WEATHER - part 2: Aloe Vera in the Snow

PLANNING FOR THE DOWN TIMES IN OUR CREATIVE CYCLES

Last winter we had snow. Hardest in our garden were the succulents particularly our, beloved aloe vera plants. Out of the six or seven large healthy plants only two survived. One that was in a pot in the patio which we brought inside and another that was planted very close to our back wall.

Snow is highly unusual where we live but the winter was already proving very cold and with a bit of foresight it wasn't that difficult to see that snow was a strong possibility. With some advance planning we might have been able to save more of the aloe vera plants - either digging them right up and over-wintering them in pots inside or looking for some way to create protective coverings over them to stop the jelly inside the leaves freezing and stacking up mulch round the base to keep the roots warm.

Likewise with our own creative cycles, we have to know that there WILL be times when our confidence is at a low ebb or our productivity slows almost to a standstill and be ready with strategies to protect our fragile creative egos so that they survive the winter ready to bloom again when better weather comes. These strategies are very similar to those we use for our delicate plants - protection, feeding and sometimes a gentle pruning.

Protection
Protection means a controlled environment where we feel safe. For some that means the privacy of our journal or our studio where we can doodle and play; for others it is the supportive environment of a group of fellow creatives (on-line or round the corner) or even a combination of both.

Feeding
There are many ways to feed and fertilize our creative souls which vary hugely from person to person. For some it is time spent out in nature, for others it is out on the town. For some, immersing ourselves in other people's creative work does the trick, for others the exact opposite is true and what we need is to just be still and listen to our own creative voice. A rest or a holiday when we don't expect anything of ourselves creatively may produce the desired result or it may be frenetic activity or a tight deadline that gets our creative juices flowing again. Only we can know the answer to what cures and heals us and fills us up and its up to us to determine the correct recipe and feed it to ourselves.

Pruning
When the health of a plant is threatened sometimes it is best to prune it back so the small amount of energy it does have isn't dissipated in trying to repair dying branches. Likewise when our creative energy is at a low ebb, it is often beneficial to cut back on our expectations and responsibilities, identifying the projects that we could stop working on right away with no serious consequences and so freeing ourselves to concentrate more consistently on just a few things.

Watching our own creative cycles we can learn to recognize the danger points and plan for lapses in our creative confidence and productivity in the way we plan for extreme weather conditions in our garden. Its no use just hoping for the best and leaving vulnerable plants out in the snow!

Next week: Transplanting to a bigger pot - but only by a waning moon!