Summer 2023 Create: Dive in, Go deep, Make a splash Blues, yellows, greens, oranges - the shades of summer inundate our psyche as the season approaches and fill our hearts with a feeling of freedom that invites us to relax, play, dive in, or make a splash. That wonderful sense of season is what flows through the pages of this issue. This summer, we chose to dive deeply into what it means to create; the courage it takes to dive into any medium, go deep into yourself and your

My Spring season has been filled with a constant coming back to my commitment of comfort – I wrote about this in the last issue of Elan Vitae and how I would like to commit to being in my comfort zone. And no, that doesn’t mean that I’m comfortable all of the time, rather it means that I am cultivating a landscape for myself – both internal and external – that supports me and helps me navigate the space in which I find myself. When we have an internal felt sense of safety or

“We’ve known for a long time that athletes and artists can easily access flow states: the idea that the rest of us can touch that zone through nature is tantalizing.” – Dr. David Strayer, quoted in The Nature Fix , Florence Williams, 2017. Scientists are just beginning to explain something human beings have experienced for centuries. Nature makes you feel good. And when you feel good, your brain works better. Ironically, by slowing down and taking in the scenery, it seems you

After creating in many forms for decades, I thought I had my creative process figured out. I don’t know why I was so surprised to discover that it isn’t predicable or necessarily replicable from one form of creative expression to another. Fortunately, my instinct to create is strong enough to just dive into something new without thinking too much about the process of bringing that idea to fruition. Much like never regretting diving into the cold pond on a hot spring day, reme

Hey Sweet Girl – What a lovely surprise to meet you in the attic today. I’m not used to having you greet me so unexpectedly. But then again, I was thinking of you. I had opened an unlabeled box and discovered some of your artwork and creative writings that I had stored in a clearly labeled folder: Elementary School Work Worth Saving. From a stack of papers, all dusty and yellowed along the edges, marked with your Number Two penciled cursive, I felt you emerge and happily tak

Sitting with my palms together and wrists, tips of thumbs, and pinkie fingers pushing into each other, I slowly looked down as my remaining fingers blossomed outward. “This symbolizes the lotus flower,” exhaled the yoga instructor. “Envision your life much like the lotus flower,” she continued, “pushing through the mud and the sludge of places where you feel stuck or not feeling forward movement. Then, open to the strength of empowerment. Step into your ability to move forwar