Why?

                                     Why I need to create….



When Kylie asked the question ‘Why do you create?’after watching Simon Senek's lecture,  I really had to think hard about putting into words something which I do without it entering into my head. Something which by-passes my brain and consciousness. Something which to me is part of me and cannot easily be unravelled as it is too complex and too entwined into every tiny part of me, that it flows out of me all the time in so many things I do. Why? Because I am hard-wired to need to create, to make, to take the ordinary and make it extraordinary, to play with colour which lifts my mood and makes me smile.


It is a little insight into the inner me. The part of me which sees the beauty in everyday things and wants to take them and add a bit of me to them through colour or stitch. Because I love to create something from nothing, to work with colour and feel the energy flowing through me. To make something that others admire, to fill my time creatively. But more than that it is an obsession, a compulsion, a deep need. By being connected to so many other creative souls on Flying Lessons I realise that many of us are united in this need. Most of all, I do it because it is fun. I feel very fortunate to be one of life’s creative people.


I really do believe that some of us are driven to create in so many ways and others want to make things but need to be taken by the hand and shown what to do every step of the way. Another part of me loves to be the teacher and to show people how to make and create. I loved writing craft books and magazine articles and sharing my knowledge with so many other people. I still enjoy teaching scrapbooking now. This is another ‘why’ I do it.


It is interesting that when something like stress, or distress, interferes with your brain, you can no longer fulfil that basic need to make and do. Those precious brain cells are diverted away from creativity and a gaping hole emerges. It is not until equilibrium returns that the creative energy can flow again. This is how I have been this week after so many traumatic weeks at work when I have been begging for help but my cry fell on deaf ears. Finally I broke and the ‘me’ part of me which makes me ‘me’ broke too. I have had an empty, hard week bereft of my inner energy, but today, it is starting to return.

 Today is going to be hard. We are going to Tony’s brother in law’s funeral and then to see his sister in hospital, 5o miles away. She is too ill to go to her own husband’s funeral. Her operation for lung cancer is next Sunday; I just long for her to recover and enjoy some life of her own as she has been his carer for such a long time.


PS. I have just discovered how to change the background text colour so this is me having a little play! As I LOVE colour and I have not included a picture today I am adding colour instead!