inspiration

The joy of the creative process, minute by minute, hour after hour, day by day, is the sublime path to true happiness. –George Lois

This blog went live three years ago today! I launched Creative Sanctuary well after peak blog craze with no desire to become an influencer and no intention to monetize this space. I had recently published my book and felt an intense need to step away from academic writing. It was time to channel some of my creative energy into brief, accessible passages about travel, tea culture, and cuisine. I admittedly post much less than I initially anticipated. In my ideal blog world, I would write every week. But given life’s pace, I am lucky to post once a month.

Blogging has been immensely satisfying. It allows me to continue practicing the craft of writing, my photography has improved, and I’ve done a tiny bit of coding. I seem to be finding my niche blogging on France as well as on personal, yet universal topics such as extreme rest.

Even when I don’t have time to blog, I’m always generating ideas. I’d love to write about my collection of vintage fashion prints, about ethereal Korean green teas, and I have so much more to share about Versailles! As I hoped, Creative Sanctuary has become one of my “creative sanctuaries.” Working on this blog is consistently joyful.

Creative Sanctuary has featured the work of young creatives, including the lettering of the fabulous Olivia Murrell. Over the next month, I will publish the work of fourteen students from my spring 2020 course Unlocking Paris. Their bright pieces will bring Paris to us at a time when the City of Lights remains largely inaccessible. Moving forward, my blog will continue to explore creative life in its many forms.

https://www.creativesanctuary.net/2102-2/

Spearing the kangaroo, Tommy Mcrae (detail)

Try this. Pull a book from the shelf, open it at random, and let your eyes fall where they will. What words jump out at you? Do they hold wisdom, hope, or even an answer to a question you’ve been pondering?

I often find unexpected messages in this way. It’s always a surprise when a seemingly random chain of words speaks to something that’s been on my mind. The Improvised Life blog features this practice in its Opened at Random posts. In his book on creativity, Phil Cousineau writes about engaging in bibliomancy in a Galway bookstore in hopes of finding inspiration. When messages leap from the page to my heart, I call this reading serendipitously.

As spring was about to emerge, I was yearning to re-ground myself in nature, but it was still too cold to spend much time outside. François Cheng’s meditation on the soul, De l’âme, spoke to my need to reconnect with the outdoors.

“Le lien entre l’arbre et les oiseaux semble naturel. Mais l’alliance de l’arbre avec les hommes est-elle assez prise en compte par nous ? Sommes-nous conscients que nous ne pouvons trouver dans la nature compagnon plus fiable et plus durable ? Cet être debout comme nous, qui depuis les profondeurs du sol tend résolument vers le haut, nous rappelle que notre être tient tout autant de la terre que du ciel” (118-119).

“The connection between tree and birds seems natural. But the union of tree with man, do we consider it enough? Are we aware that we can find no more reliable and durable companion? Like us, this upright being, who, from the depths of the soil stretches resolutely upwards, reminds us that our being holds just as much from the earth as from the sky.”