Do What You Love

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Today’s *shared stories* come from Liza Zeni Baker and Stacy Chizuk

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Liza Zeni Baker

I love waking every single morning of every single day with the warmth in my heart knowing that I am my own path forward each and every day.  That is such a wonderful, uplifting feeling. 

I am so grateful to be here now doing what I love.  I haven’t been doing this for long, just a year, and it’s been quite a journey to reach this place of inner knowing and trust.  Trusting my intuition has been my biggest lesson of all.  I used to think I was definitely embarking on and doing what I loved in life, but it was my mind and ego talking, not my heart and soul. 

I was so young when I decided quite definitely that I wanted to be an Architect.  I was just 16.  And with my stubborn nature I went ahead like a bull dozer, making sure I succeeded in becoming an Architect, no matter what.  I completed my degree, going as far as completing my Honors, tutoring design students, and beginning a Masters in Architecture.  I established myself in a good job, ran my own projects, aligned myself with mentors, and surrounded myself with a strong Architectural community.  I went as far as setting up my own Architectural practice with my husband, also an Architect.  It was my life and I thought it was my passion.

I wasn’t paying attention to my intuition at all during those 20 or so years.  I missed all the little pop up signs along the way saying “slow down, this shouldn’t be so hard, open your eyes, and listen within to that intuition that is actually screaming at you”.  If only I’d noticed, listen, paid attention.  One example that comes to mind is when I didn’t initially get into Architecture. This should have been one big enough sign that perhaps this wasn’t my true calling.  If only I’d realized that I didn’t have to prove myself to anyone.  That the only person I had to make happy was myself.

I came to realize that I wasn’t doing what I truly loved just before we decided to start a family.  I’d become distracted, bored, unmotivated, developed IBS and had lost my natural, spontaneous, joyful smile and natural giggle that I was once know for.  I knew at that point in time Architecture wasn’t something I wanted to do for the rest of my life. 

I began to look within and opened my closed view of life to possibility.  But, as soon as I stepped forward into this scary world of truth and honesty with myself, I hesitated.  I was worried about all the silly things such as money, what others would think, and letting go of what was safe and known to me.  I am so very grateful to my beautiful, supportive husband Michael.  He lovingly and encouragingly helped me move forward from my inner confusion and unhappiness.  I began to nurture my health, my wellbeing, I practiced yoga, read life stories of those I admired, meditated, began to draw for enjoyment again and even studied Kinesiology.      

Through this period of transition I’ve essentially come back to where I started in life.  As a child I loved art, self expression, giving sharing and togetherness.  I now draw every single day expressing what’s within, freely.  I’ve discovered a love for painting which is new, exciting and so opening for me.  I’ve also discovered a way to open up and share what’s within, allow those thoughts to surface and be heard with others through writing my blog. 

I can truly say I am now doing what I love.  I am happy again and I love tuning in to my inner being every day and trusting what I feel and not what I think.  I love not being too decisive about what my future may hold or bring, but rather living now and breathing through each moment of every day.  I love noticing all of the tiny pieces of inspiration that delight and evoke my senses.  I love that my creative expression no longer feels forced, but flows freely through drawn, written and painted forms.

My inner being has re-surfaced and I’ve felt childlike wonder, excitement, spontaneity and joy again.  I’m feeling full of life, full of motivation and enthusiasm to share my passion, share my inner wisdom, and gather together with other like-minded creative spirits.  I would love to inspire others to step into their hearts and out of their minds, to trust those intuitive whispers and take courage in themselves to nurture their inner souls and re-discover their natural way. 

[All images courtesyof Liza Zeni Baker. Find out more about Liza on her website or blog, or connect on Facebook.]

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Stacy Chizuk

 Doing what I love is like unplugging from time. When I step into my creative self, I am not bogged down by thoughts of “to do” lists or haunted by plaguing “what-ifs” or the self-destructive “shoulds”. When I do what I love, that ticking clock in my head stops and a joy emerges that I often forget dwells in my soul.

I picked up a camera when my first son was born six years ago and I never put it down. My Canon is always thrown around my neck, riding shot gun in my car or stuffed down inside my diaper bag. I started with a basic point and shoot and have gradually upgraded throughout the years. My grandfather was a photographer and on his deathbed five years ago he asked me to carry on the tradition of photographing the family. I agreed wholeheartedly. Growing up I never understood why he would take my sister’s and my photographs so often. We would groan and hide from his large Nikon lens, especially during those awkward pre-pubescent years (picture the 80’s hair coupled with heavy black eyeliner). Then after the birth of my first child I understood. I appreciated the desire to capture a moment of time. In capturing that moment I discovered the challenge to comprehend the magic and mathematics of the light, decipher the mechanics of the camera, and to gaze through the lens as if my own kaleidoscope into the world. I became addicted.

I left the field of social work after giving birth to my first child. However, I still wanted to give back in some way without feeling I was losing myself in the giving. I had always loved writing since I was a child and taking the quote from a random postcard I purchased in one of those funky incense-smelling shops, I decided to “take the leap and build my wings on the way down” and I started a photography blog. My intention was to only post photos but it unfolded into a forum for me to write. I write for myself. I write to set free the incessant, sometimes humorous, sometimes solemn thoughts that camp inside my head. When I began to hear my authentic self in my words and see that self in my photographs, I discovered a feeling best described as a liminal moment. A liminal moment as described by author Rebecca Wells in her book Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood, “Those moments apart from time, when you are gripped, taken, when you are so fully absorbed in what you are doing that time ceases to exist.” So I began Liminal Moments Photography.

Since starting my blog and a small photography business, I have been able to incorporate a piece of my social work self in photographing children in foster care that are looking for an adoptive family. Many of these children love the personal attention a photo shoot brings and they often are my favorite kids to capture!

Their ability to smile and shine despite traumatic childhoods is inspirational. When I see my photographs of these children displayed in public arenas, I feel both excited because the photograph truly captures their spirit, yet heartbroken because the reality is their pictures are there because they need a family to love them. My goal in taking their photo is to capture their essence, their spirit, their love. If I can do that, then hopefully I will have helped them in some small part along their journey.

Clarissa Pinkola Estes writes in her book Women Who Run With the Wolves, “a woman’s creative ability is her most valuable asset, for it gives outwardly and it feeds her inwardly at every level: psychic, spiritual, mental, emotive, and economic.”  When I hold my camera in my hands or free my words through my blog out into cyberspace, I feel as though my soul is being fed. I hope it touches others and helps to ignite their creative spark.

[Images courtesy of Stacy Chizuk. To find out more about Stacy visit her website]

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See here for more inspiring *shared stories

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Join us for The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design, – next class starts in April!