The Creative Bug

Surrounded by special totems in my very own computer room, I think of all the creative outlets I have tried since retiring from teaching. A collection of pottery pieces from mugs to candy dishes to a slipper replica complete with woolly fur around the top adorns the top of my credenza. On my wall hangs a framed photograph I took in Hilton Head when I chose the path 'less traveled by'. My electric piano and my file drawer of original compositions signify my music endeavours. My photo printer, X-Acto cutting board, and digital camera are the tools of my searches for the perfect image. And these are just the mementos in my office.

Through the rest of my house I have many more photos, embroidered table cloths, hand-made Christmas decorations, including a 20-piece Christmas village. A rebuilt antique frame holds my grandparents' wedding picture and hand-knitted mitts fill the hall bench. As a reminder of a great trip to Vancouver to visit my daughter, a hand-decorated plate hangs in my kitchen. A large box bottom, covered in wide wonderful ribbon, holds a table centerpiece made last Christmas from backyard holly, rose hips, cedar boughs and many bright bits collected over Christmases past, which all turned out so well, after Christmas I just let the arrangement dry in place.

Oh,the hydrangea! Beautiful bouquets of it, dried at various stages of its colours, are throughout the whole house. Huge white pointed ones are in the centerpiece I just mentioned, pinkish-gold ones fill vases in the dining room and family room, and greenish-white blooms light up the living room. For a variety of colours and shapes from one tree, you just can't beat hydrangea.

Outside in the back yard, that tree is starting to form its flowers for this year and I wait expectantly to see what they will be like. Beside it is the large flower box I designed and hubby and I built and close by, the two benches we made out of scrap lumber, figuring out what to do as we went along. As I gaze at the panorama of our home, I see the flower bed my son and I built many years ago, now filled in with lots of varieties of colour. I see the beds around the pool, mulched with river rock because I am not at all fond of weeding. And I see the Canadian flag flying high and proud, reminding me of the first of July party we had many years ago at hubby's suggestion, because raising the flag on Canada Day seemed a cool idea for a party.

And I feel good. I love the home we have made and wonder if that creative bug that lives here isn't an elemental thing which keeps us going, keeps us trying, keeps us living fulfilling lives. For me, there is no sense of pleasure or accomplishment that matches having made something with my own hands. I must keep the Raid in the cupboard and let our creative bugs fly free.