Where's Creativity?

Some of you might remember the “Where’s Waldo?” books where you had to search for Waldo in an overcrowded illustration with lots of near misses you would find first. Lately, my creative outlet has dwindled to almost nothing. I wasn’t sketching. The blanket I am knitting, won’t be ready this winter to warm a lap. My sewing machine is being used as a dust collector. Naturally, I started to mourn the loss of creativity in my life and simultaneously try and figure out why I wasn’t being creative. I got an email in my work inbox from the marketing guru, Robert Middleton and it struck me. “Twenty present of the things in your life will give you 80% of your happiness.” You can apply the 80/20 rule (a.k.a. The Pareto Principle) to just about anything in your life. Being creative always makes me happy, so maybe my lack of it right now explains my being in the doldrums. Then I had an AHA! moment. I am being creative, just not in the ways I am used to doing. I am cooking new recipes. Redoing my vision board on craft paper taped to the back of one of my bedroom doors. I photo flowers to document my neighborhood or park walks. I have continued my practice of writing a poem almost every night as part of nighttime journalling. Mr. Middleton says the three things to work on for happiness are your health, your work, and your relationships. I think there is a fourth area: your mental self. My mood boosted immediately when I realized that I am being creative. Now, not drawing in my sketchbook, knitting, and/or using my sewing machine doesn’t bother me. What does bother me is that I didn’t realize sooner that I have been creating this whole time without knowing it.