Greta Lind: This Is Soul Work

Greta Lind. We went to college together.  Her last name is my mom's maiden name.  We always thought we might be related.  She's an inspiring friend, amazing at everything she turns her hand to: author. actress. artist. mom. body worker.  And a deep, dear friend of the soul. 

You might have seen her as Katie Kenicott on TV's All My Children, in the movie Rudy, or heard her on Indiana Public Radio in the Audie Awards finalist audio drama, The Ernie Pyle Experiment. 

But before all that, my kids called her as "Gweta," loved when she read to them, and would make me eggs the way her mom made them for her, when I needed them most. 

After you read her ruminations on the creative process. you'll feel like she's an old friend of yours too.  Then you'll want to get her book, Split Open for yourself, your friends, for someone you love for the Holidays, or for no reason at all. 

Get it here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1643438255/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_api_glt_fabc_MQBA74BMFMQB4FHPTJ2M

With no further ado, my dear friend Greta Lind: 

"I love the process of bringing unformed vision into form, whether with the creative muse or other artists. I find this sparks undeniable joy at the level of soul and cell. It is a visceral, alive, embodied, heart-filled movement. 

All that is required is to show up with openness, focus, and courage. To get out of our own way. A willingness to not know. Deep trust. An emphasis on process, not product. For it is the process itself that holds inspiration and invites each moment to open to the next. 

To experience the gift of genuine alchemy through shared creativity is one of the miracles of being alive. What we open to becomes more when we join together, creating a bold field of possibility. Paradoxically, this requires real vulnerability. Because we truly don’t know what will happen. 

If we concern ourselves with the end result, failure, success, and ego, we limit our experience out of a desire to protect and stay safe. We may even stop ourselves cold. Because the possibility of making a mistake or producing something bad or mediocre can feel scary. Even debilitating. Beautifully, wonderfully, awfully terrifying. 

This is soul work. 

It is a tender and cocooned time. Not a time to talk about what we are doing. A time to protect the tiny seed of possibly with nurturing conditions. 

The tenacity, or faith, asked of us feels both palpably human and also connected to something beyond. We’re not creating out of nothing. We don’t exist in a vacuum. Something we cannot see, and may struggle to name, begins to happen. And there’s no guarantee. There is hope. Presence. Raw and real surrender. Creative collaboration feels like the manifestation of magic in real time. Like a kind of heaven on earth. We experience something larger than ourselves by becoming fully filled vessels for this creative vision. 

I do not claim this process as my own, even if my name is attached to the material. It is not about my ego, talent, or worth. And certainly not about comparison. When we show up for this experience, we show up for our mess. For the ugliest most hidden parts of ourselves. Because they will come out. They will talk to us and scream at us and beg us to stop and do something reasonable. 

There is no safety in creative collaboration. If we feel the call and deny it, that hiding may seem safe, at least temporarily. Yet the invitation will increase. We can close further—or choose to risk. And this risk holds possibility beyond what we can imagine. 

This dance brings new life into existence and makes the invisible visible. Openness allows us to create and collaborate from the heart, eventually bringing our heart-filled work to the world." 
- Greta Lind

You can get Split Open here:

 https://www.amazon.com/dp/1643438255/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_api_glt_fabc_MQBA74BMFMQB4FHPTJ2M

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