it is well...

it is well...

with my soul...

it is well, it is well

with my soul.

This familiar hymn fills the spaciousness of my heart, my mind, my soul as I gently reenter the world following gladsome.

What a beautiful weekend with 11 amazing women, each with their own story, each their own set of hopes and expectations for this retreat. This quickly established community of women, whose sharing and warmth and risk-taking and comfort and love for our authentic, creative selves, far exceeded our wildest imagination.  What a gift gladsome was and will be.

There is so much to tell of this wonderful retreat, but today I'll say only this...

Creative intention begins by giving voice to our creative hopes and dreams, but is more than goal setting or accepting challenge to take action on our desired creativity. Creative intention is imagining our wildest, truest most creative self and then stepping back to watch her unfold.  Perhaps she'll take a lifetime to mold, perhaps a few days.  But she'll emerge in a place where her soul connects with her creative life; where the energy in this fusion takes hold and she arrives.

Here's a sampling of creative intentions in the making. . .

I stumbled upon this quote by poet Rainer Maria Rilke in some strange alignment of events and I thought it beautifully captured the essence of creative intent:

Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.

Peace to you dear friend...