Nothing outside of you can replace your unique and creative human spirit.

Especially when you care for it, feed it, and give it room to play, your creative spirit will reward you time and time again with a deepening knowing, trust, and certainty. One of the things I’ve learned from being an artist is that I can trust that I’ll find my way to the next steps or an answer in my creative process, because even in the darkest of times I’ve done so before. I know that if I show up, I’ll get there eventually.

When you give yourself the freedom to be exactly who you are, you have space.

When you allow yourself to take up space without having to explain yourself to anyone else, you have enough room to breathe and to be. You have the right to exist, and you know why you’re here.

You are here to learn who you are. This isn't anyone else's job, only you can do it. You have permission to make your own decisions without waiting for approval from anyone else, when you choose to be yourself.

You may not realize what a gift you are, simply for existing and being yourself.

Nobody else has ever been just like you. The exact combination of stuff that is you, is one of a kind. Because of this, you don’t really have any competition, and you don’t ever have to be anything but you. Your spirit is unique in all of time, and nobody else can replace you.

The best part of this is that you get to decide how and who you want to be. Sometimes, because of this uniqueness, you may feel invalidated.

Did you ever share a deep secret longing with someone who judged you for wanting the very thing you wanted?

You couldn’t wait to share this new idea with your friend, and expected that she would listen to you happily and embrace your new vision for your life.

You thought she’d be excited for you when you told her you’d decided to travel the world, or become an astronaut, or make a living doing your art.

You’d expected that your friend would embrace and support your dream, as you would embrace hers.

Miss Havisham is a character in Charles Dickens’ ‘Great Expectations’, famous for being jilted by her groom-to-be on their wedding day.

Havisham receives a telegram at 8:40am on the day in question, letting her know that her betrothed will not marry her. What does Havisham do after this rude rejection? She decides to stop time in that precise moment, 8:40am.

She chooses to continue to experience the humiliation of being left on her wedding day.

It’s that time again. You’d think I’d be used to this by now, but I’m still hitting that old familiar resistance.

Big time change is here, again, and though I’m welcoming this one, it’s a bit nerve wracking. I know that if I allow myself to roll with it, it will get easier. Still, part of me is fighting letting go of the old identity I’ve been hauling around.

The transformation is here to give me more space and freedom to be exactly who I am. The demands I’ve placed upon myself to make sense and be responsible, are falling away. Yet part of me resists.