I believe that we all have a need to be creative.  Sometimes creative sparks gush from my head. I get ideas: ideas for art projects, for writing, and even for practical everyday living. I wake up in the middle of the night and have to write down my ideas. When I’m working intensively on my art or writing, it’s as if my mind is on fire.
And so, I wonder: where do creative sparks come from?

But creativity isn’t just about art. Almost any activity can be creative. To get a taste of the huge range of creativity-go to the Minnesota State Fair where you can admire the creativity in raising bunnies with colorful fur coats or growing beans in an array of colors or baking apple cakes or designing farm implements or training horses or…

I also understand that talents often grow on trees. Art runs in my family–my brother, my aunt, my niece, my nephew, and I all were born to be artists. So I’m grateful for the specific genes I inherited.

I think creativity is catchy. If you surround yourself with other creative people, you can stimulate each other-and creative sparks will fly.
But creativity is an active verb–it’s something you do. I’ve heard people say “I’d like to write a novel”–but you’re not a writer unless you actually write. And you never know if you can do it unless you try.  I’ve been teaching art in senior residences. It always amazes me to witness my students develop their projects. Many of my students haven’t done any art since kindergarten. And yet, each one creates something wonderful and unique.

It’s also true that creativity has no age limit. There’s no age limit on imagination. In fact, I’m convinced that our creativity gets bigger and more amazing as we get older. We have so many experiences to draw on–it’s sort of like compound-interest-your creativity in later life builds on what you’ve thought and felt and experienced in all the years before.

Maybe we need a special prayer or blessing for our sparks of creativity.  

What sparks your creativity???

Aug 20, 2015