Statement, May Be Fact

This sad, this bad,
It is not mine,
I will not accept
Who it says I am;
What it demands
That I become.
I shall break free,
Move away;
Choose another path
Far removed, gone.
I make myself,
My time, capturing joy,
I am happy,
I am whole,
I am now, always,
I exude love,
I am original creativity,
I share blessings,
I am courageous, real,
I am space, time,
And I give myself to You.

I am grateful:

I felt better today.
I was able to get up out of the floor.
Life has ups as well as downs.
This is only a part of who I am.
The process of editing photos helps regulate my mood.
Some pain can be well hidden.
Classical music is conducive to clear thinking.

As a prompt, take several minutes and then formulate a statement that reflects who you are this moment. If you are a visual artist, perhaps create a self-portrait or symbolic representation of your inner and outer-self combined.

Thank you for visiting Haphazard Creative. Follow if you like, or come back as you can. Live the best you can and overcome the circumstances that trouble you, however, you may. Honor living as you will. Take good care.

The Cohesive Integrity of Creativity

Tough subject, this one, survival. What happened to you, all the nasty things you hate, regret, are not you. You are a creative being with unlimited potential. You are the person you chose to become up to this point and who you choose to be going into the future. Every moment presents itself, a blank, for you to fill with your original being and vision.

I am a survivor, but I am no longer a victim. I do not choose to pick the blood and bone out of its crypt, nor enshrine the pain in a display case. It is enough you know I know that isolated country no one chooses.

Dealing with abuse is a marathon that never ends, but we must not allow it to define us. We are shining individuals who invest ourselves in adventures, missions, relationships, and endeavors delivering us into the bright light where creative possibility can usher us into life’s center.

If you still struggle, embrace yourself with enough love, the same quality, and quantity of love you lavish on others allowing your brokenness to be transformed into compelling life-affirming activity. You can wrench beauty out of darkness by employing your creativity in the face of past adversity.

We must somehow forgive those who spitefully used us and lay aside our distaste of ourselves for having little or no power for defense. I do not mean these abusers are no longer accountable, time will have its way. Forgiveness does not exonerate those who damaged us, but it frees us from the adverse effects that can long poison our hearts, souls, minds, and spirits; such as bitterness, hate, inner strife, and vicious longings for vengeance. Our years should be spent in as much love, joy, happiness, creative productivity, and comfort as our lives can procure, not bound by ordeals long over.

Drive the energy of release, revival, into purposeful creative work that can impact the world in the way you wish. Build a marvelous fortress of ultimate glory and beauty on the framework that survived sieges of oppression.

I know it is not easy to claim freedom from the negative stories embedded in our minds. In all likelihood, there will be days when we cannot drag ourselves beyond the abyss of our terrors, our unresolved feelings of hurt and regret, but we were made with creative minds, endowed with imagination, able to change who we are. We must embrace the love, power, and will, that will take us to the pinnacle of success.

When the trials are over; when our escape is arranged; when done is done; we are free, at least as much as we choose to be.

Bytes of Gratitude:

This is Friday.
Days do not repeat.
The cold will eventually end.
Things cannot always go wrong.
My covers are soft and warm.
When all else fails, there is chocolate.
Who I am today is not who I will always be.

As a prompt, write down some things you have faced that have dealt with you in such way that you have become stronger. Weave the gleanings into a story, poem, or work of art.

Thank you for visiting Haphazard Creative. You may click the follow button, or I hope you will come again soon. I hope I handled the material above with sensitivity. I do not mean to demean or dismiss anyone’s experience. I have, however, learned that for us to live healthy productive, proactive lives that we must use the tools we have, to form us into people of power. I firmly believe creativity is one of the most efficacious of the weapons provided in our arsenals. Sometimes I wish I had the scope to be a help to those dealing with the worse of the destruction, but no.

This world can be what we hope when we become the people of hope we wish to be. Be careful, smile, and create.

You did not breed it
But you alone have fed it,
Now just set it free.

Possessing Gratitude

Some were tricked, misled,
Into believing our days,
Our lives are only
Ordinary, when truly
Every single precious one
Is a gift beyond compare
Created for our pleasure.
When we lose the special sense
That we are each one unique
Living with distinct purpose
Placed where we are with reason,
We lose our frame of reference,
Unbelief can assault us
Tearing our lives asunder.
This day, this very one is
Never to be repeated,
Has not existed before,
Each moment is a blessing,
It is ours to fill with love;
The breath we inhale, exhale,
Could be our final one, last,
Maybe that does not fill your heart
With fear, awe, of God who gives
Or easily takes away;
Me, I pray for grace somehow
That I may share His great Love
In such a way that I reflect
Jesus in my words and deeds,
And joy, thankfulness today.

I wrote this in my “Brain Dump Notebook” which, I may have told you, is a cheap composition book from “Back-to-School” days at Wal-Mart. I think it was 99 cents. Every year I go to those sales and grab a few things. I have a collection of beautiful journals, some leather bound, others with wooden covers, I cannot bring myself to write in them. I would make a mistake and ruin the thing. The question this begs, if I cannot use them, what will become of them. Some of my craziness, but I never told anyone I had all my crayons in the box.

I think I will skip a gratitude list here. I have not been to bed since I wrote the last one. Too, just now, my pain levels do not facilitate an enormous amount of thankfulness.

Will you think seriously about how precious each day is? Will you express your love to your dear ones more frequently because anything can and often does happen? Will you realize that your creativity is not to be hidden away like extra bedclothes saved for guests? Keeping the good things that would bring you joy for later, can you break that habit? Will you use your unique gifts, talents, abilities, to bring the world closer to the beauty and wonder it needs to survive? If we are to save the world, we must convince the world it is worth a future.

As a prompt, pick any of the ideas above and expound upon them. If you are an artist other than of the written word, turn one of those things into work.

Thank you for taking time to read my meanderings. I hope you enjoyed your time visiting Haphazard Creative. You may follow the website, or you may make your way here again. Be love, inspiration, encouragement, joy, to others you encounter. Look for the gifts in the moments of the day. Do not take time for granted, it is remarkable. Please, be aware, trust your instincts, lock your doors, and be careful out there. God bless you and keep you in all your ways.

Good-night.

Creativity & Pain: A Relationship

The title may seem ill-advised to some, but lend me some time.

We all deal with pain, different types, and some of us more than others. There are many varieties from which to choose, although most, maybe all, of us would prefer to avoid every category of diversification.

An exciting byproduct we frequently observe is that following the experience of an intense episode of suffering, anguish, pain, there is a sudden period of explosive creative growth.

The cause, being the pain presents an obstacle of some sort, such as slowing us down physically, causing us to curb our appetites and consumption of things, so we earn less. Also making us realize we can indeed survive without a partner, we may lose a portion of our livelihood and thus our place in society, or learn we must make allowances for a change we did not foresee. While we deal with such hindrances, our creative faculties engage, discovering unique new methods to overcome the problems, determining how to better allocate our creative resources, building our personalities stronger, more adaptable, flexible, with significant advantages, and extending our abilities to move within our interior and exterior world. The creativity within each person is a solution engine built to magnify and consolidate gifts, talents, skills that destroy blockages to achievement. We are created for greatness and the creativity within us fires the forge to make us do and be more than we expect.

I fiercely believe that creativity and love connect us directly to the Master Creator, God. Our creative drive is seeded from His divine omnipotence. It likens us to Him and joins us to the Love that fills every part and parcel of space and time. We are never deserted, never alone, though we may battle loneliness, trouble, unpleasantness. The spark of creativity, which inflames our desire for achievement in a sudden blaze of imagination, is love working through us to procure a better more fulfilling life. We are led to situations, circumstances, where gratitude becomes a close companion, and we notice for each struggle and defeat there are multitudes of positive benefits.

Our creativity by ushering us into abundance, ameliorating or alleviating our pain, gives us the possibility of closeness with the Creator, Christ.

Our surge, vast and ocean-like, of creative genius, does not justify or abolish the reality of our pain, but it is a consequence that makes future encounters with the monstrosity more bearable and helps mitigate some of our anger and resentment.

Time and again we become aware of people who seem to have conquered the world and reached life’s summit, but when we are invited to an intimate discussion and learn their history, we are surprised by the monumental adversity they overcame.

It is no wonder that ingenuity, love, strength, and yes, creativity, are products of trial, discomfort, tears, pain. We only learn to mine our depths when there is nowhere, no one else from whence and whom to seek our answers. Only God willingly gives wisdom, creativity, love which merge to lift us beyond our limited vision and belief of how our personal best is to be obtained.

We are, everyone, endowed with gifts, talents, abilities, revealed amidst suffering, fired by creativity, placed with us to take us beyond our dreams, crowning us with lives we never thought possible.

So, when the hurt is great, the loss is deadly, the break is more than can be handled, the disappointment heartrending, hold on. Creativity, wisdom, love, change, a breakthrough is coming, maybe only a breath away.

I am grateful:

I ran the dishwasher today.
I washed some clothes.
I took a shower and did not have to stand in drainage.
I finished the red velvet muffins.
I started another book.
I wrote something.
Life is challenging but worthwhile, and good.

As a prompt, write about a time when pain drove you mad, but afterward, you found yourself driven to create, or do art about it. Whichever you prefer.

Thank you for visiting Haphazard Creative. Please follow, or if not, come back. Take care of yourself, do good, and be a blessing when you are able.

Surely

If we wish to change our lives, those of others, things that concern us, our environments, or anything else, there is one path. It is not an easy road, there will be resistance, it will take considerable effort and consume prodigious amounts of time; we must change ourselves. This is something most of us would instead choose not to do.

To change, we must evaluate what is not serving us in life, and those things that are in our favor. For instance, I have a clutter issue. Since losing my Mom in June 2017, I have been paralyzed by feelings of regret and grief, not dealing with the problem of a great deal of stuff which I cannot use that she left behind.

Today, my nephew and I discussed the mess. He pointed out that should I let go of the stuff, it would free up space for me to use in enjoyable ways. I was aware of this, but I have not known how to dispose of so many lovely things. He recommended I just give it all to charity because he knows me well enough to be sure that I do not care for the aggravation of trying to sell it.

Although this is uncomfortable, I am going to begin the process of liquidation. I will be able to make the freed room into a craft room and library. This will provide space for me to practice my artwork. There will finally be a home for my rubber stamp collection, which is extensive, other than entrapped under my bed.

How do I face all those things, hers, when tears still find me, time to time? I change. I gather my courage and recognize that those things no more embody Mom than I am represented by an ink pen or a notebook. I release myself from the need to please her, to continue as her caregiver when that time is past, and she has transitioned to Heaven where she is happy with Jesus.

There are more changes I must make, but I will not detail them just now. Is there something you are holding onto that would better serve you if you let it go? Maybe there is a relationship, attitude, job, habit, thing, or whatever. I am no psychic. You know what it is, and chances are you know exactly what you should do, but you procrastinate because inaction is comfortable and being stuck feels more natural than change. I understand, but the excavation once begun will give you a sense of freedom, accomplishment, and victory that will make you wonder why you waited.

We, humans, were not made to remain in stasis. From our conception, we are continually changing. We grow, learn, progress, and we never stop. If we stick our minds, bodies, hearts, spirits, or souls in a container, we become cramped, unhappy, dissatisfied. Change is who we are. Our creativity calls us to become something unique, newly discovered, uncovered, revealed to a breathless world.

Change is, and what will be. Do not fight it, latch on to the ripple, wave, that draws you into a brighter future. Create who you are, what you want to be. You have the power, embrace the life that is just beyond your hesitation.

Ah, yeah, on this we could dwell awhile, but I will not keep you. Employ that massive fortune of creative genius you possess and get busy. Your life, those you love, the world will thank you.