Creative Living Archives - Allison Crow /category/creative-living/ Self Leadership Coaching for Midlife Humans Sun, 02 Nov 2025 16:55:20 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.3 /wp-content/uploads/2017/06/cropped-Square-Yellow-Heart-Logo-1-32x32.jpg Creative Living Archives - Allison Crow /category/creative-living/ 32 32 Allison Crow true episodic Allison Crow allicrow@gmail.com © 2017-2024 Allison Crow © 2017-2024 Allison Crow podcast Creative Living Archives - Allison Crow /wp-content/uploads/2026/01/WILD-EDGES-2026-1.png /category/creative-living/ TV-14 Leave a Tip for the Podcast! Leave a Tip for the Podcast! Allison Crow Elyse Rich Take Time to Look (& Listen) /take-time-to-look-listen/ Wed, 21 May 2025 15:32:36 +0000 / The last thing I want to do when life feels SLOW is slow down even more. Many months ago, I came across this painting by Sarah Bamford Seidelmann. It landed in my feed, and I instantly purchased a wood print from her. It has been over my left shoulder, helping me remember who I am, […]

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The last thing I want to do when life feels SLOW is slow down even more. Many months ago, I came across this painting by Sarah Bamford Seidelmann. It landed in my feed, and I instantly purchased a wood print from her. It has been over my left shoulder, helping me remember who I am, since I unpacked it.

“Take time to look,” said Georgia O’Keeffe. My own brain also added, “Take time to listen.”


Allison holding a wood print by Sarah Bamford Seidlemann of with an image of Georgia O'Keeffe and the words ,"take time to look" painted multiple times.

The impossible standards conditioned into my brain expected insight and direction in a flash. My soul knows better, but that did not stop so many parts of me from being irritated, frustrated, self-blaming & shaming, and even afraid.

The vision, the next, the path… has been right here all along in dozens of tiny puzzle pieces. Thirty years ago, soul seeds were planted when I discovered the work of Thomas Moore in a Boulder, Colorado bookstore.

I KNEW.
I’ve always known, and of course, like many of us do, I’ve been distracted in the living of life, in the unbecoming of my training, and in the gaining of wisdom that only experience can bring. Of course, this had to wait until my 3rd Act.

It’s all here.
No big flash today, just stepping forward into the re-enchantment of everyday life from a grounded, weathered, and strangely confident place.

I’ve always known and now itโ€™s time to harvest what has been reblooming all along.

The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life” gave me permission to have a diverse portfolio of interests and expertise from my early 20s. A scholar, teacher, counselor, psychologist, spiritual student, poet, artist, writer, another kind of mother, and tender of souls in life and work.
The Education of the Heart” and “Elemental Self.โ€ (All by Thomas More and all on my shelf for 25-30 years).

My own company, Soul-Full Living, LLC – although my business has evolved over the years, SOUL-FULL remains the guiding path. SELF connection and trust amidst an enticing and distracting world are still the fuel.

The Great Work of Your Life by Stephen Cope, and my own book Unarmored: Finding Home in the Wild Edges of Being Human.

I could list 132 more puzzle pieces that have come together to undoubtedly show me that my mission is in moments, not in moonshots or impact.

In a world of volatility, uncertainty, and complexity, being connected to self, source, and the present moment matters. Intentional living, community, and expression of creativity, poetry, nature, caring conversations, and everyday enchantment – this is the world I am committed to creating.

Take time to look. Take time to listen. Trust yourself. Let it take time.

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Do your Leaders Invite You to Self Trust Like Rick Rubin (And Me) /do-your-leaders-invite-you-to-self-trust-like-rick-rubin-and-me/ Thu, 22 Aug 2024 14:35:00 +0000 / SELF- Trust:   As a coach- my clients often hear me say:   You can accept, modify, or reject Iโ€™ll lay this idea/suggestion on the table, and you can pick it up or leave it there. I am not the boss of you. I believe in you. I have some really good ideas and connection […]

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SELF- Trust:
 
As a coach- my clients often hear me say:
 
๐Ÿ’› You can accept, modify, or reject
๐Ÿ’› Iโ€™ll lay this idea/suggestion on the table, and you can pick it up or leave it there.
I am not the boss of you. I believe in you. I have some really good ideas and connection and protection strategies to share – but you are the ultimate authority on you.
 
My friend Justin mentioned this book by Rick Rubin recently- and Iโ€™ve been mainly listening – but this morning, I opened the hardback- and loved this invocation for the reader to use what is helpful and let go of the rest.
๐Ÿ’›
 
 
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Scribble Days are More Than Good Enough /scribble-days-are-more-than-good-enough/ Fri, 27 Oct 2023 15:07:27 +0000 / Despite what the gurus and social feeds suggest, it can be pretty scribbly to do the nurturing practices that support us. Some days it IS easy – and just know that if some days, it feels more like this photo – you are not alone. It is normal to NOT want to move your body, […]

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Despite what the gurus and social feeds suggest, it can be pretty scribbly to do the nurturing practices that support us. Some days it IS easy – and just know that if some days, it feels more like this photo – you are not alone.

It is normal to NOT want to move your body, or do your creative things, or take the extra steps of genuine

An intricate mandala coloring page with orange scribbles all over it instead of being colored in neatly

ly compassionate care when you are down. And down is not a moral failure.
Down is not a moral failure.
Down is not a moral failure.
Down is not a moral failure.

Sometimes is biological, or chemical, or circumstantial, or just time to rest more than your brain thinks is necessary.

I MADE myself walk today. More often than not, I’ve dragged myself to my creative practice a la War of Art.
Cheers and love to any of my fellow humans in a scribble season.

#nurturingpractices #walkeveryday #createdaily #restoften #warofart #humaning #selfcompassionjourney

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In a Romantic Relationship with My Desk Why Yes /in-a-romantic-relationship-with-my-desk-why-yes/ Wed, 28 Jun 2023 14:56:06 +0000 / She’s lived in every home I’ve owned and briefly been loaned to each of my husbands as I experimented with other working spaces (does anyone remember my haunted antique lawyer d esk?). She is back in my space, my studio, my office, and deeply in my heart at this moment. Fall in love – like […]

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Creative living - photo of 1997 pottery barn wood desk with all my creative tools and technology
She’s lived in every home I’ve owned and briefly been loaned to each of my husbands as I experimented with other working spaces (does anyone remember my haunted antique lawyer d

esk?). She is back in my space, my studio, my office, and deeply in my heart at this moment.

Fall in love – like real love, be in a relationship with a block of wood and two clunky iron thingys that hold the wood for a desk?
 
Completely and utterly.
 
This morning she is strewn with remnants of my pencil case carried to the Elizabeth Gilbert Rob Bell thing in the woods of the Hudson Valley in NY. Three lip glosses claim their parallel space between the pens and paint brushes – all beloved and daily used tools of my creativity.
 
How do I know I’ve fallen in love with this inanimate – but is she really an inanimate object EVERY time I sit here, my whole body feels an openness and clear-like-fresh-spring-water LOVE. We’ve built this over time. My trust, once given freely from immaturity, now takes time to build, and this desk and I have some serious time on task BECOMING together. Tears well up and let me know I am alive and I feel. Maybe it’s the menopause, but I’m pretty sure it is the love and life and work and creation this desk, and I have shared.
 
Today she holds my book stacks and a freshly lit “Ancient Tome” candle made by my former client, Michelle.
 
Yesterday, she held me as I went super deep on 3 different coaching calls that I truly felt helped my clients. New rosemary mint hair oil to soothe my menopausal itchy scalp, 4 different eyeglass cleaners, and all the computers and technologies that

 allow me to share my heart, show my work, and connect with you from the calm safety of my own home. How could I not be in love This desk and I have stories to tell.
 
And so we will.

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Wishing we could co-work together /wishing-we-could-co-work-together/ Fri, 26 May 2023 14:56:18 +0000 / Sometimes I wish I had a second desk in here so you could come over. We could body double and co-work from the same space. I want you to get to feel the same twinkle of joy when you sit down here at your workspace. Words and book friends and journals. Notes from therapy sessions. […]

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Sometimes I wish I had a second desk in here so you could come over. We could body double and co-work from the same space. I want you to get to feel the same twinkle of joy when you sit down here at your workspace.
Words and book friends and journals. Notes from therapy sessions.
Pink lilies galore and stainless steel colorful water cups, and ancient time candles burning.
Black micron pens in 4 different sizes and a slew of paint brushes and watercolors.
Nail polish and eyeglasses cleaner, and an oxygen meter. Slivers of gold on papers tucked and stacked, some relegated to the recycle bin.
 
Sending you love from my open heart at my deskโ€”- May it land in your office, and space and heart if that feels good to you. ๐Ÿ’›๐ŸŒธ
From my desk May 23, 2023 – allison crow creative living

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