So, a few years back I wrote a small book called “How To Be An Artist”. Basically, it was a little collection of some of my musing and thoughts on how to build the life that you want around yourself and, if you are so inclined, how to include creativity into that life. I simply thought of it as a small tool that I could provide that might help inspire or entertain individuals that were interested in living artistic lives.

In that little book I introduced the metaphor of the creative ocean and touched on the idea of the artist navigating this vast creative source. So large is this creative landscape that there are infinite destinations that your artistic life can reach if you are brave enough to embark upon a personal journey to find them. Each destination and journey is ultimately unique to the individual, their dreams, and their personal circumstances. However, there are some common characteristics of creative journeys.

One of the common threads that we face as creative beings is the danger of being thrown off course. To set out towards one dream destination only to find that the wind, the tide, and the unexpected storm has knocked you off of your original direction. Now you find yourself disorientated, drifting with big holes in your sails.

Unexpected storms come in many varieties. They can be actual physical shifts in the world around you, wars and financial depressions, the death of loved ones, and yes, global pandemics. They can be very subtle personal storms that crash against you in the form of criticism from family and friends. They can be confusing and tangling storms that distract you with dead end jobs or volatile relationships. They can be deep internal storms that push and pull on you chemically and spiritually drawing you into dark whirlpools of depression or addiction. What storms you face are again unique to you and your journey but there is one sure thing, all of us will face some.

The unexpected storm is, strangely enough, predictable in the sense that I can guarantee that you will face one, if not multiple, while on this creative journey. The “unexpected” will not be that it appeared but in what form and at what time it appeared. So what do you do when the unexpected has shifted the landscape in front of you? What do you do when your perspective on your very existence and your life has spun around 180 degrees leaving you blindsided and disorientated.

Well, breathe. As soon as you are able take in one large deep breath and then another. Your journey has shifted but you are still here, in all your unique and powerful beauty, breathe.

Then, take inventory of what is around and in front of you and reorientate yourself to your new situation. Remember, you are a creative being, and while you may have been pushed off course you still have skills, knowledge, and resources both internal and external that you can tap into. Breathe, and give yourself some space and time to consider your best options.

For me these storms have made me highly aware of how much I value my creative life. I have found strength and resources that have come from pursuing creative projects, skills that I have been able to leverage when I suddenly needed them. My journeys have helped me find friends and colleagues who have provided emotional and career support when I did not know which way to go.

The most powerful knowledge that I have gained from these storms is this: The unexpected storms are going to come anyway, even if I had never pursued a single one of my dreams. While some of these storms may have changed my journey, or made me reevaluate my immediate goals, not a single one of them made me regret setting sail on this creative ocean. If anything, my artistic pursuits have given me hope and happiness when the rest of the world seemed dark. They have helped me develop my inner strength and my confidence so that I can stand up to my fears and face the challenges laid out before me.

So remember, breathe, your course may have changed but your creative power never left you.

Peace,

Terri

I have a thing for Jane Austen.

You might call it a passion. Or maybe an obsession.  It would probably be safe to call it a lifelong infatuation with her writing, her stories, her characters, and everything I have learned from them.

I’ve read every one of them; Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Emma, Northanger Abbey, Mansfield Park, Persuasion. All of them. Some of them (Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility) I have read several times. I have also watched whatever movie and TV miniseries versions of these stories I could over the years. Also several times.

And that doesn’t include the film, Becoming Jane, with none other than Anne Hathaway and Mr. McDreamy himself, James McAvoy. I have seen that movie about the real life drama of Jane Austen many times and, big surprise, I love it!

I love everything about Jane Austen’s work. The time period, the clothing, the men, the women, the social constrictions, the etiquette, the wit, the irony, the sentence structure in her books, the cinematography in the movie versions. Literally everything.

All of that being said, I want to narrow my focus onto the one story that I think is her best known and most beloved, as well as my personal favorite, Pride and Prejudice.

My obsession with Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet began when I was a teenager. I was a voracious reader. When I dove into Pride and Prejudice I was instantly smitten. I read and re-read passages because the words were just too beautiful not to savor. My shy nature was flustered by every nuance of the ins and outs of the strict rules of their society. My adolescent crush on Mr. Darcy, and my realization that her name when they finally got married would be Elizabeth Darcy (my name in reverse!), began then and continues to this day.

In my humble opinion Mr. Darcy is one of the most romantic male lead characters ever written. He’s tall, dark, handsome, rich, misunderstood, and–in the end–works on his own issues to become a better person and, therefore, worthy of the love of his life. Who wouldn’t fall in love with that kind of man?

I started writing romance novels ten years ago, but there was always a part of me that didn’t want to admit how much I enjoyed writing them. I was a modern day woman, after all. Divorced. A filmmaker. Living my best life. Completely removed from the influence or interference of any man whatsoever. The cynical piece of my personality looked down on the romance genre. That is, until I Googled “best romance author” and Jane Austen’s name popped up.

With a single internet search confirming one of the greatest writers in history, and one of my personal favorites, wrote romance, I embraced my path. I had always loved stories about people falling in love. And if it was good enough for Jane Austen then it was good enough for me.

I originally thought this blog post would compare books to movies, movies to miniseries (Colin Firth’s miniseries is the best, Kiera Knightly’s film isn’t bad), but I quickly realized that wasn’t really what I wanted to talk about. Instead, I want to address what I see as the women’s issues that Pride and Prejudice takes on with grace and humor.

To the casual observer, the women in Pride and Prejudice are overly concerned, nay fixated, on finding a man. Not only finding a man, but finding a man with money.

While this is true on the surface, to me the underlying message of the story is how a woman in those times NEEDED to find a man. The five Bennet daughters were completely dependent on men. The fact that they couldn’t have money in their own name, that the estate of their father was going to go to their male cousin rather than one of them, leaving all five sisters and their mother without a penny upon their father’s death, was not just part of the plot, it was the reality of Jane Austen’s world.

And what strikes me whenever I read or watch a Jane Austen story is that this is still a reality in the world of women. Whether we live in places where women are second class citizens without the same rights as men, or we were raised by women–who were raised by women–who were raised by women–who lived in a world where finding a good man was your best, sometimes only, way to security and happiness, I think that in a way each of us are one of the Bennet sisters. And we feel very deeply the vulnerability, the desperation, and the drama of their predicament.

In her own way I believe Jane Austen vanquished that great inequality when Elizabeth Bennet won the man and the money while never caving in to society’s pressure to sell herself to the highest bidder. In the end Elizabeth gets the ending she deserves–the ending we all deserve–security, happiness and love on our terms.

I don’t proclaim to write stories anywhere near the caliber of Jane Austen. Nor will I ever have that level of talent. I do, however, try to make the heroines of my romantic tales the kind of women that Elizabeth Bennet might like if they were ever to meet. And I will forever be grateful for the example Jane Austen set for those of us who love stories about falling in love.

-Darci

Most of the books I “read” these days are actually books that I listen to while I’m driving. Listening to audio books provides the added pleasure of experiencing the interpretation of the story by the actor who is narrating and creating unique voices for each character. Perhaps that’s why I enjoy listening to books so much. It is often the actor’s interpretation and the author’s words combined, which create a truly engrossing experience.

And so it was for me with Terry Hayes’ novel “I Am Pilgrim”, Christopher Ragland narrating.

As thrillers go, it was pretty thrilling. At one point I had to turn the sound down so I could barely hear what was happening, which is akin to covering your eyes during the scary parts of a movie and peeking at the action through your fingers.

The novel follows a terrorist and an intelligence officer. Two men on opposite sides of everything. Brilliant men pitted by fate against one another in a race against time. Bioterrorism, brutal murders, astounding details of societies, politics, science, forensics, everything to keep you flipping pages (or hurriedly changing out rented library CD’s while waiting at a stoplight) until the bitter end.

I was impressed by the sheer scope of knowledge and understanding of societies, religions, psychology, and politics that the author used to create this story. Truly impressed. In fact, his grasp of these topics, which spanned time, cultures, and nations, gave me an overall sense of hope–hope that there may actually be remarkably intelligent people in the world–hope that maybe we aren’t driving 100 miles an hour down a one way highway towards inevitable destruction.

The two main characters were simultaneously sympathetic and repulsive. Men who had loved, lost, and killed. Influenced from birth, motivated by what they believed was right, destined for success and for destruction.

The idea that we’re all full of endless potential and epic failure, capable of both great and horrific deeds, flawed in our thinking while at the same time inspired by the highest of powers, was what I got from this book. Not what I was expecting.

Utterly worth the read…or listen, as it were.

-Darci

Recently I was reminded of one of my favorite poets, Joy Harjo, when I read an article about her becoming the 1^st Native American U.S. Poet Laureate. It brought me great comfort to learn this for it felt as if this news was telling me that the heart of our country was still beating.

When I was a child I was drawn to poetry and was given the opportunity to meet Joy Harjo while attending a poetry workshop. My memory of her was that of a calming and authentic soul who read her poetry with gentle rhythm.

I carried the well-worn signed copy of her poetry book entitled “She Had Some Horses” with me throughout my life. Always finding a comforting truth in its pages at every stage of my existence, from childhood up until yesterday. Even when life was harsh, there was poetry, and a healing in melodic words that connect us back together.

She Had Some Horses by Joy Harjo

Peace.

Terri