Welcome to Week Three of the month-long Carnival of Creative Mothers to celebrate the launch of The Rainbow Way: Cultivating Creativity in the Midst of Motherhood
by Lucy H. Pearce.
Today's topic is Creative Inheritance. Do read to the end of this post for a full list of carnival participants.
Join the Carnival and be in with a chance to win a free e-copy of The Rainbow Way! Next week is our final week!
December 11th: The Creative Process.
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Amazon.com
Book Depository, Barnes and Noble
Or order from your local bookshop.
by Lucy H. Pearce.
Today's topic is Creative Inheritance. Do read to the end of this post for a full list of carnival participants.
Join the Carnival and be in with a chance to win a free e-copy of The Rainbow Way! Next week is our final week!
December 11th: The Creative Process.
**********
Many parents work themselves to the bone for years to be able to "leave something" for their children. I have been fortunate to have received my inheritance whilst I was still young, and without the loss of my parents.
They have given me a creative inheritance richer than money could buy.
Let me tell you a little about the keys of my creative childhood - the dusty smell of clay and hot parrafin wax in my father's pottery, the golden orbs of Pat Scott's paintings suspended on the rough white walls of the house my father designed and built, my grandmother's button box which I would sift my fingers through, a mother who can sew just about anything, and baked beautifully plaited harvest loaves. And the solace of books which could transport me away from bickering parents and noisy siblings and the terror of not knowing what to say, into other worlds, and bring ideas like butterflies to alight in my mind direct from the minds of others I might never meet though my soul was cut from the same cloth as theirs.
Let me tell you about living in houses whose walls were lined with the most interesting range of books a girl's mind could imagine - art, tantra, spirituality, literature, humour, grammar, gardening, cookery... all accessible. Of houses filled with interesting objects brought back from exotic global travel, objet d'arts, of craft being a part of everyday life - the bowls, glasses, tables and chairs that we used everyday all handmade, treasured, but never precious.
Let me tell you about my family and their friends who earned a living doing what they loved, who started successful businesses and ventures creating beautiful things: pottery, glass, wood work, furnishings, portraits, food... People who lived lives according to their own rules, in homes designed to their own tastes - some wealthy, some not, but all living their lives on their own creative terms, as best they could.
This is what I hope we are passing on to our children in our turn. This creative legacy which I was so fortunate to have inherited: beauty, possibility; hard work doing what you love; courage; inspiration; the desire to contribute to a more beautiful world. Of being so immersed in creativity that it is as natural and essential as breathing to make something, appreciate something, plan and build and vision and create, in whatever medium or field calls their heart at that moment.
And they are. Already they are.
Building models, painting, drawing, singing, dancing, dreaming, designing, writing books, playing music every day as naturally as breathing. Making ad re-making the world in their own images. Writing and re-writing their own life stories.
My dearest wish for them is that they carry it on into adulthood with them. My job as a creative mother is to inspire, equip and stand guard so that the arbiters of boring life will not take a jot of it away from them.
**********They have given me a creative inheritance richer than money could buy.
Let me tell you a little about the keys of my creative childhood - the dusty smell of clay and hot parrafin wax in my father's pottery, the golden orbs of Pat Scott's paintings suspended on the rough white walls of the house my father designed and built, my grandmother's button box which I would sift my fingers through, a mother who can sew just about anything, and baked beautifully plaited harvest loaves. And the solace of books which could transport me away from bickering parents and noisy siblings and the terror of not knowing what to say, into other worlds, and bring ideas like butterflies to alight in my mind direct from the minds of others I might never meet though my soul was cut from the same cloth as theirs.
Let me tell you about living in houses whose walls were lined with the most interesting range of books a girl's mind could imagine - art, tantra, spirituality, literature, humour, grammar, gardening, cookery... all accessible. Of houses filled with interesting objects brought back from exotic global travel, objet d'arts, of craft being a part of everyday life - the bowls, glasses, tables and chairs that we used everyday all handmade, treasured, but never precious.
Let me tell you about my family and their friends who earned a living doing what they loved, who started successful businesses and ventures creating beautiful things: pottery, glass, wood work, furnishings, portraits, food... People who lived lives according to their own rules, in homes designed to their own tastes - some wealthy, some not, but all living their lives on their own creative terms, as best they could.
This is what I hope we are passing on to our children in our turn. This creative legacy which I was so fortunate to have inherited: beauty, possibility; hard work doing what you love; courage; inspiration; the desire to contribute to a more beautiful world. Of being so immersed in creativity that it is as natural and essential as breathing to make something, appreciate something, plan and build and vision and create, in whatever medium or field calls their heart at that moment.
And they are. Already they are.
Building models, painting, drawing, singing, dancing, dreaming, designing, writing books, playing music every day as naturally as breathing. Making ad re-making the world in their own images. Writing and re-writing their own life stories.
My dearest wish for them is that they carry it on into adulthood with them. My job as a creative mother is to inspire, equip and stand guard so that the arbiters of boring life will not take a jot of it away from them.
- exclusive access to a private Facebook group for creative mothers
- a vibrant greetings card and book-mark of one of the author's paintings.
Amazon.com Book Depository, Barnes and NobleOr order from your local bookshop.
- Carnival host and author of The Rainbow Way, Lucy at Dreaming Aloud celebrates her creative fairy godmothers, and gives thanks for the creative blessings that each has gifted her.
- In 'From Trash To Treasure: Christmas Decoration' Laura from Authentic Parenting shares fond memories crafting with her mom and a little project her mom did recently.
- Lucy Pierce from Soulskin Musings celebrates the rich creative inheritance of her mother's poetic soul and artful ways.
- Is thinking differently a curse or a gift? Zoie at TouchstoneZ susses out whether her family legacy might hinder or encourage creativity.
- Pippa at Story of Mum says she is: "Thanking my mum for the gift of dance. I am not a dancer, but her love for dance showed me how to connect to my creative core."
- Dawn Collins at TheBarefootHome Dawn thinks we're all born with a creative inheritance from the mother we all share…Mother Nature.
- Licia Berry at Illumined Arts reflects on the creative inheritance passed on by our ancestral lineage, discovered through sexuality and the Sacred Feminine within, and her own amazing recovery.
- Alex at The Art of Birth explores the nature of creativity.
- Handcrafts are prayers, that's what Corina from PatchScrap learned from grandmother.
- Jennifer at Let Your Soul Shine retraces her creative inheritance from her childhood and all the way back to the 19th Century.
- Kirstin at Listening to the Squeak says "I have always known my creative inheritance and it is so very important for my children to know theirs."
- Creative Inheritance is a Beautiful Thing, says Aimee at Creativeflutters and discusses where her creativity comes from and what influences in her family have helped her on her artistic journey.
- Georgie at Visual Toast shares her creative inheritance.
- Esther at Nurture Workshop expresses the gift of a creative mind and the doors that are waiting to be opened for those who are willing to explore.
- Whitney Freya at Creatively Fit is inspired by the sacred spark within each of us, a spark that transcends time and is infinitely creative.
- Denise at It Begins with a Verse looks back at her family's creative inheritance.
- Lys at Stars and Spirals looks at the creative inheritance as described by the astrological chart, drawing on her personal journey into motherhood and reawakened creativity.
- Biromums wrote poems about their creative inheritance.
- Kae at The Wilde Womb reflects on the various artists within her family and how it has shaped her identity and what impression she wishes to leave her own children.
- Marit's Paper World shares her creative inheritance.
- Lucy at Capture by Lucy reflects on her experiences of creativity.
- Knitting blankets and the inner landscape--my mother's life's work, writes Nicki from Just Like Play.
- Something Sacred - Sadhbh at Where Wishes Come From writes about how the creativity of the women in her family has influenced her.
- Mamma Bloom at Breathe and Bloom writes about her creative inheritance.
- Mama is Inspired shares how she loved to make holiday ornaments as a child, and now is continuing that tradition with her own child.
- Ali Baker is a creative mama to twin girls who reignited her creative energy and sense of who she used to be by just doing it and creating whatever needs to be created in an imperfect way.
- KatyStuff hopes inheritance is a long way off, but, when the day comes her woodworker father has already said he is comforted by knowing his work is in so many homes.
- Jasmine at Brown Eyed Girl realizes that the creativity she craves for so deeply may actually be something that runs deeper than just her imagination.
- Darcel at The Mahogany Way shares her creative journey.
- Rising on the Road shares her experiences at Finding Life in a Death.
I'm always scared that I'm not giving enough creativity to my children, that somehow, I should be more invested in showing them techniques and elaborate crafts etc.. But I think I'm probably wanting too much too soon
ReplyDeleteI know, I know, Laura. If you can believe it, I give myself a hard time too, and then I try pulling back a bit and focus on all that I do share with them, all that they do get from me... I cannot do it all, nor every moment of every day. But there's a slave driver inside me who insists I am not doing enough, that I am being lazy. And I try to remember to breathe, and let it go.
ReplyDelete