Macramé key chains & doing the little artist thing

Don't ever believe the lie that your little things don't matter

A few years ago, a friend of a friend posted that she was selling macramé key chains.

I can’t tell you how long before that moment I had been needing a key chain because of the chronic losing of my keys.

But I’m also picky, you see. I don’t like most key chains, and wanted something beautiful, and kept meaning to find something I liked but always just put it off until I was in a cycle of only remembering I needed one when I lost my keys in the shuffle of my life (which was often).

But a macramé key chain! That fit the bill. I immediately sent her the requisite $12 on zelle - mom & pop sales for the win - and a few days later got my perfect braided key chain, which has easily reduced my chronic key loss by at least half, making my artist life a little less insane.

I regularly think of it. Almost daily, or perhaps more often.

This article isn’t about key chains more generally, however, but about how the sometimes even seemingly little thing we feel a tug to do, especially in the realm of creation, can profoundly matter to the people it’ll be for.

Our world obsesses with numbers. I get it. If you don’t see the numbers, chances are it won’t move the needle enough to stay focused on whatever artistic endeavor you’re taking on. I am all about artists succeeding in creating beautiful things that can change the world (see: humannobility.org), and believe they should be able to properly thrive when there is a real gift there being placed at the service of others who need it.

But in terms of meaning, there is something else at play, and something I would like to highlight/blast in neon to every artist struggling to get their work out to a world that seems mostly distracted:

The people we reach matter. And their lives are often transformed enormously through that one song, one image, one line of poetry, one little macramé key chain which we decide to have the courage and stamina to share.

One person is a big deal. Certainly a thousand or more are an enormous deal.

The endlessness of the internet skews this perception. May I, today, push this perception back ever so slightly to reality.

I’ve had periods of lesser and greater success in my career, and, strangely enough, many seasons where it’s been both simultaneously when looking at different metrics or milestones.

In the mix of the ebbs and flows of a creative life, it is very easy to get lost in the shuffle and forget just how much we’ve been able to be a blessing through the sharing (and sacrifice!) of our creativity.

It’s the easiest thing in the world to forget that a person’s life can have a real before and after simply because you showed up in some way in their world. I have been changed by songs, by many seemingly small artistic encounters—whether or not that artist will ever know. We rarely get a chance to tell them.

But even those who tell us? It’s easy to underestimate how serious they are in what they express.

I am learning all of the time just how much my work has meant to people over the years, (many of whom have graciously become incredible supporters of my work over at my membership site, making the growing expansion of my creative work possible).

I pray I can keep this reality top of mind always as I continue to create and share, and I wanted to share it today because every single creative person needs the reminder.

I’m going on four years or so of a macramé key chain in my hand every day, and a heart full of gratitude every time I seek it peeking out from under a pile of papers or a pocket in my purse. My life is different because of one person’s sharing of herself in this way.

You, too, have that power. Don’t forget.

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If you’re curious about what I’ve got out floating out in the world, here are a couple of things I released this week:

“Ave Maria” at CASSIA & MYRRH:

“When We Were Kids” at Pax Paloma