The end of the year is bearing down on us. Amidst all the celebrations, this is a good time to assess how creativity entered your life over the past year. How did a spark of intrigue develop into a more substantial blaze over the course of the year? Seize this moment to reflect upon your creative growth and offer gratitude to the universal spirit for bringing this abundance into your life.
My family has a tradition during the holiday season. We cut off a branch from a tree in the yard – a limb that won’t be missed once the tree starts to bud out in the spring. We place the branch upright in a vase in the dining room. The lacey stems arc over the table. Over the course of the month of December, we write down what we are grateful for on little note cards. We slip those cards into small colorful envelopes and then hang them from these moss-covered limbs. It is amazing how beautiful the branch looks by the time the new year rolls around, each colorful square of paper commemorating a person or event we feel particularly appreciative of.
This is the perfect time to start your own tradition. It doesn’t have to be a branch stuck in a vase. Maybe that is a bit too public for your taste. Perhaps you could place the notes in a silver box hidden under the bed. Or you could even write out notes of gratitude and them toss them into a fire. Let the act of burning them become part of the ritual. Whatever path you choose, make a point of incorporating the act of writing into it. This act lends gratitude a deep resonance – the memories take on a more profound psychological weight than if they remained floating around in your mind.
Appreciate how the muse has encouraged you, even seduced you, into wrestling with your artistic medium over the past year. Congratulate yourself for your devotion to your craft. Sometimes we get so caught up in the details of the creative pursuit, we do not perceive just how much we have actually accomplished. Revel in that perspective now. This is exactly the moment to let your muse speak to you. Let it remind you of what you were emotionally drawn to over the past twelve months. Remember that some new topic or theme captured your imagination along the way. It wasn’t even on the horizon when the year began. But now it has become a part of you and your creative endeavor. This flurry of inspiration came from deep inside the mind, where dreams are hatched. Now it is basks in the daylight.
