by Katherine on March 5, 2010
This Sunday night is the annual Academy Awards show. I don’t have a television so I won’t be watching it. However Monday I will be watching with great interest for reports about which movie received the awards for Best Picture and Best Director.
I’ve seen Avatar, one of the movies nominated. In fact I’ve seen it twice. It is one of the best examples of creative collaboration that I’ve ever seen. The collaborative energy that went into bringing a vision into reality is astounding. If you’ve seen it you will know that the list of people in the credits at the end goes on forever. (And in my humble opinion, if it doesn’t receive the award, the awards are meaningless.)
No one ever creates alone. We have help from expected and unexpected sources. We meet people who know other people. We receive inspiration on a regular basis and each time we use that inspiration to move forward, we invite more inspiration to come. Creative collaboration happens in both the material world, and in the invisible world of divine intelligence that we all have access to.
So this week’s intention is to celebrate creative collaboration in all its forms.
With excitement and anticipation I open my mind and heart to all of my creative helpers, to inspiration flowing from all sources, and to all the gifts in creative collaboration.
by Katherine on March 3, 2010
Want to get a picture of the best environment for using your own creativity to grow and contribute? This free tool was so accurate for me that it was almost eerie. I’m “a Creator”, and I like “working independently, being creative, using (my) imagination, and constantly learning something new.”
Got me in one.
After you’ve done the test, it does make a sponsored offer but don’t let that stop you. Just click on the NO THANKS link. It’s fast, (takes about three minutes) fun and amazingly effective. Try it out.
And once you’ve done it come back and share your results in the comments below.
by Katherine on February 26, 2010
These Friday Intentions flow from what is going on in my life. Yesterday a friend was honest enough and cared enough about me to call me on my immature reaction in a certain situation. I’m embarrassed to say she was right.
Nope, it didn’t feel great while we were talking about it; staying open to what my friend had to say made me feel very emotionally vulnerable. But I can see that allowing myself to really hear what my friend had to say was going to move me through another layer of discovery, another big opportunity to shift my consciousness.
So today’s intention is:
It is always my heart-felt desire to give the best of myself from an open heart and to be equally open to receive the best from others.
by Katherine on February 23, 2010
Today I’m making a case for not setting goals.
Whoa! How can we proceed without GOALS? How on earth do we know where we’re going if we don’t set out all the steps ahead of time?
I know there are many experts who will strongly disagree with me, and they will make great arguments. They will point to example after example of successful people who certainly didn’t get where they are today without goals. By certain definitions of success they’re not wrong.
However I’m sticking to my point of view so bear with me. Here’s my argument. If we try to define ahead of time the exact form that our inspiration will take, we limit ourselves. With laser focus we don’t see possibilities beyond our line of vision. Through setting our boundaries we might reject a shift to an opportunity outside those boundaries.
When we make our intention to grow and learn through what we’re inspired to do, to affirm all that we are, to share our uniqueness with others, we will be astonished to see what brilliance comes to us in ways we never could have imagined.
Now if you’re thinking that there has to be a target somewhere, you’re absolutely right. Having what I call a Big Vision is good. It gives us energy, it fires our passion, and it feeds us creatively. One of the reasons we feel drained and overwhelmed is because we are doing something that is not natural to us.
Getting to the big vision is not a well-documented sequence of steps. Instead within the power of a big vision is the trust to keep moving, the faith that we will receive help from unexpected and delightful sources, and the intuitive knowledge of what one step to take next.
This principle is simple but practising it takes some, well, practice. Because there are so many messages from our culture that run counter to it we need to shift our default position.
Here are some simple ideas to begin.
- Start by envisioning something relatively easy.
- Set aside a few minute each day to see and feel it clearly in your mind.
- Know that as you connect to your vision you are connecting to Infinite Consciousness.
- Make the vision something you have no strong negative beliefs about.
- Watch for intuitive ideas about what step to take next.
- Relax into it and have some fun.
- When your vision manifests, celebrate!
Then while the energy is still flowing from this one, strengthen your belief by envisioning another!
by Katherine on February 19, 2010
This week I’ve been ‘roaring through’ the edits on my book in order to get it back to my official editor. It’s going very quickly and I’m very focused on it. In fact, I’m so focused that a few times I didn’t hear the kitchen timer I set for an hour so I’ll stand up, walk around and stretch.
I just love that term, roaring through. But that wasn’t the way it was over the last few months. It was very slow because I was waiting for something.
I was waiting for a title for the book and without it I knew I couldn’t complete my edits. I’d had a number of possible titles but none of them seemed quite right. I was looking for the title that had a quiet certainty, a resonance, that yes, gave me goosebumps!
Finally last week I got the right one (yippee!!) and so now I’m ‘roaring through’ the book, totally clear about where I’m going with it.
It does try the patience when the waiting seems to take so long, so my intention for this week is about timing.
I know in my heart and mind that all things come in their right time, and I am blessed by the grace of the journey that takes me there.
by Katherine on February 12, 2010
Usually on Fridays I volunteer at 10000 Villages on Broadway in Vancouver. I’m typing this post right now in the back office while on a short break.
I apppeciate the way I can see the world as it comes to this store through all the beautiful art on the shelves. And last night the torch relay for the 2010 Olympics passed by on the street right outside the front door. For the next 10 days the world will come to Vancouver in another way.
As I look at the world around me to find the intention for the week, I see connections, always connections. I can feel the energy and excitement in this city and I get in touch once again with what a wonderful world this is.
So the intention for this week is also a celebration.
I feel appreciation as we celebrate the connection and diversity that exists in this wonderful world we live in.
by Katherine on February 9, 2010
I love discovering new techie tools, but it’s not the techie tool itself that excites me. What excites me is how I can use it to be creative. I find new ones all the time and the list got so long that I had to create some qualifying questions to make decisions about them. Otherwise I might never be seen again in the real world. (Just kidding.)
The questions I ask myself to make a decision about a newly discovered technical tool are:
- Is it going to be fun? (Has to be fun or next, please!)
- Will it support my creativity? (A no-brainer!)
- Is it easy to learn? (Or does it have too steep a learning curve?)
- Is it going to complement another technical tool I already know how to use? (Not absolutely required but definitely a plus.)
- Is it relatively inexpensive? (No matter what the cost, will I get enough use out of it to make the price a non issue?)
- And finally, do I just get an intuitive hit about it? (Never underestimate this… intuition is almost always accurate.)
Today I’m going to introduce you to a technical tool that was a resounding yes to all the above questions.
Animoto is a tool for making videos with still photos, video clips, text and music, all blended by their technology into a montage with all the energy of a movie trailer.
Who are the people behind Animoto? Well in their own words, “Animoto Productions is a bunch of techies and film/tv producers who decided to lock themselves in a room together and nerd out.” Love their sense of humour.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words…or in this case a video, so you can see one that I created here for my Voice of Destiny Music site.
The music I used is original music from one of my CD’s, so there’s no copyright issue. They ask that you not use music you don’t have permission to use. That would include anything that’s not on their site or anything that’s not your original music. They do however have a lot of royalty free music already on the site.
(In future posts I will give you some great sources for both free photos and places to buy a license for music. Stay tuned for that.)
There are three levels for Animoto customers:
- Basic which is free and allows you to make an unlimited number of 30 second videos
- An All Access Pass which is $30 a year and allows you to make an unlimited number of full length videos
- A Business Level which is $249 a year and allows you to make an unlimited number of full length videos of DVD quality for commercial use
Other Features
- The first two levels are branded with the Animoto brand. The Business level allows you to display your own brand instead of theirs.
- Each time you edit and save, the video is different. Each one will be saved in your account.
- You can embed the videos in your website or upload them to YouTube.
- The All Access Pass and the Business Level let you set the tempo of the images at regular speed, half speed or twice the speed. (My video is half speed.)
Try it out by clicking on the image. (It is an affiliate link.)
And have fun!
