I recently read a social media post about how the desire to create, or a return to creativity, is a sign of healing.1 This has been true for me. And I’ll add that creativity is not just an indicator of healing, it’s an active ingredient in the healing process.
Even though I’ve been traditionally creative since I could finger paint and write stories, my life went through a period of burying my creativity in the face of rejection and in the name of more “sensible” pursuits—that was before traumatic losses swept through my life and nearly buried all parts of me. In the aftermath of suffering, I’ve lost myself, hated myself, and fought with God over living a life in which my nightmares became my realities. I’ve lived covered by the dark shadow of hopelessness that drains the color out of the world.
Contrary to the trending advice on social media, micro-joys didn’t help me through macro-grief. I had to endure a season of dormancy, rest, and deep gentleness. I had to slow life to a micro-pace to survive the moments and days before any size joy could fully enter my body again.
When my physical and spiritual energy returned, the first acts that helped me survive grief and return to my body, to life, and to joy? Creative ones.
It was watching the black ink run from the tip of my pen onto a previously crisp white page that showed me something about hope. Where there had been nothing, I discovered I had the power to create something new. Creativity reminded me that I could find new possiblities where there had previously been none. What wonder, what joy, and what a rebirth of hope.
Returning to my creativity has felt like a resurrection. And every day, as I journey through this terrible, beautiful life, it offers mini-resurrections.
For the month of May, I’ve been journaling every day for my mental health and sharing the journey through a series of Instagram reels. I recently wrote, “Journaling helps when I feel any sort of stuck. Sometimes the very act of moving my pen across the page is an act of moving forward.”
Whether I’m penning prose across pages of my notebooks and journals or, for me, returning to art through my oil pastels, creativity continues to bring me back to life, to myself, to God.
Creativity has become a process of co-creating Hope.
Even now, as wounds fade to scars or when new ones appear, creativity remains an essential, life-giving practice. An inspired, creative life truly feels like breath for my body and spirit. And without creative practices, well, I can feel like I’m suffocating.
Maybe your experiences haven’t been as extreme, but maybe there’s something here that resonates. I think there’s a call to create in all of us. Do you hear it?
What might that call to create look like for you this summer?
Summer has a reputation for spaciousness, good vibes, energy, and fun—and maybe that’s often the case for you, but it doesn’t always live up to those expectations. One of my favorite artists, Georgia O’Keeffe, wrote in a letter to a fellow painter, “I have done nothing all summer but wait for myself to be myself again.” I reshare this quote nearly every summer/fall. I’d love to feel like myself during the summer, but so often I don’t.
As a stay-at-home mom turned work-from-home mom, I tend to wrestle with creativity and motherhood more in the summer months than at any other time of year. I’ve spent the majority of my summers setting aside my creativity, sacrificing it, for the sake of being present with my kids, but really, it’s become a form of self-abandonment.2 I’ve come to learn that I don’t have to sacrifice one for the other. But, to be honest, I’m still learning how to be both without experiencing a PTSD-induced panic attack.
Maybe you don’t have those issues like me. But as I’m in conversations with others, I hear us all wondering about similar things out loud—holding a similar tension: a desire to create but a pull to put it off over the summer.
If creativity can be so healing and nourishing for us all, how can our creative life fit into our real life this summer? Can I encourage us to be flexible, think creatively, and not abandon our creative practices entirely over the summer?
How will you tend to your creative life this summer? What sounds fun, inspiring, life-giving—and possible for you? What creative seeds might you plant?
Maybe we can start simple—with a good book.3
Here’s your creative challenge from me:
At a minimum, plan to read one book about the creative life this summer. Let its words plant seeds of inspiration, ideas, and sustenance for your soul. Choose a title or premise that inspires you to (re)connect with yourself and come alive in your life. Let it offer you restorative breath amid all the responsibilities and realness of life.
There are soooo many good books out there about creativity.4 Let me save you some time and mental energy by encouraging you to select one title from the list below.
Disclaimer: You do not have to consider yourself a traditionally creative person, a writer, or an artist to be moved and inspired by these books.
These are my go-tos, my rereads, my favorite recommendations, and my personal sources of creative fuel when my energy is sputtering and running out.
In the hot summer months, you don’t want to eat a hearty stew that will slow you into hibernation; you want something light and refreshing. With that in mind, I’ve tried to select ones that won’t feel too dense or heavy but will offer a sense of ease, excitement, and energy.
(Memoir, 130 pages)
Read this if you’re craving something shorter yet soulful and contemplative—and need permission to create and find solitude.
A beloved and timeless memoir written during a solo retreat at the beach, reflecting on the inner lives of women, motherhood, solitude, simplicity, and creativity. Drawing inspiration from the shells on the shore, Anne Morrow Lindbergh contemplates the shape of a woman’s life, offering women companionship and permission that many of us still need today.
(Non-Fiction (A 12-Week “Course”), 231 pages)
Read this if you’re ready to roll up your sleeves a bit and start doing the inner work of discovering and recovering your creative self.
A twelve-week journey that reads both like a course and a spiritual path that will help you discover the link between your creative and spiritual self and overcome the many limiting beliefs and fears that get in the way. This book is an international bestseller, selling over 5 million copies, for a reason. If you haven’t read it yet, maybe now’s the time.
(Non-Fiction (Christian), 241 pages)
Read this if you're a mother who tends to set her creative self aside, or isn’t sure where it fits in, and needs encouragement and inspiration to pursue your creativity.
A book rich in storytelling with beautiful, color photographs throughout. It’s more than a visual delight; it’s an energetic and inspiring call to pursue creativity in motherhood. The backcover copy calls it “one-part commissioning, one-part pep talk” written with a warm, honest exploration of what it means to make things—art, writing, a life—in the middle of motherhood, without waiting for the perfect conditions. Creative prompts and exercises throughout are fun added bonuses.
(Non-Fiction (Collection of 100 Short Essays + Prompts), 336 pages)
Read this if you want something inspirational and reflective that feels bite-sized and can be a daily companion for your summer—especially if you’re interested in journaling and living through or coming out of a tough season.
An entry into and exploration of journaling as a healing practice and as a way to alchemize life’s “isolation into creative solitude, confinement into connection, and confusion into clarity and calm.”5 This book of inspiring guest essays and journaling prompts, curated by Suleika Jaouad, would be perfect for a 100-day summer reading and journaling challenge.
(Non-Fiction, 432 pages)
Read this if you're less interested in formulaic, stale creative advice and more drawn to rethinking what it means to be a creative person and live a creative life.
A book chock-full of wisdom on not just making art but on life as a creative act from legendary music producer Rick Rubin. “The Creative Act distills the wisdom gleaned from a lifetime’s work into a luminous reading experience that puts the power to create moments—and lifetimes—of exhilaration and transcendence within closer reach for all of us” (Penguin Random House).
Okay, so pick a book and get inspired this summer! Let me know if you plan to read one of these by voting in the poll above or sharing in the comments.
Join me inside The Pen & Mend Collective as a paid Substack subscriber. Pen & Mend is a membership community for those who believe writing is both healing and formative and are looking for a supportive space to tend to their writing life through online gatherings and community. June’s calendar of events was just announced! Come check it out—I’d love to welcome you in and write with you this summer.
Was it on Threads? Instagram? Substack notes? Cannot remember. Unfortunately, I skimmed it while scrolling and didn’t save the reference. If you happen to come across any similar quotes, please let me know in the comments with proper attribution.
Julia Cameron has a bit to say about martyrdom and the virtue trap in The Artist’s Way.
If you want a little more and you’re a writer or journaler, see the postscript for an invitation to join Pen & Mend.
Seriously, so many good books, many written by friends, exist that aren’t included in this list, but I couldn’t name them all.
Pg. XXIV from The Book of Alchemy.
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