Secret 8: Selecting Empowering Partnerships & Alliances

Although I have not been able to travel this journey with you all this time, I have been following some of your journeys. I felt compelled to write this morning as I am one of the hardest journey's of my own. My father has been ill and has been in hospital now for about two weeks. I have been going to see him to help him eat, etc. before work when he wakes and after work until he goes to sleep.

What I have found in this experience is that empowering partnerships and alliances sometimes develop without our intent. In my father's room is another older gentleman and staying with him is his daughter. We have formed a bond that I didn't expect and am quite grateful for. She has become my rock in dealing with my father. She has given me strength, hope and courage. And although this is not a creative alliance, for now, this is what I need.

I hope to rejoin you on your creative journey through the 12 Secrets, but right now I am on a different path.

Peace and love to everyone and thank you to Jamie creating such a great forum for meeting of like souls.

Such an important date in history - what an inspiration!

I am not one who is big on politics or up on world events. I have never had a great love of history or current events. I would say I have always had an "awareness" of what is going on, what has gone on, and hopeful about what might be.

What I have had the privilege of living through and remembering are a number of significant events in the past 50 years - President Kennedy's inauguration and assassination; Rev. Martin Luther King's impact on Civil Rights and his assassination; the landing of the first person on the moon; the devastating Colombia space shuttle explosion; September 11th, 2001; and today - the inauguration of President Obama. These are all days/dates that I remember exactly where I was and still feel the impressions left on me and their impact in my life.

What an amazing day! What a great speaker and writer! What an inspiring speech! I wish President Obama all the best and his family strength and courage to fulfil their new role.

I encouraged my children to try to get to a TV to watch this important event. I reminded them that this will be one of the days that they will remember when they are older. I reminded them that their grandparents came to Canada in hopes of a better life. I reminded them that their grandparents worked in sweat shops and diner kitchens to build a life, own a home, educate their child. In turn, their hard work for the lives of my children, their grandchildre. The expectations I have for them is that they honour their heritage and the sacrifices of their grandparents. I also reminded them that President Obama has repeated re-iterated what we have always said to our children - 'You can do anything you want, anything you set your mind too, and that nothing is too big to overcome.'

In this week of 12 Secrets - we look to our inspiration. In today's historic event I have my inspiration. I can do anything. Nothing is too big to overcome.

Secret 2 - Honouring your Inspirations

Challenge: Creative Style Inventory





1. When did your creative awakening or reawakening occur?


It never went to sleep.





2. What talents do you have, naturally?


Humour. I'm an optimistic pessimist. I love sewing - any crafts using needlework really. I love painting (though I have to fight the negative self-talk).





3. Which elements (fire, water, wood, air) draw you toward them?


I think air and water.





4. Where and when do you create? Where and when do you wish to create?





5. What activates your creative energy, and what drains it?





6. Do you use creative rituals? Which ones? If not, invent some.





7. Does nature influence your creativity? How?





8. What has been your greatest creative hurdle so far?





9. What time of day are you most receptive to inspiration?

12 Secrets - Chapter 1 - Acknowledging Your Creative Self

My earliest memories of considering my own future were from when I was about 4 or 5 years old. I would pretend I was a math professor. Why? Probably because my father kept calling my his little "professor". I knew enough that a professor was a teacher, so that's what a lot of my pretend play was....that and dreams of being a fashion designer. My mother was a seamstress and worked as a home-sewer. She would get big boxes of apron-pieces delivered to our home and sew them for pay by piecework. I was about 4 when she taught me to sew. We sat at her industrial sewing machine with me in her lap and, while she worked the foot pedal, I fed the fabric through the presser foot. I remember how thrilling it was to take two pieces of fabric and make one thing out them! My mother sewed all my Barbie clothes until I was able to sew my own. My mother told me that the first time she realized I was sewing on my own was when she noticed a button crudely sewn on to my sweater. The button was crudely sewn on with different coloured thread. She asked my father if he had sewn it on, and he said he hadn't, that's when she realized I had done it - I was in kindergarten.

I have such wonderful memories sewing. As a teenager, I made my formal clothes - dresses for weddings, dances, and other similar events. As a working woman in my twenties, I made many of my work wear - suits, skirts, pants, shirts. When I was pregnant, I made many of my maternity wear and when I had my kids, I sewed their play clothes, coats, Sunday clothes, etc. I also enjoy quilt-making, applique, embroidery and needlepoint. My mother taught me to knit when I was about 8 and my aunt taught me to crochet and I have been enjoying both since.

In school, I loved art and started to show real promise by grade 7. I was particularly interested in portraiture and did many detailed portraits, in pencil, of celebrities I was "in crush" with. Unfortunately, I have none of the art from those years as my art teacher kept them for her portfolio. Little did I know what they would mean to me in my later years. I do have my sketch book from my senior year in high school, but everything before that was thrown out (my mom was a bit of a clean freak). I loved drawing! In grade 13, I was focused on going to art school to become a commercial artist. My parents did not support this idea, as they did not see a future - meaning, how would I make money to support myself? This didn't bother me as much as one of my art teacher's comments (which would prove to be the negative voice I still hear in the back of my mind) - she said "Lillian, you couldn't be a commercial artist because you are not confident enough." I wasn't but hearing it from a person in authority sealed the deal for me. I was so devastated.

Since then, I have not stopped creating - through needle-crafts, writing, living, and exploring - but every time I think about living a more fully creative life, I stop. I have enjoyed the journey of Soul Coaching and looked forward to 12 Secrets, but as I was reading Chapter 1 and reflecting on my own life - challenges and successes, I kept thinking "how can I change my life when I have all these responsibilities and commitments?" It's almost like staring at a blank canvas.

Like many of you, I have fibromyalgia. I was diagnosed at 32 and have been living a full-life by focusing on my nutrition and exercise - truly the only things that have really helped me (as medications were a real fiasco). I am 50 years old and I am still pursuing a dream...isn't it too late? Shouldn't I just forget about it and honour all the gifts that I have been given? Can I live with that deep sadness about never have pursued my passion? Is it even still my passion? And the most important question, what if I figure it all out and still can't actually DO anything about it?!?!