You are creative

You are creative. I know. I know. People tell me all the time, "I am not creative" and here is what I want them to know.

You were made and you are a maker.

Creativity is inherent in all of us. We could not get through a day without it. Creativity at its best is problem solving. It is taking a bunch of random, and not so random things and bringing them together. It is like working on a puzzle, you have all these pieces and your job is to try and make some sense of them.

Let's start with your closet. We pick out a pair of pants, add a top, choose our shoes, our earrings. Voila, the first creative act of the day.

Then go to the kitchen. I spend plenty of time in my kitchen. Just deciding what to have for the three meals can be a creative act. Then the making of them. The kneading of the dough, the adding that little bit of herb to the dinner, the pouring of the maple syrup on the fruit. Creativity again. 

We are creative in the simplest acts each day. We in fact make our days. This being alive requires creativity. Every time a choice arrives at our door we make a decision. Choosing is inherently a creative act. It is what artists do all the time. They choose a material, a colour, where to put it and how to put it there.

Creativity is not some mysterious thing we know nothing about. It is not something veiled in secrecy. It is something every human being practices just to get on with the day. It is not something outside of any of us but something that is inherent in everyone of us. And it is waiting to be acknowledged. And once it is, it will start showing up all the time.

Saying you are not creative is a denial of the beauty and the mystery that is in you. I remember a time when I never thought much about my creativity. I did not make much of anything until I began rug hooking. Once I did start making it woke up a powerful spirit in me. I could see that the simple skills that I had in my daily life were the same skills I needed to make rugs. I needed to choose, to act, to move forward. You have a powerful spirit in you too and you have all the skills you need to create. You just have to act on it. 

You are a maker. You are creative.  

Just saying it, "I am creative" changes how you think about yourself. Saying it instead of "I am not creative" is the beginning of the change. The next step of course is believing it, and that means you have to act on it. You have to begin. Once we start acting on it we begin to see in how many ways we are actually a creative being. We become what we believe by acting upon it.

This is true for me. I became an artist because I acted like an artist. That means essentially, that I am curious and I make stuff. Not a big deal really. Just a choice, a way of being. Just a decision to create beauty everyday.