Creative Chapters

I turn 50 this summer.

Some may read that number and think, Only 50?! What a baby! Others may see the number as a signifier — of what, pray tell? Deepening wisdom? Increasing irrelevance? And yet, another set of people may think, I’m right there with you, friend - walking beside you in my elastic-waisted, cotton-blend comfort pants and supportive footwear. On the cusp of 50, I find I have less bandwidth for waistband discomfort. These days, I like things (clothes, relationships, jobs, creative pursuits) to have a relaxed fit, to feel loose and easeful, to “suit” me; otherwise, I quickly lose tolerance and slough them off like a snake sheds old skin.

Wherever you are in your human timeline, or whatever creative season or phase of life you are currently moving through (see my musings on the natural ebbs and flows of creativity in Creative Cycles) — there is great value in the act of naming and marking one’s Creative Chapters.

Language has value. Words - fickle words - so feeble and inaccurate, so incapable of fully capturing one’s subjective experience of the world, the richness of one’s inner life, and the subtle realm of raw sensation before it gets expressed as feeling - (apparently, there is a word for this phenomenon — philosophers call this raw sensation, a quale)…

And yet, words - you mighty birds - are also faithful messengers, beacons in the dark. When we wield words well, well then, words can work like spells - speech acts - and, through their very utterances, a person can change one’s identity or situation, entirely.

Creative Chapters is an invitation to work with phases and periods of our lives like a poet crafts a line of verse - to name the chapters of our life with care, attention to feeling, meaning and resonance, and with a desire to utter something true into the world.

How can we work with a poet’s care and precision to mark these periods of our lives as if they were well-penned poems in need of a name, or discreet chapters in a sprawling epic crying out for a title?

Another significant life marker also lies ahead for me. As I turn 50 this summer, my son turns 7.

I’ve heard from other parents about this milestone - a movement out of toddlerhood into the increasing independence and willful drive of childhood, a shift from the child seeing the parent as an extension of themself to something more like “homebase”, a source of safety to return to after venturing out in the world. And, as parent-friends report, in this shift, the parent also may experience a renewed sense of independence. As a result, one may find themself more able to return to creative endeavors with greater focus and presence or to turn the page and begin a new creative chapter entirely.

I’m still searching for the right language - the proper poetic container - to capture the last, almost decade, of parenting - a time marked by extraordinary moments and profound revelations, and also by a pandemic, shifts in my personal life, moments of professional struggle, not to mention national, political turmoil.

How do we look with honesty, with love and with creativity at the complexity of these chapters that we may, individually and/or collectively, move through? How do we find the right words to hold the raw experience - the quale - of them?

Certain periods of life may, in fact, defy words altogether. Some creative chapters may not want to be contained, and only ask to be felt, to be held in all their richness and complexity by compassionate witness, and with an abiding sense of humility and awe.

As I enter this 50th year of life - I see emerging themes and currents that indicate a new chapter is on the horizon. I’m moving into a period of creative expansion and greater visibility (that of my own clarity of vision as well as allowing my artistry to be seen), and I’m stepping more fully into and claiming the creative skills and capacities I have accumulated over the last 25 years of hard work.

My latest creative undertaking, and part of this new chapter, is certainly The Play Society - a roving school and creative lab for acting training and performance-making rooted in play and collaboration. We launch this summer in Paris with an extraordinary cohort of artists and facilitators. I’ll share more about them in upcoming writings and interviews.

This “project” is a direct outgrowth of the accumulation of knowledge and skill that I speak of, and readily calls for an expansive sense of self and for building my capacity for exposure. Establishing an acting school and lab for new work in a foreign country is a “big swing”, creatively speaking, and requires different energetic qualities and a different kind of attention compared to the period of parenting (the tending to home and humans) - that preceded it.

Like naming a ship and blessing her maiden voyage, how can I find the proper (and most poetic) language to mark this moment and this movement into a new chapter? And, how do I make sure to honor and mark the chapter that is closing? That will surely call for some creativity on my part.

Oftentimes, we are in such a hurry to move personally or creatively forward that we neglect to pause and mark these important portal crossings as we transition from one chapter to the next, and to name them.

Read on to explore how artists have successfully integrated this practice of “artful naming” and “creative chaptering” as a tool in their creative work, and move through a series of prompts to bring the art (and act) of naming to your own creative work and life.

And, if you’re interested in joining us in Paris this summer for some rigorous play and collaborative creation, visit THE PLAY SOCIETY.