September Celebration 2016: thirty days of creativity & connection
September is a month of transition. For those in the southern hemisphere, it's a time of renewal as the weather begins to warm up after a dark and cold winter; for those in the northern hemisphere, summer is winding down and we move into fall / autumn — the season of letting go.
It's a powerful time. This September is particularly cool because we begin the month and season with a new moon; a brilliant time for restarts and fresh intentions. I'll also turn 30 (!!!) and I really want to celebrate this milestone with you guys! As the big day approaches, I've been doing a bunch of reflection on the decade that was my 20's (which I'll soon share with you in a blog post) but there are a few things that stand out when I ponder this question: 'what's brought meaning to my life thus far?'
This community and everything that has grown out of this space deserves a huge mention. Prioritising creative expression and self-care, nurturing my relationships and making new ones, being of service, accepting who I am, learning how to live my life in a way that feels real and good and true... Connection, community, kindness, collaboration, creativity — these are things worth celebrating right?!
I think so. And I have you to thank for so much of it. So let's huddle together in a creative convention of sorts.
I adore participating in photo challenges and after joining Susannah Conway's August Break this year, I'm inspired to finally do one of my own, but with a twist: it's up to you how you work with the list of prompts. Photos are totally awesome (and let's be honest, they're easy and easy is good) but if you want to make a short video, write a poem, draw a quick sketch, you go for it. All forms of expression are welcome in our creative cave. The intention is simply to bring more celebration, creativity and connection to our everyday. Will you play?!
Here's how it's going to work:
Each day for the month of September we have a prompt to inspire a photo or as I said above, whatever you like, really. If you simply want to take iPhone photos, you take iPhone photos. If you want to pick a few prompts and use them to map out a short story or painting, sweet! All's good and speaking of "good", there's no pressure to make anything "good" — the joy is in the capture, the expression, the tiny and magical moment of mindfulness. You dig?-
We'll have a private Facebook group to share our images / words / whatever with each other. This will be a totally safe, non-promo space to connect. There might be some familiar faces in there, but hopefully you'll meet a few new ones too. We'll be able to share our pics on social media using the hashtag #septembercelebration16 which is a great way to find new Insty accounts to follow likeminded peeps and have others find you.-
You don't have to play everyday and you can join in whenever you like. There's no "failing" or "falling behind" and if you don't feel like sharing your captured moment, that's completely fine too.-
We'll have a giveaway at the end! I'm going to start collecting a few of my favourite things over the month and I'll use the comments section on this blog post to hold the giveaway.-
That's it really. Are you in? I hope so!
Your next steps are to leave a comment below with your name, blog and / or Instagram handle, so we can find each other. I'm over here on Instagram. Click here to request to join the Facebook group and I'll see you in there! You're welcome to share the image of prompts to recruit some pals to join you if you wish. Here's to a new season, new month and moving into the last 1/3 of 2016 with our hearts set on cultivating more celebration, creativity and connection in our everyday.
Big love!
Claire x