Day 10 – 2020 Creativity Project

Post Three for Today

It always seems days like the tenth are incredibly productive for me. I never understand why the muse, inspiration, whatever you may call the force that pours creativity forth has days when it is like an uncorked fire hydrant spewing everywhere. Actually, if I allow, it is present a lot.

I took the cameras out for a few minutes. I meant to use the Sony, but the battery blacked, and the extra battery was also dead. I took the Nikon out with a telephoto lens on it, and I had been away a while, so I was thrown by it, not taking pictures. The light was poor, my distance was too near. I finally got a few shots. It is terrible that I have been relying on my cellphone’s camera so much.

The above shot is with the Sony, unedited. It is not quite as I would like, but the device went dark, so there I had it.

By Design

I went in search of
Happiness, but came to find
It is not a thing
Hidden beyond me, oh no,
I contain it in my mind.
I choose attitudes
Every moment, every day,
If I am down-hearted
I must make it otherwise
And exuberance I can try.
The clouds and thunder,
Rain – does not determine how
I come to think, feel,
I make a designation to
Positive or negative,
So just now, I pick my joy with love.

This is not to discount depression, because that struggle is real, but we do have some power over our feelings, at least at times. I have Schizo-Affective Disorder, so depression is a home place too. It takes a lot to fight, but fight we must because if we let loose our control, we can be driven deep in areas hard with dark to escape.

I wonder why I am doing this, cause it has been bad days for the site, but I have words, so…

I think maybe learning one of my favorite musicians died of brain cancer made me trot something out. RUSH is a top band in my estimation. I saw them twice in that magical 1979 to 1981 period when I was at a concert or the movies every week. Neil Peart, Rest In Peace. See ya.

Find something, create. Build something beyond yourself, because you are real.

Do well, be active, keep going, you are loved.

2020/365 – The Reasons Why

Why do I do Creativity Projects? This is not my first one and probably will not be my last. Why do I crazily decide to commit a year to come out in public with some work every day? Most know I regularly work, create most days without posting. Like now, I soon enough decide I should give up because there is a lack of engagement.

The thing is, I believe in LOVE, and believe in creativity as LOVE’s most actionable visible expression. If I do this – if I make myself produce something original each day of the year, maybe one person stumbles across what I am doing and is emboldened to create. If I inspire one to do something gorgeous and lasting out of LOVE, overcoming fear, that he or she would have left undone, it is worth my 365 efforts. The expression of ideas fuels changes in our lives – if we want a better world, we best be busy creating a platform from which it can be built and launched. The basis of a brighter day is LOVE.

I am not here only to make my things, to promote myself, I am here to move, encourage others to have fortitude enough to share their truth, their reality, in freedom and boldness. Together, perhaps, we may all move this populated globe toward an understanding of why we exist. Loving, supporting, helping, encouraging, accepting, inspiring, teaching, nurturing, building, nourishing, protecting, listening, cherishing, being friends, and companions together with every one of us – this is our individual and joint reason and purpose as human beings. We belong, all of us, we are precious.

We have what it takes to LOVE, and we should be busy about making it our business.

I hope that clarifies my mission and why it is important to me. It is no easy thing. The quit dogs me often, but I have never been one to give up.

Join me, do this thing yourself or just come back here when you feel the notion. I hope 2020 has taken off as a blessed year in your life. All the best in all you do.

This time do not let
It flow past you and away,
Capture it with LOVE!

I never know what will be until it comes, and I am grateful that this came in my journal. I like what it has to say. Have a great weekend. Fill it with moments to treasure and make what you dream happen.

Creative Variety

Day Seven – 2020 Creativity Project

Wookie watching Wick

Wookie raptly watching a movie. Edited version.

I have been on the internet since 1991. Creatives are among my favorite people. A baseline normal between creatives, we are all original individuals. Our personalities, gifts, characteristics, styles, spirituality, beliefs, all those, and more make us unusual, and yet we are alike. There is a spark in the room when creatives meet. We chatter, and we immediately find something which we can relate to within one another.

Many of us are introverts, we will find ways to sequester ourselves in privacy. Though we can lay that aside long enough to perform something we believe in. Sometimes, this is almost too hard. What should we write, draw, paint, photograph, what tools use? Is art worthwhile? Is the meaning and connotation of a word correct? Is it perfect, or close enough, no one can see the seams, the erasures? The picture, should it have been edited, or was the original better? Will anyone read, will they care, will someone?

Uncertainty seems to come with the territory, but we can stand loud and proud when we feel we must. Our hearts are open, our minds malleable, our work forever with us. Dreams are waking us to grab tools of record in the dire hours of the night. We study, then find it not enough, and explore more.

When the curtain draws down, we will be begging long enough to get the current work complete. Dame Death can wait…

Maybe I exaggerate, I am a poet who writes stories, essays, and attempts books. I do these Creativity Projects that tax me beyond belief. I believe in making myself work because if I do not commit, I might crawl into a cavern and secret myself away. Figuratively speaking darlings, if I had a cavern, we would have sleepovers on crisp nights.

I did poems today, but I am not satisfied with any of them, then when am I confident of the writing I do? I think it is why I read so much. I can twine my mind in someone else’s creation. Anyway, you are warned.

Down, Upsideways

Touched by the feather
Of a snowy dove named love
My soul reaches up
Toward Heaven way above
Then stretches out and abroad.

I inhale the breeze
Breathing out weighty worry;
Then again process,
Exhaling stores of kindness and joy
Praying health, happiness, prosperity to all.

I hope good fortune
Will find ample opportunity in many lives;
People who shall discover
Grace as comfort always
And fullness of faith as a living fire.

SWAP

Can I be you now?
I know I should not ask,
But you seem self-assured,
Only for today, until
The time day goes undercover
Where we can dream mysteries
We might never encounter if
Our lives did not intersect,
Combine, entwine, meld,
Like no one knows but we
In on the secrets only we two may
Comprehend, understand;
How will our hearts ever beat
Quite the same as prior, after
Sharing who we really are?
Do you realize how precious,
Surpassing grand are the gifts
You within yourself do own?
We might be explorers, ah, home.

Perpetually

Let us live forever
Remembered by generations
Whose opportunity to know
Us is only in the creations
We leave behind in time.
What we share with others
What we release from within,
Those bits and pieces of thought
Captured in any set form
Can transmit over eras
Perhaps helping someone grow
Into a person better suited
To survive whatever may
Become their experience
In living a maximum life.

I hope you found something of worth, I have not felt like I could do this today. The Quits have set in. You know that saying, “You should not be doing this. It is not any good. Give up.” Yeah, my brain has not yet learned, “Never Give Up!” is stronger. Anyway, thank you for visiting. If you wish there is a follow button, or come back when you like.

All the best to you, and keep reaching for your goals, I believe in you. I thank God this marvelous tool brings us together. I hope I did not go over long today. Sometimes, if you knew, I have lots to share.

Wookie watching television, movie. Less edited version.

Resistance Overcome

Day Six – 2020 Creativity Project

I do not believe in the concept of creative block, which includes Writer’s Block. I think we are capable of constant creative output, not, however, that all of it is fit for public consumption.

I keep a planner with brief notes most days, a gratitude journal frequently, a brain dump journal much of the time, and I write more creatively a lot. Today is day six, the resistance has unearthed itself and come to stand like a Spartan, with shield ready to repel me. “You SHALL NOT pass!” Yeah, um, that will not work. I, tentatively, committed to be here and do this, so it is happening.

Thing is I do not often know what to write. I could call it a block, but really it is not. It is usually that I have enough ideas flying around like kamikazes; eventually, I will find one to rescue. Ever tried to talk a suicidal idea into allowing you to work with it? It can be a bit of a challenge. A tribe of screaming banshees jump up, down, yelling, “Why in tarnation are you doing this, it is too much. Quit, quit, quit already. Why torture yourself.” Take a chill pill and climb aboard cause this train is gaining momentum, and negative hoodlums are not in the engine compartment.

If I hit a boulder too large to push out of the way, there are means. I am not afraid to employ dynamite, but it requires strategic planning. I will take note of the obstacle, then I will step away and make preparations. I may read, especially creativity, writing, or art instruction books. I am also apt to write sheer junk, where I give license to my critic and all its cronies in negativity, to spew. I write the crap down to clear my head. Afterward, I say, “Enough, shut TF up!” I pulverize the boulder, and I do what I do, which is create.

I am guessing most creatives face similar challenges, you may not use the same images to objectify what goes on, but you probably have your things. I am well acquainted with resistance. Creativity is not effortless, or everyone would be writing bestsellers, painting art to rival the Sistine Chapel, making blockbuster movies to vie with Star Wars, or creating software to supplant Windows and Apple OS. Though some of us are achieving, many never get out of the gate.

Kudos to you when you keep on long enough to make something out of thin air. The world needs your ideas, creations, methods, support, determination. People need to know that giving up, cashing out, leaving the stage is not an option. Life is difficult, but when we open our imaginative minds, we bring new concepts, stories, creations to life. We find the hope we and others need and the love to survive in the desolation.

Be well, create, love like it is your only chance, dream, and make dreams real. Make resistance reach for the sky and cartwheel by it, leaving it to wonder who you are and where you are bound. You are chosen for this time, place, position, do what you are meant for, and do it with passion. The more love you expend, the more you will have to give, and the more will come to you. Be a creator and make 2020 your year, if you do not believe in you, someone else will go in your place doing it half as well.

Nobody, But You, Now

Day Four – 2020 Creativity Project

We have the present, we look forward to the future, but unfortunately, sometimes we allow ourselves to view time and living through the lens of the past. This often robs us of opportunity and causes us to limit ourselves to patterns that do not serve us.

If we invest all our effort in the things before us, letting go of attitudes and habits which restrict our horizons, we live fully and vividly alive.

Let us encourage one another to don our best selves each day and create lives where we are the heroes and heroines we wish to encounter. If we do not step up, there is a possibility that no one will.

Little things that may make a difference: Holding a door for someone with more than hands full; separating items for recycling; reading stories to calm children down; writing notes to people who receive insufficient recognition. Sharing inspirational articles or original thoughts; recommending suitable reading materials; singing to lift spirits. Speaking affirmative words to others and helping someone with onerous chores. Probably those are enough to get brains in gear.

We may sometimes feel insignificant, but our lives have purpose and meaning. God creates no junk, so each of us is precious. Little things, small words, gentleness can lead to change in the world. When we are kind, we are wearing our super-suits, because much in the world is hard and kindness makes life more bearable.

Everyone is important, everyone has something to contribute that no one else can provide. When we share love, we tear fissures in the vulgar meanness that permeates so many days. Sometimes we erase the shadows entirely and beauty unimaginable blooms.

Be a hero, you are, and now the world needs you. If you turn away, who will follow your example and live a less useful life going forward? Someone, you may never realize, is watching, you are their star. Be a positive world-changing influence; it is who you were meant to be.

Nobody, But You, Now!

2016-11-19 Unfolding Rose