Creativity

Creative thinking inspires ideas. Ideas inspire change.
— Barbara Januszkiewicz

Don’t think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It’s self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can’t try to do things. You simply must do things.
— Ray Bradbury

Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while.
— Steve Jobs

Last week was a big week for me. I am no longer a Zoom virgin. LOL

This was actually a big step for me. I’ve been avoiding Zoom since our first COVID lockdown. It seemed horribly complicated.

But a few weeks ago, I had to ride herd on the grandbaby while she attended virtual school via a Zoom-like computer application. What made this seem complicated was all the little icons on the screen that I couldn’t really see because I wasn’t right in front of them and I’d broken my glasses. But she seemed to be okay with it.

Of course there was a lot of fidgeting and wiggling of loose teeth, but what else can you expect out of a group of seven-year-olds who were all at home? My real job was to keep the grandbaby focused on what the teacher was saying. If she missed an instruction I couldn’t help her because it was all in French.

Anyway, it got me thinking about Zoom and how I should really give it a try. So when I got the link from my stitchery group, I decided why not?

I tested the camera in my new lap top and it seemed to work fine. Then, when the time came, I clicked on the link and next thing you know I’m talking with my stitchery group. It was much easier than I thought it would be. The microphone was built into my lap top and I presume the volume was shared with the speaker volume. And even though I never touched the mouse, the screen never blanked out once.

We had a guest speaker that taught us how to Zentangle. Zentangle is a kind of meditative doodling. We worked on 3½ inch squares, drawing specific shapes called tangles. It was actually very relaxing so I can see where the zen part comes in.

You draw in pen, and if you make a mistake you just keep going. There are no mistakes in Zentangle. Even people who can’t draw can Zentangle. We were all pretty amazed at the results. We sent in pictures of our work, and were sent back an email with all the pictures in it. I was scrolling through it and I looked at one and thought “Oh, that one’s really good.” Turned out it was my own. LOL

There are lots of Zentangle videos on YouTube and I urge you to check them out and give it a try. It’s even more relaxing than colouring!