Paint
Carolyn spent the day painting today. It was part of a church service on creativity. I had the opportunity to sit in the back and watch my wife create. It was wonderful to see her painting. I also ran accross one of my oldest journals, it was amazing to see how differently I viewed the world when I was in collge. I wrote a lot differently then. These two events brought some things back into focus for me.
I have lost hold of a lot of things that kept me interested in life. I used to write poetry, I used to photograph everything, I used to play guitar every day. I hardly do any of those things anymore. In fact, my guitar has collected so much dust this year it is almost burried in the corner. Carolyn used to draw and paint a lot more than she does now. We seem to have left those things and moved on to more "adult" pursuits, like laundry and work and shuttling kids from place to place.
Here's the thing, life was a lot better back then. I think it's time to get back into the things that helped us dream...gotta go, my guitar is waiting.
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10 comments:
Isn't it funny that the ways we thought we needed to simplify, while important, have been sort of set aside. In January, I was obsessed with buying less. buying used, and keeping my houseclean. I STILL need to work on those things- but I"m seeing what is to be gained now- creativity. The life God intended for me. One free of the mechanics of daily reality (not that I can be free of responsibility, but that my goal should not be productivity.)
Nice post, Matt, and right on with your comment, Carolyn. I think that what is so amazing about the Jewish/Christian creation story, is that God created us IN HIS/HER IMAGE! That means that our very essence is creative! I know that this truth is one that I have not only neglected in my life, but REJECTED on a practical level. It is so easy to get caught up in the business of day-to-day living, and neglect who we are created to be. Like you said Carolyn, it needs to be a balance. But we will never be whole adults until we rediscover some of our child-like wonder and freedom to create.
Thanks for continuing to inspire me! Thanks to you two, I'm creating for the first time in a long time--I'm doing NaNo!
Blessings on your journey, and on your speed-writing!
Having very little in the way of conventional creativity I like to invent ways to keep my housekeeping a creative pursuit. Looking for ways to include my child, be more efficient or make yummy homemade healthy foods are my goals.
I'm weird though.
Thats not weird at all!! I have a friend who cooks wonderfully and it is certainly her outlet. And my mom expresses through her home by changing things for the different seasons.
I'm just not very...ahem, domestic. :)
I guess a change in mindset is in order. All work is valuable. It's all creative. At some point we (women especially) learned to think of homekeeping as drudgery. My small point is that it can be creative and satisfaction can be derived from it.
As a point of clarification I am a working-outside-the-home mom, and a feminist. I pretty well follow standard gender roles. Maybe it's the desire to stay home that makes me romanticize the SAHM gig. I KNOW it's hard work.
sff--I'm in total agreement with this statement: "we (women especially) learned to think of homekeeping as drudgery. My small point is that it can be creative and satisfaction can be derived from it." My favorite piece of writing to address this is a very small book (actually a speech in book form) called The Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry, Liturgy, and Women's Work by Kathleen Norris (poet and essayist). It's beautiful.
Thanks Caren! I'm going to look up that speech.
I hope I don't step on anyone's toes here. I love reading everyone elses stuff (you are all much better writers than me).
By the way...in case anyone wondered...I accidently commented as Matt a few comments back. I"m too lazy to fix it. :)
Great comments, btw!
That's oaky Beautiful, we're "one!"
Oaky? ;)
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