Creativity Never Takes A Break

The cold weather is starting to find its way to and through my doors and windows.

No, it’s not that my windows and doors leak. I’d like to think of the sentence above as more of a metaphor for the thoughts and feelings of mid-November in the Midwest. It’s the time of year that squirrels scurry to the warmer underbrush and bluejays boldly take over the bird feeders and sitting on the sofa evenings offers the added pleasure of an additional blanket across the lap.

Curiously, at this time of year I find my interest in arts and crafts and creativity waning as well.

This bothers me a little.

I would hate for my imagination to disappear, never to appear again in the future. Such a drastic thought, I know.

But wouldn’t you be worried, nay, bothered, nay, concerned if your creativity suddenly waned out of existence?

What would you do with all the yarn, paper, research files, beads, crystals, frames, photos, ribbons, wires, feathers, oil and acrylic paints, brushes, bottles, ink pens, sketch books, colored pencils, molds, canvases, thread, yarns, clay, wood, and a dozen other supplies you have accumulated through the years?

Michaels or Hobby Lobby (craft stores in my area) might go out of business if you stopped collecting and organizing your creativity.

The one fact that keeps me hopeful is that for every waning mood there is a waxing mood along with a full mood. What goes up must come down and vice versa.

Changing weather connotates changing moods. With “the holidays” looming ahead of us, there are a lot more things to think about and carry out than what our next painting or sculpture should be.

There are food banks to contribute to, kids and grandkids and family members to connect — or reconnect — with, breads to bake and traditions to carry out.

Don’t have holiday traditions? Start some! If you don’t believe in celebrating the holidays, make Thanksgiving Day (or whatever day you choose) a day of celebration in your own way. Bring dog treats to the shelter. Buy a Christmas present and put it into the big empty box at the front of every retail store. Call your sister or grandmother and actually have a conversation with them. Watch football and make homemade kabobs or pierogis or chutney and send the recipe to a dozen of your friends.

Creativity never leaves a person. It may change like the seasons, change physical states from gas to solids to liquid and back again, turn into a sprite or a wolf or bubble or piece of steel.

But it never really goes away.

For which I am totally thankful. For I have way too many rhinestones and crystals downstairs to get rid of at the moment.