Sitting In The Uncomfortable And The Naughtiest Thing You’ve Done As A Child
The last year has been turbulent. That’s probably the most honest word for it. I’ve been running United ArtSpace for ten years, and for six of those years I had a repeatable system that just worked. Launches, events, rinse and repeat.
But something was different. The online world changed. I changed. And for the last twelve months I’ve been sitting in this uncomfortable, uncharted place of not quite knowing what comes next.
I know a lot of you are sitting in that same place right now. I see it across friends in business and artists too. And I just want to say if that’s you, you’re not alone and you’re not broken. You’re in the exploratory phase. The messy middle. The part that comes before things click back into place.
In our Creative Way process, we call this the creative cycle. You start confused, you explore, you experiment and eventually, things start to take shape again. I’m very much in the exploring stage right now. Saying yes to things I wouldn’t usually say yes to. Litter picking in my local community. A retreat. Working with corporates like Nestlé and Harrods on confidence and speaking. Things that feel a bit left field but keep pulling me back to the same thread: helping people grow confidence in themselves and their work.
And slowly, that’s shaping what Creative Living is becoming.
Now. The Naughty Stories.
I put the question out on socials and the response was something else. Here are a few that made me absolutely howl.
Leanne, aged three or four, was sent to the ice cream van for two ice creams. Dropped one on the floor. Scooped it back up, gravel and all, and handed it to her brother. He ate it. She never got in trouble. Sorry, Andrew.
Lucy cut off the cat’s whiskers and hid them under the armchair. Her mum saw through it immediately, explained why cats need whiskers, and then gave her a chocolate biscuit for owning up. Lucy says it instilled a lifelong value of honesty in her. And that she has never cut off any whiskers since unless you count menopausal chin hair.
Anonymous but on her seventh birthday, waiting in the car while her mum got ready, decided she’d seen her brother take the handbrake off a hundred times so it must be fine. The car rolled backwards down the drive, smashed through the iron gates, flew across the road and came to a stop against the neighbour’s wall. Her response? Buckle her seatbelt and beep the horn. Because that’s all she knew to do.
That one might be my favourite.
What This Is All Really About
Sharing stories, even the silly or embarrassing ones, is one of the most powerful things we can do as a community. It’s where connection happens. Where walls come down. Where we remember that behind every artist, every creative, every person trying to build something meaningful, there’s a real human with a history and a sense of humour.
If you want to share your naughtiest childhood story, the link is below. Get in on the fun. I’d love to read it.
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Have a great week & take care,
Michelle xo
