Create Anyway, Author Q&A with Ashlee Gadd

We are so excited to feature Ashlee Gadd and Create Anyway: The Joy of Pursuing Creativity in the Margins of Motherhood (launches March 28, 2023). This is a wonderful book for mothers (or anyone) who knows they are born to create and is trying to find a way to embrace that calling. The book is bright, inspiring and has beautiful photography. I personally loved the references to Erwin McManus’ The Artisan Soul. A large thank you to ICON Media Group for making this interview possible.

I leave you with our conversation with Ashlee Gadd. Pick up the book today!

Modern Witnesses (“MW”): Congratulations on Create Anyway! It is a beautiful book. In your book, you touch on the fact that we often feel creativity is “selfish,” and yet, we are created to create. When did you start creating?

Ashlee Gadd (“AG”): Thank you! I think it’s safe to say I’ve been creating all my life. I’ve always loved writing, although I’ve come a long way from the Hello Kitty diary entries of my youth. As a kid, I created dance routines in my bedroom, artwork and poetry at the dining room table, and a lot of imaginative worlds in my backyard. Now that I’m a mom, it’s fun to see my children engaging in their own senses of wonder and play as they create—it reminds me of the little artist I was as a child.
 

MW: You created a storytelling website for moms, Coffee + Crumbs. What inspired you to start Coffee + Crumbs?

AG: As a new mom, I started looking around for places to submit my writing about motherhood, but couldn’t seem to find any options that aligned with the types of stories I wanted to tell. A lot of the websites available at the time focused on divisive topics, or prescriptive advice, or consumerism, or attracted readers through clickbait headlines. I was desperately searching for a simple, honest place to write about motherhood in all its beautiful and messy glory—a place where vulnerability and nuance could exist. I couldn’t find that place, so I set out to create the online environment that I myself wanted to write for. Eight and a half years later, I still have to pinch myself occasionally at what Coffee + Crumbs has become. This tiny dream of mine has grown and stretched beyond my wildest hopes. I’m incredibly grateful.

“I was desperately searching for a simple, honest place to write about motherhood in all its beautiful and messy glory—a place where vulnerability and nuance could exist.”

MW: You mentioned Rhythms of Rest by Shelly Miller in your chapter on rest. We were so fortunate to interview her before her passing, and we love her. Is there a special Sabbath ritual you have or something that helps you shake off the week and enter into rest?

AG: That book had such a profound impact on me, especially as a Type 3 on the Enneagram who is prone to workaholism and struggles with rest. My family starts winding down on Friday nights, even though Sunday is our real sabbath day. On Fridays, we do family movie night, which includes popcorn and candy and all that jazz. You know, with kids, once you do something 2-3 times, you apparently have to do it forever. Such is the case with family movie night. It started as a small thing we did a few times, but my kids quickly latched on and now consider it an unbreakable tradition. I love kicking off the weekend with something that delights them. My favorite Sabbath ritual is that every Sunday morning before church we make cinnamon rolls. From a tube. And eat them off paper plates. Everything about it feels like a treat: the sugar, the ease, the lack of dishes. That small act really sets the tone for the day.

MW: One of the most difficult things we come up against is resistance. What have you found to be something that helps you through resistance when it is time to create?

AG: You know, I keep waiting for the day I am going to wake up and not struggle with fear, doubt, insecurity, or imposter syndrome anymore. And yet here I am, decades into this work, and I still feel those things on a regular basis. I think acceptance has helped a lot. Accepting that resistance is part of the process reminds me I don’t have to sink into despair or give up or curl up in the fetal position to cry. This too shall pass. All creatives experience these emotions. We all have stumbling blocks. We all have to move through them. When we accept resistance as part of the process, we can name it, look it in the eye. We can ask for help. We can pray. We can let the Lord fight on our behalf. I find that denial is what often makes the resistance worse. Acceptance, and even surrender, prepares a path for breakthrough.

“Accepting that resistance is part of the process reminds me I don’t have to sink into despair or give up or curl up in the fetal position to cry. This too shall pass. All creatives experience these emotions.”

MW: Why do you feel it is important for children and a family to see a mother who creates?

AG: I think it’s important for children to see their mothers retaining a sense of joy and delight and purpose outside of motherhood. I want my children to know me, and not just the version of me who vacuums a lot and grocery shops and shuffles them to and from school. I want my children to know the version of me who aches to put words on a page, who notices when flowers are growing in the cracks of sidewalks. I want my children to know the version of me that is obsessed with light and beauty, so much so that I pick my camera up multiple times a week to capture it all. I want my children to witness their mother stepping into the fullness of her God-given creative gifts, because that is what I want for my kids, too. And if I want my kids to grow up and be good stewards of their talents and callings, I have to model what that looks like.

“I want my children to know me, and not just the version of me who vacuums a lot and grocery shops and shuffles them to and from school. I want my children to know the version of me who aches to put words on a page, who notices when flowers are growing in the cracks of sidewalks.”

MW: You quote Erwin McManus’ The Artisan Soul throughout. I love his writing. Do you have a favorite quote?

AG: “It is so much easier to create an authentic work of art informed by despair, so much more difficult to create a true masterpiece informed by optimism and hope. Yet these are the most compelling people—the ones who have overcome tragedy and found beauty; the ones who should have drowned in despair but found hope; the ones who should have remained trapped in this rubble of their failures and yet found courage and resolve to rise from the dead.”

MW: Do you have any top three essentials? (This can be anything you don’t leave the house without or something you have with you at home, always)

AG: Aquafor, Melatonin, popcorn. A random collection, but the first three things that popped into my head!

MW: What are you reading?

AG: Right now, I’m reading The Life Council by Laura Tremaine (a book about friendship), A Braided Heart: Essays on Writing and Form by Brenda Miller (a book about writing), and What Happened to Rachel Riley? by Claire Swinarski (a YA novel). I am almost always reading three books at a time—one nonfiction, one fiction, and a book on writing or craft.

MW: Is there something that is a spiritual focus for you, at the moment?

AG: At the beginning of 2023, God put two words on my heart: peace and confidence. I would say my spiritual focus right now has been finding the connection between those words. I’m in a work season right now that is hyper-stressful and demanding, and I am feeling a lot of pressure to perform in a multitude of areas. Through it all, I am asking for God’s peace to surround me and help me remain confident that I am right where I am supposed to be, doing exactly what God’s asked me to do.

MW: If you had to describe Christianity in one sentence, it would be:

AG: Lavish grace consumes the world, offering redemption against all odds.

Thank you so much for your time, Ms. Gadd!

Order your copy of Create Anyway, here!

Ashlee Gadd is author of Create Anyway: The Joy of Pursuing Creativity in the Margins of Motherhood and the founder of Coffee + Crumbs—a beautiful online space where motherhood and storytelling intersect. As a writer and photographer, Ashlee has spent her entire motherhood creating in the margins. When she’s not writing or vacuuming Cheerios out of the carpet, she loves making friends on the internet, eating cereal for dinner, and rearranging bookshelves. She and her husband have three kids and live in Northern California. Learn more at ashleegadd.com.

https://www.ashleegadd.com/

https://www.instagram.com/ashleegadd/

https://ashleegadd.substack.com/