The Creative Sanctuary

Designing Spaces to Safeguard Your Creative Spirit

In this issue:

• A Letter from Shelley

• March art

• March Pappus: The Creative Sanctuary

• Writing Prompt

• Writing News

• Publishing Industry News

• Living in Guam

Letter from Shelley

Dear Loyal Reader:

Welcome to all the new subscribers this month! I’m so happy that people are finding Pink Dandelions and giving it a try. Finding your readers is one of the harder parts of the writing life. With everyone and everything clamoring for our attention, it’s difficult to pick and choose who to support/follow.

I am extremely grateful to each and every one of you who gifts me with your attention. My sincerest hope is that I can give something of value in return each and every month. I can’t produce an actual book every month, but I can share with you my thoughts on nurturing your own creative life, no matter what form your creativity takes.

Even if you don’t believe you are creative, you are, I promise you. Creativity comes in countless forms: cooking, gardening, decorating…I know people who have turned housekeeping into an art form! Building an exercise program for yourself or starting a small, home-based business? Creative. Figuring out how to use a tool in a unique way to solve a problem? Creative. Writing a thoughtful note to a friend or relative? Creative.

Creativity is anything that uses human ingenuity to make the world a little less chaotic, a little more beautiful, a little safer for the people in it.

This month I’m going to give you a STORY writing prompt rather than a journal prompt. Someone asked me to give writing prompts, so I’m going to try that for awhile. Next month I’ll share a flash fiction based on the prompt: my own or one of yours! Send me your stories.

Maybe there’s another way we can share some of our stories? Would anyone be interested if I started a Dandies chat group where we could share our stories/poems/essays or just chat about living a creative life? If you’d be interested in this, drop me a note.

Finally, happy spring! Here in Guam, the weather stays pretty much the same every week. Tropical. Hot. Showers now and again. But I know my friends in the northern hemisphere are probably happy to see the snow melt and the daffodils bloom. Spring is a time of rebirth, re-energizing, and new beginnings. (For my southern hemisphere friends, it’s fall cozy time. Snuggle in. Rest. Cozy up with some projects and good books.)

Enjoy the March pappus about designating a creative sanctuary.

Cheers!

Shelley

March Art

This month’s art is inspired by spring flowers. I’ve always loved pink apple blossoms. I saw this dress and coat in a 1960s photo and decided to see if I could capture its essence. I messed up the eyes on the chic model, so voila! Sunglasses.

It’s okay to make mistakes.

If you have some art you’d like to share, send it along. I’d be happy to share with my readers.

March Pappus

A pappus is the seed fluff drifting on a current of air, carrying the seed to fertile soil in which in can germinate. I hope these ideas help you in your nurturing of your own creative life.

The Creative Sanctuary: Designing spaces to safeguard your creative spirit

Sanctuary. The word brings to mind strong walls, safety, respite, care, defense against violence, a lighted space in the darkness, an oasis in a desert, a fortress in the wilderness, a sturdy roof and closed shutters in the face of a hurricane.

We all experience turbulence in our lives. Sometimes the chaos revolves around external forces, other times from personal challenges or changes. Even success can be disruptive to peace of mind.

I’ve written before about attention, how we create our reality from the things on which we focus. See Pink Dandelions, August 24, 2024

https://shelleyburbank.substack.com/p/vivaldi-crows-and-a-greek-philosopher

The other side of this attention coin is the concept of “paying” attention. We are literally paying companies, people, industries, media, authors, newsletter writers, etc. WITH our attention. Our attention has always been valuable, of course, but increasingly in our information age, it is actually being capitalized. Companies make money when we spend our time and attention on their platforms.

We are symbiotically involved in this attention economy. We give businesses our attention, we take what they offer in return, and with those materials we create our lives.

Your Life as Metaphorical Castle

Imagine, for a moment, your life as a castle. What rooms have you built and furnished in there? Is there a news room decorated with politics, talking heads, slogans, and symbols painted in red or blue or green–created from the podcasts, tv programs, books, newsletters, and social media accounts you follow? How about a room, probably the kitchen, for your favorite recipes, celebrity chefs, cookbooks, gadgets you salivate over online, diet blogs, and social media foodie groups? There might be a library made up of your Goodreads list. An art room with artist YouTube videos. A music room comprised of Spotify downloads. A screening room for Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Max, Hulu, and Tubi. Your health and fitness room furnished with yet more videos plus gym memberships, magazine articles, and gurus yammering at you while selling their supplements, powders, fitness programs, and promises.

We’ve each built these castles from materials available to us 24/7, and if you are like me, you find yourself wandering around from one room to the other, sometimes aimlessly and sometimes with purpose. Each room pulls us in, claiming our attention. As time passes, the rooms become more crowded and more noisy. You feel your energy draining away. You long for escape, but where can you go? You’ve spent a ton of psychological energy creating these spaces, and to a greater or lesser extent they serve you, but you are feeling overwhelmed by it all and need rest.

You need a Creative Sanctuary.

The Creative Sanctuary can be both metaphorical/imaginative and physical. Why not consider creating both?

Physical Indoor Space

In your actual physical home, you might have a room or a corner of a room (or even your entire house) that can be designated your safe haven. This space is cozy, comforting, and full of things that spark and nourish your creativity. Most important, within this space you feel calm and protected from the chaos and demands of the outside world. Here are some ideas for designing a creative corner in your home.

• Declutter. A cluttered and disorganized space can distract us, make us feel tense and irritable, not to mention frustrated when we misplace items. An organized space relieves anxiety and helps us feel more in control of our lives.

• Meaningful objects. For some, simplicity feels soothing. Eliminating all but a few objects, plants, and colors creates a Zen vibe. For others, vibrant colors and multiple pieces of art and objets feel cozy, warm, and inspiring. It’s totally up to you! Decorate with what is useful and/or beautiful and/or meaningful in your Creative Sanctuary. Keep in mind that the more items you have, the harder you’ll have to work on maintaining order, but that is often worth it if the mementos and objects add to your sense of purpose and meaning.

• Light. Natural light in the morning is uplifting. If you spend time in your Creative Sanctuary in the morning, open your blinds and curtains and let the light pour in. Or go outside! According to many experts, going outside for at least 15 minutes and exposing your skin to UV rays increases Vitamin D. Candlelight or firelight flickering in the evening makes us feel safe, warm, and peaceful. Even if the bathroom is the only place in your home where you can find alone time, drawing a bath and lighting scented candles to place around the bathtub can be wonderfully relaxing.

• Scents. Scented oils, reed diffusers, scented candles, bath bubbles, fresh flowers, perfumes–scent is one of the most evocative of our senses, recalling memories and setting off reactions in our brains. The sense of smell is linked to our limbic system which is the emotional center of our brain. (See Note 1). Lavender, patchouli, citrus, vanilla, and eucalyptus can encourage calm and healing and focus. Learning about aromatherapy is fascinating. (Next month I’ll share some fun news about a friend’s new essential oil microbusiness for literary lovers here in our midst. Stay tuned!)

• Music. Your Creative Sanctuary might include your favorite music. I like to listen to classical music in the morning while I’m drinking my coffee and reading a book. I think it’s important to keep outside noise to a minimum unless it’s something natural like birdsong, ocean waves crashing, wind in the limbs of the trees, etc. Perhaps an ambient noise machine would be something to consider if you are in a busy city environment or have a house full of people.

• Comfortable furnishings. A squishy reading chair. A pretty writing desk. Soft rugs underfoot. Throw blankets. Pillows. For the bath, an inflatable neck pillow and fluffy towels. Artwork that soothes and/or inspires on the walls for contemplation. Plants that provide a touch of nature indoors as well as natural air filtration. And don’t forget to invite your cuddly pet. (What’s more comforting than snuggling up with your fur baby?)

• Creative tools. For some people, a creative sanctuary is the place to actually create art rather than meditate or read or doze. If that’s you, make sure you have your tools in place and that they bring you joy rather than pressure or frustration. (Having a laptop or printer that doesn’t work or dried out markers or brushes isn’t soothing!) Remember this space is your sanctuary. This is where you come to escape the pressure and instead play, create, and connect with your inner self.

Physical Outdoor Space

You might find a place outside in nature, as well. For instance, one of my sanctuaries is my favorite beach in Maine. This is a summer haven. In the late fall, winter, and spring, I can only dream of my Maine mornings spent with toes in the sand, coffee steaming in my travel mug, sunlight dancing on the water, a book in my L.L. Bean bag, and classical music streaming through my phone. Walking from my car toward the beach, I without fail feel an incredible sense of peace and calm drape over my entire being. It’s quite magical.

Maybe your idea of a creative sanctuary is hiking or walking in nature. Or snorkeling. Or snowboarding down a mountain. Spending time in nature is a wonderful way to disconnect from the media chatter, to remind ourselves that we are part of the natural world–not some bits and bytes in the metaverse but rather physical, natural beings made up of the same stuff as the plants and soil and other animals around us. Leave your phone in your pocket when you walk or hike. Do not listen to a podcast or catch up on the news. Use the walk as a meditative practice. Notice what is around you. Let your mind relax.

As part of their experiments in reducing their time online, Offline podcasters Jon Favreau and Max Fisher both found taking a walk for twenty minutes without their phones helped them feel more relaxed and happy. From the episode transcript: “I still had the same like assessment of what was happening in the world and why it was bad, but I just felt more equipped to face it. And the real benefit that I found was that on days where I took a walk at the end of the day and then after that like put my phone away, I was just like, I felt better all night. If I was with friends, I was much more present and much more like enjoying the time with them, much more effectively. And then I slept better…” (See Note 2)

Depending on your climate, you could even make an outdoor Creative Sanctuary space at your home. A man cave. A she shed. A wonderful screened porch with comfortable rocking chairs and a writing table. A patio with a firepit. If you live on the lake or ocean, a dock jutting out into the water or even your docked boat as a floating outdoor space. A favorite spot beside a brook or beneath a favorite tree. A gazebo in your garden. Find the place that resonates with you and set it up in a way that adds to the peaceful, the contemplative, the joyful.

Mental Creative Sanctuary

It’s also important to give yourself a safe space in your mind away from the distractions of the news cycle, opinion pieces, newsletters (yes, even this one), and what I call “coulda-shoulda” squawking online or in physical books, magazines, or conversations. Others’ voices telling us what to do, what to feel, what to think.

You can create a mental Creative Sanctuary by giving yourself time every day disconnected from anything that creates stress, guilt, or pressure. In your imaginary castle, this room would be free of anything screechy, preachy, pushy, loud, overly intrusive, demanding, ranting, wheedling, cajoling, begging, guilt-inducing, blood-pressure raising, exciting, divisive, partisan, or sarcastic. Maybe your mental sanctuary is your meditation time. Or it could be when you are exercising, walking, cooking, sewing, painting, or writing. It’s the time you disconnect from the outside world and commune, instead, with yourself.

Perhaps your mental Creative Sanctuary is found within a good book, or an uplifting show, or in the lyrics and melody of good music. The important and defining aspect of this space is that it feels safe, warm, nurturing, and restorative. It’s expansive. It nourishes rather than drains. You feel fuller, not depleted, after spending time in this mental space.

You can, of course, be in both the physical and mental Creative Sanctuary at the same time, but I think it’s pretty cool if you can make your way to the mental safe space anytime, anywhere you need to simply by tuning out the noise and clamour of the world.

I hope these musings give you some inspiration for creating your own Creative Sanctuary–a place to revive, rest, and reconnect with your creativity, joy, and inner self.

—-

Notes

1. https://www.maison21g.com/articles/how-fragrances-affect-your-mood-understanding-the-power-of-scents

2. https://crooked.com/podcast/what-post-democracy-america-looks-like/

Writing Prompt

“It was the last place she expected to find a butterfly.”

Write a flash fiction, flash essay/memoir or poem based on the sentence above. You can use the sentence as it is or not. It’s up to you. Genre is up to you. Give me a horror story about a butterfly, and I will give bonus points! (Um, there are no points, but you know what I mean.)

Send me your story by replying to this email if you would like some feedback and maybe a chance at publication in an upcoming newsletter.

My Writing News

I’m still struggling with my Strawberry Moon story. I’m sorry to not have better news on that one. It’s been tough this month, I’ll be honest. But I have done some work on it and figure it will be done when it’s done.

Meanwhile, the lovely author Donis Casey, who is a fellow Type M for Murder blogger, invited me to be her Tell Me Your Story guest this month. I’m so honored! For this piece I decided to go back to the beginnings of my writing journey, and I tell about my years of playing with Barbie and other fashion dolls and how this prompted me to write one of my first fiction stories. You can read it at DonisCasey.com

I’m still writing on the Type M for Murder blog every other Friday. In fact, I have a piece due today, so I’ll be heading there next. The last one was on a geeky writing craft topic. You may or may not be interesting in seeing how the sausage is made. If so go to Frame It Up where I talk in detail about Strawberry Moon and my ideas about a frame story structure.

I’m also researching for another project I’ve had in mind for a couple of years. It has to do with JFK conspiracy theories, so it was interesting that a bunch of documents were released this week. I may have missed my window for getting an edge. Originally I planned to write a series of novellas with the JFK story as a through-line. I’m not rethinking if I can make it a standalone novel.

If anyone has any ideas on resources about women’s lives in the late 1950s and the 1960s, let me know. That time period feels just out of reach for me. I’d LOVE to interview women who were in their early adulthood at that time. If you or someone you know might be interested in talking with me for background research purposes, let me know! Especially nurses or lawyers but really anyone who could tell me some challenges that women faced in those years.

Publishing Industry News

The big news this week is that the Atlantic has created a searchable database of all the books and articles Meta used to train it’s AI without author permission or compensation. My FB feed was full of posts this morning from authors talking about how their books were included. So of course I had to look up my name. Sure enough, Meta used NIGHT MOVES, my second Olivia Lively mystery.

I would have been crushed if they hadn’t! To have been left out/not deemed important enough to steal from would have been devastating! Haha, but also, true.

My thoughts on this are two-fold.

One, we should all consider ditching the socials. They are bad for us and bad for society. I’ll point out that while authors are screaming about this, they use Meta for free promotion and readership building and connection. It’s kind of a two-way street.

Two, we could consider ditching the entire ebook enterprise. Ebooks make it very easy for pirating sites (which is where Meta gained access to all this content) to steal and reproduce books. The industry has known about these sites for a long time, but as soon as one gets taken down, another springs up.

The way I look at it is this: people who buy or read for free on piracy sites are not the people who would buy the book otherwise. They simply would find different free content. In other words, piracy sites aren’t really impacting our sales.

However, it’s annoying and illegal. If we want to stop this, we could simply not publish digital content.

Like that’s gonna happen.

I’ve just added this publishing section for insider scoops for you, my dear Dandies. Readers may or may not be interested in the business side of writing, but for those who are, I hope you find this sort of tidbit interesting.

Guam News

Earrings from the Guam market; the pavilions at the Chamorro Village Night Market; bbq in Guam

Our household goods arrived, and we are all unpacked and settled! I am so happy to have my cooking stuff plus my office set up. It feels more like home. Actually, it feels like we took our San Diego apartment, picked it up, and set it down in this condo.

If you are zooming with us, you wouldn’t know the difference.

C and I headed to the Chamorro Village market on Wednesday to pick up some earrings we’d accidentally left behind at the shop. Here is one pair I’m wearing today with my Limerick, Maine tee! The cement pavilions at the village provide space for vendors of all kinds from jewelry to local food products to games. The place gets very crowded every Wednesday evening.

Lines for BBQ grow long. Vendors stand behind warming dishes full of delicious local favorites. Meats are pork, chicken, and beef. Chicken kaleguen which is like a chicken salad without the mayo. Red rice. Rice noodles. Corn. Spring rolls. I saw a fried banana roll that I will have to try. Many different types of fruit-based drinks.

The fiesta plates are $14 or so and come with two scoops of rice, three sides, and bbq. I had more than enough for dinner and leftovers for lunch the next day.

Last night we went back to Tumon Bay to our favorite pizza shop, Primo Pizzakaya. We chose a red-sauce pie with pineapple, onion, and jalapeno peppers, bacon, and guava. Yum! We ate in the bar, which looks like a library. Drinks are named for books like Memoirs of a Geisha, Moby Dick, and Little Fires Everywhere. I’m not drinking booze these days, so I contented myself with a Pelligrino with lime. Check out the menu if you are interested. MENU

For more frequent updates on all things Guam and writing, I keep a writing journal and post several times a week on ShelleyBurbank.com.

Happy March and Happy Spring!