Creativity

I have been doing a lot of deep thinking about creativity as of late. What is creativity? Is creativity something that every human possesses? Is creativity measured in amounts, such as I have "a lot" or I'm just "a little bit" creative? I spent the morning helping out in my daughter's kindergarten classroom, and I assisted the kids in making life-size self drawings. It was interesting to observe how the kids responded to this assignment, which was basically tracing their bodies and then turning the decorating over to them. Some of the kids were literally frozen--intimidated?--by the task, and drew a few lines but nothing more; others had more confidence and worked diligently with color, design, and enthusiasm. More than once, I heard a child say in his or her own way, "I'm no good at that." Sad, no, tragic. Already, these young kids have an idea of whether they are creative or not. And here are my two cents.....EVERY HUMAN BEING is creative. We were fashioned by God, who is by nature an exceptionally creative being. We know that God created us IN HIS IMAGE, and His Image includes creativity.....AMAZING CREATIVITY! I have personally had the opportunity to salvage my self-concept as a "creative person", but I think that is largely due, in part, to the fact that when I was younger and going through school, I was very good at doing things "right." At copying the teacher's example to near-perfection. At working hard to make my projects "look good." And so teachers labeled me as "creative" and encouraged my creative work. Fortunate me. In short, I believe that I was in some way allowed to retain my sense of myself as creative. But many, many, many children do not have that experience. It only takes one teacher or parent or adult to label a child as "not creative", and that child can be doomed to live believing themselves to be "not creative." Tragic. So tragic. So what can we do? First, we can model a creative life in all that we do......scrapbooking, taking photos, cooking, decorating our homes, accessorizing our wardrobes, arranging our furniture, building our birdhouses, knitting our scarves, nurturing our gardens, whatever. We can model that mistakes are OK and a critical part of the creative process. Dare we say celebrate mistakes? We can let our kids create! In so many ways......let them pretend, buy them a big trunk of dress-up clothes, turn off the TV, immerse them in art supplies, don't worry about the floor (it can be cleaned up when they graduate)! Expose them to the wonderful creativity in nature, in public museums, in the artist's studio down the block. Cook with them. Walk with them. Dance with them. Cuddle them in and tell them wonderfully fanciful stories., even those that come from your mind rather than the pages of a book. And just love them. Because confidence comes from connection in relationship, and confidence is an important foundational stone for risking creative endeavors. Don't compare work. Encourage the individuality in yourself and your family. Give your children blank paper, not just coloring books. Encourage them to color and draw outside the lines. Embrace their unique spirit. Make your own wrapping paper. Hand the camera over to your child sometimes, no matter how young they are. I promise that what you see in your child will be well worth any extra effort this type of lifestyle takes. Take the challenge and let me know how it goes! I promise you, you will not regret it.