We all have a little bit of creativity inside of us, just bursting to emerge. Some are skilled with a paintbrush. Others are gifted wordsmiths. Still others are fantastic problem solvers and inventors of amazing things. Your gifts only become more pronounced the more you nurture your creativity.
In many professions, creativity is not generally encouraged (in my former profession as a CPA, “creative” accounting tended to end one up in jail, or at least in BIG trouble with the IRS or the SEC). However, when I would come home from my black-and-white day job, I would go to my kitchen where I would whip up some amazingly delicious meals for my husband and myself. A dash of this, a sprinkle of that, all without a recipe. It didn’t always turn out well (in fact, there were quite a few mishaps we still laugh about), but the process of simply letting go and trying something new was so liberating! The successes were so gratifying, and the learning process invaluable.
This past week was absurdly crazy for me – I had seven shoots, including one wedding, that took up nearly every moment I wasn’t sitting at my computer editing. We scraped at the bottom of the refrigerator, my kids ate nothing but takeout for dinner, the laundry piled up the walls, and the disgusting white drifts of shedding dog hair (courtesy of my molting Labrador retriever) nearly overtook us all. My housekeeping skills were definitely at an all-time low, BUT . . .
I feel like my week was incredibly amazing! Two of my sessions this week were styled shoots that were JUST for FUN, exactly the way I wanted to do it. No clients, no parameters, no outside expectations. So often the “work” of our craft can blindfold us to WHY we have chosen to do it in the first place. At first it starts out as fun, but the rigors of running a business, managing client expectations, juggling family commitments, and actually trying to make a living can tend to overshadow the joy and feelings of satisfaction our avocation USED to bring.
This week I encourage you think of the creative things you do that bring you joy. Stop pinning “fun things to do” on your Pinterest board, and go out and DO some of them! Like to write? Sit in the warm grass and work on a poem. Love to bake? Make that amazing-looking strawberry cake on the cover of this month’s Southern Living magazine and enjoy it! Think drawing is fun? Grab that sketch pad and pencil! Set some creative time aside for yourself this week to do the thing your soul is yearning to do, and throw some paint on your life’s canvas.
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