Tonight I am grateful for having a few moments of TOTAL frivolity. And with all the total seriousness that seem to be an epidemic, I am all for completely silly fun. I joined a Facebook group that is dedicated to creativity and encouraging creative expression. I originally joined because a friend from my leadership group was a co-founder. I love her quirky, energetic, wildly creative and deeply insightful ways of seeing the world, so joining a group she co-founded seemed to make perfect sense. Recently her partner in co-founding the group suggested the idea of “A ________ a day for May.” She is an artist and is planning to draw a sketch per day. Inspired by my sister’s suggestion the other day that I write a gratitude haiku instead of my normal post, I boldly committed to writing a haiku per day in May. What was I thinking?! Still, writing a 17 syllable, non-rhyming bit of verse was significantly less daunting than, say, posting a blog about gratitude every day. So I have 29 more days to go.
In conversation with another member of the group who liked my first two haiku attempts, I wondered if I perhaps should have committed to different types of poetry every day for the month of May and promised to write a “rowdy limerick” for a future dates. Just for practice, however, I wrote a limerick specific to a person in the group. It was cute and funny as limericks are supposed to be and the best part of the whole thing was the silliness and pure fun that engaged me for a few moments this evening. I realized how powerful creating can be; I’ve probably always known this but it was confirmed for me again this evening–how much I enjoy being creative and, given time and energy to express my creativity, it comes forth. What has been missing from my life over the past several months, years perhaps has been the time, energy, and space to be as creative as I know I can be. Perhaps all I needed was a little inspiration.
What I really want is to create a space in which I can reestablish my songwriting. To do that, I need to restart playing my guitar daily. I’m not sure I am ready to commit to that, but that is part of what it’s going to take. I am grateful to have access to creative gifts and the means to express them. Perhaps writing a haiku per day in May will help jumpstart my creativity with some of the other projects I’d like to complete. We’ll see how it goes. I won’t share my Haiku per day in May every night, but I’ll close by offering my latest piece. I hope I am getting the hang of the form and can eventually actually write a really good haiku. Until then, here is my not-s0-polished haiku for today:
Breathing in stillness, Waiting for the turning point The folks find their way. May we each find the time, space, and energy to light up the world with our creativity. So be it!