Your December Love Letter
Finding faith in the darkness + the shedding in the Year of the Snake
Keeping Creative Time
it’s never too late to be the creative person you want to be 💖
“Creativity requires faith. Faith requires that we relinquish control.”
—THE ARTIST’S WAY—
by Julia Cameron
Dear Creative Friends,
What is the final thing you need to shed in these last two weeks of the year?
I ask you because it’s a question I’m asking myself. This past year I’ve already shed a lot. How could there possibly be more?
But I know I’m asking myself this question because there is something more that I need to release.
Earlier this week, I came across this Instagram post by one of my favorite poets and writers, yung pueblo. He shared a carousel of quotes like this one by Vex King that called out to me.
2025: Year of The Snake
You shed, released, and cleared space. What was heavy and fake fell away. What was real remained.
2026: Year of The Horse
You move and rise with confidence. Doors open. Momentum returns. You’re finally walking in the direction that feels right.
I know that this final shedding has to do with life and death. I’ve been noticing these words everywhere. Even this morning while laying out cards from The Artist’s Deck for 15-Minute Creative Coffee Chats, death appeared at the top of the pile.
Artists, we are going to die. You and me and everyone we know. You must make your art. A death acceptance practice wherein we gently approach the fact of our mortality can be liberating for an artist’s work. A simple way is to read books about death and dying. These can be nonfiction, novels, poetry, essays, memoir—any pathway that works for you.
As part of my death acceptance practice, I consider the following prompts daily:
I am going to die.
How do I want to live?
Who do I want to be?
Who do I want to move through the world with?
These questions, about death, do you notice that they are actually about life?
When I was in the depths of burnout, the thing I feared the most in that darkness was dying without realizing any of the creative potential that lived inside of me.
“Creativity—like human life itself—begins in darkness. We need to acknowledge this. . . . As creative channels, we need to trust the darkness.”
—THE ARTIST’S WAY—
by Julia Cameron
That darkness of death, it’s the same darkness we experience in birth. And there’s a grief there, in that change, in that movement from what’s known to what’s unknown.
When I left my job as a public librarian, I thought the change would make me happy because I was following my dreams. I thought choosing myself would make me more creative, but that was before I met a good friend of mine called grief.
This relationship I’ve developed with grief has been a comfort in the dark, but as the year draws toward its final act, I’m noticing that the lacy black tentacles of grief have suffocated me in the same way an enmeshed relationship will stifle the individuation process necessary for personal growth.
You don’t need me anymore?
Grief cries out in pockets of the liminal realm between my waking and my sleeping.
No, I don’t need you at this time in my life.
What I need is to let you go, so I can reclaim my own power.
What I need is to release all the dead lives I am no longer living.
So I can clear space for the life that I have now.
My name is J. Faye D’Avanza, I am a forty-one year-old artist and I am going to die someday.
And everyday I want to live ecstatically in love with the world and the people I hold dear.
And everyday I want to be exploring what is and what could be through the imagining, the unearthing, and the telling of stories—both mine and those who connect with me to speak theirs.
And everyday I want to move through the world in vibrant relationship with myself, the natural world, and the people I invite in who honor and hold sacred the house of creativity that we build and care for together.
In shedding my fear of death and the grief of a creative life I once dreamed of and then lost, I am making space for the whole creative life I have now.
And I am so grateful, because this whole creative life is the one I birthed from chaos, every step an intentional act of faith and hope that there would be something more beautiful, something more magical, and something brighter shining forth.
Goodbye to my sorrow. Goodbye to my pain.
Hello to a new beginning.
“Life is meant to be an artist date. That’s why we were created.”
—THE ARTIST’S WAY—
by Julia Cameron
➡️ My Biggest Creative Takeaways from 2025 ⬅️
🔥Artists have to make their art. If they don’t, everything in their life suffers—their emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual health, their career, their wealth, and most importantly their relationships.It’s not so easy to “just make your art.” We need support systems where we feel safe enough to trust our artist self. This is how we save our own life from a culture that would rather we stay small, stay quiet, stay numb, and out of love with life.☀️
Find Your Creative Flow with Me this Week ✨
📖 The Reading Room: Focused, Hybrid Coworking for Creativity + Connection
Thursdays, Dec 18-Apr 30 | 11am-1pm | Story Parlor + Virtual
Join online or in person at Story Parlor, Asheville, NC
☕️ 15-Minute Creative Coffee Chats
Wednesday, December 17 | 9:30-11:30am, Cooperative Coffee, Asheville, NC, free
Not in Asheville? No problem! Book a virtual free 15-minute Creative Rx Session, and we can chat about what’s working and what’s not working in your relationship with creativity.
Until Next Time
Remember, it’s never too late to be the creative person you want to be.
Take care y’all, and thanks for being here with me. <3Faye
P.S. Before you go, enjoy a song from the playlist I call . . . Odes to Time.
Alicia Keys and Damian Marley —“Goodbye”
Keeping Creative Time is a guide to caring for our creative energy and its healing power through time. Featuring stories and tools from my creative community in Asheville, North Carolina, to yours.
Thanks for reading!
Thanks for listening!
J. Faye D’Avanza, MSLIS
Artist, Writer, Holistic Librarian
Founder + Creative Guide, Library of Care
jfayedavanza.com
Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org and I will earn a commission if you click through and make a book purchase from one of the book links I’ve shared. ☺️❤️📚
Hi Faye! This was, indeed, a power-driven narrative - I call it a narrative, because it's far more than a newsletter! Reading your words has been a joy ride and I thank you for sharing your inner workings, heart and courage. Your closing song here was GORGEOUS! I have been a fan of Alicia Keys for many lifetimes, and her with Marley was a new and exciting combo for me! I'm keeping their rendition of "Goodbye" at the top of my playlist.... it is a perfect backdrop for all the blooming I plan to do!
I love this!