profile

Truly Kristi

Creative Alchemy by Kristi Casey

My mission: Help people be their best selves, do their best work, and live their best lives. I’m a creative alchemist, transmuting pain into the power to change.

Posts
Featured Post

There are pharaohs everywhere

Hey Reader! As I prepare the table for Passover Seder, my mind mulls over the story we will tell later tonight: Once upon a time, there was a pharaoh who enslaved and tried to eradicate the Jewish people. Eventually, his tyranny was overthrown. We escaped from Egypt and were sustained by miraculous means until we found our way home. My family likes to joke that Jewish celebrations often go like this: Someone tried to kill us. We survived. Let’s eat! But beneath the joke, there’s a deeper...

1 day ago • 1 min read

Hey Reader! It's never easy to feel like you're on the outside looking in. They say there's strength in numbers, but what happens when members of your community turn against you? I don't remember the first time a girl chose to attack me rather than support me, but it was a common enough occurrence that by high school I preferred hanging out with boys. It was years before I realized what was happening. And even longer before I realized how much I valued being in the company of other women. But...

8 days ago • 2 min read

Hey Reader! When I was a kid, I wanted to graduate high school at 15, win my first Oscar by 18, and then spend my adulthood winning a Nobel prize, publishing some novels and maybe curing cancer in my spare time. I wasn’t afraid to dream big. But somewhere along the way, probably the first time someone laughed at my ambitions, I started feeling like maybe I shouldn’t dream so large. “Be realistic,” said a lot of well-meaning folks. And so, over the years, my dreams got small. But here’s the...

15 days ago • 1 min read

Hey Reader! Last year, I went on a leadership retreat that combined difficult physical challenges with philosophical discussions. The lengths to which people went out of their way to help each other through the physical and mental obstacles touched me deeply. I enjoyed the work, the group and what I learned about myself. However, I noticed a disconnect between the stated aims of the retreat and what the leader chose for us to read and discuss around the campfire every night. As we hiked out,...

22 days ago • 2 min read

Hey Reader! This morning began with an interview. A creativity explorer wanted to learn about my creative process. He peppered me with questions: But what is it mean to get unstuck? How does it feel? What is the benefit of this practice? I’d never thought about creativity in this way. I liked the challenge of figuring out how to articulate it. Creativity is bigger than ‘flow,’ because there is a constancy to it. It connects me to my source of inspiration. It moves through me, illuminating and...

29 days ago • 2 min read

Hey Reader! It’s so easy to get caught up in the rhythm of doing things at a pace that’s out of synch with our normal rhythms or require a drastic shift of priorities. Like when loved ones make plans without telling us . . . Family members fall ill . . . Kids forget to bring things they need at school . . . Bosses require reports on things we haven’t started . . . There are a million last-minute wrenches we may be asked to field during the course of a week. Saying ‘no’ to most of these...

about 1 month ago • 1 min read

Hey Reader! The jonquils and cherry blossoms triumphantly assure us an end to winter is near. They brave the fluctuating temperatures, and without letting frost or heavy rains diminish them, they punctuate the sky, asserting their will to live. So, too, do seeds we’ve planted burst forth. Just as we think we’ll never see a break in the storm, something vital emerges from the casing of our soul to reach skyward. As the creative sap rises within us, we birth beauty and joy. In this way, we...

about 1 month ago • 1 min read

Hey Reader! I think something must be in the air. If I gave chapters of my life titles, the past two weeks should be known as A Comedy of Errors. It all started when I lost the only key to my car. A kind neighbor drove me and my kid to school so they wouldn’t be late. Just in case I couldn’t find my keys before school ended, I packed their chorus clothes and arranged for a friend to drive them to their evening concert. When the keys failed to reveal themselves, she drove my kid home. The next...

about 2 months ago • 5 min read

Hey Reader! There’s a Rumi quote I love that goes, “As you start to walk out on the way, the way appears.” Oftentimes, we delay doing things because we don’t know how we’ll achieve them. There isn’t a map or a plan. We get hung up on the ‘how.’ We let our uncertainty about the outcome keep us from trying. That’s how your whole life might pass by without you ever writing that book, or visiting that place, or . . . or . . . or . . . whatever that childhood dream you had was. Don’t die with...

about 2 months ago • 1 min read

Hey Reader! Last summer, I headed out for a hike only to derail it seconds later by painfully twisting my ankle. I did all the things you do to heal. Even so, it took months for the swelling to go down. Nearly a year later, the old hurt lets me know it's still there every time it rains. I can't imagine how long it would have taken to heal if I'd tried to ignore it. Yet, all the time, we expect things to heal by ignoring them. When hurts are ignored, they don't heal. They fester. On a micro...

2 months ago • 2 min read
Share this page