Nurturing Creativity....

takes effort. It isn't unlike planting seeds for the garden...

Planting the seeds is easy. Ideas are like seeds....we have tons of them but if we crowd them, they will not have room to grow. Sometimes we have to weed out our ideas and choose the ones that seem strongest, the ones that will survive even when we neglect them for a bit.

Seeds need to be carefully tended if we expect them to grow strong and healthy. We need to separate them, feed them, water them and make sure they get plenty of sun and fresh air. They need room to grow but they also need to be turned around so they don't lean too far in one direction. We want them to stand tall, not all bent and leggy.

Our creativity is like that. If we do not carefully tend to it, it can become weedy, bent over and feel starved and thirsty. It can blanch and pale beyond recognition. It needs sun and fresh air.

My creative juices need to be revived. It's spring. The sun is shining. I'm packing the dog, the binoculars, the sketchbooks, pens and watercolors into the car. I'm going to do this for the next week. I can't afford to go off on a special retreat but I can make my own retreat, right here in this beautiful place I call home and I can jump start my tired old creative self. I'm going to go off by myself, listen to myself and do a little drawing, painting and writing. I'm sort of excited to see what shows up.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it...