I live in Portland, Oregon and we are used to rain here. We get a lot of rain. But not as much as Seattle.

Ha! Take that Seattle! In your face!

But what we don't get, aside from several days of sunshine in a row, is snow. Now is seems like back in the olden days when I was a kid and horseless carriages were still a sweet, sweet dream, it did snow here most winters. Otherwise my memories of a waking up to a sparkling winter wonderland or sliding down the steep hill at the park on flattened cardboard boxes with all the other happy neighborhood children or shoving my sister's face into a snow drift are nothing more than nostalgic fantasy - or delusions - or acid flashbacks.

Hmm.

It did snow here a couple of days ago which really doesn't merit much attention except - the weather people didn't call it. Which means that for hours before we ever saw a measly flake we weren't bombarded by shiny eyed talking heads on the telly taking over a certain person's soap opera to scream,

"Watch out for the snow!!!!"

Only they probably wouldn't be calling it just snow though. The 'event' would have a name like Spring Snow Showdown 2006 or Gigantic White Peril Swooping From the Sky to Kill You and Everyone Else You Know Plus Your Cat.

But they didn't get to do that and instead we got to wake up in the morning and go, "Hey, it snowed."

Imagine that.

So even though the weather girls and guys had all their fancy schmancy high-tech computer models and super-duper doppler radar machines all we really had to do in this situation was to look out the window.

You've sat in front of your television screen watching the weather report as if it were the gospel truth without the thought of just going outside to see for yourself ever crossing your mind.
You have. I know you have.

And that's not such a big deal when it concerns a seven-day forecast but when you let others tell you the reality when it comes to your creativity, well, then, that's bad.

A healthy creative life depends on self-reliance. You need to trust your your own sense of which way the wind is blowing to even begin to think about expressing your thoughts, dreams, inspirations and grand schemes. You are the expert when it comes all these things. Have that glorious faith that you do know your true creative self. So don't you be listening to others who would attempt to convince you otherwise.

Tell them they know what they can do with their super-duper doppler radar.