I recently wrote, in a post called “Time to Grow,” about breaking conventions from the busy-ness of our days, from the norms society puts on us to just do things, rather than take time to think about the things we do. One way I apply that time to think and Read more…
Sometimes I use the tag #showyourwork. It came from the mind of the writer and artist Austin Kleon. He popularized the idea in his 2014 book, Show Your Work. With that book Kleon suggests: “ … ways to think about your work as a never-ending process, how to build an Read more…
We’re taught to go, go, go and that hard work in the office means being busy. Down time to create space to feel into great ideas is looked at as laziness, non-work. By focusing on the whip-crack of the punch-clock and the pressure of social norms, we forget to breathe. Read more…
As I huffed my way up a muddy mountain trail, out for what I will generously call a run, I tried a new approach to motivation. Rather than let my mind dig in with the “It’s OK to walk” talk … Rather than try to drive myself with ideas of Read more…
I’ve talked twice recently with longstanding professional artists about legacy. Floyd Tunson and Mark Wong both shook off the idea of their work in that longest view. They work for themselves, their visions, and let the rest play out as it will. In recent months, I’ve transitioned from the workaday Read more…
Creative people create. It comes out sooner or later. It’s who we are. We are made, and we make. I was reminded of that universally human piece of myself when I recently found stashes of haiku, poetry and watercolors I’d created nearly 10 years ago. They were boxed and forgotten. Read more…
Words come. Wherever I am. Sometimes I let them in, we sit down together, I listen. I wish I could capture them all. It is amazing, though, how creative work adds up by just letting in these moments. The poet Carl Sandburg is well-known for his 21-word poem, “Fog.” The Read more…
Why Exhibit Art? Three portraits I’ve made during Humanitou conversations with fantastic people in our community, Manitou Springs, CO, are on exhibit through the end of July in the First Amendment Gallery of the Manitou Art Center. (Thank you to Layla Redding, Floyd Tunson and Peter Maksimow.) This work is Read more…
Off the Mat: Writing Yoga Many are familiar with yoga as a physical practice, or asana. The power of yoga, however, is in how we walk with it when we’re off the mat. Actually, many of the practices occur wholly away from a yoga mat. I use writing as a Read more…
Life is a practice, action ever in progress. Whatever loops we live, the habits we reinforce, are our practices incomplete and always in motion. Good or bad. There are many forms of practicing our best selves, and they are not mutually exclusive. Sing with what rings to you. Speaking to Read more…
Introducing Echoes of Oms Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra I.1 atha yoganusasanam “Now this is yoga as I have observed it in the natural world.” There are nine short poems in the Echoes of Oms chapbook. These, and the monochromatic photographs that accompany them, come from experience in the natural Read more…
Any given creative work is what it’s meant to be in its time. Its value, meaning and purpose will shift over time. Let that be about learning and growth, rather than self-limitation. Let it all be about service, to self and others, rather than ego. The energy of creativity — Read more…
The Yoga of Morning Pages Buckle up. The bus is about to jump the curb. Morning pages, as popularized by Julia Cameron in “The Artist’s Way,” are for brain letting, getting out what holds us back — doubts, goals, joys, fears — at the beginning of our day. They are Read more…
UPDATED (5.8.20) Humanitou transitioned from text-based interviews to podcast in March 2020. It also expanded beyond the Pikes Peak region in Colorado, where it was born to include diverse voices and stories from around the world. [Through Humanitou] Adam invites guests to share their perspectives and experiences of humanness and Read more…
Those who follow Humanitou on Instagram and/or Facebook know I was in Vietnam recently. It was the first international vacation my wife, Becca, and I have taken, and without our kids, in 10 years. Things have changed for us about the experience of travel but not the reasons for it. Read more…
Boiohaemum is back. My blue-and-white 1975 Volkswagen Type II … that is, a bus, van, camper, kombi, transporter … whatever you, personally, call these versatile icons. He has risen from the darkness of a storage shed. With him, the stories. Boio and I once shared a summer roaming up, down Read more…
I’ve always said I can’t draw. I’m sure I’m not the only one who sets that limit on him/herself. And I’ve always wanted to draw. I’ve always wanted to be an artist, to feel confident identifying myself as an artist. But, like many, I’ve been fed definitions of what being Read more…
There’s a haven for the childhood spirit in downtown Manitou Springs: the Penny Arcade. The first several times I went there with my two young sons was a couple winters ago. We’d be up early, as is our collective family habit for now, and so we’d often have the outdoor Read more…
The summer jungle at Arapahoe Basin has taken over the slopes. I don’t easily recognize spots where my family and I spent last winter’s days gliding on planks of one kind or another. The thick plant life that tangles some of the runs is fed by snowmelt. Seasonal creeks Read more…
The childhood rite of passage that is a lemonade stand in summer is one I never passed as a child. Recently, at 41, I was part of my first stand. It was my boys’. It had been an idea that kept rearing its head since last summer, one I wouldn’t Read more…