We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Elyse Bruce. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Elyse below.

Elyse, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

Thanks for asking me back for an update on what I’m up to these days. As to your question, there hasn’t been junst one meaningful project I’ve worked on. I have several meaningful projects that happen every year from the Night Before Christmas campaign to the Missy Barrett Stamp and Sticker Search to International Missy Barrett Day: A Day To Do Good Deeds as well as projects other businesses and creatives ask me to help them with throughout the year. For me, meaningful projects are those that give back to the community and help those in need.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am an author, artist, musician, and inspirational speaker (which is different from being a motivational speaker). I observe the world around me as well as what is happening abroad, and create art from what I observe and learn. I create with the hopes my work encourages people to look beyond what they already know, leaving them with a desire to experience more in their lives.

I’m most proud of the quality of work I produce. While I believe everyone has what it takes to learn to draw or play an instrument or write, dedication to making the most of those abilities takes what a person can do and can be to the next level of accomplishment. This is what allows me to teach and mentor others with the concept that all creative expression is valid to the degree the person is able and capable of expressing themselves creatively, but it’s in challenging themselves that they will understand there is more to who they are than what they believe is true of themselves in the moment in which they take stock of what they can do and be.

For example, anyone can write a story children can read. The art comes into play when a person writes a story children want to read, and the art becomes more when the story children want to read mentors the reader to strive to be the best they can be for the age they are. My fictional 9-year-old character, Missy Barrett, is keenly interested in doing things that positively impact those in her immediate as well as global community.

Because the Missy Barrett stories capture the imagination of children and adults alike, projects such as the Missy Barrett and Friends’ Night Before Christmas annual event which benefits children who need to be taken to the Emergency Room at the LeConte Medical Center in Sevierville has been a success since it started in 2019.

Because the Missy Barrett stories promote the doing good deeds, no matter how big or small, International Missy Barrett Day: A Day To Do Good Deeds has grown since its inception in 2017 and is now recognized by 10 cities in Tennessee (Memphis and Johnson City were the most recent cities to issue a Proclamation recognizing this date in their cities), 18 counties in Tennessee, and 26 micronations around the world.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

In many ways, I’m naïve in that I believe everyone is good at the core of who they are. Over the years, the media and society have tried to prove not everyone is, and while that’s true in some cases, it’s still a difficult concept for me to buy into for a number of reasons.

When a child is born, that child is innocent. That moment is what leads me to believe everyone is good to the core. But once a child is in this world, it becomes a child of this world. What happens to that child and how that child internalizes what happens determines whether the child will take this path in life or that path in life or a completely unexpected path in life. Even if the child continues to make bad choices growing up, those bad choices are not who the child is. The way society views the child may be the sum of those bad choices, but it is not who the child is.

That being said, some people grow into adults who make bad choices, and oftentimes those bad choices have terrible repercussions on others who steer clear as best they can of negative situations.

While I continue to this day to look for the good in every person and situation, experience has taught me to relearn the lesson from a different perspective: Everyone is good at the core but not everyone chooses to tap into that goodness. In other words, some people prefer to go with whatever works for them even if what is easiest is illegal, unethical, and/or immoral.

The corollary to that lesson is that making good choices and following what some people think of as the straight and narrow [path] can be a lot of work. That being said, the more you focus on making good choices, the easier it becomes to make good choices.

Maybe this is why one of my favorite quotes is: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Since I was a child, I have always marched to the sound of a different drummer. The expression is one that has its roots in Henry David Thoreau’s 1854 work, Walden: “If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.”

Those who march to the sound of a different drummer follow their hearts and do what they do without influence from others. People who fall into this category are independent thinkers, and they are comfortable with knowing they are different from their peers. The quote strongly underscores the value of self-reliance and self-confidence without the need for haughtiness or snobbery.

Since the earliest times, drums have symbolized the circle of life and the heartbeat of Mother Earth, and has represented balance, equality, wholeness, and connectedness. While some drum circles are seen as being a fun activity, the history of drum circles is one with deep spiritual roots. For me, knowing that I march to the sound of a different drummer means I am honoring the path I am meant to follow, and to make the journey I must make to reach my final destination.

For those who need a Christian perspective, remember that even the Christian Bible talks about the importance of drums in Psalm 150:3-6. Buddhist temples in East Asia use drums in their daily ceremonies. In other words, drums and drummers are a universal positive concept in many cultures, and for that reason, marching to the sound of a different drummer shouldn’t be automatically thought of as a bad thing.

This is what I feel is the most rewarding aspect of being a creative. What is waiting for me along my journey may not be along someone else’s path but it may be something that many will benefit seeing or hearing, and so I enjoy the path.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://elysebruce.com and https://missybarrett.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ElyseBruceFanPage and https://www.facebook.com/MissyBarrettFanPage
• Other: Amazon (books by Elyse Bruce): https://www.amazon.com/stores/Elyse-Bruce/author/B0086P2QJY Amazon (books by E.B. Taylor): https://www.amazon.com/stores/E.-B.-Taylor/author/B01F0BPRU6 Amazon (Countdown to Midnight CD): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0011WFUKG Amazon (Quietudes CD): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000QZT69U/ Amazon: (Dreamtime CD): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005JTU1HO

Image Credits
FIRST PHOTO: Thomas D. Taylor SECOND PHOTO: Chip Chism Facebook Post (photograph of Elyse Bruce by Jayonna Scurry) THIRD PHOTO: Kingsport (TN) TImes News online story FOURTH PHOTO of Gingerbread House painting by Elyse Bruce: Elyse Bruce FIFTH PHOTO of Shepherds Watch Their Flocks painting by Elyse Bruce: Elyse Bruce SIXTH PHOTO of Christmas Baubles by Elyse Bruce: Elyse Bruce