The Path Ahead

Lately, my favorite pictures to make with my phone are ones with a path at the center.  

It’s like my subconscious is cheering us on as we venture into the unknown.

I’ve worked very hard to remind myself to live in and appreciate the here and now.  These days. I’m able look toward the future’s uncertainty with a sense that new and manageable challenges await.  That’s a good thing, I believe.

Craft Project

Paper crafts make me happy and for summer I have some paper ice cream cones to put together.  They will become bookmarks and notecards; one may turn up on my yearly bulletin board.  But most of all, I enjoy having the time to create something.

That’s happy!

Creativity Reviewed

For the past month, I have been participating in Thing-a-Day, a website to encourage daily creativity. I basically learned two things as I participated in the project. The first is that my blog is a huge creative outlet for me. And the second is that I felt slightly fraudulent if my Thing-a-Day project wasn't something tangible: cards, or food, or something like that.

It's just like me to think that there are rules for creativity.

What I liked about Thing-a-Day is that it cemented my interest in some new blog writings that I plan to make regular features: the 1st of the month hosta photo (this year's version of the 1st of the month tree photos), the monthly feature on household style, and Food Friday, which will become an occasional feature in the months ahead.

Thing-a-Day reminded me to enjoy the creativity that is a regular part of my life: wrapping packages, making cards, and writing notes. And, finally, it reminded me how much I love politics.

I deliberately chose not to write about politics for the month of February; an effort to give my political brain a chance to rest and reformulate. And I've missed writing about the thing that consumes so much of my cognitive time. So there will be more political writing next month. Because I've got a few things to get off my chest.

Republican party: I'm looking at you.

Creativity

At a school assembly on Friday, JT learned about making sounds and music from homemade instruments. The boy was obviously inspired and he chattered about it the whole way home. Within 30 minutes of walking in the door, he had fashioned himself a homemade guitar from a shoebox, a wrapping paper roll, and some rubber bands.

This is one of the things that I admire most about JT: his vast imagination and willingness to explore creating things. I do my best to foster that spirit and it's clear that his teachers do as well. To me, that's an essential part of education: to enrich his intellect and his sprit; to look after the whole child. JT came home yesterday excited to talk about the sounds music makes, the uses of leftover materials in our home(his "guitar" is made of recycled goods) and the new homemade instruments he would create for himself.

Starting tomorrow and for the month of February, I will participate in Thing-a-Day, a web project designed to get people to create something every day. As part of the project, I will blog every day. That's not really a new thing for me, though I intend to re-double my efforts at being creative, and so in the next month I hope to start some new blog features, to continue some old ones, and to generally channel the spirit of my creative boy.