Growing Your Soul

Practice any art, music, singing, dance, drawing, painting, sculpture, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to get money or fame, but to experience becoming, to find what’s inside you, to make your soul grow.

Kurt Vonnegut

During the holidays I happened to see a post from a man I went to high school with. After he retired, he started carving totem poles. From the photo, it appears he is quite talented. I would have liked to show you his work. Unfortunately, The photo he posted was taken down and I couldn’t find any others on his Facebook page. Once he completes the carving he gives it to family or friends. I thought not only was he fulfilling a need to create, he was leaving a legacy for future generations .

I’m reading, Chasing Bright Medusas, A Life of Willa Cather, by Benjamin Taylor. The first book I remember reading by her was, Death Comes for the Archbishop. I picked it up on a trip to Santa Fe. Since then, I have read more of her work and I am never tired of it. I am inspired by her talent and drive to be heard at a time when many women authors struggled. We both grew up in a small town in the middle of nowhere and she carries that experience with her when she writes.

Kurt Vonnegut lists many paths to creating. There are others. Handcrafts, cooking, even gardening requires a creative spirit. For many years, crafts such as quilting were the only artistic outlets open to women. They took a need to provide quilts for warmth and turned it into an art form.

The need to produce something of our own is strong for many of us. It’s the doing more than the affirmation that makes our soul grow. What we produce, like those totem poles deep in the woods of Northern Wisconsin, doesn’t need to be seen to be valued.