Learning from our Younger Selves

Celebrating and sharing inspiration from Melynne Rust's new book...

My friend and writing group member, Melynne Rust published her new book this week. The title is The Things That Saved Me: Breathing New Light Into Our Stories.

I am honored to have my artwork on the cover of her book. I have also had the joy of traveling with Melynne for the past few years as she was writing the book, reviewing and sharing her stories, and revisiting her past. I am encouraged and inspired by her courage, her convictions, and her clarity. While Melynne’s book began with looking at challenges in her life and what helped her overcome them, the book does not center on the challenges but on the strengths she found through her experiences.

In a newsletter titled, “My Younger Selves,” Melynne introduces her book and photos that go with some of the stories. She describes noticing how many authors write to their younger selves to speak to the past and offer reassurance and encouragement. Instead, Melynne found herself listening to her past selves and learning from their wisdom. Revisiting her stories helped her rediscover her courageous creative self.

You can learn more about Melynne’s book and links to purchase on her website.

It felt serendipitous to get a glimpse of my younger selves this week as I am celebrating my friend’s book release on the same topic.

This week I rewatched a short documentary about the studio I led. It was filmed at Art at the Center in 2009. It felt like a time machine, a little gift of getting to go back and see how much the ideas I wanted to share through the studio are not unlike the ideas I write about in my book. The format for sharing has changed but the ideas remain very similar.

I also returned to my earliest notes when I was beginning to work on this project. I didn’t yet have the structure for my manuscript, but the ideas were there. And it’s interesting to see how I arranged these early webs of notes in a color wheel too.

I am thankful for the reminder of the way creativity has been traveling with me consistently in different work and settings.

Part of my book proposal was to find comparative titles. As I researched books on creativity, I noticed some themes emerge in the structure and topics of books and authors’ experiences. Some books write about creativity as a battle with resistance or with the inner critic. Others emphasize blocks to creativity and how to move beyond these. Books in this category emphasize the struggle of creative work, the need to beat the resistance and overcome critical voices.

It was interesting to notice this theme and think about it in relation to my writing and experience. In my teaching in schools and community settings, I find it is less about a struggle or conflict and more about creating space and issuing an invitation.

At Art at the Center, this happened through our classes that held space and provided peers, time, and materials for people to engage with creativity. Practically, it happened in small acts like setting the table and offering opportunities to share and display works in progress.

I hope to bring this same sense of invitation and welcome to readers through my manuscript. We cultivate connections by spending time with creativity. It is a playful process. As I wrote about in January, my practice this year of Greetings and Welcome is to help others see and welcome the way creativity is part of their lives.

My book proposal is now with an editor for feedback and reviews. She will send it back to me in early March. Thank you to everyone who offered suggestions for places to share this work and for your stories of finding your way to this newsletter community. I am grateful you are here.

With a grateful heart,

Kathryn