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Hello! I know… It’s been awhile since I’ve been here. I’m going to be honest and tell you that life got in the way. Family, work, travel and moving…yes, moving! All of it has consumed my attention and writing (here and everywhere else) has taken a backseat to it. However, my skin is stretched tight and my heart is bursting with things to say. A creative girl can only hold her creativity back for so long or physically combust. Creating, whether it be through music or writing, is an important part of me. When I ignore it for too long, the beast that lurks under my skin tends to break out in several ways-moodiness, ugly heart, sleeplessness (notice it’s 1am here right now), easily annoyed, ALL OF IT. It all rears it’s ugly head and makes me a complete and utter joy to be around. Please tell me I am not alone in this??
Last week, I was traveling for work in Hawaii. This trip was obviously a hard gig… 😉 It was an amazing trip filled with bookish people, fantastic friends, and unrivaled beauty and experiences. I had some time while there (and on the 6 hour flights) to get still and listen to my heart. You know when you get quiet, you hear your heart’s words so much louder, right? Most of us probably don’t do it quite as often as we should. I know I don’t. What I realize when I do get to be still and revel in the quiet is that there are secret thoughts, wants, desires, words clawing to be heard and swirling throughout me. What I usually find is all of the parts that make up me-even those parts that I rarely let others see for a myriad of reasons.
One of the topics I pondered over and over last week was the topic of art becoming a business. Because this has always been a part of my life in some aspect or another, it’s a topic that I find fascinating. It’s also something that can be excruciating and thrilling simultaneously for the artist. I see it every day in my business life as I talk to authors. I lived it as a professional musician. Creating your artform can be filled with lonely moments, and then you throw it out into the public opening yourself up to criticism and praise, making yourself vulnerable to people you’ve never met and others you have. It can be exhilirating and scary as hell. I get it.
In the midst of these quiet moments, an idea formed… I tease and call myself #MamaKP. Some of the authors I work with tease me back with that label. And I truly love it. One of my greatest joys is getting to walk through life with others and encourage and help. So why not tackle the ins and outs of life and art as business together? Couldn’t we do that and grow and flourish, dissect and purge, create and rejoice, and everything else together right here? I mean, I have this crazy blog that I do little with. I love to write. And I *think* I have thoughts on this topic that might be able to help others.
So, I’m biting the bullet and creating Mama KP Mondays. Honestly, I’m scared to death about this. Mostly because I’m disciplined in every aspect of my life except a few: sleeping, eating, exercising and blogging. Might as well start being real with you right now, huh? I had thoughts last week on this too but that’s for another day.
I hope you will join me as we dive in to this topic of business and art, chasing dreams and the ups and downs of it all together. I’m not going to lie-there will be some hard moments if we’re going to be honest and get down-and-dirty and real together. But if you know me at all, then you know that’s exactly how I like things. So jump in with me… We can do this together. Next week, we tackle our first topic…
Staring Up,
KP