Month: March 2016

creativity

Wonder: The two choices we have in every moment

Christa Avampato

“In any given moment we have two options: to step forward into growth or to step back into safety.” ~Abraham Maslow

I’ve been thinking about this quote a lot lately. It seems that the older I get, the more often I have to make this choice. I’m about to enter my fearless 40s so there will be nothing but stepping forward for me. I’m sure this is going to make my life more challenging, and I’m also convinced that it’s going to make it more exciting and more rewarding in every way. No turning back now.

creativity

Wonder: Bitter or better

Christa Avampato

Next week I turn 40, and this is my greatest lesson in life so far: if something doesn’t go my way, I’ve got two choices – I can choose to let it make me bitter or make me better. In my life, most things haven’t gone my way. They went the way they had to go to turn me into the person I am. And no, that’s not necessarily fair. Sometimes it’s downright unfair, but those are the times I learn the most – about myself, about others, and about the world. And yes, that learning can be painful and disappointing, but I’m grateful, in hindsight, for every ounce of it.

On the cusp of 40, I’ve made a decision – from here on out, I’m only getting better. I don’t have time for bitter.

creativity

Wonder: Choose the battles that matter

Christa Avampato

Choices“If I gave in to silly then, I’d be giving into silly forever.” ~Norman Lear on an early stand he took with the network to defend the language in All in the Family on its very first episode

You’ve got to pick your battles, and they aren’t always the big ones. You’ve got to pick the battles that matter in meaning. Meaning correlates with significance. Every time I face a battle I have to step back and look at how it plays in the larger landscape.

I ask a lot of questions to determine significance. If I do or don’t fight, am I setting a precedent? What is actually at stake, even if it’s not immediately apparent on the surface? Who am I fighting, and why? If I do or don’t fight, will I have to compromise my personal principles and ethics? Will the outcome have a longterm impact, and if so, what is that impact? Do I care enough to fight? Am I protecting someone else who needs my protection? And let’s be honest – we can only fight so many battles with the limited amount of time we have. So for every battle I do fight, it means I have to give up fighting for something else.

This is not an easy negotiation to make. The decisions are sometimes painful and I often have to be prepared for a variety of outcomes. As I get older, the process goes faster and my choices are always better informed by the choices that have come before. No matter what the outcome of my choices, I do take time to reflect on how they went and I get down the learning from each of them. Experience is always the reward. We are our choices.

creativity

Wonder: Join Creatives Connect to meet other D.C. creatives

Christa Avampato

CS-creativityMy friend, Corrine, organizes a Facebook group that promotes monthly events and meetups for creative people in D.C. Whether you have a creative career or just enjoy going to cultural events of any kind – art in any medium, writing, music, food, etc. – this is a wonderful group to join. I’ve been going to these events since September, when Corrine started organizing it. It’s been a source of inspiration and community for me, and I’ve loved meeting people through it (including Corrine!) Join the Facebook group at this link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1005333856154073/. I hope to see you at the next event!

creativity

Wonder: Project Rubeus and the beauty of small solutions

Christa Avampato

small_better_small“The problem with history is that it usually doesn’t go back far enough.” ~Reverend James Forbes

We have a lot of great big problems in this world. Sometimes I think they’re getting bigger, more numerous, and more complex because we think that all big problems need big solutions. Lately, I’ve been challenging myself to find the smallest solutions possible, solutions that are simple, easy, elegant, and inexpensive.

Project Rubeus is a perfect example of this. I’m trying to solve the problem students face having to sift so much history to make sense of the world around them. And because time waits for no one and history is being made every day, this problem will only get more complex with each passing day.

I could develop an enormous, expensive solution that boils the ocean in search of the most distal shreds that build a cohesive story with multiple perspectives. I want to focus on finding the smallest slice of a solution that works, and then go from there. Step by step, piece by piece, word by word. That’s how all great travels start, how all great works of art get made, and how all great books get written.

Just focus on the next and smallest step, see what you find there, and proceed with love. That is enough.

creativity

Wonder: It’s okay to stop and float

Christa Avampato

shutterstockSNORKELING_122485123On Saturday morning, I went snorkeling in the ocean inlet by my hotel in Puerto Rico. Clad in slightly too-big flippers, a suction mask, and breathing tube, I proceeded to slightly hyperventilate. I didn’t learn to swim until I was 30, and the open water is still a scary, albeit magical, place for me. It’s initially disconcerting not to be able to breathe through my nose. After standing and breathing with my mask for a few minutes, I was able to calm down and get used to the altered breathing pattern. Then I was able to happily kick and float along the water’s surface in search of tropical fish and and coral tucked among the flowing sea grass.

At one point my arms and legs got tired (I had spent most of the night before on the dance floor at my friends’ wedding) so I just stopped and watched. The fish nibbled on the grass below and I just floated, all of us supported and rocked by the gentle tides of the ocean. I didn’t have to do anything in that moment except be present and observe. And it was glorious.

Now that I’m back on dry land, far away from that beautiful island, I’m trying to hold on to that lesson. Sometimes all that’s needed is our presence. Sometimes showing up makes more of a statement that any words or actions. Once in a while, it’s okay to let go and float. It’s surprising how much support we actually have all around us if we just stop and take it in.

creativity

Wonder: La Hora Loca

Christa Avampato
Screen Shot 2016-03-05 at 10.26.49 PM
Me dancing with the man on stilts during la hora loca

La hora loca is a Latino wedding tradition that reminds me of carnival. Just as the dance floor at my friends’ wedding in Puerto Rico this weekend was slowing down just a tad, a team of bold and brash drummers, followed by 2 men clad in colorful costumes on stilts, barged into the dining room. Giving out giant foam hats and head accessories, they wound their way through the tables and found the dance floor. Singing, laughing, clapping, and dancing with the crowd, they proceeded to conduct us for a solid hour in how to immerse ourselves in collective and rhythmic joy. It’s the best wedding tradition I’ve ever witnessed. It’s what a wedding, and life, is all about.

creativity

Wonder: See what you can see and do what you can do

Christa Avampato

2-24HonorLight“Open your eyes and see what you can with them before they close forever.” ~ Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See

Last night I saw my friend, Tunde, a person who shares my passion to do something good with her time and many talents. Our conversation last night reminded me from this quote of the novel All the Light We Cannot See. There is a light within all of us that spurs us to make the world around us a better place. And there are so many avenues to let that goodness shine, so many places and people that need the gifts and talents we have to offer.

Our only job is to find the path that is meant for us, the avenue on which we can be of greatest use to as many people as possible. There’s no one answer. There are many. Every morning, I wake up and say the following to myself: “thank you, and universe, please help me figure out how to help as many as I can, as much as I can, with this day.” And that’s what I intend to do. Ready? Let’s do this.

creativity

Wonder: Anyone can be anything – a lesson from Zootopia

Christa Avampato

zooTopiasmI saw an advanced screening of Zootopia last night. I hope every child, and every adult who’s a child at heart, gets a chance to see it. The message of the film—with determination and a desire to build a better world, anyone can be anything—is a message that the entire world needs now more than ever.

Too often, people are defined by their past when what counts is how we want to use our past to move forward. That gumption and passion to do something good with our lives is more powerful than we realize. Intention, backed up with a lot of elbow grease and a good heart, moves mountains. So the next time you catch yourself in a moment of self-doubt, or when someone else is doubting you, I hope you’ll pause and say these words – “I never know when to quit.” Those six words can change a life – yours.

(And just for fun, here are 20 incredible fun facts about the making of Zootopia, courtesy of our friends at Collider.com: click here.)