Creativity
Online Gathering For Peace
Welcome Friends,
Let’s focus our attention on peace and see what we can create.
When each of us decides to create peace in our lives no matter what challenges or circumstances are present, world consciousness will change, and there will be peace on earth.
In spite of the personal and public events that may assault our sensibilities, challenge our beliefs, and make us angry, once a decision to create peace inside is made, all kinds of creative solutions to every challenge we face in our lives and in the world become available.
As the New Year approaches, take a moment to make peace inside you a priority. Use this space or join me at my Online Gathering for Peace on Facebook during the last days of 2012 and on New Year’s Day 2013 to share the ideas and answers that appear as you step back, calm down, and breathe into your own place of peace.
Here’s to peace in this moment for everyone everywhere!
Linda
“Each moment is a chance for us to make peace with the world, to make peace possible for the world, to make happiness possible for the world.”
– Thich Nhat Hanh, Teachings on Love
“Breathing in, I calm body and mind. Breathing out, I smile. Dwelling in the present moment I know this is the only moment.”
– Thich Nhat Hanh, Being Peace
Geography Cover Art and Liner Notes
My new album is almost ready for public consumption! Check out the latest Kickstarter Update to see the cover art and read the liner notes.
Old and New All At Once
I had a big birthday this past year and suddenly felt very old and very new all at once. I crossed over a threshold into the rest of my life. It was a very painful crossing, but now that I’m here, I feel great. Whew. I feel motivated to work on my creative bucket list in a more take charge sort of way. Looking at the What can I do, and not What haven’t I done. So what’s on my creative bucket list for this year? Well, number one is the new album of original songs, Geography, which is being released in September. I’m halfway there and I’ll keep you posted on my Kickstarter fundraising campaign, which is scheduled to go live in February and March. I’m working with a filmmaker right now to create the video for the web page and I’m looking forward to sharing it with you when it’s ready.
I spent the last year learning new things and re-learning old ones.
For example, that patience is a virtue is one of the old ones. That sometimes not getting some things you think you want turns out to be for the best in the end. Patience. Everything in its time. Applies to just about everything. I know that. Repeat. I know that. Breathe. Allow, allow, allow… And I find if I focus on being creative every day, laughing more, being kind, being responsible for my choices, the rest of life seems to take care of itself.
I learned practical new things, too, like additional songwriting techniques last winter from Neil Diercks and the online version of Berklee College of Music, and during the summer, had an in-depth immersion into Pro Tools music composing and recording software thanks to Dave Franz at the same school and a grant I received from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs. These new skills have come in handy each creative day since.
So here’s to 2012… I wish you a new year filled with all the favorite things you love to experience.
In honor of that wish, here’s a song for you from my second album, Time, Seasons and the Moon featuring Bradley Williams on piano, John Whitfield on bass and Greg Sergo on drums.
My Favorite Things by Linda Tate
The Source
The source of all creativity, imagination, and inspiration resides in awareness. It is the conscious process of observation, of feeling, of listening, of exploration that feeds the work of every artist, every painter, sculptor, musician, vocalist, composer, writer, dancer, chef, designer, healer, actor, architect, photographer, and anyone who makes or does anything creative. Awareness puts us in contact with our muse, the beginning, the middle, and the endless. It enriches the search for meaning. It sparks the ever-present, at our fingertips, nudge to do, be, go, see. It encourages us to be playful. It presents the question “what if?” and urges us to find out what will happen if the “what” is made manifest.
As we challenge ourselves to be aware, sensitive and present in each moment, let’s share some of what we discover as we observe, feel, listen, and explore.
I encourage you to use this as an interactive, artistic space where we can share ideas about creativity, imagination, and inspiration. What we are creating, how we are creating, and where it all comes from.
Aware
taste, touch, see, hear, feel, look out, look in, take the plunge into all the senses, surround yourself, fill yourself up, breathe, smell, move, stretch, listen, silence, noise, loud, soft, bright, dim, shade, sun, warm and cool, hands and feet, heart and mind, soul and salvation, uncensored, alive, aware, a-w-a-r-e, at all times, in all places, open expectation, drinking life, handfuls, passionate, grasping, letting go, watching, waiting, what will happen next, who will appear, what will I see, what music will fill my ears, conversations, commitments, cavalier, costs nothing, everything, give it all up, take it all back, reach out, dig in, sanctify your space, satisfy your desire, it is there to experience if you are aware, go wherever, come back again, sink down, lift up, spin around and around in circles, global, local, right next door and far away, running, walking, skipping, dancing, jumping, falling, failing, flailing, filtering and unfaltering, genius and emptiness, flashes of insight, darkness and objects turning into other things with just a word or two, imagination at the bottom of a well, a lake of sound ripples across a desert landscape, and a mountain rises behind me, in the distance a coyote stretches its neck and howls to the sky, aware of nothing and everything, i am alive in a small space, fingers twitch and eyes observe the simple and complex, the similar and strange, a diamond, a sapphire, a piece of concrete, aware.
The Geography of Creativity, Imagination, and Inspiration
Sometimes she sings and sometimes she does other things…
Like staring at clouds.
Every new year brings with it the sensation of a new beginning, a chance to start again, to renew our journeys, an opportunity to refresh ourselves and to break with the old, worn out ways that weigh us down and no longer serve our paths. My renewed path in 2011 is a continuously creative one, and in my blog, I will offer a glimpse into my inner and outer creative world in music and life.
If you want to know when and where I am performing, you can go to Live Dates. If you want to listen to samples of my recorded music, you can go to Sounds and CDs. Ah, but here… we can explore together what it means to be creative, what inspires and motivates the art and our lives.
Join me as we navigate the Geography of Creativity, Imagination, and Inspiration.
Photo credit: http://freestockphotos.com/
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