Creative Expressions

Creativity has always been a part of my life.

Long before I ever picked up a pen to draw a mandala or painted my first botanical watercolor, I was creating with my hands. I learned to crochet, knit, embroider, and sew as a child. Some of those skills came from family tradition. My grandmother was always working on a quilt or another handicraft. I watched my mother over her lifetime crocheting, embroidering, and creating beautiful things, and even today, at 94, she still keeps a crochet project nearby. My father worked with wood, building furniture and cabinets, always finding a way to add beauty alongside function.

Looking back, I realized I’d always woven creativity into my life.

I simply didn’t recognize all the ways it was already expressing itself.

For many years, I would have told you I was creative—but not an artist.

The mandalas were never just about learning to draw. They became another way of listening. Another way of praying. My relationship with the Goddess deepened as I danced with her through beauty, attention, and wonder.

Over time, I’ve come to believe creativity isn’t reserved for artists. It’s one way we remember ourselves.

Creativity as Sacred Practice

Throughout the temple, I often write about living where the sacred and the ordinary are no longer separate.

For me, creativity is one place those two worlds meet. Sometimes that looks like writing an essay. Sometimes it appears as a mandala or a watercolor painting. Other times, it’s expressed through designing a website, stitching embroidery, creating a guide, or simply arranging flowers on a table.

The form matters far less than the relationship.

When we create, we’re participating in something much older than ourselves.

We’re paying attention.

We’re listening.

We’re allowing beauty to take shape through our own hands.

I’ve discovered that creating doesn’t require certainty. It only asks us to begin.

A Living Gallery Celebrating Creativity

This page is a collection of some of the ways I’ve expressed my creativity.

You’ll find mystical mandalas, botanical paintings, fiber arts, and other creative projects from different seasons of my journey. Each reflects where I was at that moment and what was asking to be brought into the world.

As time goes on, this gallery will continue to grow.

I’d also love for it to become something more than a collection of my own work.

One of my greatest joys is seeing how other women make something uniquely their own. One mandala colored by several women looks completely different as they add their own creative expression.

As readers color pages in my coloring books, I hope to share some of their creations here—with permission—as a celebration of the many beautiful ways creativity expresses itself.

The same design, expressed through many hands, imaginations, and expressions of beauty.

An Invitation

Whether you already think of yourself as creative, or you’re quietly wondering if that part of you waits beneath the surface all along, I hope this room encourages you. This is an invitation to play and pay attention to whatever is calling you to express in your own creative way.

It doesn’t have to become a masterpiece, be shared, or even be called art.

Perhaps it simply needs to be made.

Because sometimes the act of creating isn’t about producing something beautiful.

Sometimes it’s about remembering the beauty living within us—and that it’s been there all along.

Creative Gallery

Click on an image to discover the story behind it.