I believe every human is creative. Maybe you haven’t shown a painting in an art gallery or danced on a stage, but I believe you are creative. Navigating the pushes and pulls of life requires some ingenuity, and just being here proves that you are a survivor. You are creative.
You might think you have a plan for your life. We have to have some idea of what we will do tomorrow. But if you write your future in indelible ink, you may find yourself frustrated or disappointed. All we can do is try. We move from one day to the next with an idea, but if we are flexible, we can shift and cope with the reality tomorrow brings.
In the same way, I cannot plan the end results of my creative impulses. I listen to my spirit, and let my hands follow the leads of my heart. Each impulse informs the next one. I’m not following a recipe that someone else has worked out in a test kitchen.
And yet I do have a roadmap. Humans have been drawing and painting for many thousands of years. But I can choose the route I take, which may lead me to unexpected discoveries on that map.
Others may have followed the path I choose, but my carry on bag is different from theirs.
I bring all that I am on my journey. This makes my experience unique.
Each one of us comes upon the designated photo opportunity with a particular history that is unlike anyone else’s.
The meaning or interpretation that is obvious to you, may never occur to me. What I surmise may surprise you. And that is the gift.
This is what I hope to achieve. To encourage you to trust your gut. To follow your heart and express whatever it is that you feel.
The more you ponder, the more you will discover. You have all you need already.
Often, the thing I am most reluctant to acknowledge or express, is the thing that will be the most enlightening for me, and beneficial to others.
My weaknesses become my strengths when I embrace them.
The thing I am ashamed of can be the thing that enables you to say me too! I thought I was the only one.
I charge my creativity by reflecting. Meditating. By making sense of what I have felt. When I calm my mind, memories bubble up … I don’t know how else to describe it … from yesterday or my distant past.
I used to think it was too late. Too late to grieve whatever I thought I lost as a child. Too late to change long held beliefs.
Now I see I am still me. I am the child I was. I am the one who has allowed me to persevere, and not to quit.