Lois de Vries' Garden Views

This is the second excerpt from a new book by America’s foremost creativity coach and my writing mentor, Dr. Eric Maisel . It’s called, Making Your Creative Mark. I’ve added editorial comments to the excerpt to help you see how you can use Eric’s suggestions to express more of your own creativity in the garden. ERIC: 4 . Complete projects for the sake of making progress. When you make new work that you think aims you in the direction of your genuine voice, try to complete that work rather than stopping midway because “it doesn’t look right” or “it isn’t working out.” You will make more progress if you push through those feelings, complete things, and only then appraise them. It is natural for work that is a stretch and new to you to provoke all sorts of uncomfortable feelings as you attempt it. Help yourself tolerate those feelings by reminding yourself that finishing is a key to progress. LOIS: Sooner or later , e very gardener finds him/herself in the mi...

I’m pleased to share with you an excerpt from a new book by America’s foremost creativity coach and my writing mentor, Dr. Eric Maisel . It’s called, Making Your Creative Mark. While Eric works primarily with authors and fine, craft, and performing artists, I’ve always found his approach to be directly applicable to my work with Cultivating The Inner Gardener. I’ve added editorial comments to the excerpt to help you see how you can use Eric’s suggestions to express more of your own creativity in the garden. Passion and Voice ERIC: A logical — and vital — relationship exists between passion and voice. It is very hard to be passionate about what you’re doing if you haven’t found your voice as an artist. Imagine being forced to sing an octave too high or an octave too low, straining to hit notes that you can’t really hit and that aren’t natural to you. It would be very hard to be passionate about singing in that situation. LOIS: Couldn’t you just feel t...

Lilacs at Willowood Arboretum A big shout-out goes to all of the folks who delight gardeners through their daily work at public gardens across the country and the benefactors who had the foresight to understand how important these spaces are to soothing the human spirit. Staff and volunteers will be working special events this Mother’s Day weekend, so take your Mom or your special lady to a public garden to enjoy the pleasures of spring flowers. Here in Northwestern New Jersey, Willowood Arboretum celebrates Mother’s Day with tours of its lilac collection, light refreshments, and music. You can also purchase starts of some of their unusual lilacs. While the more than 30 public gardens in the Philadelphia area offer perhaps the highest concentration of horticultural displays anywhere, there are public gardens in every state. If you don’t find a location at http://www.nationalpublicgardensday.org/ , use Google to search for “National Public Gardens Da...