I read in our local paper that yesterday was SWAN Day, (Support Women Artists Now) an international day of celebrating the creativity of women in the arts. Is this a thing? I guess so, even though I hadn’t heard of it before.  When I looked it up, articles on the Internet said it is actually on March 26th. A local celebration was being held in the Hartford, CT area. It seems there are celebrations around the US throughout the month of March.

I don’t know how international SWAN truly is. Can anyone shed any light on this for me please? Have you heard of it?  Is this celebrated in your area, or in your country, if you don’t live in the United States?

Now I am all for shining the spotlight on women and their talents, be they visual artists, authors, poets, dancers, photographers, jewelry makers, etc. I also  want to shine a spotlight on women who don’t necessarily create art, but who still live life in creative ways.

Personally, I believe that the majority of women happen to be creative in a multitude of ways.  I hope you don’t find this post too sexist. It isn’t my intention to be.  I don’t mean that men don’t possess the qualities or abilities I mention here, but I want to focus on women today.

Every woman may not see herself as a creative individual, but if she thinks about it, creative and woman are almost synonymous.

So on SWAN day, or SWAN month, or whenever you choose to celebrate, how about also celebrating the average woman (whatever that is) who is not an artist in the typical sense, but who exhibits creativity, sometimes out of necessity,  and even sometimes of boredom too?

What about the woman who is raising a family on a tight budget and who ends up with more month than money? This woman knows how to make “stone soup”, how to create something belly-filling out of practically nothing. I bet there are men who know how to do this too, but again, today I am talking about women.

This woman (and I have been one myself, and have known many) can take odds and ends out of a cupboard and come up with an interesting, and even nutritious meal for her family. This same woman knows how to fix a disastrous dish that somehow didn’t come out as planned. She can come up with just the right ingredient or hack, to camouflage the defect, and to make the dish palatable. Or she can give it an interesting name to cover up what it actually is, like my fruited meatballs con caffe in spicy coconut-cashew sauce that I made once in the 60’s. It was a huge hit and guests requested seconds and thirds. You don’t want to know what it really was, but I’ll give you a hint. It involved a chain fast-food restaurant called Doggie Diner, and my misunderstanding about some extremely inexpensive meat I bought in bulk (about 10 pounds) at a local supermarket advertising it as Doggie Diner Special.

How about the woman whose kids have had a long vacation and are bored to the point of making her tear her hair out of her head, or who are engaged in bloody hand-to-hand combat with each other right in the other room?  She may not be a painter or an artist of any kind, but how many times has she come up with a fun strategy with which to divert her kids? Maybe it’s stringing necklaces of pasta shapes, making homemade play dough, or a picnic on the living room floor on a miserable, rainy day.

What about the woman in today’s business world?  Many of the things that women do best are finally being valued and recognized.  So many women have had to use their creative survival skills and to  multi-task in their personal lives. Nowadays, especially in the competitive, cost-conscious business world, people who are creative thinkers, have strong intuition, (and who trust their own intuition) who know how to recognize new avenues and opportunities, who are good at relationship-building, and collaboration, and who are adaptable, are models for what successful businesses need in the 21st Century.

Are you a creative, adaptable woman?  Are you someone who doesn’t create art but who uses your creativity every day?  Are you the kind of woman I love to work with in my coaching practice?…A Creative Survivor? Do you know and value a woman like this?

Let’s shine a spotlight then on you, and women like you, along with the writers, and painters, dancers, and other wonderful artists we are acknowledging on SWAN Day, in the month of March!

Do you need some help reinventing yourself, and finding your inner courage? Are you going through, or wanting to make a difficult life, or relationship  change?  Have you experienced a lot of loss?   I am here to help. Let’s have a chat about it.

Iris Arenson-Fuller, PCC, CPC  is a life coach, mom, grandma, former adoption agency founder and director, poet/writer. She helps people with grief, loss, tough life changes and adoption loss issues too. Her clients are usually midlife women, widows and Baby Boomer women, though she can work with men and with anyone who resonates with her approach.

Iris does private coaching by Zoom, and runs moderate cost groups, via phone and Internet.

She can be found on Facebook (facebook.com/visionpoweredcoaching), Twitter and at her web site. 

Contact me:

ir**@vi*******************.com