Yes, you are creative!
Inviting #Creativity out to Play!

Welcome to creativity week here on Bliss Habits!

A funny thing happened on the way to this week. As I was preparing I overheard a woman in the craft store say to her friend, “I’m not creative, thank God for these kits.” It struck me as kind of ironic. There she is, in a CRAFT STORE! picking out items for some type of Valentines Day project. The “kit” she was admiring required a lot of personal interpretation. It wasn’t one of those super easy toddler crafts, it was a complicated centerpiece arrangement that had several options for completion. She also had already tossed a bunch of other seemingly random supplies into her cart. If she wasn’t creative, what the heck was she going to do with all that pink and red stuff?

Then our fabulous Bliss Habits photographer, Tamara, wrote me and said that she wasn’t feeling very successful with the Creativity prompt and she wondered if I might like to use another photographer’s work to represent the week. Now the photo she found, (<– over to the left)  was indeed super creative, but I had to laugh. Every single one of Tamara’s photos exudes creativity! The colors, the light, all the deliberate choices she makes come together in a creativity explosion with every click of her camera!

Look at Tamara’s marvelous photo! Just oozing creativity I say! And happily I would like to report she she sees it too!  I think that Tamara and the woman in the craft store were doing something that happens to all of us. Somehow they both decided that creativity looked a certain way. We all do it. We allow our brains to go down a single path and expect that what we are seeking will be there. Creativity doesn’t like to be constrained by this type of thinking. In fact creativity asks that we look outside the boxes we like to put her in.

Speaking of boxes! this is the perfect time to share January’s poem for the week:

 

 The Cardboard Box

  by January Handl

$18.99 for the newest, bestest and most advertised jewel
2 weeks of pride and show and tell
To what all see and yearn for
Then discarded, among a heap of other faded jewels
All limited by adult vision or lack of it

Costing close to nothing, even recyclable
The cardboard box returns to popularity
Day in, day out, month in, month out
All limits are lost on children’s free thought

A sailing ship, with fierce pirates
Transforms into a noisy choo-choo train
On the way to Disneyland
A turtle’s shell becomes Grandma’s house
And you can smell the cookies baking
A hideout with whispered secrets
Becomes a dark cave, too scary to stay in long

Along the way are arguments, shouts of frustration
And absolute tons of giggles and squeals
The wonderful sounds of imaginations in gear
And the fun and satisfaction of discovery

Perhaps, if I charge $18.99
And seek great marketing techniques
I could be a millionaire of cardboard boxes…
Or perhaps when my grownup mind
Imposes its own ideas
The cardboard box would wind up on the heap of faded jewels
And what a tragedy that would be

 

In addition to my not so subtle pun on boxes, January’s poem speaks to the Creativity that is alive in children. They are not constrained by boxes, or anything else much either, and are, in fact, inspired by them. Living with my almost five year old I am lucky enough to see this every day. In the space of an hour my girl can use the exact same blanket as a scarf, fort roof, sling for carrying her baby, picnic setting, and as an actual blanket! Everything is magic and she is confident in her skills in wielding her own. We adults would do well to approach creativity this way.

For this reason this week’s Bliss Initiative is to catch your self being creative. Spend a few moments noticing when and where you have been creative today. Embrace the creativity that is already in you and invite it out to play.

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If you were inspired by the photo or poem today please let our artists know in a comment and/or consider sharing this post with your friends!!

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Tamara Magnisky

Tamara Magnitsky, a child of the wild blue yonder,
has been an ardent student and advocate for poetry, photography and excellence in general.
She is the mother of a 6 year old daughter and a beloved wife.
She can be found most days.

Bio written by Cary Brosius ~Tamara’s husband  🙂

 

January Handl

January Handl is first and always a mother, has been a preschool teacher and parent educator for 25 years, and currently is an early head start home visitor in her community. She resides with 2 dogs and a cat in Boulder Creek and and simply lives in awe of existence.

She calls her photo “hot tub bliss”  🙂