What does it mean to you? To create. I’m not talking any biblical sense of the word. But I am creative. People tell me that. And I do feel it. I believe it. It is part of who I am. What about you? Don’t think you’re creative? I don’t believe it. How we create is unique to each of us. Some people create music. Some people create art. Some people create gardens. Some people create unique ways to get their children to pick up their room. Some people create a positive personal energy that they share freely with those around them. They may not see that as creative. But I do. What you create and how you do it are as personal as your DNA.

I used to help run the Art Literacy program in my children’s elementary school and middle school. With a team, we planned out a school year’s worth of master artist presentations and accompanying art projects to inspire the children. Volunteers were trained and then able to present in their own children’s classes. We were aiming at giving the children a language with which to view art – an art literacy, if you will. Armed with new vocabulary that was ever reinforced over the years with a variety of artists spanning many generations and styles, a child would be able to look at any piece of art and know things about it. They may or may not remember the name of that artist or where he was from or what year it was painted. But, they would be able to see how the artist’s use of LINE makes the piece interesting. How COLOR expresses feeling. How SHAPE defines subjects and compositions. From pre-K to 8^th grade, 4 year olds to 14 year olds. The children got it. Pablo Picasso said “every child is an artist, the problem is staying an artist when you grow up.”

One of the major challenges we faced as organizers of this fabulous program was with volunteers who deemed themselves “uncreative.” They couldn’t paint. They didn’t know how to draw. They weren’t artists. So they said. Didn’t matter. Doesn’t matter. And although I would have adored the space to let each volunteer go through their paces with each hands-on project before leading children through, it wasn’t necessary. Where adults might get hung up wouldn’t be where the children would be hung up and sometimes being too comfortable with the medium leads to constraint on their childrens’ interpretation. There was no right or wrong way. How the child used the proposed materials and how they manufactured their piece was up to them. They were creating. Let them create. Would it be a masterpiece? Maybe. Some were. Some materials were easier to use and afforded a wall-worthy outcome. I will admit that I love seeing some of the projects over the years on the walls in friends’ homes or posted to their fridges or tacked to the bulletin board. Not all of the finished projects were so share worthy. But. Did the child get to see what it was like to use charcoal pencils. Yes. Usually all over their hands, arms, sometimes face. Was it different than a regular pencil? Yes. How about oil pastels. Or wire. Or clay. All different. Different ways of composing. Different ways of translating that idea or vision in their head through the materials provided into something else in the time allotted. That is creating. Trying. Sometimes succeeding. Sometimes learning. Never failing.

We need more of that in our life. Trying. Sometimes succeeding. Sometimes learning. Never failing. Creating. I truly believe that we all do it. We just don’t call it that. We are constantly creating new ways to express ourselves. To our children. To our spouse. To our friends. To our community. To the grocery store clerk who keeps putting the canned goods in after the produce. Seriously? Not an issue here in Denmark – you bag your goods yourself. And you better do it quickly, because even if that divider thing that slides the next customer’s goods to the end beside you – he may only have two things and you have 22 and then the next person waiting has no place for their goods to slide to. Incredulous look to follow, hurried packing ensues. Creatively shoving your plastic packaged produce on top. Creating.

Living in a foreign country affords a million and one ways to create. We must establish new staples in our diets with what we can economically find here. We must generate adaptations of our old favorite recipes using metric systems and slutty stoves that only speak Danish and work in Celsius. Quick son, what is the conversion for 350 degrees Fahrenheit again? We must craft our space here. Unfurnished it was. We must be inventive on how to get to and from school and work. What happens when your pre-paid travel kort is empty? Get creative. The kids are getting good at that one. With a broken ankle, I have to invent ways of moving those dishes from the table to the dishwasher. How to sweep the floor without breaking the other foot. How to do laundry. I usually push a chair in front of me with my crutches piled with the goods requiring transfer. I’m sure the neighbors downstairs love that. We must generate new social contacts, friends and classmates. I’m doing ok in that arena. It is fun creating those new relationships. I have to fashion some sort of Eurovision Viewing Party themed costume for some new friends’ event tomorrow night. Don’t know what Eurovision is? Me either. I’m about to find out. Hmmmm. Outfit suggestions? I’ll figure out something! It will probably be completely off mark, but I will have tried.

So before I let you go this Fredag. Please take this into your weekend. Remember that we are all creative. We do it everyday. Push yourself to create something different. Set the table a different way. Take a different way to work. Make a new playlist. Doodle on your checkbook. Write a letter. Post a picture to Instagram using a new filter (let go of the reins Nellie – don’t hold yourself back!) Mix a patterned top with striped pants. You get the idea. You can go big. You can keep it simple. It’s up to you. But know while you’re doing it, you are the only one who made it. You are the only one who created it. You are creative. Wow. I did not set out to produce such a self-help piece today. But there it is. Create. My friends. Create. Whatever forces in the universe brought you to read this, I hope it has inspired. Possibly instilled a new outlook in your personal space. One where moving around the world is not required. Moving yourself. That’s all. Go. Do. Create. And share! I wanna see! Here’s my latest…

Happy Fredag! Cheers from Denmark!