Getting into the Creative Spirit

Creative Chops

                    “Art is creating something from nothing and selling it.”

                                           Frank Zappa

In my book group Wednesday night, someone said, “I am the least creative person on Earth. I don't have a creative bone in my body.” In my world view, that is completely impossible. We all have the ability to be creative. Even if you don't make art and sell it, you make a meal and serve it, you arrange a room or a vase of flowers, you plant bulbs and prune shrubs. Everyone does something that is creative even when they don't realize it. That person in my book group is a teacher, so she arranges a class room, a schedule, a lesson plan, and the list goes on and on. There is creativity involved in simply planning your day and choosing which clothes to wear.

The beginning of the creative process is having an idea or seeing something that inspires you. You don't have to be creative in isolation, you can take an idea from someone else and try to replicate it. By the time you finish, you will have made something entirely new. Inspiration comes from everywhere in your environment—the work of other people, a phrase or the turn of a word, a scenario from someone's life, a beautiful sunset, a photograph, magazine, or website. I go on “inspiration-trips” in which I actually go out looking for people and things that will rev up the juices. Everyone gets stale from looking at the same four walls all the time.

This is a good time of year to exercise your creativity—in the way you decorate your home, or the tree if you have one, and in planning and preparing the special meals. Even in wrapping and arranging presents, you make creative choices. Take pleasure in the process. Being creative is one of the singular acts that separates us from our brothers and sisters in the animal kingdom—although, Liza is certainly creative in arranging her bed, and some of the bird nests I've seen look carefully and intelligently made. In my neighborhood, the squirrel nests are singularly amazing. Some of them withstand hurricane winds and tornadoes. Huh. Maybe we're not so different after all.

                                            In the spirit,

                                             Jane