In Praise of Imperfection

Don't fear mistakes.  There are none"          --Miles Davis

I disappear from the online world for weeks sometimes, and it is usually for two reasons:

My parenting life--the creative chaos of three middle school aged children.

Or my creative life.  The necessity of space for making.

For the past few months it has been both.  Plus the ending and beginning of Magnetize Studio seasons, the vagaries of cleaning up last year's messes, the daily work of Spirited Business.  But in the midst of it all I have been creating.  And I am almost done with another creation, The Moon Divas Oracle Deck.  The cards themselves are complete, the book is in draft form.  And again, as with the Guidebook, I'm not sure what to do with what I've made.

Do I self-publish again?

Do I spend rare time and energy seeking a conventional publisher this time, knowing full well I don't fit into any existing models?

Or do I cobble it together DIY style?

The thing about my work is that it is imperfect, not glossy, not professionally acceptable.  This is its draw, a naked authenticity.  The Guidebook has now sold over 1500 copies and is being translated into Croatian and Slovenian.  Its appeal, I truly believe, is its handmade imperfection.
Before clocks and calendars and measured time, we oriented ourselves by cycles.  By the rhythms of nature, the shape of the stars in the sky.  

Before third party employment became the norm, we worked at what we were drawn to.  We apprenticed.  We honed our skills.  Museums are full of imperfect creation.

Museums are full of creation.

What are you making?

Embracing the cycle as a model for time is a return to our personal time, our mythic time, our ancestral consciousness. 

Embracing imperfection as a model for creation is a return to our authenticity, our desires, our humanness.

It is a return to our perfectly imperfect selves.