ELSIE WOOD
MY JOURNEY
Discovering the Path
I am a seeker, a lifelong learner, a creative and a visionary. Curiosity, creativity and wonder have accompanied me through the many passages of my life—and rather than diminishing with age, they have deepened.
Now in my eighth decade, I continue to learn, create and explore, while sharing what I have gathered along the way with other women navigating their own season of life.
Opening to a Wider World
A journey to Europe as a teenager opened my eyes to a world larger and more varied than the one I had known. Travel, followed by university studies in languages and education, awakened an enduring curiosity about people, cultures and different ways of seeing and understanding the world.
That early widening of the horizon stayed with me, nurturing an openness to perspectives beyond my own and a willingness to venture beyond the familiar.
Living in Relationship
Marriage and motherhood opened another passage in my life, one shaped less by individual pursuits and more by the everyday lessons of living, loving, caring and growing in relationship with others.
Through family life and later experiences of caregiving, I came to understand more deeply the importance of connection, compassion, adaptability and presence—lessons that continue to inform how I live and relate to others today.
Carving a New Path
I came to the arts as a late bloomer, discovering sculpture in my mid-thirties. What began as creative exploration grew into a passion for carving stone, opening doors to international sculpture symposia and connecting with artists from around the world.
That passion for creativity continued to expand, inviting exploration into other forms of expression—collage, writing, music and eventually the Native American flute. Over time, creativity became more than making art; it became a way of seeing, exploring and engaging with life.
Listen • Learn • Live • Love
Learning has remained a constant throughout my life. At sixty, I returned to graduate study, earning a Master’s degree in Creative Arts in Learning and bringing together two enduring interests—creativity and the ways we continue to learn and grow.
The shield I created during those studies carries these four words—Listen • Learn • Live • Love. Looking at them again, I am struck by how faithfully they have continued to travel with me.
Walking the Path
Living in the Land of NOW
As the years have passed, I have come to appreciate NOW as more than a moment in time. It has become a practice—a willingness to pause, become present, and pay attention to the life that is here.
There are memories to treasure, lessons to carry forward and a few regrets not worth fretting over. Yesterday has had its say. Tomorrow remains unknown. NOW is where I can listen, wonder, create, connect—and continue becoming.
Embracing the Path
The passages of my life have not led to a destination. They have brought me to another threshold. I remain a seeker and learner—still creating, questioning, imagining and discovering what wants to emerge.
What I have gathered along the way now finds expression through the CreativeSage Way—a vision born from creativity, the experience of aging, and the wisdom that continues to unfold when we remain open to life.
I bring to this passage the many parts of myself—Mentor, Muse, Maven, Maverick and Mystic—not as titles to attain, but as ways I have come to know and express myself.
I am a CreativeSage
—and still on the path of becoming.
Walk with me awhile. Let us wonder, explore and share what we discover along the way.