Discovering Creativity and Meaning at Midlife and Beyond
February 8, 2016
With her usual enthusiastic, motivational tone, Cameron (The Artist’s Way) encourages individuals who are closing major chapters of their lives and moving into retirement to embrace the adventures that these years bring. With helpful sections on topics such as reinvigorating a sense of wonder, adventure, and purpose, Cameron offers a 12-week course, providing four basic tools for each week. She recommends writing three pages of longhand every morning in a private journal, letting the mind wander. Cameron also suggests making an “artist date” once a week, attending an event alone and exploring what delights your inner artist. As part of this course, she also recommends working on a memoir—a weekly process that allows readers to revisit different periods in their lives—as well as a twice-weekly solo walk to open space in the mind. During each week, Cameron provides questions and reflections that help guide the process. While Cameron’s repetitious and simplistic method may put some people off, her sincere spiritual cheerleading will likely motivate many individuals to find the creative sparks to light up the next phase of their lives.
April 15, 2016
Creativity guru Cameron of The Artist's Way (1992) fame, whose most recent book is The Creative Life (2010), adds to her impressive output30 books about art, spirituality, and prayer, as well as fiction, plays, and poetryand stands as living proof that a lifelong quest for expressing one's self can be rewarding. Cameron, with coauthor Lively, addresses adults well into life here, suggesting ways to reignite one's senses in order to embark on life's second acts. She begins with one principle: Creativity is the natural order of life. For best results, she reemphasizes her well-known discipline of writing Morning Pages and delineates 12 redevelopments of our emotions and circumstances: of wonder by recalling childhood experiences, of freedom with the increased independence of retirement, of connection with people we actively choose, and, most importantly, of faith. Organized into a 12-week program designed to help individuals define and re-create their lives in middle age and beyond, Cameron's guide offers useful assigned tasks (warning: these include fill-in writing exercises), making this a must-read for all hoping to enhance their creativity in all aspects of life.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)