Using Creativity To Make A Difference...

Sometimes, life events and disasters happen that make us feel completely overwhelmed. It is much easier, we tell ourselves, to hide from reality than to face something seemingly hopeless face on.

But Creativity whispers to our hearts that anything is possible, as long as we try.

Illustrator Kelly Light has found an incredibly Creative way to deal with the Gulf Oil DIsaster.  Artists from all over the world are donating tiny original paintings, drawings or digital prints to be sold to anyone who makes a $10.00 donation to two organizations helping to tackle this disaster. "Swan Song" (shown above) and "What Greed Can Do" (below) are two of the images that I will be sending in to Kelly for this cause.

INHALE:  Never give up hope.  Something beautiful or creative can come from almost any disaster or tragedy if we keep looking for possibilities.  Just look at the infinite variety of how different artists of all ages and walks of life have felt moved to contribute.  It may almost take your breath away!

EXHALE:  If you can draw, paint or doodle, consider creating a piece of artwork for this worthy cause.  If you prefer to appreciate art rather than create it yourself, browse through this blog and keep an eye out for an image that appeals to you.  Follow the blog, spread the word and make a difference.  The card I bought arrived in the mail a few days ago and now graces the wall of my office.  Remember that you can always use your Creativity to make the world a better and more beautiful place.

I FORGOT...

The thing about taking on an ambitious project and doing it in front of the world is that when you fail, you fail spectacularly.  It sometimes makes picking up the pieces more difficult.

Just over 9 months ago, I began what I thought would be a fairly simple adventure... take one year of my life to explore how to add more creativity to each day...a 365 day adventure.

The funny thing about thinking of each day as including an INHALE and EXHALE activity was that somewhere along the line as our lives got more and more stressful, I wasn’t just gasping for air, I literally forgot how to breathe.

Stress makes you do funny things. 

I would wake gasping from a dream of being smothered with my heart racing and then be unable to get back to sleep.

I found myself getting lost in simple, mindless things like watching odd TV shows or playing Farmville on Facebook after a long day of substitute teaching instead of picking up a pencil to sketch or a needle to stitch.

So to those who were waiting for me to offer some guidance along the way in this adventure, I apologize for the huge gap in this blog.

I didn’t even journal through this stretch of darkness, which is really odd for me.  It was as if I wanted to have no proof of this dark time and my black thoughts anywhere.

While I went out and smiled when I was teaching, meeting with clients or doing Zoomba classes, at home I curled up, hid and just tried to keep my lungs working, even as my mother-in-law had to have a whole section of hers removed. Nick and I were each trying to comfort the other when we didn’t feel strong ourselves, hoping to keep things as normal as possible for the kids.  I am sure they saw through some of our cracks.

After a very long stretch, almost 15 weeks, my mother-in-law is home from the hospital, weak but on the mend.  Nick is wrapping up a school year that is ending with chaos and uncertainty as his school gets downsized to move students to a new school as boundaries get redrawn.  The girls are ending up their year on a high note with Erin earning a spot on Team NB for volleyball, the elite provincial team along with an academic award for Grade 9.  Bethany’s awards ceremony is this week and she is hopeful about her marks earning her some recognition as well.

As for me, I have spent enough time in the quiet to realize that INHALING CREATIVITY could never be a single year’s adventure.  It is going to take me quite a few years to put together a daily creativity adventure to follow or share.  I am starting to feel as if this is not just something to try for a year, but rather a way to live and keep breathing on a daily basis for the rest of my life.

Through all this chaos, I still found myself doodling, rummaging for wool, staring at floor tile patterns or looking for shapes in clouds.  I even found heart shapes in watermelons and bits of discarded plastic.

Maybe this isn’t anything I can turn off.  

Maybe choosing Inhalations and Exhalations was the right image after all.

It’s time to take a deep breath and begin again.

Join me tomorrow for the first new breath of this adventure.

Creativity in Prayer...

When your child is hurt, even if it is minor, you become VERY creative in your prayers.

“Please spare my child this pain...”

“Please let it be me instead...”

“Please help me make her see that she has more than one dream and more than one option in life...”

I feel selfish wrestling with this when there are parents tonight out there watching their children starve to death slowly... parents who are sitting by a hospital bed wondering if they have to say goodbye tonight or not... parents who do not know where their children are tonight.

This is just a wrenched knee and preventative medicine for an overeager athlete who thought she was a bit more indestructible than she proved to be.

But as she cried last night in Emergency, fearing suddenly that her dreams of a volleyball career or University scholarship (I must point out that she is only in Grade 9 but comes from two type A personality parents) were shattered, I wanted to do or promise anything to just be able to make it better.

When we came home and I got her to bed, creeping in to my own bed later after getting my work done, I was very creative with my prayers every time those dark fingers of fear curled their way around my heart. 

I thought about pointing out all her other gifts to her.  

I thought about the “wherever God closes a door, somewhere He opens a window” line.

I prayed pink clouds of healing surrounding her and her knee in the night.

I remembered the most important lesson that I have been learning along this journey.

Just breathe.  Inhale. Exhale. Repeat.

INHALE: Sometimes we are most creative without holding anything in our hands.  No crafting supplies, no paintbrush, no pen.  Sometimes we are most Creative with the stirrings of our souls and our dreams, our prayers and our wishes, our plans and our possibilities.  As long as we remember that we always have choices and that there are always new options we might not have thought about, the curve balls that life tends to throw at us won’t be so bad.  That is SO much easier to type than to live out!

EXHALE:  Pick one worry in your life right now that feels overwhelming.  When you lie there trying to fall asleep or take a moment for yourself to journal, explore all the possibilities in your head.  What would be the worst thing that could happen?  How could you cope with that?  What might be a solution that you’ve overlooked as being too “out of the box”?  What have you got to lose?  Erin was given the choice to rest her knee now and see if it heals or know that she will miss out playing in the Easterns in 28 days.  Sometimes waiting and healing is all we can do.  Be Creative in your prayers and in how you face your fears!

The Seven Month Itch...

A funny thing happened since my last blog post... I forgot how to breathe.  As life threw one curve ball after another at me, I felt as if I was sucking small gasps of air through clenched teeth instead of nice, deep inhales and exhales.

I felt as if the only thing I had to say was a scream or a sob... and I felt crushed.

I’d had such grand plans when I dove into this experiment 7 months ago.  I had wonderful visions of filling each day with more joy and creativity than the day before.  I envisioned the wonderful, enviable person I would become as I shared this wonderful adventure with an eager, waiting world out there in cyberspace.  It was like a honeymoon!

This past month has definitely been more like a couple who have been married at least 7 years... the sparkle was starting to wear off as life kept crashing down around me.

I started to resent my Creativity when it whispered that I should take a bit of time out of the chaos to just breathe.  It was like a partner suddenly pointing out an annoying habit of leaving the cap off the toothpaste or socks on the floor.

As I threw myself into the colouring book illustration project with all the changes and approvals, the shift in personnel and the inner demons of self-doubt, my Creativity waited patiently, like a faithful lover waits on the couch on a Friday night for their partner to come home from overtime at the office.

As I scrambled to finish a knitted afghan for a member of my faith family struck down suddenly only to have them die before I could finish it, my Creativity hugged me in comfort and whispered that there would be someone else to appreciate the gift in time.

As I drove my hands, eyes and body to the brink with multiple deadlines, my Creativity chided me to find a better balance the way a spouse would point out that too many cookies is bad for the waistline.

I tried ignoring Creativity’s voice reminding me to just inhale and exhale, to imagine a bit, to dream a bit and to just ride this rough patch through.  I felt I had nothing to say to it, to myself or to the world.

Now with some of the deadlines passed and a crop of new pressures on the horizon, my Creativity and I have entered a new, deeper relationship.  I have learned that I don’t have to justify this adventure to myself or make it live up to some impossible standard, I just have to go through the process.

One breath at a time.

Inhale...

Exhale...

Repeat 

As I look back on what I did during the past  41 days of my life and the silence here in cyberspace, I can see how my Creativity prodded me, encouraged me and pestered me into living this adventure despite myself.  Here’s how I know.

• the lap quilt that would have been for Betty if she'd survived the stroke and heart attack...

• the scarf I finished for Erin just as the last of the snow melted...

• the ornament I designed and stitched for next fall's JCS ornament issue... sorry, you only get a tiny peek!

• the denim blue moss stitch scarf that only worked in the car and not at the volleyball games.  I kept forgetting to K or P!

• the logo designed for a friend's family reunion this summer...

• a glimpse at two of the quick sketches I did on my tablet hooked up to the smart board during a school visit where

Paul Burns (author of Owen & the Dinosaur) and I did an enrichment workshop where they created stories as a group while I illustrated the panels.

• the pink wool I picked up to knit a baby blanket for my cousin's little daughter who was just born a few weeks ago.  It is half done thanks to a 2 day tournament in Halifax as well as the drive there and back...

No Inhale or Exhale tonight... just the whisper "I'm Back!"

Savouring A Couple’s Creativity...

Last spring, our family got a terrifying call.  Our best friends’ barbecue blew up and engulfed their whole house in flames.  In one evening, their lives were turned upside down and their cats perished along with most of their personal belongings... but they had their dog and each other.

Tonight, our family took supper over to their new house, rebuilt on the foundations of their old one.  They moved in this past weekend and are slowly trying to unpack what was restored, put away what people donated and see what is left to buy.  Imagine starting over from scratch for every towel, every sheet... everything!

So we shared a meal in their new house which has echoes of all they loved best about the old one.  Everything is new, everything gleams, but what trials and tribulations they had to go through to get them and get to this point.

The house is a wonderful blend of their unique colour sense and love of textures.  They spent hours and hours pouring over every detail of their plans, took the time to select what they truly wanted and it showed.  From the amazing bar of lights and crystal prisms over the dining room table to the incredible fold out coffee table where we will no doubt spend lots of time gathered to roll 20 sided dice.

I am SO glad to see them back where they belong.

INHALE:  Creativity can sometimes be making something beautiful rise out of the ashes of disaster.  When life throws its very worst at us, there are still moments when we can celebrate what IS going right or just keep putting one foot in front of the other until we move through the dark times and back out into the light.

EXHALE:  Open your book and trace your foot onto the page.  I had to put my foot on the diagonal to get it to fit properly and I decided to leave my socks on to just get a basic foot shape.  Now, fill the shape of your foot with images, words, doodles, colours, scribbles, collage materials or anything that tempts you but move from DARK in the heel of the foot towards LIGHT in the toes.  Our lives are a series of steps from tragedy to triumph, night to day, challenge to victory and darkness into light. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other!

Battling with Boa... or Knowing When KNOT to Continue...

I have to laugh now and make this into a horrible pun.  Last night at midnight, there was nothing funny about wool wrangling. The yarn known as BOA to be exact.  It’s not wool and never will be. Think of it as a long string of pretty colours that looks ever so much like eyelashes.

After showing off my half completed scarf that absolutely dazzled non-knitters, the time came to change to the next 2 balls of yarn and complete the scarf.  The only problem was that the second ball of Boa did not lie placidly and cooperatively in my knitting bag. It did not blend beautifully and play nice with the other yarn... it turn into an evil tangle.

“Fine!” I thought to myself.  After a day of worrying about a friend and dealing with the oxymoron of Church politics, I was sure that Creativity was telling me to turn this into a wonderful blog entry about patience and persistence....  that when life got tangled, you were supposed to just take your time and try to sort things out.

So when my yarn began to do THIS around 9 pm and The Amazing Race came on, I wasn’t too nervous, I just began to try to sort through the tangle.

By 10 :15, I was making a bit of progress after the yarn decided to do THIS, but my  husband gave up and headed to bed.  The house grew still after I turned the TV off to sit alone with my thoughts.  I love the sound of a quiet house when my family is sleeping upstairs.  It reminds me of MANY nights I spent working from 9 pm to 1 am when the kids were young on designing and graphics because that was the only time I could work on the computer uninterrupted.

I did think a lot about life and how things can snarl up or get complicated to quickly.  I thought about how sometimes everything goes so smoothly and other times it become this incredible, impassible tangle that we begin to dread dealing with.  I had all kinds of lovely meditations planned as I sat there trying to unknot my yarn that kept snarling into clumps like THIS.

The problem with me is that I tend to get a wee bit.... hmm... STUBBORN, FIXATED and OBSESSIVE are probably the kindest words that I can think of.  You see, I’d basically decided that this would make such a wonderful blog entry as soon as I had a nice, neat, tangle-free ball of boa to show you.

The yarn had other plans... devious plans that increased in their complexity as the clock drew closer to midnight...

(OK... most of you would have gone to bed or played Farmville by now, but I did share that I can be a wee bit stubborn, right?)

Finally, as the clock struck midnight, I used some very colourful words and decided to salvage what I could of my yarn mess.

Tiny boa balls....

Tying them into one ball, knowing I can hide the knots in the scarf or keep them to the side and darn in the ends as I get to them, I took one last picture and headed off to bed just before 12:30 am.

What did I learn?  Next time, be quicker to pick up the scissors... or if Boa is on sale for less than a dollar, buy a third ball just in case one becomes uncooperative.  Let the cat have the one that refuses to play nice!

INHALE:  So often, we fall into the trap of wanting everything to go a certain way.  We get an idea in our mind of how something should unfold and leap merrily out into that adventure, even when Life, timing, circumstances or the Universe try to gently tell us that maybe we aren’t thinking things through.  Learn when to follow a vision and when you should adapt your great plan to get to bed at a reasonable hour!

EXHALE:  Inspired by my yarn disaster, this exhale is FUN.  Open your sketchbook or take out a blank page of paper. You might want to put a paper underneath to keep everything safe! Closing your eyes, scribble all over that paper in big, swirly, loopy tangles.  When you think you’ve made plenty of lines, open your eyes and check to see if you stayed on the paper.  Take out some of your favourite colours (or some of the ones you’ve been challenging yourself with) and color in any of the shapes in the tangle that catch your fancy.  You can try to see if you find any shapes in your scribbles or just enjoy colouring at random.  Think of me and the yarn as you color.

Moment of Truth...

The phone rang this morning at 6 am, a few hours before I left for the airport to fly to Toronto .  On the other end of the phone was the barely recognizable voice of one of my best friends telling me that she wouldn’t be able to get on the plane to teach with me at the CreativFestival .  What had started as a cold earlier in the week turned into the worst kind of flu and she was in no condition to leave home to board a plane... she could barely talk to me.  I tried to tell her that everything would be OK and to get some rest or get to see a doctor.  It wasn’t until I hung up the phone and clung to Nick that the panic set in along with the little inner voice screaming “How on earth am I going to do this?”

Then, a funny thing happened.  I just began to take deep breaths.  Inhale... Exhale... Inhale... Exhale.  In that moment of focussing on my breathing to calm myself, the ideas began to flow of how I could adapt Sunday’s Power point Breakfast presentation, of who might be able to help cover Teresa’s part of our joint classes, of how she might be able to get her files to me and lots of other insights buzzing like bees in a hive.  I knew in that moment that taking this year to focus on Inhaling Creativity was not only teaching me unexpected truths, it was helping me cope better with uncertainty in a creative manner.

By the time I got on the plane and hauled out my journal, I was reasonably calm.  By the time I shared with show organizers what had happened, I had some backup plans.  By the time I met up with Erica, I knew I had a Guardian Angel helping out who was inhaling and exhaling Creativity herself.  Just look at the beautiful breakfast goodie basket she’d made up for Teresa and I!  (OK... to all of my Weight Watcher members following this blog, I do know that some of those nummy rolls with have to find homes with other people since I am the only one in this hotel room!)

I even found another advantage to kicking around in this hotel room all by myself, missing Teresa and hoping she will feel better soon... I get to cover the other bed with all my kitting stuff as I sort and snip and get ready to start teaching tomorrow.

I will miss her!  Get Well Soon, Teresa!!!

INHALE: You can’t stop the panic that happens when life throws you a curve ball.  I am learning this each time something unexpected happens on this adventure.  Part of what makes it so much worse for many of us is that we have this built-up template in our head of how things are SUPPOSED to happen.  When life or reality fail to measure up to that template, some of us freeze, panic or get really bent out of shape.  Others, like Nick, work in an industry where every day brings the unexpected.  Teachers, emergency room staff, firemen, police, taxi drivers... there are many professions where each day or each client can bring something totally unexpected into the mix, so they learn how to adapt and think Creatively better than most of us.  Don’t measure everything to some PERFECT ideal.  Just let it be and think of any creative solutions you can without giving up.  Then watch as it unfolds into something new.

EXHALE:  Take 10 minutes to explore an area of your life in which you tend to expect PERFECTION from yourself.  Does this add more stress to your life than enjoyment? Does it really have to be done to the standard that you’ve set for yourself?  If the answer is YES, then write down 3 ways you could reward yourself once the task is done.  If the answer is NO, then write down 3 ways that you could lighten your load slightly, adapt your standards without throwing them away altogether or come up with a Creative solution that won’t leave you feeling like you just didn’t measure up.  After all... Pobody’s Nerfect!

Contagious Creativity

I kept thinking about my experience at the Toyota dealership yesterday...how so many people started conversations with me as I sat there stitching.  They either asked what I was doing, shared stories about people they knew who did cross stitch or told me which crafts they loved to do.  It made me start to wonder if being creative could be contagious.

Oddly enough, Nick came home after a really rough day at school and wanted to show me a link he’d found on you tube from Oprah’s 24th season kickoff featuring the Black Eyed Peas .  Watch how the one person they had dancing sets off the entire crowd.  Even Oprah was astounded! Now my girls like this song even more than before!

Sometimes Creativity can also be a way of making your point or getting even.  If you’ve never seen this astounding video shot by Halifax native Dave Carroll, you really need to check it out.  After almost a year of trying to get United Airlines to admit that they’d mishandled his luggage and broken his guitar, he wrote this song as a Creative way of showing his side of the story. He posted it to You Tube and after 3 days, it had over a million hits!  Needless to say, United began to notice the negative publicity buzz.  There is even a second song that almost rivals this first one, but I will let you go hunting for that one on your own if you want to.

Both of these video clips show that when faced with apathy, indifference or injustice, Creativity will always triumph!

INHALE:  We cannot control what life throws at us.  We can choose, however, to try to react as Creatively as possible.  Today, a bunch of football players tried to play computer games in Office Tech class because all their work was done and the typing tutorial was too boring. I went over to the bookcase, grabbed a few dictionaries, opened it to the page with the word FOOTBALL on it and told each one of them to type in the entire page as practice if their typing skills were so advanced.  All of them were back working on their projects within a few minutes.  The next time you are confronted with a problem, take a deep breath and try to find a Creative solution.

EXHALE:  When the going gets tough, we all need a little inspiration.  Today’s exhalation is to sit down with old magazines, fabric swatches,  paper scraps, stickers or anything else FLAT that inspires you.  Collage them down in your book in a random or orderly fashion (depending on which soothes your creative soul today) so that the next time you are feeling down, you can open your book to this page.  As the weather grows a bit colder, I already feel the urge to put in pictures from this summer or colours that will make me feel warmer on a blustery winter night.  If you are a knitter, beader or more tactile Creative soul, don’t worry... there are lots of three-dimensional challenges rattling around in my brain for later.  Just get in the habit of working flat for now...

By the way, if you’ve been enjoying this blog or find it WAY off base, please feel free to comment or share.

Looking Deeper...

Mondays often feel full of potential until the first disaster of the week hits and then we feel like this photo that I shot a few years ago...

One of my favourite stories about not giving up is the example of accidentally dropping one egg out of the container.  Just because that one breaks... do you smash the other eleven?

Today was filled with the joyful chaos of substitute teaching all day, coming home to a house that smelled wonderful thanks to the chili ingredients I’d tucked in the slow cooker this morning and then watching the girls get homework done before volleyball practice for Erin.

She showed up at the first practice of the new team after last week's tryouts to find out that  some of her new team members had jumped to another club in town without telling anyone until the last minute.

No, life does not always go as planned.

So I dug out this picture instead of the one I’d shot earlier today of floor tile.  This week, I am challenging myself to look DEEPER...  to really see what might lie hiding in shapes and shadows when you look beyond the obvious images.

When I look at this photo, I see a dragon’s wing, a dog’s head, a snail, a bull frog, a square pig and a treasure trove of other things.  What do you see?

INHALE:  We tend to just books by their covers, success by how much money someone makes and hundreds of other SURFACE things.  Creative wonders are waiting all around us if we just take the time to really LOOK at them.  Stop. Look beneath the surface. Look deeper than you usually do.  Part of becoming more creative is taking the time to see with more than just your eyes!

EXHALE:  Find something with a pattern in it.  Tile flooring works well as do wood grain patterns.  Crumple some tinfoil then spread it out again.  Stare at the clouds.  If you have a digital camera then try to capture the image you see so that you can look at it more closely.  What images do you see to sketch?  What stories d o they conjure in your head?  Follow where they lead and see what you can find when you look deeper at the world already around you.

Day Three Disaster...

How did your entry about yourself go?  I discovered that picking a 9 x 12” sketchbook when your scanner does 8.5 x 11” makes sharing what I creates a bit tricky, but not nearly as tricky as making it through the weekend!

I thought that Saturday would be a relaxing day in which to practice Inhaling Creativity with less interruptions than the chaos of a weekday.  Little did I know that total disaster would strike my plan on Day Three!

It started off so innocently and with the best of intentions... Nick and I woke up early, so we left Erin in charge and Bethany curled up in her jammies watching cartoons to sneak out for breakfast together before getting the groceries.  It was there in the produce department that my misadventure began.  Lured by the deep purples and perfect roundness of the eggplants, captivated by the pure white of the cauliflower, I decided that cooking would be the way in which my Creativity would express itself.  I would have plenty of time to try out a tempting recipe that would astonish my family as well as encourage them to eat more veggies... Yeah, right!

Laurel’s Kitchen is a fabulous vegetarian cookbook that I have depended on for many years.  I’d just never tried this particular Cauliflower and Eggplant Curry side dish.  It sounded SO tasty, especially since I love curry.  I chopped everything up as indicated and dove into the recipe with gleeful abandon.  Along the way, inspired by my own inner sense of Creativity, I decided to leave out the tomato at the end because Bethany hates them... then I had to substitute caraway seeds for the black mustard seeds because I didn’t have any on hand.  I also had to leave out the lemon juice because someone (probably me) forgot to restock after the early Spring colds and drinking hot water with lemon & honey.

I also do MUCH better with exact cooking times... so I may have overcooked things slightly.

Instead of the vibrant yellow the cauliflower assumed at the beginning of the dish, I ended up with this...

Not as bad from a distance, but picture 
my kids and husband 

taking a closer look at their plates.  
I shall not repeat what they said!  
         

My brave family still ate it, even Nick who hates eggplant with a passion.  I have just given him one more reason NEVER to touch this vegetable again.

Note to SELF:  Next time FIND recipe, MAKE list and THEN buy ingredients.
Do NOT be seduced by the smooth flesh of produce again!

INHALE:  Creativity is not just relegated to arts such as drawing, painting, writing, dancing and singing.  Being creative in our cooking can create foods which nourish our eyes and souls as well as our bodies.  Eating healthy food is better for us, even if it sometimes takes more preparation.  Eating food that was grown as close to us as possible is also much better for our planet. In our fast-paced world, we often scarf down our food in between activities or appointments.  In tough economic times, we are sometimes faced with the challenge of how to eat well on a more limited budget.  Over the past 8 years as a Weight Watcher Lifetime member and leader, I have learned that no one else will wave a magic wand to create nutritious meals for me or my family, so I have learned to make friends with my slow-cooker, plan out meals, try new recipes and take delight in the smells around me as I prepare healthy choices... most of the time.

EXHALE:  Play with your food today.  Open spice jars and really SMELL what they have to offer.  Find a piece of fruit that you enjoy and SAVOUR the taste and texture as you eat it. Pour yourself a big glass of cold, clean water and drink it to hydrate your body. Don’t take that luxury for granted when so much of the world has to struggle for clean water to drink.  Take time to look through recipes in a cookbook or on-line and find a new one to try on this adventure of Creativity.  May you have MUCH better luck that I did.  I will be eating the leftovers all by myself this week!

After a rocky experiment, I went back to the safety of something I knew well for today. Tomorrow’s post will be all about DOODLING!