Getting to the Heart of Creativity

It just doesn't work ... trying to force the creative ideas when you need them.  It's frustrating and infuriating, which just adds more brick to the wall.  This dilemma often presents itself when there is a looming deadline, or suddenly there are too many irons in the fire and you just need to clone yourself.

I paint myself into this corner from time to time and as a matter of fact, have done a fine job of it lately.  The solution?  Go fishing.  

So, I went to the mountains.  No phone, no computer, only the music of coyotes on the ridge in the night, the birds in the morning and the rise of trout  on the lake.  I had time to just be.  And with time to reflect, I stepped into the "way back machine" to take a look at the why, where, and how this love of creating was born in me.  

I recall my first "horse" which was a propane tank (before I could talk my parents into the real thing) and an imagination that took me on many adventures, outrunning outlaws and galloping across the prairie.  Whatever I could imagine, I could do.

Then there were the backyard concerts and plays where I roped my younger brothers and many neighborhood friends into participation. I was the playwright, producer and director and our parents were the (captive) audience.  We didn't have a lot to work with, but we had our imaginations.  Though, casting one of my brothers as the villain in my production of "Dudley Doright" was brilliant, if I do say so myself!

This is the heart of creativity, the play time.  There are no limits as to where you can go in your imagination and what you can create (of course bending younger brothers to your will can be difficult at times).  We all need that  play time to rejuvenate the creative juices.

Thank you to my creative friends who reminded me that the "dream time" is where our creative ideas are born.  Now ... go play!

"Imagination is more valuable than knowledge"  Albert Einstein

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