insights

Are you living your life in vivid color or do some days feel like different shades of brown?

Lucky for us, my friend Nancy, who is a gifted and talented writer, offers insights and musings about living a vivid life on her blog, Vivid Living (http://nancysharp.net/vividliving/). After I read it, I often realize something that adds color to my world.

Her attitude and her writings are beautiful and stirring because her philosophy is “what happens to us in life matters, but in my view, how we choose to live matters more.”

Six years ago, Nancy’s husband, Brett, died in her arms at Calvary Hospice in Bronx, New York – he had a brain tumor that finally felled him nearly seven years after he was diagnosed in 1998. At the time, I think her twins were around two years old.

A few months later, with courage and twins in tow, she moved to Denver. When I met her, it was as if I had known her before. One falls into easy conversation with Nancy. I’m not sure if it is her warm smile and the way she looks you in the eyes when you’re talking or the life experience she brings to bear on a casual chat by the pool. One thing is certain; she has come to teach us how to live mindFULLY.

Now she has created a new life in Colorado and is re- married to a darling man she met by reaching out her hand and holding up her heart. How they met is a great story, in and of itself, and you can find it on her blog: http://nancysharp.net/vividliving/. Her story is like a rose. It has bloomed, thorns and all. And the color is so vivid.

I know you are busy. However, I encourage you to carve out a ½ hour and treat your heart to reading a few of Nancy’s entries. Money-back guarantee – you’ll be the better for it.

What are some ways that help you live MindFULLY and vividly? Let us know!

Welcome to my blog, The MindFULL Creative! The idea for this blog came from wanting to share years of accumulated information I have gathered (tips, insights, personal musings and awesome folks doing wonderful work, etc.) and to have a place for you to share with me. We have to share. The news is unsettling. However, finding new ways of living can become a creative challenge.

For example, last Winter I heard Jean Chatsky speak and she helped me re-frame my spending habits. Jean said, “It’s not about feeling deprived, it’s about re-framing how you are saving — save ‘towards‘ what you want.” Now, I pass on buying another pair of black shoes and think of how I am saving towards a beach house. It was so helpful and led me to realize how my mind is so FULL of inspirational stories and creative ideas I have heard through the years, as well as how I try and use what I’ve learned to be more mind-fully creative. It’s a way of navigating a new world and a new way of thinking.

I’m hoping The MindFULL Creative will become a space where we can share what we discover along the way. Perhaps you have a recipe that everyone asks you to bring when you’re on deck for dessert. Maybe you read a book, found a website or heard a song that shifted the way you saw things – or simply loved. Maybe some of you have ideas on how we can shop our own closets and recycle what we have into new and creative uses (stay tuned for a future entry on my jewelry swapping party!). My hope is that, together, we’ll find new ways of understanding who we are and have fun finding out what’s going on — and that we will be the better for having been here.

Please send me what you’ve learned. Share your tips and insights. Pass on stories and websites of folks doing something that makes you smile. Together we can circumvent the bad news, and focus on filling our minds with information, tips and ideas that make us the better for being and at the same time, becoming mind-FULLy creative.

Many thanks to my MindFULLY Creative friend, Tamara, who inspired me to create this site. YOU ROCK!