299/365: Thinking Outside the Box

The shadow does not do my biceps justice, honest. ;)

Today we built:
a garden box...

My creative moments have been filled with paint and the written word lately, just how I like it. Today, however, brought something completely different.

While at the plant nursery shopping for our garden veggies, my husband decided we needed a garden box this year to keep Banjo out. (Little stinker likes to pee on my basil plants!) Being the handy man that he is, he had a plan and supplies at my feet before I could calculate whether we had enough soil.

Then he informed me that I would be helping. He did the sawing, I did the construction. Yes, that's me conquering the drill. A girl's gotta learn. I stripped a few screws and got a lesson in geometry and patience. I always feel so wonderfully empowered when I step out of my comfort zone with such projects. What else can I drill?! How can I use this in my art? Hello homemade box canvases and frames!



A year ago, I would have written this off as a home improvement project. I wouldn't have recognized this simple, yet useful construction as an act of creativity. I hadn't yet learned to think "outside the box" with my creativity. To bring something into existence, whether a wood shop project, a delicious meal, a painting or an idea, that is creating. If we can learn to value all creations in our lives, it empowers us to recognize that we really are creating all the time. Does this make it less special? Just the opposite! When we acknowledge that we are born creators, we begin to ask, "Now what do I really want to be creating?"



And that, my friends, is the greatest question. It is what led me to my art and writing, and it is what will lead you to what you most deeply need to express.

Go ahead. Ask the question.