Focusing in Chaos

Teaching kids art can be overwhelming and rewarding at the same time. A big challenge is getting a room packed full of energy to focus. So many voices wanting attention and to be heard. As the adult excited about teaching and creating it is frustrating when you can’t even get a full sentence out of your mouth before the room erupts in outside voices. But don’t give up. In that sea of laughter, squeals, and pranks there are a good number of children quiet, focused, and in deep concentration.

As an adult, it is easy to get thrown off balance by the fast pace of life and all the outside distractions. When I look at the art that these children can make in an over-crowded chaotic environment, I am completely inspired at the high level patience and care some have. It’s a good reminder that regardless of what the conditions you have no control over are, you can still gain control in the space in your own head.

Creative Ways to Deal with Loss

Every heartache, big or small, is another opportunity for serious self-improvement. When dramatic changes occur I begin to think of personal goals I wish to achieve and start laying the groundwork to achieve them. Large dreams need to be broken down into smaller, do-able pieces. Patience and determination is key.

I try to form new habits by creating daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly activities. High emotions can lead to a confusing mess of nervous energy. It is good to point that energy into a project that will help you become closer to the person who you always wanted to be.

Build something. Take a bunch of little pieces of something and create something large. I’m reminded of how good it felt to cut all my old denim jeans into little pieces and create such a heavy blanket. Go to the museum and break down what you see into the little parts that create something you find awe-inspiring. These are good ways to visualize the parts and steps you must take to make your own life awe-inspiring.

Create for the sake of creation. It can feel so good to simply dive right into something and watch the outcome pour out of your hands. Taking control in a creative process shapes your control over your own life. The way you shape and mold an object in your hands can lead to the knowledge of how you can shape and mold your own self.

Learn from your successes and failures and keep creating your own way.

Do Something Useful

I’ve spent a lot of time with my Grandfather throughout my life. He passed away last week at the age of 92, although he was as healthy and independent as a 60-year-old still driving cross-country by himself. After my Grandmother passed he would spend his summers living with my mom. A few summers ago I also moved back home with my mom to refigure out my life.

We were roommates. I would spend my time in the room next to him making and creating whatever oddities excited me while he would watch baseball on the “Boob Tube,” which were the best seats to watch the game. After the game he would shuffle his way to bed, but always stop to see what I was making. One night I was making a bunch of hand knit cupcake toys. He picked it up and was completely perplexed as to what it did. I believe he said something like, “What do you do with it? What is the point? It can’t keep you warm? Why don’t you make something useful?” He threw his hands up in the air and went to bed.

I go through fits of creative mania where I have to make something large, be it a quilt in a week or a hundred multiples of little things. It serves as therapy in way, to take that energy, put it to use and have something to show for it. The day he died, I decided I had to make 100 paper hearts with wild flower seeds embedded inside to keep his memory alive. Somehow it blended the worlds of a quirky oddity and something useful.

The Four Legged Adventure Bot!

This living, breathing, heart pumping, wide eyed, little lady can save you from the mistake of locking yourself indoors with all your fancy gadgets waiting the winter winds away. It’s the way she plops down on the floor and doesn’t hide that stagnate bored expression you may feel inside your own head.  When the walls that keep the icy winds away from your skin begin to make you claustrophobic, bundle up in your artificial winter fur and see what you and your Four Legged Adventure Bot can discover!

That crisp contrast between the pure bright white snow and the deep blue ski that gradients down into a light birds egg blue with a hint of green as it reaches the horizon on a cloudless sunny day after a big snow storm is one of the honest joys that the winter season brings. The quietness that surrounds the landscape makes every bird chirp sing out as that perfect solo note. So much life still exists as a blanket of icy jewels dazzle the tips of tree branches and the land is protected by a layer of glassy ice. The air is crisp, clean and refreshing.

At times my glasses would fog up from breathing in my scarf and the world looked as a dreamscape sequence out of a movie.  Sophie, my furry tour guide, blended into the dream with her curly off-white coat and sparkly nose from sniffing out adventure in this snow-covered world. In the minds eye, wandering through landscapes can turn into something as magical, if not more, as the motion pictures.  

Frozen Cheeks

Seasonal depression always seems to sneak up on me the week of Thanksgiving. It is the start of the cold days and dark nights. The initial hit of what the next four to five months will be like always seems unbearable until a proactive system is developed to avoid the depression.

Silly as it may be, this year I plan on investing my energies into knitting the most beautiful afghan to use as a picnic and beach blanket for next summer. Most women my age would never dare let something like a hand knit blanket touch the dirt or sand. It is the act of creating it for the sole purpose of soaking in the sunshine and getting stained with grass that will save me from the sad, lonely winter months.

As I knit my mind will wander to all the places this blanket will travel when the world outside defrosts. Carefully chosen shades of greens and blues will counteract the overcasts skies and gray ice covered lake.

I went on a walk with my male companion in the cold sunshine today. The park trail was strangely quiet compared to when we would walk the path in the warmer months. The muffled silence was broken by large crackling noises. We looked down the hill towards the river to discover that the water changing to ice created the disruption of our quiet walk.

His personality seemed to be freezing over much like the river over the past couple weeks.  Seasonal depression affects a lot of people and it’s no wonder why there is a bar on every corner and one in the middle of the block here in Milwaukee. With frozen cheeks and a hint sadness he would look and me and smile. My heart was warmed because a smile like his can’t be forced under these icy conditions and I noticed he didn’t have a scarf as I watched a chill take over his body and shake out through his face.