Results for "creativity"
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Turning setbacks into comebacks is something Amy Purdy has done over and over. After losing both her legs in a near-death battle with a bacterial blood infection with only a 2% chance of survival—she somehow made it. And has continued to astound the world with ongoing achievements as an athlete, dancer and motivational speaker. At the 2018 Paralympics in South Korea, Amy added a bronze and a silver to her collection, making her, at the time, the most decorated Paralympic snowboarder in Team USA’s history. Just days after she stepped off the Paralympic podium, she stepped onto the dance floor as the first Paralympic to compete on the TV show Dancing With the Stars. With her partner Derek Hough, they went all the way to the finals coming in runner-up and inspiring millions worldwide, breaking boundaries and showcasing the power of creativity and the human spirit. As an internationally-recognized motivational speaker, Amy travels around the globe speaking, frequently as the first woman to keynote for many brands. Amy speaks to leading corporations and organizations like Disney, Berkshire Hathaway, the World Health Organization, Toyota, Microsoft, Coca-Cola, SAP, and Dell. And the astounding accomplishments continue with film, advertising and Amy’s first memoir, On My Own Two Feet, quickly became a New York Times Bestseller and has been published around the world in ten different languages. Amy’s greatest desire was to have a second chance at life. Her inspiring example and achievements in face of near insurmountable obstacles now give each of us a second chance with our challenges. Sometimes that is all we need.
While America was struggling to define its independence in the late 1700s, the upper echelons of European society were exploding with creativity. In a small Austrian town, a young musical prodigy was performing in the court chapel. The boy was studious and serious. He was taught by his father until the age of 11, when he was shipped away to Vienna to further his studies.
This young Ludwig Van Beethoven would soon impress his teachers and begin a creative streak that would last decades. His foster family provided the love and support Ludwig had not gotten from his alcoholic father. This love brought out the best in the young man. He composed pieces for piano and organ and, by age 20, had full symphonies at his command. He studied with the famous composer Franz Joseph Haydn, and when Mozart passed away at a young age, Beethoven was seen as the creative heir apparent.
Yet, because he was strapped for money, he spent a great deal of his time teaching and performing. This experience helped shape his work ethic as well as his musical breadth. He played the violin and the viola as well as the piano, organ and harpsichord. His experience on stage gave him a great sense of how music moves an audience, how certain notes carry in large spaces, how rhythms and tones evoke emotions. And his disciplined approach to the technique and mathematics of composition would carry him through his later life.
In his mid-twenties, Beethoven began to lose his hearing. The grand and lively compositions turned more melancholy. His work became more introspective. Unable to converse, he withdrew from a public that had no way of accommodating the deaf. Beethoven retreated to the countryside.
“How delighted I shall be to ramble for a while through bushes, woods, under trees, through grass, and around rocks,” he wrote of his migration.
Nature made no requirements of him. His senses were filled with the colors, the breezes and shadows, the changing seasons and temperatures. He composed what he was feeling straight from the heart, relying on his brilliance as a technician to pen whole symphonies without being able to hear a single note. In his soul, he could feel what he was writing. And he could see the reaction of those who heard it. Perhaps the deafness awakened in him a deeper sense of what music can do for our souls, how it connects us, uplifts and inspires, teaches and consoles.
The last piece Beethoven composed before he died was Symphony No. 9 in D Minor: Ode to Joy. It begins with a simple refrain, a summer sun crowning the horizon. Each instrument picks up the refrain, adds to it, lifts it higher, a chorus of strings bursting into full daylight, full fields of flowers, dew rising to the heavens, the mist parted by the sun, the full joy of life in concert, each worthy of a note, a story, our complete attention.
Orchestrate Joy… PassItOn.com®
The story of Phillis Wheatley and how she overcame the scrutiny of 18 men deemed “the most respectable characters in Boston” to publish a book of poetry that lives on today
Phillis Wheatley was sold into bondage at the age of 7 in the area of Senegal and Gambia. She made her way to Boston on a slave ship called the Phillis, and thus that became her first name. She was sold to a merchant named John Wheatley, who needed a servant for his wife, hence her last name, Wheatley.
Phillis showed incredible intellectual abilities and was tutored by Susanna Wheatley, the merchant’s wife, who educated her in several languages. Phillis was particularly fond of poetry and at the age of 12 began reading the English poet Alexander Pope. She loved his writing. She loved the beauty of words and their multiple meanings and the way, when strung together, they create deep emotions. So she began writing her own poems, and at age 13, became the first published African American poet. The year was 1767.
Phillis Wheatley became the symbol of anti-slavery for abolitionists who pointed to her literary prowess, yet no publishers would take on the project of her anthology. That is, until she traveled to England with the Wheatleys, and several wealthy patrons took interest in her work. One publisher committed to publish her work if it could be proven that Phillis was actually the author.
Upon her return home, a jury of 18 literary men were chosen to judge whether or not the 18-year-old African American woman was a fraud. Imagine being put on trial for the works of your heart. Phillis captured the fire of existence and creativity in bondage. “Imagination! who can sing thy force?/Or who describe the swiftness of thy course?” she wrote.
The panel of “men of respectable character” were impressed in their interviews with Phillis Wheatley. She won them over, and her anthology was published as “Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral.”
Soon after its publication, the Wheatleys emancipated Phillis, yet her career was interrupted by the Revolutionary War. She wrote of George Washington: “Proceed, great chief, with virtue on thy side Thy every action let the goddess guide.”
The words we choose can be inspiring to those around us. They uplift and provide a higher voice that guides us to places yet to be imagined.
Express Yourself... PassItOn.com®
Penny Doerge should have had a normal childhood, hanging out with friends and growing into adulthood before thinking about how she could change the world. But at an early age, Penny was diagnosed with neurofibromatosis, a condition that causes tumors and can lead to brain cancer.
The prognosis was not good. But Penny had a life to live and refused to live it in darkness. In fact, she chose to spread light to everyone around her.
During the pandemic, Penny created a series of small gatherings called adventure camps for the neighborhood kids. Each child had a COVID test at the door, and then the fun began. It was Penny’s way of creating connections to overcome isolation. For those who couldn’t attend, she made funny TikTok videos and shared her artwork for those who couldn't attend. She loved to use her creativity to make ordinary things beautiful.
When it was time for another surgery — she had 15 in all — Penny would go about it in a businesslike manner. No complaining, no crying, just get through it and get back to living. Her mother remembers, “Somebody said Penny was an actress and the world was her stage. She was joy personified.”
Her teachers remember her as a hardworking girl everyone wanted to be around. She was happy and beautiful and artistically gifted. And she used those attributes to lift others. “She was a little angel,” her grandfather remembers. “She was fun and happy. Penny taught us a lot.” Her father adds, “She taught us how to treat other people.
Sometimes a very special person comes into this life to remind all those around her what we should really be about. We should make time to create beauty, and to share it. Penny’s artwork made people happy. Her notes and videos made people forget about hard things and focus on good things. Her friendship brought a sense of hope to everyone who wanted to be close to her. Her pastor says, “Penny was and will continue to be a bright light for her family and friends.”
Penny died at the age of 16. “She made a choice to live her life with joy and optimism,” says her father.
That optimism continues to burn bright. Her family launched Penny’s Flight, a foundation dedicated to inspiring others to live life as she did, according to the family’s motto, “It’s not your lifespan, it’s your wingspan.” The foundation raises money for cancer research and also celebrates life by sharing the message: Spread your wings. Shine your light.
Comedian Jimmy Fallon and former NFL quarterback Eli Manning have picked up the torch of Penny’s cause. And so it glows. The brief life of a young girl touches thousands of lives and reminds us all that we can soar to new heights, no matter who we are.
Spread Your Wings... PassItOn.com®
Margery Williams was an accomplished writer and author long before she wrote “The Velveteen Rabbit.” Born in London in the summer of 1881 to a wealthy and successful lawyer, she was the youngest child. She reflected on feeling separated from her siblings on account of the age gap, “To be the youngest of a family by as much as six years is almost like being an only child.”
Williams’ father died when she was 7, and the family moved to Philadelphia. Perhaps the trauma caused her to withdraw. She found solace in writing adventure stories and companionship with her pet mice, which she kept in her dollhouse.
Her early books attempted to capture the spirit of the day, but they were never popular. She found work writing sentimental Christmas stories for a publisher in London but always felt unfulfilled to the point of despising stories that either lacked imagination or too forcefully ignored reality.
“I wanted to do something different,” she recalled, “but did not know what it should be.” She hearkened back to her childhood in Europe and the frankness of the stories she grew up on.
All this time, Williams had been raising her child, Pamela, who turned out to be an art prodigy. The creativity the mother sought was manifest in her daughter. At 12 years old, Pamela had a smashing opening at a New York gallery, where she was heralded as a brilliant young talent and sold her work to the most prestigious buyers.
Williams watched as her innocent daughter was thrust into the world of adulthood too early, an accelerated grief that all parents feel when their children grow up. The fame brought a chance opportunity. The magazine Harper’s Bazaar commissioned a story from Williams, with Pamela as illustrator. The story featured Pamela’s forgotten stuffed bunny from her abbreviated childhood. The article was a success, and Williams went to work expanding it into a book. It was published in 1922 and has been in print ever since.
What is most endearing about the book is its ability to accompany young readers and their parents through the voyage of growing-up emotions. Imagination is inherent in children. So is kindness and wonder and a sense of adventure. But as children grow, too often they become victims of logic, trying to become reasonable adults who feel the responsibility to rein in unrealistic expectations and dreams. In the view of Margery Williams, stifling imagination too early leads to an unhappy life.
“But who can say where dream ends and reality begins?” the Velveteen Rabbit asks.
It is a question we should let children discover for themselves. Like the rabbit’s, their reality is that “love is the magic that makes a thing real.”
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From blanket forts to rickety treehouses, our childhood escape pods birthed some of our fondest memories. They are where our imaginations were untethered and trusted friends joined us on fantastic adventures.
Having a space of your own means everything to a child. But for some kids, physical limitations or health sensitivities require accommodations that aren’t readily available or covered by public assistance funds. Children with spina bifida, cystic fibrosis or who require daily nurse visits are sometimes isolated. Enter Mark Ostrom and his talented team at the Joy Collaborative.
Mark Ostrom studied design and architecture, but as his career moved ahead, he felt something pushing him to do more than make a living — to find a way to give back using design as the vehicle. He watched children with disabilities struggle to attract friends to their homes and express themselves in ways their peers could. It seemed unfair and exclusionary.
“Every child should experience the joy of a space that enhances independence, encourages creativity and accommodates a friend community,” Mark says. So he went to work. “It’s definitely a passion project. I have an amazing circle of friends and volunteers who are very talented. And to see these kids blossom into confident, sharing, outgoing little humans is so worth it.”
We are blessed to be able to witness transformations in real time that are intended to shift a negative outlook to one of thriving and excitement.
Being sequestered between homes and clinic visits can be lonely, as was the case for a young girl who was the recipient of a heart transplant before she was 1 year old. Mark and his team designed and built the “Imagine Theater” in her backyard, complete with stage, theatrical lighting, wardrobe and bunk beds. It is a place where imagination takes flight for a cadre of her peers. At the center is the blonde-haired maestro creating musicals for family and friends.
“It was amazing to see her confidence grow, see her become a thriving new person in a matter of days,” Mark says.
Ten-year-old Isaac lives with cystic fibrosis. While his physical limitations may keep him from going full bore on an athletic team, getting outdoors with friends is good for him. Mark’s team built the “Secret Haven” treehouse that encourages physical exercise and provides a creative place to gather, a treetop lookout that takes Isaac’s vision beyond his physical constraints.
“Isaac comes alive in the treehouse,” Mark says. “He has a place where friends can visit, read graphic novels (over 300 were donated to the project), run the zip line circuit and just be kids.”
Research shows creative play is more than having fun. Creative play and supportive spaces benefit emotional and mental health. Joy Rooms have been built adjacent to a hospital for young burn victims to heal, and in quiet neighborhoods for victims of domestic abuse to feel safe. There’s an indoor “park” for children to support rehab and the “Brave Bear” den for a young boy who is both deaf and blind and craves sensory stimulation.
“Our mission is to create life-enriching spaces for kids,” Mark says. “Because joy should be available to everyone.”
Joy… PassItOn.com®