Category: Creativity

It is  not shallow to have a strong desire for beautiful surroundings. Beauty is food for your entire body, mind and spirit. Did you ever notice how difficult it is to be anything but respectful  while beautiful music is playing. I find that I sit up and every thought I have is one leaning toward respect and dignity. Or how about when you enter a room that is so  carefully decorated that it feels like someone is hugging you and encouraging you.

Beauty is everywhere for the enjoying if you develop an eye for detail. A perfectly polished apple in the sunlight.

Beautiful moments are like a keyhole to a world that is beyond us. To seek and strive for more and more moments to not only experience beauty but to make something beautiful and well worth the effort. A garden doesn’t just weed itself and a house does not come decorated when you buy it.

If you spend one day making everything you touch as pretty as possible you will be surprised at the huge payback. Everyone who looks at what you did will benefit on every level. What a gift to give anyone.

I  have a friend that sends me wonderful cards from time to time for no reason except to share what she saw. It is the highlight of my day usually when one comes in the mail. In this day of email and quick quick it is so satisfying to get a wonderful card in the mail. Small thing– no a huge thing.

Dreams are a good tool to think out solutions to problems on which you have been working.  Many times, I have thought of a new idea in a dream, and when I woke up it was the perfect answer.

But then I spent a huge amount of time thinking in a non-linear fashion. For people not used to that because of their work, it is harder to use this path to be creative. The good news is there is one way that can work for anyone like that. Just before you go to sleep, write down what you want to mull over in your dreams and keep it by the bed. If you wake up in the middle of the night, reread your note to yourself and go back to sleep. When we are in the dream-wake state, it is sometimes hard to remember what you were going to work on, so that is why you want it by the bed in black and white. Also, if you get a good idea, write it down when you get it and look at it in the morning instead of just trying to remember.  On more than one occasion, I have written down really big ideas in the middle of the night and then I try them out. That is how the man who invented the sewing machine got his idea of how to thread the needle to make it work.  It was in a dream.

I get ideas in the middle of writing about how to get ideas. The simple act of walking down the path of writing about new ideas makes new ideas come into being.

Drawing and writing is even better. Then you are using both sides of your brain. Drite (Draw Write) your old ideas and problems and look at them upside down. Sounds funny but you would be surprised how useful this is for getting cobwebs out of your brain. Drite old cobwebs and watch them turn into a tapestry. Have fun with it. Relax to solve problems. Have a wacky Wednesday and do everything wrong and see what happens.

The minute we think something is impossible, the minute we utter that word to ourselves…we quit trying.  We cannot see a way so forget it. Nobody can do it. There is a wonderful feeling in giving up. You dont have to think about it anymore , its won’t be on your mind, its over. You quit.

But I like to think of the impossible as a lost child. The child wants to you find him but if you quit nobody will find him ever and he will die. Imagine if you were the child, you would want someone to try really hard to save him from death. Ideas are like that. Why do you think we even get creative ideas? Are they just our meaningless musings wasting our time and energy? Or are our creative ideas from the Creator and they were given to us as a mission to be accomplished. If the latter is true then they we better do them. I believe that we did not make ourselves. Ideas do not come from nowhere.

Aren’t you so glad that Renoir and Matisse worked way way into old age with so many handicaps in their body?  They did not have to work , they could have just relaxed with their success. But their last works were spectacular.

What if your idea is what everyone need and wants and it will last forever? It is always worth pursuing your creative endeavor till you are dead. Then you can quit , but only then.

I like this site. These folks don’t seem to worry too much about what’s “possible,” and with that fearless approach I’ll bet they can do anything.

There comes a time in your life when you just have to decide the hour and the day that you are going to do what you have always wanted. This might sound funny but my putting a specific time in your plan when you will start makes you able to move ahead. Saying some day means never never never. Someday never is going to come. Some day is far away and vague and meaningless.

Say this day and at this hour and even this minute I will start on the path that goes to where I want to go. Write it down and post it next to your bed to look at when you first get up. Put another post it on the bathroom mirror and another on the back door. Have the steps written down that you will take the first minute of the first hour of your new path. It is way way way exciting to have a starting gun. Ready, set, go.