Based on the title it may sound like I intend to tell you to say whatever you want and do whatever you want without any regard for anything else…if that’s what you’re looking for you can stop now, we’re going left at Albuquerque!

Oh y’all are still with me! Blogging for me has been sort of crazy! It’s felt sort of therapeutic and it’s helped to release things in me that I guess I needed out plus, it’s made me “feel” creative.

If you know me, you know I’m creative but in very quirky ways. My mother on the other hand, can draw a master piece with a #2 pencil, as can my brother and at least 2 of my children and 2 of their cousins. Drawing, painting, decorating is not really my thing. I like to decorate with my “treasures” which consist of different types of pine cones from different species of pines, acorns from different species of oaks, sea shells, barnacles, coral and other sea treasure from our adventures to the coast, tumbleweeds, antlers, random cool rocks and pretty feathers. I also like glass as it holds and displays my many treasures! God has already created these things and they are so unique and beautiful.

This brings me to the discussion I was having with a friend over coffee one day. She takes amazing pictures and can turn these pictures into incredible paintings. We surmised that the need to be creative and to create things is innate. That when God said, “Let us make man in our image,” in Genesis 1:26 that being creative is part of that image in which we were made because we were created by the Master Creator. Don’t think I’m jumping off the deep end I’m just saying it is an incredible outlet that fuels rejuvenation for a lot of people and seems to be a natural impulse or compulsion even if you don’t recognize that’s what you’re doing!

After a long day of school work my son, Tristan, often escapes out to his forge and creates some really cool things out there with metal, usually knives. He also loves to build/create on Minecraft! My husband loves working with his hands and loves to create/build/design things that are useful to others, sometimes just aesthetics like the set of rings he made a group of us for Christmas one year, and sometimes entire machines that aid his teammates on the job. I have a friend who makes the most amazing cards for different occasions that you could ever dream up, and my daughter, Gracie, doodles things that should probably be sold on greeting cards and stationary! Some people write and sing music or poetry, books, or short stories….or blogs! Blogging is a way I am able to express my desire to create. It helps me process the thoughts in my mind and organize all the crazy running around up there!

I put off writing a blog or a book for years because I was scared of how people would respond and honestly, that I’d look or say something dumb. I think that’s probably inevitable, but I’m not afraid of it any more. I had a friend tell me one time that there was an “idiot seat” at every table and at some point everyone takes a turn in it! The trick is, once you realize it was your turn and you’re the one sitting there, you learn from it and don’t camp out! That kind of thinking untethered me from thoughts of failure to the point of not even trying, and tethered me to growth. Wesley, my oldest son, had an MMA coach that taught his students “we don’t lose, we learn.” Being able to untether myself from fear of rejection and failure, and tether myself to growth and learning gave me the courage I needed to be creative, and it’s helped me feel so much more balanced! What about you? How is it that you love to be creative?