Define it.

What IS creativity anyway?! As I am half way into my second month of Opus, I am trying to define it a bit...okay, maybe I'm just trying to see what I can CALL creative that might also be functional (dusting?), or selfish (reading People magazine?) and still get my four hours completed. And if I make it sound like a chore, please remember, this year of Opus is all about working at creativity, not waiting for the muse to whap me on the head. So yes, it's a chore; a lovely, fascinating, beautiful chore.

The official word...creative 1. Having the ability or power to create. 2. Creating; productive. 3. Characterized by originality and expressiveness.; imaginative.

I will catch you up a little on what HAS been done that is unquestionable; (1) Transferred 50 hours of super 8 film onto DVD as the first step in my documentary about my mother. (2) Created, framed, and filled out paperwork for 5 County Fair art entries. (3) Wrote two average poems and one good one...partial revisions also done. (4) Planted three gardens and obtained canning jars and on-line canning instruction. (5) Am working on one piece of furniture...well, a drawer actually. I've painted it, and fiddled with pictures and words. It's really more of an art piece. I'm chronicling the whole process on film to post here when I finish.

Those seem to be true creative projects. Totally allowable. These next things are items I think I can squeeze into the four hours but are slightly iffy; (1) Taught first session poetry class at NAU (2) Started a great book, Honeymoon With my Brother. (3) Tried out several new recipes, including pesto/cracker crumb coated salmon and mushroom and spinach enchiladas. (4) Saw the play, The Underpants. (5) Started a blog :)

And then these last ones are borderline at best; (1) Filed four stacks of papers, receipts and writings (2) Played golf with my son (this is far more creative than you would think). (3) Brushed the dogs (4) Thumbed through my 40+ pages of quotes thinking about including a quote on each blog.
Tangent alert...quotes give me hope and courage many times when I have trouble finding those things within myself. For example...

If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then
by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.
--Vincent Van Gogh, Dutch Post-Impressionist Painter

I also fished at the trout farm which, in a round about way, struck a creative chord. Picture this - a small pond filled with so many fat trout that all you do is throw your line (tied to a long bamboo pole)into the water and thirty fish start fighting for the bait. And it's mostly kids and they are all flipping fish out of the water and the fish are slapping all over the ground and bait's flying off hooks and the kids are squealing and parents are flailing and hollaring and it's all on fast forward. The whole thing made me laugh so hard I had tears running down my face. It's like a keystone cops production line of fishing. And if laughing isn't at least fuel for creating....