Awe in Creativity

My favourite professor in university was a child psychologist. He talked about the importance of rituals for families. Call them family traditions if you like— it had to do with belonging, since family is the first place we experience a secure sense of belonging ( if we grow up in a healthy family). Children grow up to know that in our family, we are fill-in-the-blank. Kind. Helpful. Thoughtful. Whatever it is…

It also means that in the seasons, we have different rituals… when we go to the beach we always play fill-in-blank, we always share ( a certain snack).

When I was 21 my Dad had a major stroke and lost his ability to walk and talk and while he regained many things, but never in the same way, he was not able to work as a pharmacist again ( to his great joy since he never liked it in 27 years).

This was a pivotal experience and gave me the gift of understanding the imperative of living in the moment, of being present for my life.

So when I became a mom, I was very intentional and conscious of making memories with my girls, in following the expert advice of my professor knowing that children thrive in a rhythm of family life that includes family rituals.

We would travel to visit grandparents each summer.

And we would go camping on an island ( 2 ferries off of Vancouver Island) where we were just the four of us.

It’s where summer happened.

It’s where I was not in the role of daughter or daughter-in-law AND mom and partner, but just mom alongside my sweetheart.

We developed rituals, favourite places, favourite activities and most of all the love of being together.

When our girls were adults, a lovely friend remarked— you can tell that you are a family who really wants to be together. What an insightful observation and lovely thing that others could see something that I had only felt.

This summer we went back, as we have for decades, same time of year, missing Ilse ( when you loose your daughter it doesn’t stay in the past, it is a loss that you get used to bringing with you wherever you go because you keep noticing that there is a presence that is missing in the tangible and felt in the heart. Always.)

I was looking forward to floating in the salt water, feeling the sun on my face, listening to sounds of families having fun at the beach….and then something happened that took me out of that completely— in the most magical of ways – outside of the bay I could hear and then see the blow of whales and then the huge grey bodies as the whales rolled back down below the surface. We watched them for a long time. They were feeding just outside of the bay. It’s an experience that, for me, stops me in time – I am completely mesmerized.

That night as I was laying in bed with the cabin window open, through the mesh of the screen I could see how black the sky was, punctuated by stars and then…did I? Did I see a shooting star? I think I did. It was the Perseids time after all and a friend said the next morning she had seen 25!

The next morning before sunrise I was watching the colours in the sky beyond the great Douglas Firs in the near distance and could see when that orange light appeared- that moment.

I was eating a fresh peach – so sweet and juicy that I found myself leaning forward over the plate so the juice that was running down my hand wouldn’t go down my pyjama sleeve.

It was so quiet. I was the first up. I sat in the comfortable Ikea chair with my feet up and picked up my knitting. Only the sound of the metal needles and my own thoughts.

So many moments of awe.

So noticeable and available to us when we are away and out of our everyday routine.

Awe is an aspect of leading a creative life that is so important.

That moment when you stop noticing everything else and for a moment, perhaps a split second, perhaps longer- you are mesmerized and completely present.

You are not thinking – just experiencing– there are no words, only a feeling.

Now that I am home I am not swimming in the ocean, I am in front of my computer screen. This morning I called a company that involves a fully suited human to go into my garden and find the hornet’s nest – I was warned against even going into the garden until they have been.

Is there awe in my every day when I am home?

Yes.

In the early morning I open the door and smell the air ( luckily not as smoky as in so many places as a result of the forest fires).

I stand and watch the hummingbirds who have made a daily breakfast from the honeysuckle that has climbed (uninvited but appreciated nonetheless) up the post that holds the roof of the back deck.

I walk in the city and notice the tiny flowers that grow from the cracks in the pavement in awe of how they can even do that.

For me, my daily practice of noticing is often what leads me to awe.

Or I don’t expect it. I’m sitting writing at my computer in the evening and look up to notice the different colour on the wall, reflected from the sky- it ‘s sunset. I open my front door and step outside and I’m in awe of all the colours, the clouds moving— the impermanence of it all.

Awe. In the Everyday. Available to all of us. Everyday in our own ways.

A sense of Awe is one of the five states of being in my Flora Creativity Practice. ​

In September I am hosting a 3 day live workshop called Begin Again and awe is one of the things we explore as it relates to living a creative life.

​Here is the place to sign up.

I hope to see you on September 9th!