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I super know creative restlessness. It’s like an itch under my creative epidermis that can’t and won’t stop and can’t, no matter how thoroughly I scratch, be itched. But it’s changed flavor over the years. It used to be a driving unrelenting force that was more fire hose in my mouth than sipping the nectar of the gods. But for the last 10 plus years, I’ve had to funnel that onslaught into only the few projects that my full time jobs and now my toddler allow me to invest myself in. That kind of self weeding and pruning is very hard but an antidote to my white hot creative combustibility. I must focus the immense tsunami of the need and urge to make things, to make anything, in very specific areas. It’s definitely been an interesting adjustment. But also, if I die today or I die in 50 years, I will always die midstream.

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Yes yes yes “I will always die midstream”— so felt, Krisztina. I’m so glad you chimed in on this! It is an unscratchable itch, isn’t it? That’s a great description. I like hearing how your life commitments of work and now child have meant you’ve needed to get strict with your focus. I think this sounds like a very good recipe for potency in the work that gets produced- and indeed you’re a very potent creator!

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Sep 10Liked by Lisette Murphy

For many decades I wholly identified as creatively restless, and could even tap back into the cellular sense as I read this. It was a place I cherished, but always left me spinning 100 feet off the ground, always a struggle to bring all that energy into embodiment. Forces conspired eventually when I turned 40 and my body said, Hell no you won’t forget about me and MY pace. And after almost a decade of listening (at first kicking a screaming but submitting) I’m glad my body won. It’s less productive, slower, and quieter over here, but the projects feel more sustainable, the creativity more inline with the natural rhythms of life and season.

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Yessss....yeah......these words all ring like bells in my body, Kimberly. Those "forces" are conspiring in me now, to be sure! When I survived a metastatic cancer diagnosis 12 years ago I became so much more forgiving of the pace I had to take in my one precious body--

...but there has been some "creep" in the intervening years, a rising urgency I hadn't quite noticed was taking over again until, really, this year. My body's wisdom is certainly the voice driving me to make more space, take my tiredness seriously, and to prune what truly isn't necessary so that I can make the most vital work I *do* need to make. Thanks for sharing your own experience and modeling a way of impactful slowness.🙏

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Aug 22Liked by Lisette Murphy

Feeling like I get caught up in giant waves of this Human Doing, but moving so far away from the city has gifted me a sweet lil inner tube and I’m able to settle into that Human Being again. Maybe there’s a balance. Do we need to scribble “REST” into the schedule?

It’s always really fascinating how the shadow chooses to appear so that we really SEE! Haha. Your work ethic is extremely motivating, from the outside, and I enjoy the honesty and how real this can be!

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Yes! *Seeing via shadow!* 🙏 Oh, Brittney, I love that your home provides you with some space to float, to Be. It's disturbing but true that I totally write REST into my schedule-- and even more sinister still that I frequently check everything off the list except for that. To that end though, a voice I keep hearing says, "lisette. this is an inside job." No matter how many times I write that intention down, the real rest comes from within. I'm practicing that! time with the sky and reflections from friends certainly helps. xoxoxoxox hugging you, grateful for your reflection always.

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Aug 9Liked by Lisette Murphy

My foyer into Jim Henson really solidified with The Story Teller series. It is a foggy memory from my early childhood and towards the end of his life. I felt the presence of death in those stories. It was alluring and formative.

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Ohhh yes I also loved the StoryTeller series— in my memory they were dark but punctuated with the playful relief of puppets. I would love to rewatch those now and feel what they were about…. I loved that era of storytelling shows in the 80s— I was also in love with Shelly Duvall’s Fairytale Theater. I think the stagecraft of these really influenced me.

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Yes! I heard they are all on HBO now, I want to show them to my kids now. 🥰

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I’d love to hear how your kids like it! We’ve found the teenager has very little patience for the pacing of 80s and 90s programming- he quickly gets bored. I, on the other hand, will watch the same episode of Murder She Wrote an infinite number of times without diminishing return 😂

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I’ll post observations! 😆🫶

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Sep 1Liked by Lisette Murphy

My 7 year old who has an obsession with the macabre at the series up. She absolutely loved them 🥰

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Yayyyyy! I bet it was so fun to watch together! Thank you for reporting back on this sweetness 😂🙏🏼✨

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