The Creative Process: The Purpose of Pauses

In a "previous life" of about a dozen years or so ago I was a painter. Not a house painter but an artist painting in oils. Had a show and was experiencing a let down afterward so called a woman who was a cracker jack painter of long standing whom I respected to no end. Mary listened to me whine for a tolerable amount of time and then said simply, "Even the fields go fallow." Yeah, give it a rest.

Mary was wise in the ways of nature and looked there for direction on solving many of life's problem. I thought and thought about the fields going fallow and how it was nature's way to rest and get all systems ready for the work that would follow, like the spring and summer follow the resting time of winter. Before our conversation ended she said: now go be useful to yourself, rest, and then when you're ready, clean something.

My friend Mary intended that I take a well deserved rest after my show and then start the whole creative cycle all over again by cleaning my studio. I still follow that work pattern to this day. I'll chug along on a project, mostly genealogy stuff, and conclude the work, then take a short break. When I come back the first thing I do is get organized, make notes in the clear light of a new dawn, and outline what to do next. I clean as I go:)

In my last post I mentioned Eric Maisel's book, Fearless Creating, which I like very much as well as the other of his book about the creative process on my bookshelf, A Life in the Arts. They have both been helpful in my coming to a greater understanding of how things work. One of the most useful concepts for me is the concept, and a chapter title, "Hushing and Holding". In a nutshell Maisel gives direction that at the start of a new cycle or project it is helpful to simply hold the concept of the project within, not talk or write about it for a bit, and hold that thought. In the pause the concept will form itself. The mind will continue to work and resolve conflict, organize purpose, and solidify the squishy without too much effort on our part... while we go clean something.

He's a link to Maisel's book list in case you're interested: http://ericmaisel.com/books/

Hushing and Holding has been part of my work habit since I first read Maisel's words. It really works well for me even though it feels awkward not to dive in, make lists and email at least five people;) Sometimes it's hard for me to resist the urge to jump into action and "get 'er done".

I once chatted about this way of approaching the work with a renown artists I know well and he said, "Oh I never talk about my projects until they are started and the first brush strokes down on canvas. It erodes the energy to talk about it too early. Keep yourself to yourself."

This is very true of the creative process, I've found. There will be time once I have the project firmly in my mind for bouncing ideas off others and researching various strategies, but only after the real concept is so solid that I can write it down in a short paragraph.

It's the start of the new year and a good time to take stock of my genealogy projects... and clean up the stacks of papers gathering at my ankles. May we all be just a bit better and happier in our ancestral pursuits this time around!

Photo of the day from the Archive:

 

Rose Hill, the lands of my Porter ancestors
located in Western Maryland not far from the town of Frostburg.
A good place to sit, hush and hold.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-creative-process-purpose-of-pauses.html

SNGF: Ancestor Roulette!

Randy Seaver's bolg post for this week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun is called Ancestor Name Roulette. (find it at: http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/08/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-ancestor.html )  Now doesn't that sound cool?! Sign me up!

Here's part of Randy's SNGF post for Ancestor Name Roulette:
1) What year was one of your great-grandfathers born? Divide this number by 50 and round the number off to a whole number. This is your "roulette number."
2) Use your pedigree charts or your family tree genealogy software program to find the person with that number in your ancestral name list (some people call it an "ahnentafel"). Who is that person, and what are his/her vital information?
3) Tell us three facts about that person in your ancestral name list with the "roulette number."

OK, so here we go:) First step: pick a GGF. I picked my paternal GGF, Gustav Zeller born in Frostburg, Maryland in 1858. 1858 divided by 50 is 37, and that's my roulette number.

Second step: Using my Family Tree Maker software I ran an Ahnentafel report and checked out number 37. It's Delilah Porter! Delilah Porter was born 1812 in the general area of Eckhart, Maryland and died 1881 in that same place. She married Jacob Eckhart, born 1812 who died 1836, also in Eckhart.

Now, Delilah Porter has been a brick wall for Mom and I. Mom has investigated every nook and cranny containing records in Western Maryland, gone to every repository looking for her. Believe me, Mom knows this territory... and all the people at the front desk:) She came up empty for poor Delilah.

What we did know is pretty skimpy: birth and death year. Luckily she married a prominent resident of the area who left a pretty good paper trail and a dandy probate record. In it Josiah Porter was named the guardian of Jacob Eckhart and Delilah's children. This Josiah Porter was a thin thread linking Delilah to her family but it was just about all we had to go on.

So here are three facts about Delilah Porter of which we are sure:
1. Her husband was Jacob Eckhart (1812 - 1836, son of John Eckhart (1768 - 1835) and grandson of George Adam Eckhart (1729 - 1806).
2. Delilah Porter Eckhart and Jacob Eckhart had two children, a son John Eckhart (1831 - 1917) from which I'm descended, and a daughter Rachael Eckhart Anderson (1829 - 1895).
3. After Delilah's husband Jacob died she married for a second time to James Anderson (1818 - 1860). They had an additional 8 children.

For extra credit and to win the trivia prize (in my head), Delilah's presumed father Gabriel MacKenzie Porter (1776- 1842) married a second time to Sarah Anderson... and that's a whole bunch of Andersons right there, if you ask me!

Below you'll find a previous blog post about how Mom and I narrowed down possible family connections for Delilah using information contained in the book, "A genealogy of the Porter family of Maryland, West Virginia, Michigan," by Samuel Doak Porter. We each worked on our own and came to the exact same conclusion. Now as a relative newbie, I don't trust my results but I  sure trust Moms, not just because she's Mom but because she's been doing this since the early 1970s:)

http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2012/06/delilah-porters-parentage-good-luck.html

In a nutshell, we think that Josiah Porter named in the will was her brother. And if so that gives us a whole other window into the Porter clan and more family connections.

Thanks, Randy! That was fun:)

The Old Porter Cemetery.

A view from the Rose Hill, the Porter Property of old.
The site of old house (pictured below) sits to the right of this view.

 

"Independance (Squire Jack Porter)"
a painting by Frank Blackwell Mayer,

Now in the Smithsonian.
Squire Jack at home in Rose Hill.
Squire Jack was Gabriel's brother.
Gabriel is our most likely candidate for Delilah's father.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2012/08/sngf-ancestor-roulette.html