Moving Forward
Name Change & The Pursuit of Creativity
In addition to the goals I sent last week, I have been updating my Substack site. I received helpful feedback about my newsletter in a workshop with other Substack writers yesterday. As a result, I am changing my newsletter’s name to Creative Late Bloomers.
In my About page, I explained why I named this newsletter Fifteen Years and Counting: My mother died one month shy of 80, and I realized that if I were lucky, I would have about fifteen years to do what I had put off for years. But at first glance, the name doesn’t tell you what my publication is about, and that’s an essential part of appealing to new readers. The new name also supports my belief that creativity is key to aging well.
Our culture does not value creativity as much as it values our work ethic and workplace skills. As children, we naturally explore our creative natures, but slowly, that is replaced with the busyness of achievement tasks and workplace skill development. Many of us enter adulthood with the notion that only creative people get to do creative things, and that's only because they are good at it. Many of us learned to believe that we were no longer creative in our early years.
Expanding our understanding of creativity is the starting point. Dr. Huberman, a neurobiologist, explains that “creativity involves the ability to take existing elements from the physical world or the thought world and reorder them into novel combinations that are useful or meaningful in some way.”
Creativity itself is a matter of seeing afresh what is already there… ~ Poet Gary Snyder
As part of my 2025 personal planning, I realized that almost every project or goal I identified is rooted in creativity. Several years ago, I described my gardening this way:
Each year, my vegetable & herb gardens are a palette I design and create with plants of differing sizes, colors, scents, and shapes. Sometimes, I employ logic and design aesthetics; other times, the plant goes where it does because it's the only spot open. In the spring and fall, I move perennial plants around. My garden looks different every year as I explore new projects and plants. Like all creative processes, there are learning opportunities (AKA mistakes) and delightful successes. Then, one day in late summer, I look around and see another edible masterpiece I have created.
This brief garden video is from early July 2023, when I began revamping the 12-year-old garden. Replacing rotting wooden beds with taller metal beds is a lot of work (shovel the soil out, remove the wooden frames, gopher-proof the new metal beds, and shovel all the soil back in). I recorded the sweaty work on my monthly exercise sheet! Two more beds to do this spring…unless I order more. I no longer use straw as mulch as it brings seeds to my beds. Wood chips now cover the paths.
Writer Annie Dilliard’s observation is my primary time management reminder:
"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing.”
Over the years, I have collected journal prompts and questions to help guide me in how I want to live, spend my days, and create. I offer them here for creative inspiration.
What do you desire most for this last part of your life?
How do you define living fully?
What brings you joy?
What negative emotions (Brene Brown calls them gremlins) show up when you move forward with creative efforts?
Are you spending your daily energy the way you want to? In what ways can you redirect it?
What gifts do you have to offer to the world?
What boundaries must you enforce to pursue your desires and protect your heart and soul?
Saying no
Eliminating negativity and other people’s drama
Letting go of expected obligations
In our youth-oriented culture, older people gradually become unseen. This is a challenge for some, but it is an opportunity to do what I want and be who I am. It turns out I am an older, crunchy granola, fierce spirit who loves the natural world.
Compassionate Elders
This week, I want to acknowledge Jimmy Carter's passing. He was president in the wild days of my late teens, and I didn’t pay much attention to politics then. I now hold him and his late wife of 77 years, Roslyn, in the highest regard. They were compassionate elders who lived each day practicing their values.
From his 1979 speech: Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. But we’ve discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our long for meaning.”
At age 90, he gave this powerful TEDx presentation.
Thank you for being here. If you’d like to support my work, you can do so by:
Liking and restacking this post so others are encouraged to read it.
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Taking out a paid subscription to this Substack for as little as $5 a month.
Most importantly, let’s chat. Tell me about your creative efforts and the barriers you experience. Who would be at the top of your compassionate elders list?
Great news name! I love that you're taking this project seriously and being even more strategic. Fine work here.
That’s a helpful name change. I can’t remember how I came across you, but the old name didn’t help. This one would.