It's been F I V E years since I launched a little project called
The Play Therapy Summit
I say "little project" because at the time I had no idea how popular it was going to be.
1000 people registered in the first 24 hours.
For those of you who don't know, the 2017 Play Therapy Summit was the first of its kind in the play therapy world -
20 of the best play therapy leaders offering ONLINE training for free -
Like a baby, it changed my life.
But, the writer, Elizabeth Gilbert says,
"Your creative work is not your baby.
If anything, you are its baby."
And boy, did I learn that lesson with the Play Therapy Summit.
When I thought of it as "my baby" I would get really defensive when it was criticized (which it was, big time!)
When I thought of it as my baby, I would get really protective over it.
Sometimes I was even embarrassed by it or frustrated with it.
I was attached to it, that's for sure.
I was afraid it was the only successful project I would ever have.
I wanted people to like it (
to like me).
But, when I starting looking at this creative work as the mother,
my whole world changed.
As
its baby, I was learning. I stumbled a bit.
I was putting the pieces together. It wasn't that serious. It was play.
I was just having fun with an idea (
and it was fun).
The writer,
Victoria Erickson says about your art:
"Be obsessed with creating and more creating and in keeping the fire burning and rising. Then let it go, almost like a balloon. Be completely detached with where it lands or who sees it or how many people it affects. Just completely free it from you.
Then, with empty hands, go and create something new."
So, five years later, that's what I'm doing...
I'm making little memes and random things on
my Facebook page.
And
I took one of my favorite play therapy idioms (in fact, it's one that Dr. Jodi Mullen talked about in the 2017 Play therapy summit)
and I turned it into a coloring page -
because that's what 5 year olds do.
COLOR.
Maybe you like it, maybe not.
Maybe it's popular and maybe it's not.
But, with empty hands, I'm off to create something new.
