When I read these words from Sean Tucker, they sounded like a Thanksgiving prayer.

That’s my abiding hope for you, and for me: that we learn to separate out our need for affirmation from the joy we derive from making. That we learn to love ourselves first, to deal with our pain well, and then make for the joy of making and perhaps bring a little Order to someone else’s Chaos.

I am thankful that I’ve learned to deal with my pain well. A big part of that healing I owe to my little sister, who will be 50 this month. Talking to her about our shared story has released me in ways I could never have imagined. I sat across the table from her in a coffee shop yesterday, and we talked non-stop. In her I see the parts of me that I love the most. I don’t have to hide any part of myself with her.

I read a little further in Sean’s chapter Attention . . .

What if the very best that happens is that your work touches the lives of a precious few, but that ends up giving you a deep and abiding sense of fulfillment? Well, that seems like a great way to spend a life.

  • I prefer a one-on-one chat, a quiet place, and focused attention.

  • I plan my daily life so as to avoid crowds.

  • I hate to be busy or rushed. I like to take my time.

  • I love to walk the empty streets of neighborhoods during the day when most people are at work.

  • I am most at home, and create my best work, in solitude. In places nearly empty, wide-open or untamed in some manner.

“Sometimes, as makers of things, our direction and intention are clear to us. However, the rest of the time we rely on a gut feeling and have to work out what we’re doing as we go.”

—Sean Tucker, The Meaning in the Making

I have a friend who talks about taking “micro-holidays.” If things are getting overwhelming for her in a day, she might just go sit in a coffee shop for half an hour with a book, and that is her micro-holiday: time set aside—no mater how brief—to escape and refresh. My favourite micro-holiday is taking myself on a walk; it’s my go-to way to create some silence and hear from the Muses. —SeanTucker, The Meaning in the Making

Watched Sean Tucker’s You Tube Video—Embrace Your Shadows.

A few thoughts stuck with me. The challenge, if you expose for highlights, is to use your shadows creatively. Shadows can sculpt light and draw the viewer in. We grow and change in the dark times. We are forged in the shadows. This is one of the truths of humanity. It’s why I’ve stopped seeking happiness and instead worked toward wholeness. There is healing when we understand that in each life, joy and sorrow compete.