A Summer Lesson from Ghosts, Kids, and Chaos

This week, I’ll be standing in front of a group of young artists, asking them to trust themselves - to draw the strange creature in their head, to layer colors without knowing what the final picture will be. Some of them will hesitate. Most won’t.

Children have this beautiful ability to just make. They don’t wait for the right tools, the right moment, the right feeling. They pick up what’s near - glue stick, crayon, torn paper - and they dive in. Their joy is in the doing, not the outcome.

Watching them reminds me that creation isn’t about control. It’s about curiosity.

And maybe, life is too.

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about surrender. How so much of the magic we crave only arrives when we make space for it. Not when we force it. Not when we try to predict its shape. But when we stop clenching so tightly - our plans, our identities, our expectations -and say: okay, show me something new.

It’s a lesson I keep re-learning in all my strange little worlds.

In improv, it’s about saying yes before you know where it will go.

In collage, it’s trusting that a scrap of Victorian wallpaper might be the missing piece, even if you don’t yet know why. In séance, in spirit work, in dream interpretation, it’s listening. It’s asking questions you may not get answers to - at least not the kind you were expecting.

There’s humility in letting go. And power, too.

Because when we release control, we make room. Room for ghosts. For inspiration. For mistakes that turn into breakthroughs. For weird and wonderful versions of ourselves we haven't met yet.

So this week, I’m trying to let go more often.

Let go of the tight grip on the paintbrush.

Let go of the fear that the story won’t come.

Let go of who I thought I had to be.

And in that letting go, I find presence. I find magic.

I find myself surprised by beauty again.

Maybe you need that reminder too.

PS – A Few Invitations for the Week Ahead:🖼️ I’ll be at the Baton Rouge Art Market on Saturday, July 7th and the Piety Street Art Market in New Orleans on Sunday the 8th. Come say hi, browse some new pieces, and maybe adopt something haunted.

🎭 New episode of Tongue of the Serpent airs Thursday at 11 AM: “Madame Claudette’s Final Séance”—a story of devotion, illusion, and the thin line between longing and madness.