Thanks to the Unknown

Last night, I dreamed about the house fire again. In 2002, in August, our row house caught fire and burned. Poorly trained roofers accidentally set the roof on fire. It started as a smoldering fire, which they didn’t notice. They left for the day, leaving a cannister of propane on the roof.

Fire photo by H. Peter Clamann ©2006

An unknown man across the street was sitting on his balcony, enjoying an after-work drink, when he saw wisps of smoke, followed by flame, licking around our roof. He didn’t waste any time. He ran across the street, and banged on every door, including ours.  There were more than a dozen houses in our cluster.”Your house is on fire, get out!” he yelled.

My husband stepped out to see if it was true, and I went to the phone to dial 911. The fire department was on the way before I left the house.

You never want to see the home you owe 28 years of payments on with a “Condemned” sign on the front door. Neither do you want to walk up the stairs in the company of the fire marshal to see the night sky clearly through the hole in your roof, and have the confused fire marshal ask, “What room was this?” as you gaze in a charred mess that is piled with books and thigh-high in shingles and debris. It was amazing that I could look at him and say, simply, “My studio.”

People told me how lucky I was that the house didn’t burn to the ground, how great it was that I could buy new clothes and furniture. One of my neighbors complained the next morning that she hoped I wouldn’t leave “that mess” –the contents of my studio that the fire fighters had thrown out the windows. I was mad at the gawkers who stood around, taking photos of my ruined house, of me, sweaty and dirty, picking up my art life on my front lawn. When I think about that time, I think of the art show promoter who refused to refund my booth space fee when I told him that I couldn’t participate in the show in two weeks because my studio burned. “No refunds,” he said, and I knew he didn’t believe my story.

In the dream, however, I remember the people who helped. The neighbor who let us stay in her house, adding our three cats to her six and her neice, nephew and their child–6 of us in her two-bedroom space. Of another neighbor who was going on vacation and insisted we use their place while they were gone. Of another artist who sent me a 20-pound box of art supplies so I could get started again. Of the insurance adjuster who arrived before 8 o’clock the next day and organized the repair.

Most of all, I remember the perfect stranger who ran over from his house and prevented ours from burning to the ground. I wanted to thank him in some way, but I wasn’t even sure where he lived. He left when the fire engines squealed to the curb. He saved lives on that day, as if he did it every day.

To thank him, I wrote a letter. “One of your neighbors saved lives. He did it without thought of reward. He left before we could thank him.  All we know is that he lives on this street. I thought you’d want to know who lives among you, who your neighbor is.” I went on to describe how his fast, self-less actions had brought the fire department before the row-house fire spread to other roofs. How all the neighbors left their houses with pets and children, scared, but safe. I distributed the letter to every house on his street.

In my dream, I see the man and thank him. And every time I wake from that dream, I am grateful all over again.

—Quinn McDonald is a life- and certified creativity coach. She teaches people how to write and give presentations. She also teaches people who can’t draw how to keep an art journal.

Can’t Get to Sleep? Put Down That Pill.

A long time ago, maybe 10 years ago, most people got ready for bed, got into bed, maybe read for a bit, and then turned out the light and went to sleep. The vast majority of people did this without a TV, radio, CD, white noise maker, or nature sounds other than those happening outside their window.

A large number of people cannot go to sleep without an artificial device or a pill. It’s not that we aren’t tired, we are exhausted. It’s that we can’t be alone with our thoughts. The idea of spending even five minutes awake and in silence terrifies us. We are afraid of our thoughts. They come rampaging in at night, with demands and fears. So we reach for a pill, leave the TV on and get. . .a crummy night’s sleep.

Sleeping with the TV or radio on interrupts natural sleep patterns. We don’t get the rest we need and feel cranky the next day. Pills can leave you groggy, sleepy and not rested. And that’s the least of it.

So here is a simple way to get the rest you need and drift off to sleep peacefully:

1. Create a ritual about going to bed. Start it about 45 minutes before you want to go to sleep. It can be perfectly easy–make sure the dog or cat is in or out, the doors locked, lunch packed, clothes put out. So you don’t have to worry the morning routine.

2. Make a list of things you need to get done the next day. If you don’t make the list, you will start making it once you are in bed and the three things you have to get done will turn into an endless list of failure and regret. Making a list of  chores, goals, or things that have to get done allow you to relax.

3. Get ready for bed. Brush and floss your teeth, wash your face, get into your nightclothes. Whatever else you do to get into bed. If you are addicted to the TV, turn it on, but have the volume so you can barely hear it. If you have a timer on it, set it for the smallest possible time–five, 10 minutes. If you don’t have a timer, turn off the light and the TV.

4. Take control of your thoughts. When unwanted worries show up, imagine holding a hand up, palm forward, and ask them to step aside. Then create a different thought pattern. One of the following works well:

–You have won a huge lottery. Millions. Your family is taken care of, your retirement is set, taxes are paid. Now what? How will you spend the rest of the money?

–You can have any house you want. Design it. What have you always wanted in a house? Where would it be? What kind of roof? What kind of landscaping? Add all the details you can imagine for every room.

–You don’t need to work anymore. You can do whatever you want. Be the CEO of a huge organization, a cab driver, a musician, an artist. You can change the world in any way you want. What would you do? What does your first day look like–from breakfast on?

These thoughts are challenging enough to make you want to add details, but not stressful enough to keep you awake. You’ll go to sleep in the middle of planning something fun. You may start to have interesting dreams and creative ideas. Not a bad result for a good night’s sleep.

–Quinn McDonald is a writer, life- and creativity coach. She teaches communication skills, including writing and giving presentations as well as how to make and use an art journal, even if you can’t draw.

Insomnia: Why You’ll Fall Asleep

Sleep, in the Jewish mystical mythology, is not just a time for physical rest. The soul returns to its Maker, who keeps it for rejuvenation. The moment of waking is the return of the soul to the body. If the Almighty decides not to return your soul, you don’t wake up.

There is even a special prayer said upon waking up that thanks the Almighty for rejoining body and soul for another day. I find the idea of having my spirit buffed up, the dust shaken off it, setting it up for a new day a wonderfully relaxing one.

Sometimes, when I can’t sleep, I imagine the Almighty searching around, having misplaced a group of souls like I misplace my keys. Finally, the souls are spied, dropped behind a random thought. They are lovingly picked up, and 40 insomniacs drift off to sleep at last.

–Quinn McDonald is a certified creativity coach. She is also a writer and writing trainer. See her work at raw-art-journals.com Image: reic.co.uk (c) 2008-9 All rights reserved

Get Rid of “Stuff”, Make Room for Creativity

Pick up any art magazine and you’ll find a story on an artist’s studio. There are even whole books dedicated to nothing else except showcasing well-designed art studios–from painting to sculpture, knitting and quilting, the studios are all well lit, painted in delightful colors and have coordinating blinds and throw pillows.

Jun 29th, 2009 Bachelor Pad: A Picture Perfect Art Studio by Steph Auteri in "Tools of Attraction"

There’s more–the studios are all perfectly clean, and have tons of shelves and drawers, with organized tools and products.

I look at these studios and I wonder what happens in them. They seem to have every piece of equipment any artist could want, and many no artist really needs. There are templates and kits, paints in every color and materials in every shape.

What’s missing? Empty space. Time to think. A safe place to fail. Without those, you can’t discover, much less use, your own creativity. Your own creativity feeds on your ideas, your fears, your work. You can be creative on a flat board held up by two file cabinets. You can be creative in a comfortable chair with a good light. You can’t be creative using six new tools while following directions for a kit.

Creativity demands you. The part of you that is scared. The part of you that is funny. The part of you that wonders what happens if you try this instead of that. When we play with paper or fabric, clay or silver, we discover what our heart knows and our hands can do.

When we make a mistake in the privacy of our studio, it teaches us more than any success gained assembling someone else’s idea. When we are alone in our studio, and deal with our doubts and fight our negative self-talk, it is an accomplishment no pile of new tools can achieve–the joy of learning, the thrill of setting our creativity loose. And much more: the power of trusting your creative judgment.

I love to splurge on art supplies. But I know they don’t make me an artist. They are part of making my work easier, making it more exciting. The tools that I use the most are the ones I purchased after I figured out what I needed to do and couldn’t do on my own–watercolor pencils, fine quality paper, good cutting instruments, specials glues.

I am an artist if I’m standing naked in my simple studio with cardboard boxes for storage. I’m an artist if I’m sitting in a chair writing in my journal and wondering what to present to my students in the next class. Tools don’t make an artist. Studios don’t make an artist. Exploring your creativity makes you an artist because it lets fresh ideas in and gives you permission to play without fear.

–Quinn McDonald is an artist and a creativity coach. She helps people re-invent themselves and discover meaning in their lives.

Marriage Celebrant: I Do

Change is life. What were you doing a year ago? Are you still doing the same thing now? What’s new about you? What are you doing now that you didn’t do a year ago? We’ve had a housing collapse, people are losing their jobs. People are re-thinking their lives, what makes them happy, how to hold onto that happiness.

Because I coach people in change, help them re-invent themselves, I have added something new to my coaching–officiating at marriage or commitment ceremonies. I’ve received the paperwork I need to officiate at marriages in all 50 states. A special ceremony, a custom ceremony, traditional or contemporary–I can not just officiate, I can help you prepare for it, spiritually and emotionally.

I’m performing my first ceremony on July 18 in New Hampshire. I live in Phoenix, but travel from Sky Harbor airport is convenient.

In times when trust is worn thin and hope is a thread, I want to help people who choose to honor their vision and trust in themselves and their partners. Life might be harder, but a ceremony of trust deserves a special preparation. You can find the details on a new page on my website.

Tell me about your wedding, and how you are making it work in today’s tough world.

—Quinn McDonald is a writer, wedding celebrant, and life- and creativity coach, helping people re-invent themselves.

Traveling Journals: Changing the Rules

When I decided to create four traveling journals, I kept the idea pretty close to the 1000 Journals Project because that was a good model. As the journal entries unfolded, several interesting events took place:

Red traveling journals

1. Creative Insecurity. The person who started one of the journals has a great deal of art talent. In a class, one of the participants said, “I’m glad I’m not following her.” I didn’t understand, so she explained, “Well, if I saw this great art, I’d feel bad. What could I do that would be as great?” I had never thought of the journaling experience as being competitive, I had thought of each person contributing something new and different, a new perspective. But I’m sure that competitive perspective is not unique.

2. Not enough journals. With four journals, I can’t have a class work on them. If a class has a dozen people, no one will have enough time, and keeping the ones not working on the journal busy will short-change the one who is working on it.

3. Time constraints. Each person keeps the journal about 10 days. Mailing takes about three days. I have people from Australia, Bosnia, the Phillipeans and other countries signed up. The waiting list for one journal is already four months. A long waiting list was one of the problems that people told me about with the plan.

4. Lack of meaning-making in the concept. Circulating the journals is an administrative task that I don’t find compelling or packed with meaning-making.  I have to ask people not to create pages that are too thick to keep the book from closing comfortably. I hate restricting imagination and creativity.

What to do? I asked participants in the creativity incubator, I thought it over, and came up with some great alternatives. If I circulated loose pages, most of the above problems would be solved. If I circulated loose pages to create on while people were waiting for the books, and encouraged people to do both, the resulting creative rush could be exciting and fulfilling.

If I gathered the loose pages and created inventive ways to bind them, well, then, I could also have a creative experience. This sounded like a workable idea. It also changed the art experience to a completely different journaling experience than the one created by Someguy, the person who ran the 1000 Journal project as an art experiment.

Solution that re-tooled the project:

• You can still sign up for the red traveling journals. You sign up for them, and I
  

  Re-purposed book

  manage them, scanning and posting the pages as they come in and sending them out again to the next person on the list. You can see the list of where the books are, and who will have it next here. You can sign up for more than one journal.

• You can also sign up for loose pages. You won’t have to wait for them, because I have them pre-cut and ready to go. You can create FAT pages (layer papers, add photographs, use multi-media techniques) or FLAT pages (writing, drawing, watercolor, thin collage) depending on your style, art, ideas, and imagination. You can use one of the themes from the red traveling journals (travel, dreams,  or Summer in the Sonoran) or make up your own.
• There is only one rule: Because I will use different binding methods, some of which I haven’t invented yet, you will need to leave a half-inch margin all around the edge of each page. You can run color or collage up to the edge, just keep words and important image parts one-half inch aways from the edge.
• The re-purposed book. One idea I have is to re-purpose books. I’ve snagged some books from a future in the landfill. I’ll cut out the pages, leaving a margin. I’ll send you a few pages along with some art paper. You can choose to use some, all, or none of the existing book pages. When you send it back, I’ll re-attach it to the pages I cut out. A re-purposed book!
• Re-inventing the book. Another idea is that I will choose pages that relate to each other and find inventive ways to bind, stitch, rivet, or otherwise attach them to each other. This gives you the joy of creation and it gives me the chance to explore the meaning of “book” and play with the form. Everyone is happy.

I’m excited and eager to see how this adventure unfolds! I plan to continue this program as my main creative work for the foreseeable future, so if you are reading this and wonder if I’m still running the program, ask.

Sign up. You do not have to be able to draw to participate. The only requirement is a hunger to communicate with people from around the world in a culturally interesting project. You can read more about raw art journaling on my website.

You can sign up for the red journals, fat or flat pages, or both by sending me an email: rawartjournals [at] gmail [dot] com. Or use the link at the bottom of the left column or top of the right column on this page.

—Quinn McDonald is an artist, writer and certified creativity coach. She is managing this project our of her own funds and hopes to take the completed books on tour to museums and libraries. You can contribute to the project by using the button at the bottom of the page, here.

Tips to Help You Remember Your Dreams

We all dream, but we often don’t remember them. But catching dreams can help us see repeating patterns, solve problems, grow our creativity and spark our imagination. Writing down our dreams gives us a record and reminds us when symbols and situations repeat. Repeating patterns in dreams are things we need to pay attention to. It’s our own way of making ourselves aware that something needs another, closer look.

Dreamer

How can we help ourselves remember our dreams?

1. When you wake up, don’t jump up, turn on the TV or radio. Stay still. Lie in the position you woke up in.

2. Try to remember any details of dreams you had. Keep your eyes still and let your body experience details or emotions you felt.

3. If you recall some of the dream, give it a descriptive title. Keep it short, something like “Trip to Rome in a Boat,” or “Flying Through the Night Sky.”

4. If you can’t remember any dream, explore the emotion you feel as you wake up. It’s often the leftover emotion from your dreams. Are you happy? Wistful? Angry? Feeling the emotion might bring part of the dream back.

5. Write down the emotion, any dream fragment, or a word that describes how you feel. The shortest pencil is better than the longest memory when it comes to dream. Even dreams that you remember in great detail vanish in about two hours if you don’t make an effort to capture them.

–Image: The Dreamer, colored pencil on Bristol Board, Quinn McDonald

–Quinn McDonald is a certified creativity coach and writer who studies dreams and their power to free us from our self-limiting beliefs and actions. You can find out more about daydreams, too, in 10 Steps to Creative Daydreaming.

(c) 2008 All rights reserved.

Showing Up on TV With Dreams

On this Thursday, July 10, I’ve been invited to appear on Arizona Midday, a show on the local NBC Affiliate. The smart thing would be to watch it once or twice, but I don’t have a television, and I’m working on most days at 1 p.m. when the show runs.

The reason I was invited is that I’m teaching a course at Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe on Dream Journaling. The course came from some research that started as an interest and developed into a keynote speech, “Daydreams, Nightmares and the Power of the Imagination.” I’m a professional speaker, and most speakers choose a topic and specialize. Most smart speakers choose big topics like communication or life/work balance, something they can tailor to many situations.

I chose something I was interested in, something I could feed on intellectually, spiritually and artistically. Something that would change as I learned more, and push in front of me in wonder. Dreams. What they mean, they symbols they bring, how to interpret them. How popular it will be as a speaking topic remains to be seen. Personally, I think more corporations ought to spend time daydreaming (there’s a link at the bottom so you can learn how) because daydreaming and night dreaming are both respect ways to solve problems.

The jar of stars

What I like most is that interpretation is individual. No sense looking up dream symbols in books and curving your thoughts around what your dreams are “supposed” to mean. You don’t get your life explained to you in symbols. Life is not Bingo, where picking the right number lines up a win. Dreams are personal, deep symbols that can be interpreted in different ways. You have to figure it out. You might be wrong, but won’t know it. You might be right, and still not know it. That’s the mystery of symbols. And life.

Back to the TV appearance. It’s a 3 to 5 minute segment, and I have to stuff it full of content. Not only because that’s what I do–as a writer, content is my life–but because I am neither blond, attractive, slender or young enough to have the camera focus on me. I have to bring visuals. It’s hard to bring in a dream.

So now I’m honing down the material to three interesting minutes. What do I focus on? How Hannibal dreamed that the way to attack Rome was to use elephants and bring them across the Alps? That would have been a really hard symbol to accept. How the Hebrew word for “dream” is a homonym for “health”? Should I demo–without practice–how the same symbol could be totally different for different people?

It’s only three minutes, and yet, it is a whole three minutes. Time for a dream to develop.

–Image: “Jar of Stars,” collage by Quinn McDonald

–Read “10 Steps to Creative Daydreaming”

–Quinn McDonald is a certified creativity coach who has never dreamed of being on TV, but is about to do it anyway. See her work at QuinnCreative.com

The Dream and the Dreamer

For years I’ve been interested in dreams. I’ve had recurring dreams, meaningful dreams that I still remember vividly, and dreams that have come true much as I dreamed them. I once dreamed a portion of someone else’s lif and had them verify it.

What’s bothered me about dreams is that they seem personal and meaningful, but dream interpretation seems to be a impersonal, reduced to symbol searches. Many books list the items in dreams and assign them a meaning. You dream of flying, it’s a sign someone is going to die. In another book, flying is sex. (In that book, everything is sex. It doesn’t need to be 300 pages long, one would have been plenty.) [Editor's note: WordPress automatically assigns links to posts based on keywords. Please be careful before clicking on the automatically generated links below this post.]

Another school of thought says that you are everyone in your dream. I’m not sure that works for me, either. Many of the people in my dream are known to me and many unknown that represent an idea or warning for me, but they aren’t me.

I think dreams are far more meaningful, and I don’t believe they are random images your brain fans out because you’ve eaten pepperoni pizza late at night. I believe dreams are a connection to the collective unconscious–the past of your cultural ancestors. I think dreams are a map of our lives, a colorful tapestry of adventures, a guide to the path we have chosen, an illuminated manuscript of both our imagination and our possibilities.

Currently, I’m enrolled in a seminar on dreaming, run by Robert Moss, the originator of active dreaming. Moss believes we can re-enter dreams, either in meditation or in subsequent dreams.

I’m keeping track of all this dreaming for both my dream journaling course and for some workshops on how to wake up to dreams, making them a useful part of your daydreams and waking life.

May 9 update: I had a dream in which I saw a woman who was a potential client in a crowd. She was very blond, almost glowing. The rest of the crowd was very dun-colored, as if a gray wash had been put over the whole scene. She began to bekon to me, but I couldn’t get to her, the crowd was too thick and not moving. [end of dream] I woke up and had this strong urge to email this person. So I did. Two days later she called me and said she had had a job come in, and hadn’t thought of me until she saw my email. I accepted the freelance job. I’m calling this a Quinncidence.

–Image: Dreamer, color pencil, aquarelle pencils on 100-lb. Bristol Board, Quinn McDonald (c) 2008 All rights reserved. This post is also under copyright by Quinn McDonald, who is a workshop developer and leader as well as a certified creativity coach. See her website at QuinnCreative.com