Creation

I have thinking a lot about creativity lately, for reasons which I will blog about in the next post. For now I want to write about creativity itself.

First of all, it is just an amazing thing for me how things grow. An idea comes, and often it does not even feel like you are making it up so much as that you are discovering it. There are things that feel right and that don’t. Often there are things that you want to happen or expect to happen, and then they simply do not work, so it changes everything, but then the change works and that brings a new satisfaction.

I know many people who do not consider themselves creative they are not inventing anything, but creation is not making up; it’s just making. It doesn’t matter if no one else has ever done it, or ever could.

Creation means that you are putting something new into the world. We think of stories and paintings and songs, but it can also be a musical performance, or a deck, or a batch of cookies. It could even be planning a new experience that creates a memory for someone.

To make something that is different (what people think of as creativity) might be more accurately called innovation, and it certainly has its place. The funny thing is that practicing creation makes you better at innovation. Now you know how something normally goes so you have a better idea of how it can be different. But even if all you do is make the same batch of cookies over and over again, cookies are good!

I used to really look down on latch hooking. I didn’t care for the texture, or the usual colors and patterns, and I felt like they were absolutely useless. I would not want to walk on one or hang one on the wall. Meanwhile, I was doing these embroidery patterns, which were way more practical because I would embroider pillow cases as wedding gifts. That way the newlyweds would have some nice pillowcases that did not match their bedroom set and were honestly kind of small for the size of pillows most people use. And I was not making anything up, because I was following patterns in kits.

However, I liked doing it. I thought they were pretty, and I liked watching it go from just a blue on white pattern to filling out with different colors and textures. Watching that progress was satisfying to me. So if you can get that with latch hook or macramé or paint by numbers, go with that. Or plant a garden or make a scrapbook, but put something there that was not there before, something that you find to be good. On your own level, you are doing the work of God.