Red Letter Day

I have one word for today. That word is create. I'm not asking you to give up your day job. Neither am I asking you to invest hundreds in supplies. Just grab the nearest scrap of paper and a pencil. It really is as easy as that. It doesn't have to be good - let it just be!

Health "experts" like to talk about how beneficial proper nutrition is, how necessary physical activity is. What they don't talk about is how important it is to exercise the brain or to properly feed and purge imagination. Quel dommage. I'm here to say, "Air your Apparitions!" You'll feel better if you do.

Create Create Create Create Create Create Create Create

C - Cultivate the feelings and emotions that are within you. There is a vast well in each of us from which we can draw (pun intended). In my experience, I can't properly release a feeling until I've acknowledged it. Don't be afraid of your "dark" side. Some of the best things I've made have come from time spent confronting the beast within.

R - Relax. I used to get uptight about creating anything. I worried about getting it right. Then I thought, "What's the worst that could happen?" It's not like I'm sewing a royal ball gown for the queen, or writing a speech for the president, or cooking for Emeril Lagasse, or painting for the committee at the Louvre! Relax. Re-e-e-e-lax. Thing is, now that I'm past that uptight feeling, I feel much more confident. I'd do any of those four things in a heartbeat.

E - Educate yourself. The more input you receive, the more you'll want to and be able to create output. Learn something new every day - a new word, a new fact, a new recipe - anything, so long as it's something.

A - Align yourself with people who share your interests, and with people you feel understand you best. Nothing sparks my creative drive so much as talking with other creative souls. People who really care about art for art's sake, much less care about you as a human being, don't mind one bit if you borrow their ideas.

T - Tell the story. Tell it truthfully. Tell it simply. Nobody knows your story like you do. Don't question whether it matters to any one else or not. There have been many times I've been tempted to delete an entire post, only to have people comment on it and say how much they appreciated what I wrote. You never know. Just tell the damned story.

E - Enjoy! Don't worry about critics (what do they know anyway?) - some of the finest works of art in all media have initially been pooh-poo'd. Aren't you glad Beethoven didn't give up? Or Van Gogh? Art is subjective. No matter how good we are, someone isn't going to like us. No matter how good we are, someone is going to be better. So what? So what.

Create  Create  Create  Create  Create  Create  Create  Create