{"id":389,"date":"2016-03-01T17:45:00","date_gmt":"2016-03-01T17:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.juliebaldwin.com\/?p=389"},"modified":"2017-01-02T21:45:00","modified_gmt":"2017-01-02T21:45:00","slug":"are-you-waiting-to-bloom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juliebaldwin.com\/?p=389","title":{"rendered":"Are You Waiting to Bloom?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Pink<\/p>\n

For a long time, I thought I had to wait until something external “happened” to live a creative life. Until I won the lottery. Until I retired. Until somehow, life gave me permission<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Of course, I never stopped being creative. It’s as much a part of living as breathing. I am compelled to write, paint, and take photographs\u2014and when I don’t express myself in these ways, all is not right with my world.<\/p>\n

But more often than not, I would put my creative expression below everything else. I told myself that I would paint when the dishes were done, or write when the weekend came, or take photographs on my next vacation.<\/p>\n

Who was I kidding?<\/p>\n

Every moment brings us a fresh choice. Now, instead of thinking my creative expression will bloom someday, I see it blossom over and over again, every time I nurture it.<\/p>\n

Enough blossoms, and you have a bouquet! A portfolio. A body of work. A completed novel.<\/p>\n

So pick up your paint brush, camera, or whatever you use in your creative expression. Don’t wait for all the dishes in your life to be done.<\/p>\n

Paint now<\/em>. Write now<\/em>. Plant your garden now<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, you<\/em> give yourself permission to create, no one else. You create your own precious life, one moment at a time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For a long time, I thought I had to wait until something external “happened” to live a creative life. Until I won the lottery. Until I retired. Until somehow, life gave me permission. Of course, I never stopped being creative. It’s as much a part of living as breathing. I am compelled to write, paint, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-choices","category-creativity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juliebaldwin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juliebaldwin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juliebaldwin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juliebaldwin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juliebaldwin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=389"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.juliebaldwin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":392,"href":"https:\/\/www.juliebaldwin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389\/revisions\/392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juliebaldwin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juliebaldwin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juliebaldwin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}