Creativity or not?

I remember how excited I was to learn about perspective in drawing in fourth grade (when I was in third grade in a combination 3/4 class, but in reality I skipped fourth grade). That's probably the last time I was given any form of an art lesson. Sometime in the intervening years, I came to believe that I was (and am) totally uncreative.

In the past few years people have come into my life who have been gently encouraging me to try something in art, though I have not. The same friend who recommended the book Autumn Gospel gave me a book on creativity several years ago, which I keep putting off for a "better time": The Creativity Book: A Year's Worth of Inspiration and Guidance. MJF said that that book helped her to find her own creativity. Just recently, she suggested that she could show me what she knows about photography. . . .

Today at our local HEB supermarket, I met an Emmaus Walk friend from years ago. We barely recognized each other, since both of us have whiter hair now. She retired since I last saw her and is taking care of her ill daughter and 6-year-old grandson. In her spare time she is taking a watercolor class at the local community college. That interested me, and then she told me she had to take many elementary courses before this one--that were required first. And she told me that the art community at the junior college is nurturing and caring. WOW--sounds wonderful! She also told me that she needed courses with deadlines so she'd do the projects, and that is how I work best.

And friend TK has made a place for me at her art table to help me explore art. She paints and sculpts. She is actually ready for me to try.

Looking at the daffodil Ruth drew and posted at her blog Ruth's Visions and Revisions, I was connected with her creative drive in work (writing) and in her personal life (The Artist's Way) to see that it might also be a possibility for me. Doxy wrote in the comments that her grandfather always promised "to do that" when he retired, but then was unable to because he had dementia. Doesn't this somehow speak about living in the present moment??

So maybe I need to take a hint and accept one of these invitations. It's a little scary, as I feel totally inept. . . .and need to write those papers I mention in my profile. . . . But this is more of a possibility than I thought before. . . .

by Bob Seal