Create your way to Sanity!

What do you dream?  Why do you dream?  Remember the times you were daydreaming in class - the teacher was talking about a topic and your mind just took one bit and wondered?  It may have been in Social Studies class when you are suppose to be concentrating on South America and your mind starts picturing you in a far away village playing stick ball with some native children.  The colorful fabrics of their clothes brighten the backdrop.  Oh what skill those people must have to weave the designs by hand. It could be a trip by the village stream and you are looking for special stones.  Dreams are an outlet for our creativity. 

The successful people in this world each have a dream and act on that dream.  In many ways a vision might be the same as an advanced dream.  You repeat that dream in your mind and start to build.  It may be several dreams but you move forward with those dreams.  Some work out some don’t.  In a small way each of us can enrich our lives by having a creative outlet that is part of our daily lives.  Not career altering but a growth area for each of us.  It might be a dream to design a quilt for each of our grandchildren, or build a doll house for each granddaughter, or make 5 afghans for the church bazaar.  It might be to make a blanket to send to “Blankets of Hope” to support our troups.  These are little dreams.  Sometimes we start small and then grow to greater dreams, goals.  Can you imagine painting a picture of that mountain village you daydreamed about when your teacher was talking? 

If we didn’t dream what would we have.  We build our homes, our families on our dreams.  The reality of life has been developed from dreams.  The successful actress, the star musician, the father of eight might all be dreams come true.   

Creativity can be a lifesaver.  Each person has some  aptitude to create - build, sew, make, draw, paint - something expressive.  Sadly many times we are stifled as children.  Someone corrects a child, “No, trees should be green with a brown trunk”, “Apples aren’t blue”.  There should be nothing wrong with being imaginative and following our dreams.  That is what creativity is.

Why can this save lives?  Because in this fast paced world we need to relax.  We need to sit back, slow down and enjoy what is around us.  For many of us that can be with hobbies or crafts.  It doesn’t have to be sitting in front of a TV or computer screen.  Encourage children to get up and try new things, collect interesting objects, paint pictures.  They can do so much more than watching that big screen. 

When I started cancer treatment at the Goshen Center for Cancer Care, one part is to meet with a Mind/Body Connections Counselor.  One of her questions was “What hobbies, activities do you have to help in your healing?”  They know that if we have creative projects we can do it will help the mind to deal with the treatments.  Many crafts and arts don’t take lots of physical energy but do keep the mind active.  Keeping the mind active will be comforting and not let you dwell on your health.  At the Cancer Center there are jigsaw puzzles set up in about every room - for patients and their families to keep busy during treatment or while waiting.  In the infusion room (where you may spend hours a day getting chemotherapy) they have art supplies, colored pencils, optical illusion diagrams to color, as well as a couple jigsaw puzzles.  Many women bring their own knitting or crotcheting.

Building wooden projects, whittling, carving, refinishing furniture, or gardening can all be creative activities that let us relax and recoup from the stress of a hard day at work or dealing with problem people at home.  The wide range of creative activities gives us so much opportunity to deal with situations that are beyond our control.  Creativity can be a short vacation for us in our everyday lives.