I look around my cozy little kitchen and am surrounded by more crafting supplies than the whole of Hobby Lobby contains. I bought them out of wreath forms. My kitchen table is covered in tins to hold homemade hot chocolate mix. I rotate knitting projects while I work through piles of DVDs (I wish I had the concentration to read and knit at the same time). All I need is a partridge in a pear tree and I’m set!

Needless to say, this handmade venture of mine explains my patchy blog silence the past week or so. Forgive me?

For today, as I wait for iTunes to finish updating so I can blast Christmas tunes and recommence my Christmas elf duties, I will leave you with this wonderful proclamation from our old friend, Walter Brueggemann:

“It will finally be about God and His faithfulness that vetoes our faithlessness.”
- Walter Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination

So whaddya all think of my fancy new header? I decided to try and stand out a bit more in the universe o’ blogging…plus I hate when WordPress makes me stick to limits and I hate all their font choices for headers. Anyway, I played around with Photoshop for a few minutes (which always makes me feel artsy and hip), and this is what I came up with. At least for now — I tend to change my mind on what I like all the time (the reason why I have never bothered getting a tattoo; that and being petrified of needles).

So anyway, I met up with my friend Victor the other night, to drink coffee and talk. We got to talking about creativity, and I admitted how difficult I find it sometimes. I would consider myself to be a creative individual, but during moments of frustration, I feel like it must be so much easier for everyone else. I’ll read a book, hear an idea tossed out in a meeting, or see a photograph, and start to pout. The bully voice in my head sneers that creativity comes so naturally to other people; they can spout off creative ideas like they’re firing a machine gun of brilliance, and yet I am still there, mouth half open, hoping that an idea presents itself before I start drooling. In fact, I can confidently say that I hate “brainstorming” most of the time, because when I try, the storm in my brain is so loud that no ideas can be heard. It’s like static on a TV; my ideas are more unruly and tend to show up in the middle of the night, when I immediately either scrawl them unintelligibly on a piece of paper or forget them in my half-unconscious stupor.

Much to my relief, instead of laughing or kicking me out of the “super cool creative peoples’ club,” Victor admitted that he is the same way. He said that he thinks that for most people, creativity is a lot of work. I suppose it begins by repostulating yourself with life and how you see it (I truly believe that lens matters and affects what comes out). Creativity just comes naturally to all of us in different ways, none being better or more creative than another. Or at least that’s what I hope. I have this secret fear that maybe I’m like those people who audition for “American Idol” and think they are really talented, only to find out that their singing is the vocal equivalent to nails on a chalkboard. But then at other times, I know that’s not true. I suppose being the perfectionist I am, I am not satisfied with being merely creative in one or two ways; I want to be creative in them all so I feel cooler. I want to not only be a decent writer, I want to be a spectacular one, as well as a mind-blowing photographer, graphic designer, interior designer, chef, seamstress, painter, sketcher, and whatever else one can be creative in.

(I think going to Rob Bell’s church has made me creatively insecure…how does one react when your pastor is taking over the world by being extremely awesome at everything? Seriously?)

Books I Heard Are Good For This Kind of Creativity Conundrum:

The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield

Drops Like Stars by Rob Bell (though it won’t be out till August, I think…he WOULD write a book on creativity, *shakes fist lovingly*)

………………….

What do you all think of the creative process? Are some people naturally just uber-creative or does it take some work?