Something Creative

I may have gone a bit overboard with new years resolutions this year. Perhaps I am making up for all the years I eschewed resolutions as pipedreams built solely for disappointment. But my sluggishness in 2020 and desperate desire to have something - anything - within my control has become quite a motivator. So, instead of one or two resolutions, perhaps one of my eight will be a success. On tap for 2021 we have:

• Eat less sugar 
• Read 40 books 
• Complete the Reading Glasses reading challenge 
• Do 15 workouts per month
• Focus on my mental health
• Buy only second-hand clothes
• Reach 75% equity in our home
• Do something creative every day

"Eat less sugar" is a classically bad resolution in its lack of specificity and, not surprisingly, I'm not off to a great start there. It turns out I finished exactly 40 books in 2020, so reading 40 this year should be doable, and the Reading Glasses challenge will push me to pick up some more diverse books. As for the workouts and mental health goals, I have some external accountability mechanisms in place for those which should help. Buying only second-hand clothes and increasing our home equity through extra mortgage payments are both existing habits cranked up a notch. 

It's the last resolution, though, that I'm most excited about. I miss writing and having a consistent creative outlet. Rediscovering this blog was a reminder of how therapeutic and rewarding writing is to me. I started this website when I was finishing my master's degree. Rather than finding it a drag to spend more time typing at the computer each day, it was energizing. Exploring different ideas and letting my creative juices flow was almost addictive. I cannot believe that in the first year I wrote a post nearly every other day... just for the fun of it! 

But I decided not to pigeonhole myself with a writing resolution this year, opting for the more open-ended "do something creative every day". I wanted the emphasis to be on exercising creativity daily, not so much on any particular format. This does beg the question, though... "What is something creative?" 

For the purposes of my completely arbitrary goal, I have decided that the following constitute "something creative":

• Writing something (anything) on this blog
• Writing a real deal, long-form letter, so long as it requires a fair amount of thought, careful phrasing, and at least one poorly drawn image for effect
• Drafting a poem
• Making a collage 
• Handcrafting cards (bonus points for use of reclaimed and recycled materials)
• Anything that requires me to set up my sewing machine
• Planning and cooking a cohesive multi-course menu (food is my love language and my favorite art form)
• Filming and editing videos
• Leading a book club discussion (I hesitated to include this, but I think moderating requires quick creativity as you form your own original thoughts and weave a shared narrative with those of others)
• Thinking up new activities to add to this list

One week into 2021, and while my sugar consumption is up I have succeeded at "doing something creative" each day. I really hope to keep this momentum going... for the creativity that is, not the sugar. So I'll leave a quote here from Elizabeth Gilbert's wonderful book Big Magic as an inspiration to myself and anyone else who needs to hear it. Elizabeth's book is all about creative living in the most generous sense of the phrase:

“The universe buries strange jewels deep within us all, and then stands back to see if we can find them... A creative life is an amplified life. It’s a bigger life, a happier life, an expanded life, and a hell of a lot more interesting life. Living in this manner—continually and stubbornly bringing forth the jewels that are hidden within you—is a fine art, in and of itself.”  -Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear