Age and creativity
I am really in the sewing room this morning working on a shirt. There is just an illusion of me clacking away here at the keyboard. Wouldn’t it be nice to be in 2 or 3 places at once? I needed to write and couldn’t move until I did. Has this ever happened to you?
Thursday is Knit Wit’s Day and all of us older women will gather at a table with our handwork and very loud chatter. Most of us are at some level of hearing impairment. The harder hearing one is, the louder the conversation gets.
There is one that has excellent hearing and no voice range so I’m trying to watch for signs that this sweet woman wants to speak. She has a lot to say at 94 but a stroke a few years ago made that process very slow. It’s worth the wait, always. She received a scholarship to college in the 1950’s to become a physical education teacher and that’s what she did her whole career. She also raised four wonderful children, one of which brings her weekly to our group, teaches pottery at our community college and is an artist.
Jan learned to quilt at 79! She brings her knitting and embroidery to the group and occasionally, we do a show and tell as each of us women of mature years completes something.
Last week Jan brought in the quilt she made with a friend in her quilt group. I had been asked to make a label for that quilt the week before. What an honor for me.
To see a woman of 94, continue to be creative and not focus on what’s not working in her body keeps me inspired to push on. I hope each of us finds someone around that keeps moving us forward.
I also follow a blog that has taught me that you can’t begin too early bringing music and art into life. Jennie, at A Teachers Reflection, has taught preschoolers for 30 years. She unleashes her students artistic abilities with great encouragement. There is none of the “you must color inside of the lines” in her classroom. She may have many artists and musicians in her Aqua Room that may one day make quilts at 94 or more. Her methods of teaching even inspire anyone that drops by her site or classroom. Several years ago, she brought in master quilter, Milly to bring the children’s art to life in a quilt. I wish I had been in her class.
My knitting/quilting friend, Jan raised her children to be artists too. Her daughter that brings her to us teaches pottery at our community college. When I start to think that I’m just getting too old for this, I think of Jan, Jennie and Milly and continue to plod on.
Do you think creativity has an age limit or what keeps you inspired when you want to give up?
“The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” Sylvia Plath
From my heart to yours,
Marlene Herself
Comment Oops
I have a hard time with certain blogs I visit. I also have difficulty with groups I belong to when it comes to discussing childhood activities.
I was never really a child. I sometimes think I was born old in a tiny body. Well, not so tiny, actually. Does 13 pounds qualify as an infant?
Dr. French often asks questions on his blog and I really want to answer. Especially since he has been so kind and encouraging of my continuing to write my drivel. Most of the time I click the like button and disappear. This time, I wrote a comment, copied it to a word document that I keep for unpublished comments and began to delete the comment from his post. I hit send instead. You can read the drivel I left here.
Another blog that makes it hard for me but I usually gush over even though I make no sense is Jennie’s. She’s the worlds BEST preschool teacher. Why on earth would I read that blog? I have no young children nor grandchildren. Jennie is no kid herself but her heart is so very young and pure. She shows me what could have been under different circumstances. Like when you get a teacher who cares with all her heart. Very often I weep at how far she goes to teach her preschoolers the most important things in life. I’m a little sad because I wasn’t even able to do that for my own children.
What do these two blogs have in common? Books and reading. The thing that keeps the blood coursing through my body. They are teachers who love books.
Books in the den
When I was filling out my advanced directive they asked when I would consider the quality of my life no longer viable and be ready for it to end. It’s when I can no longer read or listen to a book. If there are no books in heaven, I’m not going.
Books in the kitchen
I was supposed to go blind before I was 21. Fooled them. There were no audio books then and I wanted to read…anything and everything. Then science created contact lenses and saved a lot of vision for me. More time to read. Yay!
There are children in the good homes with no books who are not being read to by their parents. When it comes to gifts for the children in my life, books are the only thing I give unless it’s something I’ve made. So many children don’t have a Jennie to awaken in them a love of books, art and music. Dr. French tries to do that for his college age students. I’m not a fan of his genre but definitely of his love of reading, writing, kindness and honesty. So, I had to be honest.
Books saying goodbye… maybe.
Do you ever regret a comment you left or have second thoughts about leaving it?
From my heart to yours,
Marlene Herself
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