides structure, support and possibility for your own unique journey.
• o   Shares a lost feminine archetype, the Creative Rainbow Mother.
• o   Integrates creative, personal and spiritual development.
• o   Honours a creative mother’s dual soul yearnings in a practical way, offering a “road map” to creative motherhood which speaks to body, mind and soul.

Visioned as the guide and mentor that most creative women yearn for, but never find in their daily lives, The Rainbow Way explores the depths of the creative urge, from psychological, biological, spiritual and cultural perspectives. This positive, nurturing and practical book will help to empower you to unlock your creative potential within the constraints of your demanding life as a mother.

Featuring the words of over fifty creative mothers: artists, writers, film-makers, performers and crafters, including:

• ·         Jennifer Louden (multiple best-selling author)
• ·         Pam England (author , artist and founder Birthing From Within)
• ·         Julie Daley (writer, photographer, dancer and creator of Unabashedly Female)
• ·         Indigo Bacal (founder of WILDE Tribe)
• ·         Foreword by Leonie Dawson, author, artist, entrepreneur and women’s business and creativity mentor).