What if embracing your life-rhythm isn't about finding an elusive balance after all, but instead putting family and passion first and letting the rest sort itself out?
What if you only feel stuck and uninspired when you're resisting what asks to be born through you?
Alisha Sommer gently challenges us to see life in fresh light, whether through the steady gaze of her camera lens, or the vulnerable scratch of pen on paper. She is truth-teller. Beauty-seer. Light-bringer. I'm honored to feature Alisha in our latest Truth Tribe interview, published in The Phoenix Soul: Rhythm.
Asked: "How do you balance the rhythms of family life with your creative practice and profession?"
“Ha! I am never in balance. If you follow me on Instagram you will see me go through periods of extreme exhaustion and excessive output, mugs of herbal tea and unlimited pots of coffee, creativity spaced throughout the day and a load of work crammed into the late hours of night. [...] I’ve learned to create around the needs of everyone else, which is sometimes good and sometimes bad, but I know that my first job is taking care of my family. I just make sure to continue to nourish my creativity because a full creative life is a more full me . . .”
Interviewing Alisha was a particular thrill for me, since we are fellow magazine-creators. After discovering an under-representation of black women in literary magazines, Alisha was bold enough to answer the call herself. She is founding editor-in-chief of BLACKBERRY: a magazine, with the goal "to expose readers to the diversity of the black woman’s experience and strengthen the black female voice in both the mainstream and independent markets." I'm so inspired by Alisha's courage and conviction.
Asked: What encouragement would you offer TPS readers who feel creatively blocked or uninspired?
“Something that helps me is to take a moment to sit with myself and figure out what the “block” is. I put “block” in quotations because I don’t believe that we are ever uninspired or stuck, merely resistant to whatever wants to come out of us.”
What a startling and liberating thought: what will be born through us when we are willing to allow our truth to emerge?
Phoenix soul, {all} of you is welcome here, in this community of authentic connection. Dare to be bold with us. You deserve a life of meaning, depth, and tenderhearted kinship.
Join us in The Phoenix Soul: Rhythm, where you can find Alisha's full interview, along with vibrant artwork, poetry, essays, creative prompts, and more (only $6 for 60 full-color digital pages).
