Day 10- Sandcastles and Tides: A Quest For Identity

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Welcome to DAY TEN of our new 30-day COMMUNITY PROJECT where we make something with our hands every day to improve our mental health. We all realize that creativity heals...it's time to put that knowledge into action.

These episodes will exist here, marked with the days numbered, in order for you to follow along at any speed that you like. Miss a day? Doesn't matter. Just pick up right where you left off and keep making things. These episodes will give us all some accountability, but if you need more, pair up with a partner. It really does help!

Join our creative community by making something today, whether it's for five minutes or several hours—your brain will thank you. Let's do this thing together and turn all of this sh*t into something beautiful!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
ask a woman who she is and she'll tell you who she
loves, who she serves and whatshe does.
I am a mother, a wife, a sister, a friend, a career woman.
The fact that we defineourselves by our roles is what
keeps the world spinning.
It's also what makes usuntethered and afraid.

(00:22):
If a woman defines herself as awife, what happens if her
partner leaves?
If a woman defines herself as amother, what happens when the
kids leave for college?
If a woman defines herself as acareer woman, what happens when
the company folds?
Who we are is perpetually beingtaken from us.

(00:44):
So we live in fear instead ofpeace.
We cling too tightly, close oureyes to what we need to look at
hard, avoid questions that needto be asked and, in a million
ways, insist to our friends,partners and children that the
purpose of their existence is todefine us.
We build sandcastles and thentry to live inside them, fearing

(01:10):
the inevitable tide.
Answering the question, who doI love?
Is not enough.
We must live lives of our own.
To live a life of her own, eachwoman must also answer what do
I love?
What makes me come alive?
What is beauty to me, and whendo I take the time to fill up

(01:33):
with it.
Who is the soul beneath all ofthese roles?
Each woman must answer thesequestions now, before that tide
comes.
Sandcastles are beautiful, butwe cannot live inside them
because the tide rises.
That's what the tide does.
We must remember I am thebuilder, not the castle.

(01:56):
I am separate and whole overhere.
Eyes on the horizon, sun on myshoulders, eyes on the Horizon,
sun on my Shoulders, welcomingthe Tide Building Rebuilding
Playfully, lightly, neverChanging, always Changing, by
Glennon Doyle.
Today's project.

(02:17):
I'm going to be cutting andpasting a bunch of little quotes
and things that I've saved toput in my commonplace book.
I first found out what acommonplace book was from Laura
Aziz when I had her on a fewyears ago now.
I think it was.
That is still, to date, one ofmy favorite interviews I've ever

(02:40):
done, so you might want to lookback and listen to that one.
I remember when she was talkingabout the commonplace book.
I did not have any clue whatshe was talking about and I just
thought that it was somethingthat she came up with by herself
, and she was telling about howshe collects these things and

(03:00):
paste them in a book, and shecalled it a commonplace book.
I just didn't know that thatwas an actual term that's been
around for, I think, centuries.
Another thing that I like to dobesides saving quotes and all of
that for my commonplace book, Ialways save little business
cards or matchbooks or flyers orwhat have you from when I

(03:25):
travel and I like to paste thosein books and kind of keep a
little visual memory of my trips.
I'm not so sure that thatactually fits in the category of
what you're supposed to put ina commonplace book, but I love
doing it.
So that's what I do.
Austin Kleon he did anewsletter about his commonplace

(03:48):
book months back and he hadthis quote from Dwight Gardner
and it says, like Montaigne, Iquote others only in order to
better express myself.
I quote others only in order tobetter express myself.
Montaigne compared quoting wellto arranging other people's
flowers.
Scavenged wisdom from my life asa reader yeah, for I am an

(04:09):
underliner and a destroyer ofbooks, and that is exactly me
too.
Sometimes, to make it even morefun and just kind of I don't
know, I get into it I take cutelittle stickers and I decorate
it and I do all sorts of thingsjust because it's fun for me.
I've always loved stickers,Maybe because my dad was a label

(04:33):
salesman, I have no idea, but Ireally love stickers.
It's very strange.
Okay, so that is it for today.
I've got to admit it has beenvery difficult for me to keep
making these episodes andpumping them out.
This is more episodes than I'vedone in like a year and a half,

(04:54):
so I mean they're short andeasy, but this is taking
something from me that I'm notused to.
But I am really gettingsomething out of this.
I know it's kind of trailingalong a little slowly because I
skipped the weekends and stuff,but hopefully the episodes that

(05:16):
I am airing are helping you tokind of stay on course, maybe
giving you some cool ideas oflittle projects to do, ways to
keep your hands busy, and Ithink it's a really great way to
be creatively cross-training.
You know, not just sticking allyour eggs in one basket and
doing the same thing every day.

(05:37):
Kind of change it up, figureout other things that might
interest you creatively.
All right, until we meet again,stay curious.