You’ll Get Horny For Your Creativity

I hope you’ve had a wonderful Christmas day. I spent my day with eight members of my family and a family friend in Barbados where we’d all gathered to celebrate my Mum’s 80th birthday.

My Mum, Celestine is an amazing woman. She’s fit and well and still travels around on her own, and is fiercely independent. When the first of her tribe form the UK arrived last week unannounced we found her sitting in the middle of her living room with all the furniture piled into the middle of the room, which she had moved, all by herself. She was sipping a cup of tea, watching the day time TV drama, Days Of Our Lives (which half of the Barbadian population is addicted to). She’d engaged someone to paint the living room and was sitting back admiring the new coat of paint on the living room walls.

This year it was not the usual stuffing of food and drink on Christmas day for me. I’ve had a bout of mild food poisoning so I found myself eating and drinking very little. My day started off well. Got up at 4am to talk with my Mum, as she got ready for the annual Christmas day ritual on the island of attendance at church for a 5am service. All over the island Barbadians would descend upon the hundreds of churches in existence on the island for the traditional 5am Christmas service. With Mum’s departure I was left with three hours alone at home. Time alone is the best time for my creativity to manifest. I find myself falling into a space of deep refection and free-associating ideas in a process of cross fertilisation.

Creativity is a wonderful thing. I remember a quote I heard on a course years ago by the dancer Gilda Radner, ” I may get distracted by my need for love, but eventually I’ll get horny for my creativity. ” I feel that so much in my life in these later years. In my work as a coach and a writer creativity is what adds that spark, brings to life the richness of our encounters and experiences in everyday life. It’s what makes me feel alive, engaged and whole. Don’t get me wrong,  love is important both love of others and the self but without creativity what use is love I ask myself. Many a time connecting with my creativity, doing something creative in an ordinary moment deepens my sense and feel of love. Can you imagine a life without creativity?

That’s why in the middle of Christmas day, which by the way here in Barbados rained for the better part of the day, when the sun came out I grabbed my iPad and walked down our street taking photo’s of the area with my sister. It lasted only for 10 minutes or less but we both had so much fun taking in the scenes and different objects, the contrasts of colours and textures, really seeing and looking at things around us. We got to about ten shots before the sun swiftly disappeared and the rain belted once down again drenching the area.

As part of the Christmas and New Year festivities we’re giving away three free gifts. Please grab your copy of the first of our Manifestos. This first one is all about Creativity. A list of gentle reminders about what you don’t and do need to get in touch with your creativity. Click here to download the Creativity Manifesto which you can download and print off.

We hope you enjoy. Watch out for the two remaining Manifesto’s on Writing and Connecting with Nature coming early in the New Year. We’ll post them both on the blogs and on the website as well as making them available on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Enjoy Boxing day and your gift from us here at www.jackeeholder.com