Lost and Found

In This Bloutcher

• Lost and Found
• Announcements

Lost and Found

I recently gave a talk at the BIF7 Innovation Summit. The idea is that each of the storytellers had fifteen minutes to tell his or her story. The story tellers included such outstanding creative thinkers as Dan Pink, Richard Saul Wurman, Len Schlesinger, Sebastian Ruth. I spoke about the "Middleware of Personal Innovation," that is the core creative skills one needs to develop in order to transform their personal vision into reality. In my talk I referenced the personal experience of being lost and found simultaneously. I said, "When I am creating I am both lost and found and I believe there is no better place to be."

After the talk lots of folks came up to me and asked what I meant by being both lost and found at the same time. How can you be both?

When I am creating I am lost because I am working on the edges. I do not yield to the path previously taken. I am frightened, not knowing what will come next, what to do next. I am filthy from failed attempts, deep in the forest without a compass. I am Theseus without Ariadne's string. I battle despair, wrestle with the angels of doubt. I am a madman. And I see no way out.

When I am creating I am wondrously found. I am mindless of time, overcome by a strange, intoxicating exhilaration triggered by the tiniest of brush strokes, a spit of color. the struggle for truthfulness. I am where I belong, where I am meant to be, on the journey. Pursuing the questions. I am the cartographer of my own land, navigating an internal terrain of my own making--I am found, my coordinates always changing but traceable by the heat of wonder. I am found if not by others at least by myself.

And how is this different than the experience of engaging in life change? Personal reinvention? I do not believe it is different. We are all simultaneously lost and found--as long as we are on the journey, creating and recreating ourselves.

Listen to some of the great artists. They were on a great journey. And they also recognized the pain of feeling lost and found:

Paul Cezanne--It took me 40 years to find out that painting is not sculpture.
Henri Matisse--It has bothered me all my life that I do not paint like everybody else.
Willem de Kooning--I work out of doubt.
Paul Klee--I paint in order not to cry.

In our best moments, we, like the great artists, are both lost and found.

Announcements:

• Becoming A Life Change Artist; 7 Creative Skills to Reinvent Yourself at Any Stage of Life has just earned the prestigious Mom's Choice Award. The award honors excellence in family friendly media, products and services. The esteemed panel of judges include educators, media experts as well as parents, librarians, performing artists, authors, producers, medical and learning professionals and scientists. That's cool! Congratulations to my co-author Kathleen Jordan who just became a second time grandma with the arrival of Addison Kelly Livermore, 6 lbs, 13 ounces.
• Get the word out: I will be conducting a 5 day workshop at the Esalen Institute with co-facilitator Nancy Fernandez Mills in breathtaking Big Sur November 13-18. The program is called the Life Change Studio and is appropriate to anyone currently going through a life change or contemplating one. Check it out here.
  
• If you would like to discover the poet in you, consider attending my wife Karen's Esalen program "Calling Calliope; Finding Your Poetic Voice," also November 13-18. For more information, click here.
  
• Also for anyone interested in and committed to changing the way society thinks about aging, please join up at the Poetics of Aging Conference November 16-19 in San Francisco. I will be speaking about What the Great Masters of Art Can Teach Us About Living the Second Half of Life with Creativity, Vitality and Meaning. This should be fun, informative and thought provoking conference. To learn more about it, click here.
• I will be doing an author's talk at the Andover Book Store on October 20th. Join us at 7 pm. Click here for directions.
• Please consider attending the 5th Annual International Positive Aging Conference in Los Angeles, December 6-10. This conference is chock full of interesting ideas, organizations, leaders from across the globe who share their innovative ideas for leveraging the creativity and talents of folks in the second half of life. I will be conducting a program called The Telling; Second Generation. It will engage participants in creative but mysterious exercises that capture the essence and challenges of aging. Learn more, click here.