Bushel Baskets

You would think the person who constantly preaches about the vital importance of authenticity would listen to her own advice. Well, in this case, not so much—until it occurred to me that out of fear of staleness due to a lack of imagination and potential disparaging comments, I was hiding my talent  and joy under the proverbial bushel basket. 

Considering my summer is a bit more open this year, without planned travel to see my adult children, I have decided to focus my energy on some creative endeavors during my downtime when I am not concentrating on the many tasks involved in running Deep Root Center. 

As mentioned in December, I recently rediscovered my love for painting. However, the one thing I am damn good at painting is trees, vines, and generally anything made out of sticks and natural wood. 

Months ago, someone had donated a box of 4"x4" wooden tiles that each had a letter on one side. There were enough alphabet-type manipulatives in the Seedling's Room, so we designated them for art projects to use as canvases (something that is always in high demand). 

This week, I brought some home to use. I told myself I would not paint trees on them — based on my above fears, I convinced myself to try to expand my repertoire and do something different. 

On Wednesday evening, I took out four and painted a blue sky on each. Then, I took one and attempted to create a clump of ferns. It ended up looking like an indistinct clump of green. Next, I tried to paint a clay pot, but the result was lopsided and decidedly unrealistic. The struggle to paint something other than trees, with these disappointing outcomes, left me feeling frustrated and shut down. 

That was when I gave myself a good mental talking-to. 

I love painting trees! And it isn't only because I am pretty good at it. I thoroughly enjoy letting my mind drift freely while playing with color and simply allowing my hand to flow into the organic lines that become the bark and branches. The process is honestly therapeutic. The one thing I know without a doubt is that I am my most authentic self when I am deeply immersed in any kind of creative endeavor, including writing and designing media in Canva.

It is those quiet moments of pure creativity that yield the ideal conditions to generate a wide variety of even more ideas. The entire process can be perpetual, as long as I am cognizant of setting up the time, space, attitude, and environment for it to reside within me. 

I needed this internal reminder that I am not making anything for anyone else — creativity is solely about the process and the pure pleasure it gives me. This is all the encouragement I needed to remove the weight of external expectations and the limiting confines of the bushel basket and paint my beloved trees on these four tiles and anything else that strikes my fancy.  

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