Mahatma Gandhi

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”

― Mahatma Gandhi
Indian Lawyer /Activist
1869 -1948

Commentary

If you knew that you would live forever or at least as long as the universe exists, what would you do with your life?  Would you still write?  Or paint?  Or sing?  Would you obtain  a hundred college degrees?  Write a thousand novels?  Paint a million paintings?  What would you study?  History?  Science?  Religion?  Literature?  Why would you study?  For knowledge?  For wisdom?  Why would you create anything?  You would outlive the shelf life any novel you wrote or painting you painted.

Does the fact we know that we will die influence what we do in life?  If you were told that you had only six months to live, what would you do?  Spend the time with your loved ones?  Withdrawal from those around you?  Finish that great American novel that you have been working on for thirty years?  Travel the world and see all the places that you have wanted to visit?

There are only 24 hours in any given day.  What did you do with the last 24 hours of your life?  What are you going to do with the next 24 hours of your life?  Are you focused on what is important to you?  Or are you procrastinating?  Do you believe that there will always be a tomorrow?  If you don't have time today, maybe mañana?  We choose how we spend every minute of the 1440 minutes we are given each day.  What choices are you making?  Are they the right choices?

Creative Practice
Study how you are spending the 1440 minutes of your day?  Are you wasting any of those precious minutes?  Can you find an extra thirty minutes to focus on your creative work?

Biography
Mahatma Gandhi was born in India and studied law in England.  He became an advocate for the rights of Indians, first in South Africa and then in India.  He became the leader of India's independence movement, organizing non-violent forms of civil disobedience.

After studying law in England, Gandhi returned to India where he failed to establish a law practice in part because he was too shy to speak in court.  At 24, he accepted a job in South Africa with Dada Abdulla & Co, an Indian firm.  He worked as a legal representative for the Muslim Indian Traders.  Gandhi spent 21 years in South Africa where he formed many of his political views, ethics and leadership skills.  Gandhi represented the legal rights of wealthy Muslims and indentured Hindu laborers.

In South Africa, Gandhi faced discrimination.  He was thrown off a train for refusing to move from first class.  He was beaten by a stagecoach driver for refusing to give up his seat to a European passenger.  He was barred from many hotels.  The racism, prejudice and injustice against Indians in South Africa shaped Gandhi's social activism and awakened him to social injustice.  His fight for the rights of Indians in South Africa helped him to develop his non-violent forms of civil disobedience.

Gandhi returned to India permanently in 1915.  He joined the Indian National Congress and became its leader in 1920.  He spent the rest of his life working for the independence of India from England.  Gandhi was assassinated on January 30, 1948 by a Hindu nationalist.  Over two million people joined the five-mile long funeral march.

Gandhi was a prolific writer.  His complete writings were published in the 1960s and comprised about 50,000 pages published in 100 volumes. His autobiography is called, The Story of My Experiments with Truth.  

Elmore Leonard

"The writer has to have patience, the perseverance to just sit there alone and grind it out. And if it’s not worth doing that, then he doesn’t want to write."

Elmore Leonard
American Novelist / Screenwriter
1925 - 2013

Commentary

Creative leaders need to be patient.  No one is born with writing skills or artistic skills.  These have to be learned which does not and will not happen overnight.  For some of us it takes years and for others we may never perfect our craft.   Beginning writers often ask their teachers and mentors whether they have talent.  They are asking the wrong question.  They should be asking:  do I have the patience to learn this craft.  Do I have the persistence to keep going when everything and every person is telling me to quit?

Writing and painting are not easy.  Are you willing to sit in front of a blank page or a blank canvas waiting for your muse to show up and inspire you?  Are you willing to write and rewrite until your brain is numb?  Are you willing to spend long hours working while your friends are out partying and having fun?  Are you willing to spend difficult hours creating something that you may never be able to sell or able to make any money off your labor?

The creative arts are only for the strong of spirit — those who are able to sacrifice the rewards of the moment for the possibility of opportunity sometime in the future.  The creative arts are only for those who are driven by some demon deep inside — for those who are unable to stop creating even in the face of a hostile world.

Creative Practice

Answer this question truthfully:  If I knew now that I would never be rich, famous or successful in my lifetime, would I still create?

Biography

Born in New Orleans, Leonard was the son of Flora Amelia and Elmore John Leonard, a General Motors executive.  The family lived in several places because of Leonard Sr's job.  They finally settle in Detroit in 1934.  Elmore Leonard, Jr. graduated from both high school and college in Detroit with a degree in English and philosophy.  Elmore spent 3 years in navy at the end of World War II.

Leonard's first job after college was as a copywriter for an ad agency.  He wrote stories and novels on the side, publishing his first story in 1951 in the Argosy.  He wrote westerns, mysteries and crime novels.  His short stories and novels have been turned into movies, such as Hombre, Get Shorty, Killshot and Freaky Deaky .

Video

Here is Elmore Leonard discussing the story writing process.

Mayumi Oda

"Creativity is not a driving force.  It happens.  It creates itself and you have to be open."

— Mayumi Oda

1941 - 

Japanese Artist

Commentary
What is creativity?  Can you define it?  Where does it come from?  Why do some people think they are not creative?  Why are others swimming in a sea of creativity?  Can we control our creativity or does it move to the beat of a different drummer?  Why is one person creative and another not?

Are you open to the creativity within your spirit?  Do you hear it calling you?  Do you follow it down the path to your heart?  We are dancers on the shores of hope, giving gifts to those who understand.  Creativity does not drive through the rain, but sits under the umbrella and listens to the silence between the drops.  Do you let it happen gently on the corners of your soul or do you force it through the keyhole of resistance?

Art by Mayumi Oda

How does creativity manifest itself in your life?  What forms does it take?  What rituals are you forced to follow?  Can you call up creativity at will or must you kneel in prayer hoping for it to return?  Does creativity drain you of your energy or does it fill your spirit with enthusiasm?  Does creativity dance on the winds of love or is it a tornado of destruction?  Does creativity possess you or do you possess it?

Does your cup overflow with creativity?  Or does it come to you in drips and drops?  Do you go for days or weeks or months without a creative thought?  Or do your thoughts drown you in a tsunami of creativity?

Creative Practice
This week define what creativity means?  Can you put it into words?  What does it mean to your life?  Has creativity ever stirred up trouble for you?  How do you encourage creativity in others?  

Biography

Art by Mayumi Oda

Mayumi Oda was born into a Buddhist family in Japan in 1941.  She graduated from the Tokyo University of Fine Arts in 1966.  She also studied traditional Japanese fabric dyeing which has influenced her art.  She has exhibited her art in over 40 one-woman shows throughout the world.  Her art is part of the permanent collections of Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

Oda paints images of goddesses including traditional images as well as those that she invents.  She is often described as a Japanese Matisse because of the color and free-flowing lines in her work.

Mayumi Oda has also spent many years as a global activist participating in anti-muclear campaigns worldwide.  Oda founded Ginger Hill, a farm and a retreat center on the Big Island of Hawaii. Oda hosts workshops and retreats at Ginger Hill.

Alex Haley

"The reality is that writing is a lonely, private and poor-paying affair. For every writer kissed by fortune, there are thousands more whose longing is never requited. Even those who succeed often know long periods of neglect and poverty. I did."

Alex Haley

American Writer

1921 - 1992

Commentary

The path to financial success is never easy for writers, artists or actors. In fact, for every Stephen King, John Grisham, James Patterson, Paul Newman, Tom Cruise or Angelina Jolie, there are hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of creative people who do not make a dime from their writing, acting or painting. And for some, financial success may be short-lived — one movie, one song, one novel. So if you are in the game for money, you would be better off investing in the stock market or real estate. 

Creative work is not for the faint-of-heart. If you need people in your life, skip writing and painting. Enter theater, film or music which require group participation. Writing and painting are lonely pursuits that involve a minimum amount of people contact. Writers and painters spend long periods by themselves. Writers spend long periods in their own heads visiting worlds that do not exist and talking with people who are imaginary. Sounds crazy, doesn't it?

Creative Practice
Be sure that you are in the arts because you can't live without it. Does it keep your spirit alive? Does it restore your soul? Does it make you happy?

Biography
Alex Haley, the oldest of five children, was born in Ithaca, NY.  His father was a professor of agriculture.  When Alex turned 18, he joined the Coast Guard where he had a 20 year career.  While in the Coast Guard, Haley taught himself how to write stories.  After the Coast Guard, he began a career in writing.

Alex Haley interviewed Miles Davis and the article appeared in the September 1962 issue of Playboy.  Haley also interviewed Martin Luther King, Jr, Muhammad Ali, Sammy Davis, Jr., Jim Brown, Johnny Carson, Malcolm X and Quincy Jones for Playboy.  He also interviewed George Lincoln Rockwell, leader of the American Nazi Party.  

Haley's first book, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, was published in 1965 and by 1977 had sold 6 million copies.  In 1998, Time named it one of ten most influential nonfiction books in the 20th century.

In 1976, Haley published Roots, a novel based on his family's history.  His work on the novel involved ten years of research and writing.  The book was adapted for a popular television miniseries by ABC.

Video
Here is a video of Alex Haley discussing Roots on the Merv Griffin Show (1977).

Henry Reed

"Everything we need to know can be found within us."

— Henry Reed

American Author/Teacher

Commentary

Our society teaches us to look for answers to our problems outside ourselves.  We take pills, read self-help books, talk to psychologists and attend church in search of answers to what ails us.  We have not been taught how to listen to our own intuition.

Have you ever had a feeling that you should or shouldn't do something and you ignored it only to find out later that the feeling was accurate?  We have a lot of wisdom and knowledge within our hearts, but we have not learned to trust ourselves.  We, instead, believe that others are wiser and smarter than us because they are rich or on TV or in roles of authority.

Intuition is found in the heart, not the brain.  Intuition often defies the logic of the rational mind, and instead, comes from the heart.  We have been taught that the analytical mind is smarter than the intuitive heart.  We have been told the feelings get in the way of making a professional sound  decision.  In fact, we are often encouraged to ignore our feelings and our gut instincts.  

Listening to our intuition takes practice.  Not every feeling is accurate.  Sometimes we let our desires and our conscious mind color our listening.  Usually it is that very first feeling that is the most accurate.    Once the analytical mind enters the equation, the intuition is altered and changed.   Listening to your intuition is listening directly to your subconscious. You know the answers to many of your challenges deep inside.  You need to learn how to listen for the answers.

Creative leaders are often more in touch with their intuition, but even they need to learn to listen to what is said and trust what they hear.  As painters and writers, we make choices that involve our intuition.  Why did you create that character or use that color?  Many times we have no rational reason for what we do and that is okay.  We need to trust that somewhere deep inside we know whats best.

Creative Practice
This week practice listening to your intuition.  See if you can determine the real intuition from the logical mind pretending to be intuition.  Take to time to listen to your instincts.

The Intuitive Heart
In his book, The Intuitive Heart, Henry Reed teaches a six step process for listening to your intuition.

1. Learn from your breath.  Focus on your breath.
2. Make the heart connection.
3. Invite a memory.
4. Tell your story.
5. Search the heart for wisdom.
6. Learn from the feedback.

Biography
Henry Reed received a B.A. in Mathematics from Pomona College and a Ph.D in Psychology from UCLA.  He was an assistant professor of psychology at Princeton University and an assistant professor at Old Dominion University and a Professor of Transpersonal Studies at Atlantic University.   He has authored 8 books.

Publications
Here are links to some of Reed's article online.

Finding Your Mission in Life

Discoveries of the Intuitive Heart

Do Dreams Have Meaning?

Wassily Kandinsky

Portrait of Kandinsky
by Gabriela Munter (1906)

"Every work of art is the child of its time, often it is the mother of our emotions."

— Wassily Kandinsky

Russian Artist

1866 - 1944

Commentary

Can a creative leader escape the prison of his times?  Is the content of the work produced locked into the world view of the time?  For example, did the artists and writers who lived when people thought the world was flat produce different work than artists today would? Does our world view frame the work we create?  

Concentric Circles
byWassily Kandinsky

If you believe that works of art are children of the time they were produced, then you must accept the fact that what you create will one day be perceived as old fashioned.  What you perceive as fresh and new today may one day be viewed with embarrassment.  We often think we are better than the people of the past, that we have risen above their prejudices, yet we are often trapped by our own prejudices and misconceptions.

The truly great artist transcends time and custom.  He is celebrated in every age for his creative genius and understanding of the world.  Other artists may be celebrated in some periods and forgotten in others.  Some artists are never discovered in their own time, but because their work is ahead of its time, they find their place in a future they will never see.  And many never survive beyond their own time.

Creative Practice

Spend time this week analyzing your creative work.  What makes your creative work a child of our times?  What in your creative work transcends our times?  How does it fit within the world view of our times?

Biography

Kandinsky was born in Moscow, the son of a tea merchant.  When he was five, the family moved to Odessa.  As a boy, he learned to play the piano and the cello as well as draw.  When he was 20, he moved to Moscow to study law.  He graduated six years later with honors and accepted a position teaching. When he was 30, he gave up a career teaching law and economics in order to study art in Munich.  

In 1892, Kandinsky married Anna Chimyakina, a cousin on his father's side. Ten years later he fell in love with Gabriela Munter, an art student, and traveled through Europe with her. He officially divorced Anna in 1911, but never married Gabriela. Instead, he married Nina Andreevsky in 1917.

For more information, visit these sites.

http://www.wassilykandinsky.net

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wassily_Kandinsky

http://www.biography.com/people/wassily-kandinsky-9359941

Video

Here is Helen Mirren, the actress, discussing the work of Kandinsky.

Rainer Maria Rilke

"In this there is no measuring with time, a year doesn't matter, and ten years are nothing. Being an artist means: not numbering and counting, but ripening like a tree, which doesn't force its sap, and stands confidently in the storms of spring, not afraid that afterward summer may not come. It does come."

Rainer Maria Rilke

Austrian Poet/Novelist

1875 - 1926

Commentary

Sometimes writers, actors, musicians and artists are impatient and want immediate success.  What most fail to understand is that it does not happen overnight.  It happens as it is meant to happen.  The work has to age and ripen with time.  So don't despair.  Keep creating and the work will find its way.  The work will blossom when it is ready.  Early success often destroys the creative impulse and leaves the creator without anything to say.

Are you letting your work age properly or are you rushing into publication?  Are you looking for instant success or are you willing to wait until the time is right?

Joyce Carol Oates

"Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another's skin, another's voice, another's soul."

— Joyce Carol Oates

American Novelist

1938 - 

Commentary

Reading fiction gives us the opportunity to leave the limits of our bodies and explore the world of others.  We are able to feel what they feel, to experience what they experience, and to understand the world as they understand.  

I can never become another person in the real world.  I will always be myself no matter how much I grow and develop.  Reading like acting gives me the opportunity to become someone else.  I can feel their fear, their love and their joy.  Some people I inhabit I love and enjoy being them.  Others, I don't like and don't enjoy being in their skin, but I can still learn from them.  I can still expand my understanding of the world.

I prefer reading stories where I like the characters and enjoy being with them.  For me, character is more important than plot.  I don't always enjoys novels driven so much by plot that the author sacrificed character depth.  I prefer novels where I can climb inside the character's skin and become him or her for a short period of time.  Two of my favorite private investigators from the world of crime fiction are:  Easy Rawlins (created by Walter Mosley) and V. I. Warshawski (created by Sara Paretsky).  I enjoy spending time with each of them in the worlds they inhabit.  For me, the plot is less important than being with the two private investigators.

Writing fiction gives me a similar opportunity as reading fiction.  As a writer, I am able to become another person in a world of my creation.  Unlike reading, I am able to explore the character on a deeper level and get to know the person even better than the reader does.  The fun of writing is in seeing the character slowly reveal himself and the world in which he lives.  

Creative Practice

This week make a list of characters in fiction who you like as well as those who you dislike. Ask yourself why you like or dislike certain characters.  What appeals to you about certain characters?  What disturbs you about certain characters?  Identify the type of characters you like to write about.

Biography

Joyce Carol Oates is one of the most prolific American novelists and writers living today.  She published her first book in 1963 and has since published over 40 novels as well as a number of plays, short stories, poetry and non-fictional works.  She has taught at Princeton University since 1978.

Oates was the oldest of three children born to Caroline Bush and Frederic James Oates.  She was born in Lockport, New York and raised in the farming community of Millersport, New York.  She was raised Catholic, but later discovered that her paternal great-grandfather was Jewish.  Her paternal grandmother encouraged her to read and gave her a copy of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventure in Wonderland which influenced her writing.  She called the book "the greatest treasure of her childhood."  Other early influences included William Faulkner, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Henry David Thoreau, Ernest Hemingway, Charlotte Bronte and Emily Bronte.  She began writing at fourteen when her grandmother gave her a typewriter.

Joyce Carol Oates graduated from Syracuse University in 1960 with a B.A. in English and from the University of Wisconsin - Madison in 1961 with a M.A.

Video

Here is a video of Joyce Carol Oates discussing how to write characters.

Ray Bradbury

"Your intuition knows what to write, so get out of the way."

— Ray Bradbury

American Novelist

1920 - 2012

Commentary

Sometimes our rational mind is a barrier to our creative output.  Our intuition makes mental leaps that our rational mind does not understand.  Our rational mind plays the role of the naysayer in our minds.  "You can't do that.  That don't make sense.  It's not rational.  People will laugh."  If we listen to our rational minds, we will lose some very creative ideas brought to us by our intuition.

Learn to listen and trust your intuition.  It may not make sense to the rational mind and that is okay.  In fact, if the rational mind is too resistive to an idea, it probably means it is a great idea.  The more the rational mind resists the better the idea.  Our educational training has taught us to trust our rational mind, not our intuitive mind.  To follow our intuition, we must be able to step outside our comfort zone and go where few others have gone.

Creative Practice

When you write or paint this week, let go of the rational mind.  Listen to your intuition.  If your rational mind tells you not to do something, listen instead to your intuition.  Follow your heart.

Biography
Ray Bradbury, the son of Esther Moberg and Leonard Bradbury, was born in Waukegan, Illinois.  His family moved back and forth between Waukegan and Tucson, AZ multiple times while he was a child.  They moved to Los Angeles, CA when he was 14.

Bradbury began to write stories at the age of eleven.  His earliest influences included Edgar Allan Poe, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and H. G. Wells.  He began writing horror stories at 14 in imitation of Poe.

When Bradbury was 12 he visited a carnival and was touched on the nose by an electrified sword.  Mr. Electrico, the carnival entertainer shouted at Bradbury:  "Live forever."  From that day forward, Bradbury began to write every day.  Some of his influences included Robert Frost, William Shakespeare, John Steinbeck, Aldous Huxley, Thomas Wolfe and Eudora Welty.  In high school, he was active in both the Poetry Club and the Drama Club, but he did not attend college.  His education came from the library where he spent three days a week.  His novel Fahrenheit 451 was written at UCLA's Powell Library.

Bradbury earned his first money as a writer at the age of fourteen when George Burns hired hime to write for the Burns and Allen show.  Bradbury sold his first story, The Lake, for $13.75 at the age of 22. Homecoming, one of Bradbury's early stories appeared in Mademoiselle.  Truman Capote, a young editorial assistant, spotted the story which was selected for publication also in the O. Henry Prize Stories of 1947.  Bradbury also wrote plays.

Bradbury married Marguerite McClure in 1947 and they had 4 daughters.  He never had a driver's license.

Video
Here is Ray Bradbury talking about writing.

H. G. Wells

"We must not allow the clock and the calendar to blind us to the fact that each moment of life is a miracle and mystery."

— H. G. Wells

English Writer and Novelist

1866 - 1946

Commentary

Sometimes we let the clock control our lives.  We live each day by the clock.  We set the alarm clock to wake us at a certain time.  We have to be at work at a certain time.  We have appointments and deadlines that focus our activities.  We eat lunch at the same time.  We quit work at the same time.  Then we eat dinner and go to bed at the same time.  

We also let the calendar control our days.  Many do not like Monday mornings because they don't want to go to work.  Wednesday becomes hump day and on Friday it is TGIF day.  We daydream about our holidays and our vacations.  Some people love summer.  Others love winter.  We have become slaves to the calendar and the seasons.

The trick is learning to live in the moment and enjoy each moment we have been given.  Some people move through life acting bored.  Their jobs are boring.  Their social life is boring.  Their sex life is boring.  As H.G. Wells says, each moment of our lives is a miracle and a mystery.  We ought to be celebrating our lives.  Each moment we are alive is a blessing.  Enjoy your moments because one day you will not have any more.  

Creative leaders often dream that when they are successful everything will be better.  When I sell my first novel....  When I have my own art gallery....  When I have a starring role in a Hollywood movie....  We spend so much time in the future that we fail to appreciate the present.

Creative Practice
Challenge yourself this week to enjoy each moment of your life.  Don't spend your time remembering the past or daydreaming about the future.  If you catch yourself being bored or not living in the moment, gently bring yourself back to the present moment.

Biography
Herbert George Wells is best known as a science fiction writer.  His most popular novels include: The War of the Worlds, The Time Machine, The Invisible Man and the Island of Doctor Moreau.  He also wrote history, politics and social commentary.

Wells was the fourth child of Joseph Wells and Sarah Neal.  His father was a domestic gardener, shopkeeper and professional cricketer.  His mother was a domestic servant.  When Wells was eight, he was confined to bed because of a broken leg.  To pass the time, he read books.  At fourteen, he was apprenticed as a draper (cloth merchant).  He worked 13 hour a day and slept in a dormitory.  He failed as a draper and as a chemist's assistant.

Wells married his cousin Isabel Mary Wells when he was 25.  They separated three years later when he fell in love with Amy Catherine Robbins whom he married in 1895.  The marriage lasted until her death in 1927.  With his wife's consent, Wells had affairs with several women, including Margaret Sanger, Rebecca West and Elizabeth von Arnim.

Video
Here is an audio recording of Orson Welles and H. G. Wells in a discussion about The War of the Worlds.

Robert Collier

"Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out..."

— Robert Collier

American Author

1885 - 1950

Commentary

The illusion, that many believe, is that success happens overnight.  This is far from reality.  Success happens slowly, gradually over days, months and years.  Have you the stamina and commitment to write or paint for ten or twenty years without recognition or reward?

Public success is also fleeting and fragile.  One day you are on top of the world and the next you have fallen and failed.  Yet, measuring one's success by the whims of the world does not bode well.  We need to measure our success by our own internal clock — by our own internal standards.  We need to give ourselves credit even if those around us don't appreciate what we have done.

Creative Practice

Count your blessings this week and write them down.  What are you thankful for?  What are the gifts you have been given?  What are you grateful for?  Spend time thinking about how you are already a success.  Acknowledge and celebrate your success.

Biography

Robert Collier was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Mary Ferguson and John Collier.  His father was a foreign correspondent for Collier's Magazine published by his brother Peter.  Robert entered a church seminary and expected to be a priest, but dropped out before taking his vows and moved to West Virginia to seek his fortune.  He worked as a mining engineer for eight years before moving to New York where he worked in the advertising department of his uncle's company.  He wrote sales copy selling books.  His sales circulars on the O. Henry stories brought in orders for over two million dollars.

Robert, because of an undiagnosable illness, became interested in health products.  He believed that 98% of our illnesses came from chemically treated food.  From this illness came the desire to investigate the mind and the powers that lay hidden within the mind.  He studied hundreds of books and courses on everything related to metaphysics, the occult and success.  Based on his study, Robert wrote a series of books entitled the Secrets of the Ages, which sold over 300,000 copies in his lifetime.  He received thousands of letters telling the results obtained from reading the book.  His books are still published today through the efforts of his family.

C. S. Lewis

"Faith is the art of holding on to things in spite of your changing moods and circumstances."

— C. S. Lewis

Irish Writer & Novelist

1898 - 1963

Commentary

Creative leaders need a lot of faith because they live in a very negative, sometimes hostile world, that often does not understand or appreciate their work.  I have been writing seriously for almost forty years and have yet to receive acceptance and recognition for the work I have produced.  Another person might have quit many years ago, but I keep plugging away.

Do you have faith in your creative ideas?  Your poems?  Your stories?  Your paintings?  Your ability to become another person on stage?  Do you have dark days when you want to quit and live a normal life?  Faith keeps us going even everything and everybody around us are telling us to give up — that we have no talent, no gift.

Where does your faith come from?  What keeps you going during those darkest of hours?  Why do you believe in your ideas?  

Creative Practice

This week think about what faith means to your artistic endeavors.  Why is faith in yourself and your creative work important?  Why must you believe in yourself?  Write for ten minutes on the importance of faith.  Or paint a picture of what faith means to you.

Biography

Clive Staples Lewis was born in Belfast, Ireland to Albert James Lewis and Florence Augusta Hamilton Lewis.  When he was four, his dog, Jacksie, was killed and he began calling himself Jacksie and would not answer to any other name.  He was known as Jack to his family and friends the rest of his life.

Jack loved animals as a child and read the Beatrix Potter's stories.  He wrote and illustrated his own animal stories as a child.  His mother died from cancer when he was ten.  Jack developed a love of Norse, Greek and Irish mythology.  At the age of 18 he was awarded a scholarship to University College, Oxford and a year later dropped out to join the British Army during World War I.  He resumed his studies when the war was over.

Lewis became an atheist at 15 and it took many years to restore his faith in God.  He converted in Christianity at 33.  

C. S. Lewis was a prolific writer of both fiction and non-fiction.  His close friends included J. R. R. Tolkien.  His Chronicles of Narnia (seven fantasy novels for children) is a classic of children's literature.  The series has sold over 100 million copies and has been translated into 41 languages.

Isabel Allende

"Fear is inevitable, I have to accept that, but I cannot allow it to paralyze me."

—Isabel Allende

Chilean Writer

1942 -

Commentary
The person who says that he has no fear is a liar.  We all fear something.  Maybe we are afraid that we are not good enough.  That we have not talent and have wasted our time writing or painting or acting.  What do you fear?  What keeps you awake at night?  How do you cope with your fears?  Do you run and hide?  Do you confront your fears head on?

My biggest fear is not having enough money to pay my bills?  I need to know where my next pay check is coming from.  I know deep inside that I am not an entrepreneur.  I have the desire and the ideas, but I am not willing to risk my financial security.  I have tried to start businesses while still employed but have not been successful.  And this fear is also why I have not become a full-time writer.  I need financial stability so I write part-time.

I am a risk-taker in my mind.  I will question any idea or concept.  Nothing is sacred.  Everything is fair game.  And the reason for this, I believe, is that in my teenage years I rejected the faith of my forefathers.  If I could challenge God, then I could challenge anything.  I am not a risk-taker with living life.  I have learned that I need security in the physical world so I can take risks in my mind and soul. 

But I have also faced fear and beat him at his own game.  I once was afraid of speaking in public, but after 5,000 presentations, I rarely experience fear of speaking.  In fact, I have become so relaxed that I am willing to make mistakes and laugh at myself.  What fears have you overcome?  

What fears are holding you back?  What fears are preventing you from being the writer or painter that you want to be?

Creative Practice
This week identify the fears that are preventing you from following your creative pursuits.  What can you do to confront these fears — to challenge these fears? What can you do to minimize the impact of the fear on your life and happiness?

Biography
Isabel Allende was born in Lima, Peru, the daughter of Francisca Llona Barros and Tomas Allende, who at the time was the Chilean ambassador to Peru.  Her father was a first cousin of Salvador Allende, President of Chile from 1970 to 1973.  Her father walked out on the family when Isabel was three.  She spent her youth in Chile, Bolivia and Lebanon as her mother and step-dad moved often.  She married Miguel Frias in 1962 and became a TV personality, a dramatist and a journalist.  She also translated romance novels from English to Spanish, but was fired for making unauthorized changes to the dialogue that make the heroines sound more intelligent.

Isabel gave birth to a daughter, Paula, in 1963 and a son, Nicolas, in 1966.  In 1973, because of the assassination of Salvador Allende, she fled  Chile and moved to Venezuela where she worked as a journalist.

Her 1982 novel, The House of Spirits, began has a letter to her 99-year-old grandfather. The manuscript was rejected by numerous Latin American publishers, but was finally picked up by a publisher in Spain.  The book was a huge success and has been translated in many languages.  

Allende writes on a computer and writes in Spanish.  On her website, she writes:  "Language is essential to a writer, and language is as personal as blood. I live in California—in English—but I can only write in Spanish. In fact, all the fundamental things in my life happen in Spanish, like scolding my grandchildren, cooking, or making love."

Allende has written more than 20 books that have been translated into 30 languages and have sold over 57 million copies.

In honor of her daughter, Isabel has created a charitable foundation dedicated to the protection and empowerment of women and children world wide.

Video
Here is a powerful, humorous Ted Talk by Isabel Allende.  Be sure to watch it all.

Uche Nduka

"Creativity is a way of responding to life.  It's an all-around essence — it's in how you make love, how you cook, how you talk to other people."

— Uche Nduka

Nigerian Poet / Songwriter

1963 -

Commentary

Are you creative in every area of your life?  Or do you limit your creativity to your art or your writing?  Creativity is a way of life.  It is how we live our lives.  Creativity is about making things better — about changing the world in which you live.  You can be creative while brushing your teeth or combing your hair.  Creativity is about how you see the world — how you experience the world.  Creativity is how we explore the world and learn its secrets.  Don't limit your creativity.  Don't limit yourself.

Everyone is born with the gift of creativity, but many lose the gift on the road to adulthood.  You can recover this gift if it has been lost.  You can expand your gift if it has shrunk over the years.  Learn to apply creativity to everything you do or say.  Learn to be happy with the gift you have been given.  Learn to release your natural creativity to help you deal with the problems of the world or your personal life.

Celebrate the gift of creativity.  Acknowledge the gift that you have been given.  Share the gift of creativity with others.  Believe that you can change your world through creativity.  Free yourself from the shackles of doubt.  Embrace your inner creative being.

Creative Practice

This week apply your creative gifts to areas of your life where you normally are not creative.  Maybe you create a new dish in kitchen.  Maybe you have a creative conversation with a friend.  Maybe you invent a tool to make your life simpler.  

Biography

Uche Nduka was born in Umuahia, Nigeria.  He earned a B.A. in English from the University of Nigeria.  He published his first collection of poems in 1988 at the age of 25.  He has since published 8 more collections of poetry.

References

• Interview with Uche Nduka: http://www.slowtrains.com/vol7issue3/ndukavol7issue3.html

• Six poems: http://mtls.ca/issue10/writings/poetry/uche-nduka

• Four poems:  http://xpoetics.blogspot.com/2009/09/poems-from-uche-nduka.html