Podcast: Sarah Clarkson on Creative Legacy
In Episode 57 we connect with author, Sarah Clarkson about beauty, the power of story, and creative legacy.
Bio: Sarah Clarkson is a writer who loves to explore the intersection of literature, faith, suffering, and beauty. She studied theology (BTh, MSt) at Oxford and has authored a number of books, most recently This Beautiful Truth: How God's Goodness Breaks Into Our Darkness. She mulls life and beauty in her newsletter, A Note From Sarah, presents seminars on great novels and theology, and hosts read-aloud fellowships on Patreon and Instagram. She can often be found with a cup of good tea and a novel in her home on the English coast, where she lives with her Anglican priest husband, Thomas, and their three children, Lilian, Samuel, and Lucie. You can find her at sarahclarkson.com
Our favorite quotes from this episode:
“I’m teaching (my children) to be people who notice, who wonder, who are curious because I think that those elements are the essential elements of creativity and of the capacity to create.” (on fostering creativity in her children)
”There is always this holy tension where I am wrestling in a holy way to be faithful to my children and available to them to form their hearts and souls (...) and also to give time to my writing. It’s never an easy thing. Getting This Beautiful Truth written was a darn hard thing. But I think good things—good creativity and good children— any good work is going to be a wrestle and a struggle in this world. It’s worth the fight, it’s worth the tension of giving everything to it, and if it feels hard, it’s only because it’s worthwhile. It’s not because you’re doing it wrong.”
”Don’t forget that the whole of your life is a piece of art. Every aspect of what you create in your home and for those small, (at this point) very ungrateful children is a piece of art. Your home, and the rhythms of your day—that is an artistry as well that will feed and expand the specific artistry of your music, or words, or visual art.”“I’m beginning to understand that I can’t take time just to write when I’m in this season. Especially when I’ve come to a hard fought time for writing, I’ve ended up realizing ‘I don’t have anything to say right now.’ That’s not a failure, it means my spirit is dry. So I’ve become much better than I used to be (...) at saying, ‘What can I do to nourish and rest and feed myself?’ Allowing your soul and heart to be filled is also a discipline of creativity. You can’t give out from an inner world that has been untended and undernourished. Part of the work of creativity in this season of motherhood might just be making sure that your soul stays alive.
Instagram: @sarahwanders
Her Book Girl Community: patreon.com/sarahclarkson
Links to Sarah’s Books: This Beautiful Truth, Girl’s Club, Caught Up in A Story, Book Girl, Read for the Heart
Her favorite children’s books: Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery and Roxaboxen by Barbara Cooney
Sources of inspiration:
Wendell Berry’s books (Hannah Coulter, Jayber Crow, and Remembering)
Caravaggio’s paintings, specifically The Incredulity of Saint Thomas
Printmaker Clare Leighton, specifically the image Woman with Flowers
Celtic artist Ola Gjleilo
Contemporary artists Loré Pemberton and Tim Steward
Poet Denise Levertov
John Everett Millais’s painting The Blind Girl
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