My latest feature article for Muses & Visionaries Magazine‘s entitled “Turning Over the Tapestry” provided me with unexpected lessons in tenacity, courage and passion. Though I was very pleased with the outcome (pages 116-121), my own journey through the writing of it was filled with many unexpected challenges.

Breathe

I was thrilled to have this environmentally conscious assignment for my favorite women’s magazine and couldn’t wait to begin. Yet despite a fabulous start, things began to plummet the more I poured myself into how the article might be received instead of simply letting the work flow through me. By getting too wrapped up in the final result, I nearly missed the joyful artistry of the creative process.

What transpired was my first case of writer’s block. It was horrible, but thanks to threads of wisdom left by other incredibly talented women writers, I finally found a pathway through it.

After many sleepless nights, I turned back to the well-worn pages of The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron the very day before my deadline. I used my Morning Pages Journal in a final attempt to write out the issues key to my block.

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Through these simple disciplines of journaling and prayer, I was led back to a quote I’d read days earlier in another of my favorite books called Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy by Sarah Ban Breathnach:

“It was as if I had worked for years on the wrong side of a tapestry, learning accurately all its lines and figures, yet always missing its color and sheen.” – Journalist Anna Louise Strong (1935)

The quote was presented within the context of that profound moment when we finally come to the awareness that “creating a beautiful life is our deepest calling.” By reading those specific words at that precise moment of divine synchronicity, I was propelled into a familiar, sacred space of understanding once again: Writing is my beautiful life.

Within minutes, I’d written a brand-new intro with an accompanying title I loved that paid homage to a strong female journalist while capturing the true heart of my own article’s theme. I typed, “Just as the underside of a tapestry with its many knots and ties is vital to the finished piece, we can begin to appreciate the interconnectivity of every thread of our own textiles when we realize they each have a unique story to reveal.”

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Although that sentence didn’t make the final (beautiful!) version of the article (Read it here: Issue 3- Eco Friendly Textiles), I knew my charge was to simply write and release those specific words.

And at some appropriate time, perhaps they might even be spun, pieced and quilted into a little story all their own.

turning over a title