Writing Color

By Carol Woolum Roberts

Creative Community

Find or form a group of fellow creatives to meet with on a regular basis for encouragement.

Paul and I both have talked about the importance of creative community.  It is one of our “Five Ways To Cultivate A Creative Life”.  (If you want to see what these ways are, download here .)

It is rare that I don’t experience some kind of creative community daily.  I need these people in my life to add spark, to give encouragement to and receive encouragement from, and to see what they are creating.

Last Monday my friend April hosted one of my creative communities at her home.  I call this group AW Primo, because it is the first group of women I facilitated that went through the book “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron.  We enjoyed our time together so much we decided to continue to meet on a monthly basis. We often go to each other’s homes and the host provides lunch, the rest bring items to add to the meal, and then the host provides some creative activities to do.

Often one of these activities is a writing exercise.  This month, April brought out a jar of paint chips that she had collected.  She had us grab a paint chip, look at the name of the paint, and write something using the name of the paint in the story.

Over the past year of being together and sharing our writings, we all tend to have a certain style.

April’s writings are beautiful, deep and personal. You always glimpse a part of her inner soul.

Donna is our mystery writer, and more often than not, she finds some way to have a dead body in the results of the seven minute writing exercise.  This time, there was a hand in the snow, holding flowers.  You are never quite sure where those dead bodies will be found in Donna’s stories.

Indy wanted so bad to write about the color on the paint chip, not the color name.  But she managed to do both in one of her pieces.  She brought the slate gray color together with the paint name…Coffee Nook.

Doris shared a memoir piece based on the color Outgoing Orange.  Her focus was on a pair of orange bell bottom pants she loved while in her teens.  Her piece drew you into her world as young woman hoping to be able to purchase those coveted pants.

Even if Vicki is not writing a poem, her soulful writings are always poetic.  She really has no idea how beautiful her thoughts are that she shares as she writes them on paper.  I hope someday you will get to read her words for yourself.

I loved the color I picked.  It was a blue shade called Morning Calm.  My thoughts went straight to my living room, and this is what I wrote about

Morning Calm

Morning is my favorite time of day.  I love sitting in the house when it is quiet, when the world hasn’t really woken up, and I find that morning calm.

I have found I need that time to start my day.  I get up, usually go for or a walk, then come home.

Lately I have found calm in our living room.  I have replaced our Christmas décor with snowmen.  White lights shine throughout the living room and bring much needed brightness to often dark corners.

Right now my living room is comfy.  It is cozy.  It is calm in these morning hours as I play my three games on my phone, (Statele, Framed and Wordle).

Paul comes in and we read our Oswald Chambers devotional, talk about what we are thinking, and our plans for the day, then spend time in prayer.

I grab my composition notebook to write my often three pages of thoughts.

I grab my Bible, my new one that has verses in the margins, like a coloring book, to color and meditate on a verse throughout the day.

My morning time is like the song…all is calm, all is bright.

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Do you have access to any paint chips?  Grab some, look at the color, set your time for seven minutes, and write about whatever comes to mind.  I don’t think April will mind if you use her idea!!

(April writes a blog post that is also beautiful, deep and personal every Thursday.  If you would like to read it, you can find it by clicking here.

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What causes you to have Morning Calm?

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