I cannot remember another end of a year that people were so anxious to be done with. But 2017 seems to be a year that most want behind them. At least that's the word on the street that's reached my ears.

So, let's tak' a cup o' kindness yet, and make a good turn of the year.
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I just read* that the words to Auld Lang Syne may be lost any year now so here's a link to its Wikipedia page and another to my fave version, sung by Dougie MacLean*. Now, you've no excuse not to sing and pass it on.

Looks like it'll be a stormy Hogmanay in Scotland this year. I wondered where that word came from and, what do you know, it may be from the Swedish for full and moon.

And it's a full moon! The Wolf Moon shines on the first at 9:24 pm ET.

So, Hagmane!*

Greetings on the Winter Solstice. I encourage you to welcome the light into every aspect of your life. It is only through light that darkness will be kept in check and balanced properly.

I wish you all love and lightness of heart. i wish you safety in the material world and curiosity and openness in your spirit. Be glad that you are alive at such a rare time of the human experience.
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More later. Enjoy your company this holiday season or your solitude. Light a candle for your soul and for us all.

This year, I share with you one of my perennial favorites. Paul Gallico's The Snow Goose.
Light a candle or a fire. Alone or with your family or a friend, click here to listen to the incomparable original recording.

Click and listen. I swear that it's worth every second of your (and your family and friends' time.)

With a special holiday hello from Miss Tallulah, ​and lots of love...

Click here to add your name to the wait list
for early notification about my foundation course and art history practicums starting in January 2018 with special early bird value and bonus.

Or start now with Enter Here.

Practice, practice, practice.

Twyla Tharp composed a popular book on creativity, The Creative Habit. It's a wonderful book that I recommend at a certain point during my Foundation Course in Drawing and Watercolor and also to some creative coaching clients.

One thing, though. From my experience, if creativity is a habit, it's formed by practice. You don't establish any habit right away. You have to practice creating a habit, let's say drawing and watercolor until you rewire your neural pathways so that what you're practicing becomes a habit.

However, my experience is that with any creative practice, you are involved, to a large degree, in discovery. You have to be able to continually tweak what you're practicing, sometimes on a daily basis, in order to expand your abilities and understanding.

In other words, if you establish a particular way (habit) of doing a drawing or watercolor and then discover that you have to change that particular way in order to grow as an artist, you have to un-learn certain habits.

As a different sort of example, let's say you've learned a Mozart piano sonata so thoroughly that it's ingrained in your neural pathways and muscle memory and you can play it "by heart". Then you discover that some of the ornamentation and a couple of notes you've learned are wrong and you have to un-learn and re-learn those parts. That's difficult and requires more practice to change what's become habitual.

Actually, I think that habits in creative work mostly consist of establishing the habit of sitting down to practice. Also, sometimes, establishing parameters like, I will sit down at 4 PM for 30 minutes to practice drawing. So, I don't think that creativity is a habit but the habit of practicing creative work is crucial to creativity.

Seth Godin has been blogging daily for... gosh, I don't know how many years now. His posts are usually short and sweet but highly inspirational and effective. He committed to the habit of writing daily posts and continues to practice daily (for all of our benefit).

Anyone who meditates daily knows that there is the habit of sitting down to meditate and then the practice of actual meditation which can be (and usually is) wildly different during every sitting.

Setting parameters helps with establishing habits that you can practice within. Particular methods designed to lead you step by step through progressive exercises are also extremely helpful. Commitment is vital. Finally,  there's nothing like accountability to keep you honest and on track as you establish your habit of practice.

Practice rules. Habit helps.





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