Step into a circle of passionate, wholehearted, creative people for a few days and something happens.
Any psychologist worth her salt will tell you that romantic relationships are crucibles for growth, but it’s not just our most intimate love relationships that have the power to transform.
Take Ethel. She came to my Create & Incubate Retreat in May, and wrote this less than two months later:
[box] Courage report! I had to share that I astonished myself by signing up to rappel down a 35-story skyscraper to raise money for brain cancer research! I wanted to share with you that a chunk of my courage came from doing your Create & Incubate Retreat in May! I didn’t think about it at the time, but the decision to drive up to the retreat took me out of my comfort zone a bit, the time and activities pushed me out a bit further, and I came home thinking I could tackle an even bigger challenge. Thank you for your part in all this! I’m looking forward to next year.[/box]
Ruth, another retreatant, went on to create — and successfully complete — an ambitious project to paint five paintings a day, five days a week, for five weeks, and she pre-sold 19 of the days’ paintings before she even started them.
“I am sooooooooo happy I met you and went to the retreat,” she wrote in an email, “It’s months later, and I am still feeling the effects from those three days.”
Yeah, I’ll say!
This is the power of face-to-face.
Goodness knows I love me my internet, but this is the power of gathering in 3-D.
Step into a circle of passionate, wholehearted, creative people and something happens.
It’s why I make time, and save up my hard-earned dollars, to go to the annual retreat with my calligraphy guild, spend a week in the redwoods at music camp (Jazz Camp West, California Coast Music Camp, and Puget Sound Guitar Workshop hold a very dear place in my heart), and fly across the country to Patti Digh’s Life Is A Verb Camp.
Last year, Patti Digh’s camp (then called Design Your Life Camp) was where I did my very first reading from a stage (boy, was I nervous!), and my very first non-workshop-related speaking presentation (with PowerPoint!) as a creativity instigator.
I also got to sing this song with my ukulele at the talent show, which was not new to me — I’ve sung to audiences large and small from all sorts of stages — but the camp audience was record-breakingly enthusiastic. Several people rushed me afterwards to say they wished they could see me perform for an entire evening.
“Well,” I confessed, “I have long held a dream of touring around the country, doing house concerts in people’s living rooms and other intimate venues…”
“That would be great,” they all said, “Let us know if you ever do that.”
A year passed. I made lots of art, hosted my second Create & Incubate Retreat, clutterbusted my studio (a miracle!), wrote articles for the Huffington Post, Tiny Buddha, Lifehack, and others, overhauled my website, led a one-day playshop at my home, started looping, did lots of improv (including my first improv performances), performed at parties and on stages…
Clearly I was not twiddling my thumbs, but the house concert idea lay idle on a back shelf, all but forgotten.
Before I knew it, the time for camp circled around again, and I flew off to North Carolina, giddy with anticipation.
Once again I got to read from the stage (this and this and this). Once again I got to perform a song with my ukulele (this time I sang this song).
Meanwhile, the day before my talent show offer, I got to take a 90-minute Create Session called The Courage to Choose Your Own Adventure, with writers and ninja poets Maya Stein and Amy Tingle. These two intrepid souls shared the story of their most recent adventure, Type Rider II: the Tandem Poetry Tour, in which they rode 1,400 miles on a tandem bicycle through America’s heartland, writing free poems & building Little Free Libraries. Then they walked us through the steps to make a hand-bound, collaged guidebook for our own next adventure.
At one point during the workshop, Maya and Amy had us pair up with someone else to share our secret, big adventure dream.
Did I share my house concert tour dream? No, it was still hiding on the back shelf.
Instead, I dusted off another big dream I’ve held for even longer: to somehow combine my many creative passions into a single thing; a “strong offer,” as Patti Digh would put it — a term borrowed from the world of improv — in which I would combine my visual art, writing, performing, improv and maybe even dance.
I have no idea what this hybrid, passion pluralite animal would look like — and art show with performances? — but it’s something I’ve longed to manifest for probably fifteen years or more.
As I shared this dream with my partners in the Create Session, though, it felt somehow hollow and incomplete. Something was missing. Yes, I want to combine all the things, but the idea of creating a show in my local area didn’t fill me with enthusiasm.
I knew this wasn’t quite the right adventure yet, but I trusted that it would suffice as a placeholder adventure for the time being.
Then Saturday night came, and I got to sing this song onstage. Again, I couldn’t have asked for a more enthusiastic audience. Their reaction was uproarious, as all the excitement and energy of three days in the woods together erupted out in their laughter and applause.
Once again, people rushed up to me to say how much they wished they could see me perform for a whole evening.
Ah, yes! Hello, dream! I remember you!
That house concert tour dream hopped off the shelf and into the idea stewpot, where for the next two days it simmered away, its juices stewing and blending with my passion pluralite event dream.
While I wasn’t looking, another dream hopped into the pot: the dream of leading creativity workshops around the world, holding space for people to connect with each other, share their stories, and embrace and unleash the creative spark inside. That dream took me to Istanbul in 2012, where I co-led a week-long workshop with my partner in crime, Kelly Hevel.
Meanwhile, camp went on and wrapped up on Sunday. I flew home, and all the good smells from that simmering pot drifted into my sleeping dreams, and when I woke, it was to a clear vision of my next Grand Adventure:
The Living A Creative Life Living Room Tour!
What is the Living A Creative Life Living Room Tour?? (Edit: I now have a full page dedicated to info and FAQs about the tour, right here.)
Step into a circle of passionate, wholehearted, creative people and something happens.
I want to hold that circle for YOU, and the people in YOUR community. I already bring my art, my music, my stories, my ideas, and my ability to hold space to the virtual world. Now I want to bring all of it to new places in the 3-D world.
Think:
- Intimate concerts with music and stories (maybe just you and 6 of your closest friends, in your living room after a shared meal; maybe 40 people in a church basement)
- Art-shares, where everyone in the room gets to share their stories, show their art, read their writing and poetry
- Creative Sandbox workshops/playshops to help you tame the gremlins and unleash your inner creative
I’d especially love if all of the above were collaborations with other musicians, storytellers, artists, creators, and teachers!
AND, if I can raise enough funds in my eventual Kickstarter campaign, my biggest, juiciest vision is to be able to offer all of the above and make it accessible to ANYONE, regardless of their financial situation.
This vision can only come to fruition through the combined efforts of many people — I can’t make it happen alone.
I’ll need venues to perform and/or teach and/or hold space for gatherings in. I’ll need beds to sleep in. I’ll need to be able to eat, and keep up with my “regular” work remotely, and get from place to place via planes, trains, and automobiles.
This is where MY next adventure can be YOUR adventure, too!
So far, after sharing my big, crazy idea with my #DYLC13 and #LIAVCamp14 communities, and my Living A Creative Life Alums Facebook group, I’ve got more than a dozen enthusiastic collaborators, offering up workshop & performance space, beds, meals, help with promotion and PR, and help managing the tour.
Check out this screenshot of the map I’m compiling! (Click on the image to see a live map, updated in real time):
How YOU Can Take Part
Step into a circle of passionate, wholehearted, creative people and something happens.
If any of this sounds exciting to you, and you’d like to bring me to YOUR town (maybe even in your living room!), there are lots of ways you can help. For example, you can:
- Offer space in your home for a workshop or gathering (anywhere from a shared meal on a weeknight with 6 to 8 of your closest friends, followed by an hour-long concert, to a weekend workshop plus evening events).
- Organize space elsewhere for a workshop or gathering (a church basement; condo rec room; school classroom; office space; bookstore…).
- Offer a smoke-free place to sleep in your home or RV.
- Provide one or more allergy-free meals (in your home, or in a lunch bag).
- Co-create a workshop, performance, or other gathering with me.
- Contribute your own strong offer to one of my stops (Yoga class? Contra dance? Hula hoop lesson? Anything goes!)
- Bring treats to share at one of the stops.
- Provide transportation to/from airports and/or tour stops.
- Help promote the tour, so people come out of the woodwork and participate!
- Help manage the tour (logistics, facilitate communication with the various hosts, etc.)
Right now I’m looking at two possible time windows (which may end up being two phases of a longer tour): April – May, and October of 2015. And who knows — perhaps it will extend beyond that!
If any of the above spark a “Yes!” inside you, please click here to apply to be a host.
I have no idea how this will evolve, but over the next few weeks I’ll cobble together a draft tour schedule from the responses I receive, calculate costs, and run a Kickstarter or Indiegogo campaign to fund the tour. (A big project in its own right, which I could also use some help on when the time comes!)
This would be my strongest offer yet. I feel a deep and powerful call to do this. It’s time.
And YOU can help it come to be. 🙂
Squee!! This is scary and exciting!
Step into a circle of passionate, wholehearted, creative people and something happens.
I can’t wait to hear from you!
PS — Pssst! Know someone who might benefit from seeing this today? Pass it on!
