"I Don't Know Who Needs to Hear this, But..."
An invitation to the artist & performer inside the grown up
The “I don’t know who needs to hear this, but…” posts are a part of modern digital life.
We know they’re mostly a formulaic way to increase social media engagement. They are a “nice enough” part of the memosphere that creates a sense of connection (even if it’s just clicking “like” to what’s essentially a fill-in-the-blanks marketing exercise).
But then, there are those moments when, despite all you know about how the algorithms and the copycats are just trying to capture and capitalize on our attention, you just pause and think “Oh! It’s me, I am the one who needs to hear this!”
The other day, one of those Instagram accounts that shares the memes that hit the sweet spot between nostalgia and the contemporary cultural moment shared this:
I don’t know who needs to hear this, but you should start to write/draw/paint/sing/dance again.
Of COURSE I need to hear this. There’s a good chance you do too?
Actually, I created the Writers’ Knot exactly because so many brilliant creative beings need to start writing again, or need to take “just some journaling” to a new level of craft and commitment.
Enrollment in our global writing community is now open, and I would love to have you with us!
Back to that “maybe you need to start making art again” idea
It just so happens, this is exactly what I’ve been thinking and writing about since
joined me on the KnotWork Storytelling podcast.Erica is a sacred storyteller, and she brings us the story behind and beyond what we know of Molly Malone from that old pub song. (You know the one about Dublin's fair city where the girls are so pretty, right?)
She doesn’t just imagine a new story, and she doesn’t just tell it. Erica sings it and embodies Molly’s story in a way that transports and inspires. She conjures something truly magical.
And, I admit, her powerful voice and presence makes me feel a bit wistful.
During our chat that followed Molly’s Story, I shared this with Erica…
I’ve spent a lot of the summer dropping my kids off at dance camp and theater camp, and supporting all their ways of performing.
It brings up a bit of my own nostalgia for who I used to be - who so many of us were allowed and invited to be when we were young. As we moved from elementary to middle to high school, that performer self was so well nurtured and so fearless.
But then, I think many of us go through the terrible, beautiful phenomenon of maturation that then says, ‘oh, that was children's stuff. I'm going to put that away.’
Witnessing Erica use her voice like this, and hearing all the ways she’s discovering her voice as an adult performer, is such a gift and a transmission. There are so many grownups in the world who feel as if those days when they got to be on the stage, and let their voices crack, and dare to be heard, and have everyone applaud was the stuff that had to be left behind in a past version of life.
What if we could reclaim that bold artistic, performer energy that we associate with childhood and say “that magic might still be in me? There might even be more?”
Is it time to rediscover that creative magic within you?
You may have heard about our Writers’ Knot community over the summer. We started a couple of new groups at the start of August.
Since then, many people have told me that they were still in “summer mode” and not yet ready to settle into a weekly writing routine.
So, how about the second week of September?
For a limited time, I am reopening enrollment for our last few open seats. We’d love to have you in our circle of myth-minded writers.
Wondering who joins the Writers’ Knot? Well, Erica O’Reilly writes with us every Monday night. Can you see yourself there?
I've been drawing and sketching for fun because I realized I was not having fun with art anymore because I am so focused on writing and getting posts out and publicizing myself!
Here's to the wisdom and magic known within our younger selves, as new stories and [he]art emerge into the world!