So lovely I think sunbursts are shooting out my ears. That are coming from my brain. Which has been lovely to me lately. Don't you love it when your brain is just really nice to you and comes up with all these fantastic ideas?
Lately my life has consisted of that
lovely, beautiful, fantastic, delightful, marvelous
radiant, superb
time
when creativity comes in abundance.
It seems that lately my mind has been spurting out ideas faster than I can write down in my little notebook. It feels as if creativity is hitting me from every direction. And I can assure you that if I wanted to be hit by anything, it would be creativity.
From every part of my life: people, books, poems, movies, stories, coffee shops, and life in general have been inspiring me in photography, art, writing, music, and an assortment of other things. I feel like the story of my life recently has been a crazily inspired story, and could be put into book form. I feel like the winter shadows are already receding, causing my spring photography sessions to come into play. I feel like the images I see in day to day life could be put into a drawing of near Dr. Seuss whimsicality.
I'm discovering that the best inspiration for all art (music, drawing, writing stories and poetry, photography, etc.) is simply life. Recently someone assumed that I was writing a story since I'm so into journaling, which I'm not. But when I examined my life I realized there were so many different ways I could twist my story into another story that I could write. Quite often when I'm riding down a back road, listening to a song, experiencing an emotion all I can think about is taking a picture of it, painting a picture of what I feel, writing a story about what is happening, banging out an "open letter" to whatever is bothering me this time. Life is indeed the fountain of creativity.
When you are describing,
A shape, or sound, or tint;
Don't state the matter plainly,
But put it in a hint;
And learn to look at things,
With a sort of mental squint.
-Lewis Carroll
The inconvenient thing about creativity, however, is it doesn't appreciate waiting. It doesn't like being put on hold. It seems that every moment of the day I have this deep desire to write a story or draw or go outside and do photography. Creativity is calling me from all sides - from my paper and pen, from my camera, from outdoors, from laughter, from conversations, from people, from nearly everything that I see. And it's trying to get out. Unfortunately, when you're writing an academic paper on Carolus Linnaeus or The Fugitive Slave Act, you can't exactly express your deepest pondering. I seek moments in the day to find an outlet for these activities, because as Victor Hugo once said, "An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come." And oh how right he was.
Creativity is such a beautiful thing because I think it causes us, especially in these times, to reach for something a little higher. To think a little harder. To ponder something. These days, people are so content to watch their TVs and play their video games and cheer on the next American Idol. People are so content with mediocrity. But why? There is something so beautiful and satisfying about being creative. When I make something, I feel this wonderful sense of contentment and productivity. It's such a beautiful feeling I wonder why I'm not constantly creating things. I adore creativity. As children we are constantly coming up with the most ridiculous stories and ideas. But is that such a bad thing? When we become older children, teenagers, and young adults, people look down on creative minds and ridiculous ideas. We begin to lose our sense of wonder of the world, and eventually things don't appear as beautiful as they used to. That piece of paper you found in the yard isn't actually a clue to some great mystery. Those toys you leave at home don't actually become alive when you're gone. Of course, a child's imagination can be a little off the wall, where would our literature be if the authors hadn't been a little off the wall? Where on earth would Emma and Mr. Tolkinghorn and Sir Percy Blakeney and the Pevensies be if we hadn't had people who constantly turned their regular lives into masterpieces filled with laughter or mystery and intrigue or good lessons? Creativity is a necessary thing in our world. God has blessed everyone with creativity, and sometimes all we have to do is search for it a little bit. And as that awful tongue-twister of a book, I Hope You Dance, says, "I hope you never misplace your wonderful wonder."
Creativity is such a beautiful thing because I think it causes us, especially in these times, to reach for something a little higher. To think a little harder. To ponder something. These days, people are so content to watch their TVs and play their video games and cheer on the next American Idol. People are so content with mediocrity. But why? There is something so beautiful and satisfying about being creative. When I make something, I feel this wonderful sense of contentment and productivity. It's such a beautiful feeling I wonder why I'm not constantly creating things. I adore creativity. As children we are constantly coming up with the most ridiculous stories and ideas. But is that such a bad thing? When we become older children, teenagers, and young adults, people look down on creative minds and ridiculous ideas. We begin to lose our sense of wonder of the world, and eventually things don't appear as beautiful as they used to. That piece of paper you found in the yard isn't actually a clue to some great mystery. Those toys you leave at home don't actually become alive when you're gone. Of course, a child's imagination can be a little off the wall, where would our literature be if the authors hadn't been a little off the wall? Where on earth would Emma and Mr. Tolkinghorn and Sir Percy Blakeney and the Pevensies be if we hadn't had people who constantly turned their regular lives into masterpieces filled with laughter or mystery and intrigue or good lessons? Creativity is a necessary thing in our world. God has blessed everyone with creativity, and sometimes all we have to do is search for it a little bit. And as that awful tongue-twister of a book, I Hope You Dance, says, "I hope you never misplace your wonderful wonder."
"Around here, however, we don't look backwards very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we're curious... and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths."
-Walt Disney
