"Creativity is God's gift to us. Using our creativity is our gift back to God."
- Julia Cameron (from her book, The Artist's Way)
Ever since I was a little girl, people all around me have told me that I'm creative.
I'll admit...I love it.
I love to be able to dream up unique ideas or stories, or even use my creativity in my wardrobe design. Heck, by the age of 10, I think I had started about five different "businesses" i.e., trying to sell my crap that I had created to my poor unsuspecting parents & grandparents...I mean, who really wants 10 little multi-colored dolls made out of yarn anyways? But often as we transition from a childhood dream world to a working reality, we tend to loosen the grip of our creative side.
I have to say I'm incredibly blessed to work in a place that encourages creativity constantly. But i've found recently that when I'm not "exercising" my creative muscle regularly, it's increasingly more difficult to be "creative on cue" when I need to come up with an idea for a specific project. After thinking it through and evaluating my regular routine, i've come to the conclusion that I don't carve out enough time to just intentionally think, be creative or simply dream.
Thus the purpose for "No Music Mondays!"
I love music. Or, maybe I should say I LOOOOVE music. I have it on all the time, and if I don't, I can often be found dancing or singing along to whatever song is in my head (even though no one else can hear it).
It's a disease, I know.
It's also a known fact that at any given time, if you pull up next to me at a red light, the odds of you catching a glimpse of my latest song & dance performance are quite good...and probably rather amusing.
But as much as I love to rock it out in my car, I've realized that the hour+ that I spend in the car each way to work is a great time for me to squeeze in some intentional creative thinking space. So from here on out, every Monday will be considered No Music Monday. I will purposely not listen to my radio AT ALL any time I'm in the car, every single Monday. I can't even turn on the radio to hear the traffic report. Nothing. Nada. Zilch.
And you know what's crazy? I've already seen God use that time effectively.
My 2nd week in to this routine, I found myself almost running off the road trying to furiously jot down the ideas in my head that were coming faster than I could write! All related to a vision for something that I feel God has been slowly but surely stirring in my heart for some time now. Wouldn't you know it, I carve out a little time to be silent and BAM...it was like the vision was just exploding in my brain! (that's all I'm going to say about it for now, but stay tuned...something big is around the corner!)
So what do you do to keep your creative thinking juices flowing?
Might I recommend a little bit of regular intentional silence? It just might be music to your ears...
Jamie
2 comments:
As a writer, I'm always trying to use the creativity that God gave me to weave uplifting, faith-filled, inspirational fiction. I hope and pray I'll be able to do this in a way that glorifies Him.
Hi Jamie,
I read one sentence of your blog and decided that you are my type of girl! We also have a similar writing style and you make me laugh. So, your hopes of giving someone a smile and having them relate to your writing have been accomplished! I'm sure you already knew that though. From one writer to the other, have you ever considered writing a book? I have tons of ideas and would like to share them with someone who has the same aspirations, yet different perspectives. Any interest in collaborating? Let me know.
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