Chris's Amazing Creativity Tool! Humor Writing Giveaway
Submissions Accepted Through April 1, 2010
What do you know how to do that nobody else does? Here's your chance to share your knowledge with the world! Submit your instructional how-to humor essay, project, etc. to CoachingYourCreativity.com for a chance to win an Amazing Creativity Tool! Kit. Details »
Winning Humor Submissions (so far!):
Cynthia Staples' Butterfly Expressions March-13-2010
Flying Flowers, Little Bursts of Colorful Joy
As spring fever is in the air, I am inspired by Cynthia Staples' newest piece on Creativity Portal, Sharing a Mother’s Gift: My Butterfly Muse. Not only is Cynthia a gifted photographer, but she is is also an inspiring storyteller, which you'll see as you enjoy this loving reflection about her mother and butterflies.
Speaking of butterflies, I subscribed to the nature magazine Birds and Blooms for a couple of years because I was so enthralled with the gorgeous backyard pictures and color photography of flowers and butterflies — flying flowers — as they are called.
I have such an affinity for the delicate creatures. When I was five I somehow acquired a butterfly net, but I honestly don't think I ever scooped any up before the net caught a large hole in it from catching *non* butterfly items like a family of Fisher Price Little people or my older brother's King Kong action figure.
Then there was that day I'm pretty sure I saved a beautiful butterfly's life during a delicate rescue mission after finding it wet and matted in a parking lot. What a memory. So as you might tell, when I see butterflies flitting and fluttering through flowery fields, I am filled with play. Butterflies are little bursts of colorful joy that delight my senses. •
365 Pictures March Collaborators March-7-2010
Shout Outs: Web Sites & Blogs
This month, Creativity Portal's 365 Pictures photo and text prompter has been online inspiring visitors for one full year!
Launched in March of 2009, this creativity-inspiring machine displays a new prompt and photo daily contributed in collaboration by a vast collective of people from all across the globe — all to inspire 'going deeper', inciting creative thoughts and emotions in artists, writers, and other creative seekers.
The creative talent 365 Pictures is pulling from during the month of March includes the following people, listed in alphabetical order with their Web sites or blogs (if available) for your A-Z linear enjoyment:
"We are born creators — the more you do it,
the more accessible it becomes
to your thought process."
~ JoAnn Bromley
More On... Creative Courage & Ice Skating March-7-2010
Inspired by Olympic's Shen Xue and Zhao Hongho
To help float myself through first-quarter's winter blues, I've decided to try something different this season: take action. Yes, in January I began taking short, brisk walks outside around my neighborhood several times a week.
Believe me, overcoming the frozen halt of winter's inertia is not easy, especially when it's 20 degrees outside. But as I suspected, once I started doing the simple walks regularly with the "small step" Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coaching principles in mind, I began looking forward them, and after a few weeks realized I had instilled a new enjoyable healthy habit into my life. Consistently showing up to do the work, no matter how little I might have walked some days had the added benefit of strengthening muscles that made it easy for me to slide into the next thing to grab me: ice skating (thanks to being inspired by out-of-retirement Chinese couple Shen Xue and Zhao Hongho dancing on ice during the Winter Olympics).
Long story short, I found an indoor ice-skating rink in town and laced up a pair of ice skates for the first time in 15 years (the slippery story is here). After that one-hour adventure, I had a newly-aroused passion for movement and creative courage led me to sign up for a 6-session series of beginner ice-skating lessons to learn the basics under the supervision of a professional coach. To-date I have completed three 1-hour sessions, have no broken bones (I fell once during the "pivoting" lesson), and have awakened a slew of slumbering muscles in my body. Overall, it's a great workout and loads of fun — that's all I'm in it for. Plus, I've succeeded in dismissing the winter blahs and have a renewed appreciation for the creativity-movement connection. •
"Finishing something requires:
GETTING STARTED."
~ Spills the Imp
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