Lisa Thorpe

Be a Creative Lighthouse

This week has been full, and I mean full in every sense of the word: bursting, occupied, packed, saturated and satiated.  There were so many deadlines and projects, meetings, activities… oh yeah and teaching, that this voluminous, chockablock week had my head spinning and my nights sleepless.  But now that I’m on the other side I am able to sit in satisfied reflection of a week well done. What came to me this morning on my power walk in the woods with my little dog Lucky was the image of a lighthouse, not a lighthouse to show the way but a lighthouse whose gentle gyrating light spins out creativity. A kind of lighting of a creative torch that inspires someone else to light a torch and so on, an Olympic flame of creativity if you will.

I’ll try to explain what I mean by sharing some of the creative beacons from this week. It started with my assignment to put together center pieces for a dinner party held at The Bishop’s Ranch this week to honor staff and board members.  I wanted something autumnal and warm but wasn’t sure what I wanted to do then a caught sight of a creative lighthouse via a blog that I follow by Jane LaFazio (link to her post).  I took her idea and ran with it in my own way making a digital version that I could make many multiples of for the party of 60 plus guests. The photos below show the “grateful” tags I made to hang on the table trees and send home with the guests.  Thanks Jane for passing the creative torch.

Then later in the week I got to be the creative beacon for someone else. I taught my first web seminar though interweave press, and Cloth Paper Scissors magazine.  If you follow my blog you saw the plug for the class a couple of weeks ago.  This was my first time teaching a live online class, I an wasn’t sure what to expect. Who would sign up? Could I share all the information in the time allotted?  etc.  But the class turned out to be wildly successful! I taught how to make the little luminaria pictured at the top and string light covers.  I was told there were 90 people from all over the country who purchased the seminar and over 60 people participated live! The feed back great and there was a lot of enthusiasm out there in the internet airwaves to take this project out and share it with friends and family. I got the wonderful feeling that a lot of little lighthouses lit up and the creative torch was on the move.

The holidays are a wonderful time to let our creative lighthouses glow.  Everything from fun party décor, homespun gifts, creative cards, family recipes shared, jams and cookies given. Like the old song says; This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine… You never know who you will arouse and inspire. I am grateful to all those who inspire me in big and little ways and I am honored to be able to spread a little creative light of my own along the way… Let it Shine!

PS.If you missed the online webinar about making the luminaria above you can down load the class and learn all about it.  I will provide the link in a couple of days when the folks at interweave have it ready and posted on the web.

PPS. The winner of last weeks poll was image A, if you didn’t vote yet feel free to put your vote in the mix.