This week, work has been very stressful.  Today I made soup. 

I gathered the vegetables together in the kitchen – ordinary vegetables - carrots, potatoes, onions, leeks.  I rubbed dark crumbly earth from the potatoes with my fingers.  I fried the onions, letting clouds of their caramel aroma into the room.  I sliced the squeaky leeks.  I noticed the brilliant orange of the carrots.  I boiled the water and listened to it plobbing and ribupping.

As I moved around the kitchen I felt a kind of release.  I reflected on my work, and untangled some knots.  I made a couple of little decisions that will make a big difference.  I said some kind words to myself.   

I often return to this creative space, whether I'm making soup or cards or novels.  It gives me an opportunity to become absorbed in an attempt at beauty.  It gives me a chance to step out of being 'someone in relation to someone else' - a partner, a daughter, a therapist.  I get to be me, pure and simple.

Things you might be curious about

How often do you give yourself the space to keep track of yourself?  How committed are you to making this space?  What gets in the way? 

Suggestions for this week

Make a date with yourself this week to find out about a new creative pursuit or revisit an old one.  Find an evening class in welding, buy a new sketch-pad, make a collage of the inside of a space-ship with your children, collect leaves in the park, get a Greek recipe book out of the library. 

We all need to have a creative outlet - a window, a space - so we don't lose track of ourselves.  Norman Fischer

When we let ourselves respond to poetry, to music, to pictures, we are clearing a space where new stories can root, in effect we are clearing a space for new stories about ourselves.  Jeanette Winterson