No Work, Only Best

Over the course of this past year, as my world contracted and dwindled, I began trying to find little ways to inject a little bit of interest into life. One of my favorite ways to do this would be to consult Chase's Calendar of Events to pinpoint fun, quirky, or informative holidays and celebrations, and then try to honor them accordingly. 

Which is how I have come to learn that March is National Crafts Month. 

Granted, it's only been thus since 1994, when the Craft and Hobby Association (perhaps in concert with the delightfully demonic dame Martha Stewart) declared it so, but still. A whole month dedicated to the celebration of DIYs, glitter (AKA the herpes of the craft world), and homebody creative activities. What a time to be alive, eh? 

The thing that I love about this is that the word "craft" is so wildly open to interpretation. Generally, when I think of crafts, I do NOT think of highly refined or highfalutin creations. But then...there's the word craft, singular. Merriam-Webster defines this as "an occupation or trade requiring manual dexterity or artistic skill", which seems a little more...structured, or focused, perhaps? than elbow macaroni and yarn. Anyway, I'm taking a very broad interpretation of National Craft Month, and in addition to making a concerted effort to playing around with my crafts, I'm also going to try to work on my craft of writing, via blog posts. I'm going to try to write a post each day.

Already I'm struggling with this a bit; I feel as though I don't have a lot to say about my life right now. My work takes a great deal of my energy and focus, and as it entails managing several dozen people, there's a lot of stuff going on in my day to day life that has to remain confidential. And then, what's there to remark on at home? the things I yell at my cats? the tv shows I am binge-watching?  I'm not even able to socialize much these days with the interesting and creative people who normally inspire me and help me feel a little more in tune with my own possibilities. 

Here's the thing: I don't think of myself as a very creative person; nor have I ever. The reason why I never pursued a research degree was because I never felt like I could bring anything to the table of "original research". Things that I want to create, such as a mandala painting or a watercolor sketch, are usually copies from someone's tutorial, and not skillfully-rendered copies, at that. One of the few creative projects I ever finished was a fanfic, which is of course derivative of someone's ACTUAL art. I don't have much by way of bright, EUREKA moments, and also--I don't have much by way of actual talent or training or dexterity when it comes to anything. 

But despite all of that--I enjoy creating. Or, to perhaps be more strictly accurate, producing. I don't always care for the end product because it's usually a poorly executed imitation, and that's doubly discouraging! Plus, and I know many of you feel like this too, I want to whizz past all of the failures to be the best, even though going through the process of trying and failing is how we get better at something. But instead of permitting ourselves to try, and to fail, and to not be good in the beginning or perhaps ever,  we allow ourselves to be scared off by the elusive concepts of Good, or Better, or Best. 

At the end of the day, I think probably my views and thoughts on creativity are a bit distorted. Probably somehow attached to some consumer-capitalist concept of use and profit and product, and when whatever I create doesn't read like John Grisham's books or taste like Ina Garden's food or sell like Michael Graves' everything or sound like Adele's voice or look like Dale Chihuly's sculptures, I think, what's the point and I am a failure and this isn't creativity. 

That's not healthy. That's not okay. I wouldn't say those things to you, and I shouldn't say these things to me. I'll sign off with several quotes about creativity; hopefully some of them will help us feel seen, feel validated, feel encouraged. Hopefully we can keep mustering the courage to lean in, create, and live. Craft on, comrades. 

"Creativity is just intelligence having fun."

–Albert Einstein

"To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it." 

– Kurt Vonnegut

"You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don’t try." 

– Beverly Sills

“To be creative means to be in love with life. You can be creative only if you love life enough that you want to enhance its beauty, you want to bring a little more music to it, a little more poetry to it, a little more dance to it.”

– Osho 

"Mistakes are the portals of discovery."

 – James Joyce

"It's only when you risk failure that you discover things. When you play it safe, you're not expressing the utmost of your human experience."

– Lupita Nyong'o

"There's no such thing as creative people and non-creative people. There are only people who use their creativity and people who don't."

– Brene Brown

"Life is trying things to see if they work.”

– Ray Bradbury