Meet Elaine Olson | spiritual director, writer, artist,

We had the good fortune of connecting with Elaine Olson and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Elaine, alright, let’s jump in with a deep one – what’s you’re definition for success?
Success is knowing within your heart that you have done the best you can, lived with integrity as you did it, and loved others along the way. And hopefully, along the way, I will have made a positive difference in the lives of others.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Growing old doesn’t stop creativity. On the contrary, these years have opened the space to expand it and provided the time to explore new possibilities. I was 70 when I published my first book and started painting with watercolors. Aging offers the freedom to explore learning opportunities and the experience of integrating self-knowledge with self-acceptance. My son always says, “Have more fun.” Aging allowed me to live the fun by more fully engaging the creativity with which I was born.

As a young child, I fiercely desired independence and freedom. I created project after project with the words, “I can do it mine-self.” I sought ways to express my feelings by doing things with my hands, such as coloring, making paper dolls, drawing birds, writing poetry, keeping a diary, sewing, designing booklets, baking, needlework, and music. Socially, I sensed I didn’t fit in, but the last thing I wanted was to be ordinary. Creativity created that path, so I consistently meandered through its many forms.

After graduating from college with a degree in Elementary Education, I imagined participating in the playful spirit of children. However, after only 3 years, I quit teaching because the nature of children wasn’t always so playful. I had also married a pastor enamored with his charisma, and I became a mom – an actual creative act.

While a young mom, I longed for home-centered work to be both a mom and to have a vocation. I learned to weave, buying a 45″ cherry wood loom with 8 harnesses and 12 treddle loom. With the strong encouragement of my husband, I developed a business called Sacred Textures. Over the next ten years, with the help of my husband and through a network of other pastors, I found a niche market, creating commission work for pastors and congregations throughout the United States, weaving clergy stoles, wall hangings, chasubles, and funeral palls. Unfortunately, over time, the isolation and numbing repetitiveness in the weaving studio and the demand for more and more commissions fed a dark depression that grew heavier with each beat shuttle of the loom.

Out of a need to survive and get out from under the burden of the repetition, I accepted no new commissions, finished what I had, and left the loom, yarns, and rhythm of the beat of the shuttle of the loom behind.

I then took a sharp turn in a very different direction when I was asked to create a program for college students from a small liberal arts college in Iowa. The purpose of this program was to teach them how to complete an internship while exploring the arts and affirming a social conscience in metropolitan Denver, CO.

I also returned to school to get a Masters degree in Counseling. Here, I discovered the creativity of listening to people’s stories and finding the connection with metaphor and meaning to help them grow and move into their desired reality. Creating was no longer with my hands but with my creative intuition. I wove the threads of narrative and metaphor to affirm moments of goodness within my clients so they could weave their cloth of hope. I gave myself five years to achieve this goal. It did it in three.

When our children left home to explore their own lives, my husband of 30 years died of cancer. He had been the muse for my work, my most supportive fan, and the link to the faith community network that supported my work. With his death, many doors closed. Yet, I trusted the Quaker philosophy to “proceed as the way opens.” I trusted my faith by remembering that “resurrection is for the living and not only for the dead.”

I returned to school for yet another degree, this time in theology. Here, I discovered my creativity essence in writing and speaking. I was surprised. When my husband and I first dated, I wrote him a love poem. Instead of accepting it with the spirit of love in which it was written, he critiqued its structure and language. Since he was an excellent writer, I found his critique stinging. I stopped writing for others to read. Yes, I was creative and made beautiful projects with my hands. In my clinical practice, I wove metaphors to help others. Although I continued writing, I kept it hidden in private journals.

When I was asked to write essays in seminary, I was terrified. I labored with an internal critic constantly judging every word. In one of the first essays I handed in, the professor remarked in large red ink, “Your thinking is not theologically sound, but it is inspirational.” Inspirational? I would love to offer inspiration about what I had learned in my work as a therapist and my grief after Mark died. I took the feedback as an invitation to write beyond the privacy of my journals.

I longed to love again, so I married a man who supported and encouraged my creativity. During our courtship, he invited me to trust “myself,” to listen to my wisdom, to allow my voice to speak. With his loving care, the creative voice within – this natural essence of my being – kept chattering and pushing and finally demanded. “Elaine, you have a voice. You have a story about life, resilience, and community. Tell it.”

I published the memoir “My Walk with Grief” by Legacy Book Press in 2021. It tells the story of my first husband’s death from cancer and my role as a pastor’s wife. The book describes the path of resilience, the network of supporters, the internal battle with self-judgment and anxiety, and the journey of self-love and trust for life and hope.

I learned that I am a writer. Creativity found its voice. I published Lenten’s reflections for the church. I created a personal web page to share inspirational writings. During the COVID-19 pandemic, I learned to paint watercolors. Mostly, these paintings are gifted to loved ones, but a few have been sold in a local bookstore and shared on my web page with words of wisdom.

As I traveled this meandering path, I have learned much about life, love, and living into who I am. I am creative. None of it is what I expected as a fiercely independent child. Yet, it opened my heart to the following bits of wisdom.

1. Know and trust yourself, your gifts, essence, and desires.
2. Create a network of people who love you, believe in you, and support you because “Some things in life are too hard to do alone.”
3. There is always a way forward, “Proceed as the way opens.”
4. Love people (and yourself.)
5. You don’t need to address the whole world, only your little part. Find your niche.
6. Keep learning.
7. “Have more fun.”

We are resilient. Trust the way.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I love visiting Phoenix. But it has been many years since I moved to the mid-west. My favorites are Southwestern Food and visiting studios of local artists; I’m visiting again in the first part of February. I’ll let you know what I discovered.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Thank you to Legacy Book Press who honored my work by publishing my memoir, “My Walk with Grief.” www.legacybookpress.com

Thanks to Terry Haru, my husband, who taught me how to trust myself.

Website: www.elainekolson.com

Instagram: elaineolson

Facebook: Elaine K Olson, Writer, Spiritual guidance

Youtube: Elaine Olson @ elaineolson113

Image Credits
Art and photographs by Elaine K Olson