Finding a Creative Spark and Tending It

What does it feel like to initiate a dream into reality? As the new year unfolds, we take this opportunity to look back at a year of successes, failures, and possibilities to come. Perhaps now is the time to get out your pen and make a list of what worked, what didn't, and what hopes you have as the year carries on. Magic often takes place in the moments between - signaling the importance of healthy spaces for intentionality. When tending a fire, there must be space made for oxygen. These empty gaps are where the possibility for those sacred sparks to be born.

Naming a dream or hope is the first step in igniting this spark. It can be one word or even an image; something that speaks to the essence of that dream or the outcome of its fruition. Giving language to this idea helps it grow and solidify. Consider using whatever medium is most comfortable for you, be that writing, drawing, singing, ritual, or dancing, to make an anthem for this dream. Give it its own name, character, movement, and shape. What does this dream need to grow? What does it need to flourish? Who around you can help shape it? What beauty will it bring to your community? What pleasure will it bring you to nourish it?

As you take time thinking about the cultivation and tending process, also acknowledge what overgrowth would crowd this dream from igniting? What thought patterns would snuff out this new spark or rob it of its brightness? Notice patterns in your day to day that could be reworked into fertile ground for this new beginning, and compost the bits that no longer serve you. Consider writing what you are letting go of in order to devote your attention to this new spark on some pieces of paper and burying them. Honoring the patterns you have outgrown and acknowledging how they served you, allows for a gentle respect as you cultivate a new dream, and with it a new future.