Acknowledging the Cultural Creatives in Our Lives

It occurred to me the reason I pretty much cringe at the media is because it’s someone else’s idea of what I should be looking at, thinking about and giving my personal energy to.You don’t leave your front door open to let any wandering shmoe from the street help themselves into your personal living space, eat all your food, and sleep in your bed. Yet, every time we turn on the news, or flip mindlessly through the social media pages we are letting outside forces into our personal brain and heart space where they have free reign to take away a good night’s rest with their hypnotizing fear lingo, emergency “urgent” banners, logos, crafty ads, and their subverted and often not so hidden agendas to divide and conquer our minds, hearts, and society. Enough already! How do we turn it around and take back our personal power? Stop feeding the beast our precious energy.

Have you noticed if you watch too much news or get caught up in other peoples’ soap operas you lose your creative mojo? I noticed it in myself and wondered how to reclaim my power. Someone said recently, “Every time you feel a negative thought come along immediately replace it with a heartfelt feeling/thought of gratitude.”
So, I asked myself, “What am I grateful for?” and sat with the question some while.

I realized that relationships are truly what make life worth living. Whether we’re talking about that one significant other you relish, or friends and family who’ve held your head above the flood waters of life, or that special pet that makes your heart sing, or those trees that give you shade in the summer and snowy shapes in winter, or the sunrise that gives you hope for another day,…. the list could go on and on. There is SO MUCH to be grateful for!!This morning it started with really taking notice of some special gifts a dear friend crocheted for me. I wanted to share her beautiful handiwork with the world, to acknowledge her talents and inspire others to think about where their artistic drives lie. I took a photo of her gifts and shared them along with a little blurb about how I’m in awe of the skill set she’s honed from her inner desire to create playful stuff. That was just the beginning!

It was like the spirit of generosity obsessed my mind and heart the rest of the day as I started looking at everyone in my “friends” list and making a little blurb about each of their talents, their beautiful gifts to the world. I was literally creating a news feed of what actually SHOULD be in the news feed! It was such great fun and it put me in a wonderful mood. In turn it also may have bumped up the number of visitors to my friends who have websites – increased business for local artists and creators is greatly needed right now.

This project has just begun as I continue to go through my list over the next number of days and acknowledge all the talents and gifts of the rest of my wonderful friends.

I hope this blog has also inspired you to acknowledge those special artists in your life, including yourself! We need the love, art, music and spirit renewal now more than ever. That’s the real news.