Tell us about...Creativity

I've written about why I write before and what it does for me, so I'll try not to repeat myself. 

Short version - I blog to get my thoughts in order, to stop thinking about things (once written and discussed, it's set free) and to do something with the photos I take on my walks around town. As Virginia Woolf once said "Creative power at once brings the whole universe to order".  Back in 2015 I discussed why I blogged, and little has changed. It's like therapy, but free.

I used to write a lot of stories. I entered competitions regularly, I sent them to be published and I hosted First of the Month Fiction. Then lockdown happened and my creative zeal dried up. I've tried to write a few stories since then but they've been rather unsatisfactory. I've no idea how to get my groove back. Though as Jack London wisely said "You can't wait for inspiration, you have to go after it with a club" so I know I need to push myself. Sign up to something to make myself start again. 

In the Torschlusspanik list of activities I've tried my hand at glass blowing, drawing, painting and pottery. But none are really for me.

I do like to give the creative things a go, though my busy brain finds it goes too slow usually (a fancy way of saying I lack patience). I also have some motor issues, and lack dexterity, so I have no expectation of being good at it. I see it as an exercise in doing rather than making something to keep.

However, I love to throw myself into other people's creativity - theatre, dancing, music and singing. All something I do regularly and it feeds my soul as I wrote in this post.

I saw a meme that said "When the world is too scary, too loud too much: Stop consuming and start creating"

I think that's what is so refreshing for me, when I write or go out and experience something in the arts. I get lost in it. I shut out the outside noise and turn inwards and for someone how is always distracted by the next shiny (or terrible) thing, it's soothing to have 'quiet' and control.

 “The precise role of the artist, then, is to illuminate that darkness, blaze roads through that vast forest, so that we will not, in all our doing, lose sight of its purpose, which is, after all, to make the world a more human dwelling place.” ―James Baldwin