Join me on a journey…
Hello, I’m David, and I’m thrilled to welcome you to my community here on Substack, Rediscover · Reconnect · Re-Emerge, a nourishing and soulful extension of my website and online journal, A Life More Creative.
Subscribers to Rediscover · Reconnect · Re-Emerge receive weekly emails each Sunday, divided into four series:
Slow & Simple Moments
Beyond the Notes
Reflections on a Simple Past
Inspirations & Connections
They all explore aspects of slow, simple and seasonal living, with a good dose of creativity, and most importantly, reflection. If some of this resonates with you, and you’d like to dig deeper, you can become a paid subscriber for £4 a month or just £40 a year. Paid subscribers receive regular posts including seasonal publications such as:
A Seasonal Notebook
Sensing the Seasons
These include resources, downloads, playlists and tools to help you explore what living a slower, simpler and more seasonal life might look like for you. They also offer you an opportunity to connect with others, to share that journey with those you might call kindred spirits. Paid subscribers also receive full access to the archive.
I’m thrilled that you’ve joined me on this journey; I can’t wait to walk alongside you, just as I hope you’ll journey alongside me. In many ways, A Life More Creative is another step on my own journey of discovery, a journey to rediscover, reconnect and re-emerge. Just as the chapters of my own life story have come and gone, it’s only in recent years I’ve come to realise that a common thread has run through them all; that is a feeling of disconnect from the world around me, that somehow, I just don’t belong. For all its faults, the online world has enabled me to connect with others who feel just the same way as I do. Sometimes, there are few better feelings than when you realise you’re not alone. Others feel just the same as I do.
Just as I’ve craved the slower, simpler life, so I’ve found many others who feel the same. It’s not easy though. In our fast-paced, technology-driven world, these things go firmly against the grain. It can feel like we’re constantly swimming upstream. So what’s my story, and how have my life experiences led to A Life More Creative and to this beautiful community where we seek to Rediscover · Reconnect · Re-Emerge?
Born in 1983, when there was no such thing as 24-hour television, when few had a computer, there was no internet, and no one had a mobile phone, I was an only child. You could say my creativity started young, as I quickly learned to enjoy my own company and to make my own entertainment.
I enjoyed being outdoors, exploring new places, being taken for days out on the bus and train, to the seaside and countryside. When I went to school, our days were spent making up stories, drawing pictures, moving to music, and learning about the world around us. A love for music developed, and this thread has run through my life and work for over 40 years. I’ve spent over 20 of those teaching flute, piano and singing; composing; accompanying; and latterly, writing about and researching music education. I have run my own business, David Barton Music, since 2001.
I was born in Winchester, lived in Gloucester for 23 years, and since 2010, have lived in Lichfield, Staffordshire: it’s been cathedral cities all the way. Here, I enjoy baking, cooking, writing, photography, genealogy, local history, and spending time outdoors. I love sharing all these things with my wife, Clementine (who writes her own Substack, Journal of Soulful Reflections). But I’ve also enjoyed connecting with like-minded people online, who’ve allowed me to reconnect with some of the things in life which mean the most to me. They’ve helped me to discover something of what slow, simple and seasonal living means to me, and how, like the common threads of my life’s story, it is creativity which is at its heart.
I’ve met lots of amazing people on Instagram who’ve shared this journey with me, and many of them have become close and special friends. On Rediscover · Reconnect · Re-Emerge I’m excited to see how we can foster, nurture and develop that close-knit community further. One of the challenges we face in this modern, digital world, is how we combine our presence on different online platforms, be it websites, social media, mailing lists, and of course, here on Substack. How these work together, and indeed, challenge each other, is very much part of that journey.
Just as I continue on this journey of discovery, I’m excited to see what the future brings, and how together, as a community, we can rediscover, reconnect and re-emerge.
Stay up-to-date
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If you’re not already doing so, I’d love you to follow me over on Instagram. You can also visit the A Life More Creative website, where you can find out more about My Story, and read articles from my online Journal.
