Identifying Your Creative Weeds

It's easy to take things for granted when they come too easily. Let's talk about beneficial weeds and how they might relate to the ways we use our innate talents. 

Mentioned in this episode: 

Knit Camp! A supportive community filled with inspiration and learning - for knitters.

Into the Weeds by Tama Matsuoka Wong - click here for the book on Amazon

Knot Another Hat Yarn Store (Hood River, Oregon - and online)

Until next time, friend. You've got this!

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Transcript

Into the Weeds

Welcome to Good Enough Creative, a podcast for creative people. 

Well, hello again. It’s been a long time. I’m your host, Marie Greene, I’m the founder of Olive Knits and Knit Camp and the author of six knitting books. And I’m now working on my first novel… kind of foray into a different kind of writing. Lots to discuss! 

If you’re new around here, this podcast is kind of my love letter to living a creative life. I was born for a creative life – from being resourceful to being an innovator, I think it’s the legacy of my ancestors, but it’s also just the way my heart beats. And if you’re here, I bet you feel that same creative beat inside your own chest.

Beyond my internal creative rhythm, I’ve built my business around knitting and writing and coaching other creatives, but I really love all forms of creative expression. There are so many ways to spend our time artistically and to express ourselves, and I’m here for all of it. I also feel really strongly about making up our own rules as we go. In knitting, we joke about the “knitting police” and there are some folks in that industry who see things as very black and white – a right way and a wrong way, and that’s it. 

But I find that creative is more nuanced than that, and I also think we have more tools and more techniques available to us right now than at any other time in history. So it seems pretty short-sighted to me, to be too married to the idea that there’s really only one way to do things. I think there are many different paths to the same or at least the same quality of results. 

So sometimes you’ll hear me say things that might sound a little off-the-beaten-path, and you may or may not do things the same way. That’s okay. I think there are many paths that lead us to a similar place, and we’re all looking for the one that fits us best. 

I bring that up, because today I want to talk about weeds. Like, the weeds that grow between cracks in the sidewalk and in your garden and in your planter boxes. Weeds. This episode was inspired by a gardening book of the title, it’s called Into the Weeds: How to Garden Like a Forager by Tama Matsuoka Wong. I’ve been so inspired by this book that I’ve recorded two separate podcast episodes about it. One of them is today’s episode, and the other is on my private podcast called Make Yourself Known – the episode is all about creative foraging – and that podcast is available only within my Knit Camp community, which is hosted on the Thinkific platform. If you’re a knitter who loves learning and ongoing support, and that’s your cup of tea, then you might want to check out that community in the shownotes – it’s an amazing resource. But yeah, a gardening book, right? Who would have thought? Inspiration is tucked into the most interesting places.

In the book, the author talks about the hidden potential of weeds and paying attention to what is naturally growing. What is already thriving, without any extra effort? We can spend an intense amount of time and energy trying to get specific things to grow in our gardens, and weeds are over here volunteering with zero help from us, defying the odds, and growing abundantly. And some of those weeds (actually many of them) have value – they’re edible, medicinal, good for the pollinators and the soil. A great example of this is stinging nettle. It grows easily and it spreads, and it’s generally thought of as a weed. But it is so useful. It’s good for the soil – you can add it to your compost. It’s good for the pollinators. AND it has health benefits. Some people are pulling it out like it’s terrible, while other people (like me) go out of their way to plant it. Many plants are only called “weeds” because they have a mind of their own and grow where they want to grow – and because someone decided that they don’t fit a certain aesthetic. 

Rather than yanking them out and trying prevent them, what if we learn to recognize their potential and work with them in our gardens? So that’s really what this book is about, and it got me thinking. 

Now how does this relate to creativity? I bet you’re wondering. You’re like, Marie, I’m not even a gardener, what are we doing here?

And I’ll admit, maybe this idea is a stretch. BUT. Almost everything leads me back to creativity, and that’s why I started this podcast in the first place – gosh, probably 6 years ago, even though I realize I haven’t been super consistent throughout the years. But I am still here, and I guess that says something. Anyway, I really do think I can find a way to bridge almost any idea back to creativity. And this one feels really organic to me. 

Do you ever feel like you’re trying too hard? Or like your creative process feels like you’re going uphill? Maybe you’ve transferred some of that stress from other areas of your life into your creativity and now your art feels stressful, too? Sometimes I’m trying to do too much or trying to spread myself too thin or just falling out of step with whatever natural rhythm my little creative soul wants to experience. 

I think most creative people know what it feels like to be in the flow – where we’re in a place of allowing and embracing the ideas and the moment as they come. And we also know what it’s like to be really hard on ourselves, striving for a level of perfection that not only isn’t realistic, but takes the joy right out of the process.

And I was thinking the other day as I was reading this book that there are a lot of weeds in my creative practice – they’re the things that come easily to me, that I take for granted, that have value, but I dismiss them because they’ve almost become common to me. They’re not exciting like some new shiny thing that other people might be doing, but they’re reliable. And steady. And consistent. And they always grow and produce, without me having to try too hard or force anything. 

Some examples of this – just to put it in creative terms, but I think you’ll probably have your own examples that will fit here, but for me it might look like: writing a blog post or a newsletter. Teaching others. Or knitting a sweater. I do that all the time and it’s a soothing and familiar process, but it doesn’t seem like anything super fancy to me because I do it all the time. And baking bread or pressing flowers or even just knowing how to put the right words together to lift someone else’s spirits. Those might feel like small or routine things to me, but they have value. And I don’t always recognize them for that. While I’m over here looking for the big new interesting thing, I’m overlooking and probably even dismissing the strength and endurance of all these weeds that are already growing in my creative garden. 

I bet there are some things in your life that are small and simple or routine and maybe you take them for granted and don’t think they’re all that special. You might see the things that other people do or make or produce – and those seem like such a big deal compared to the things that you can do. But they’re not. We’re all in that same boat of undervaluing the things that come easily for us, and overvaluing the work of others. 

My challenge to you is to jot down a few creative things that come easily for you – and before you tell me there’s nothing, I know that’s not true. It could be anything from decorating cakes or cookies to re-upholstering furniture to painting to writing to singing to gardening – or knitting. Whatever it is. There are things that come easily to you that you may not recognize for their full potential. They’re the weeds – the stinging nettle – that have so much hidden value, and all you have to do is recognize it. And then lean into more of that. 

Just because it comes easily to you doesn’t mean it’s easy for everyone. Your weeds aren’t their weeds, I guess we could say. I think sometimes we trick ourselves into thinking that it has to be flashy or even hard in order to count, and that’s just not the case. 

So look for the creative weeds – the good ones – the ones that have hidden potential. See them for what they are and embrace them. Celebrate them. Do more with them. Whatever you do, don’t dismiss them. Don’t dismiss your talents. 

That’s my challenge to you today, my friend. Find your weeds and embrace them, as weird as that might sound. 

Until next time, you’ve got this.