Its beginning to look alot like Christmas..learning by doing.

Happy Christmas all ! So recently I have joined a craftivism group and although I am not really a crafty type person, in that I am not a knitter or a crochet type person, the idea of creating something and being an activist really works for me. We do have some very talented crafters in the group who have created pumpkins and hand warmers which are beautiful. I tried really hard and I failed dismally at both crocheting and knitting! It has made me realise that everyone has creative strengths and creative weaknesses. Last week at our craftivism meeting I did create a snowflake out of beads and wire which I thoroughly enjoyed.

So we have not decided yet on our activist arena but decided it was good to start creating and chatting to get the process started. It is always a process to create new things whether it is a new project, a hand warmer or a beaded snowflake. The process normally starts by just doing something. Ideas can form as we start or they take a few failed attempts then you have to start from the beginning again (like my knitting and crocheting they can just not work and you move onto something else).

The idea of doing something is always a better place than just doing nothing. I read this recently by Henri Nouwen: Learning by doing. "Much of life is spent preparing for and gaining knowledge for future roles and tasks. And much of our education is based on the premise of learning first in order to do later. For some this has resulted in much learning but little doing. For others it has meant a great deal of unlearning once they have experienced the real world. Yet it should be obvious that many things are learnt by doing. One learns to pray by praying, to serve by serving and to love by loving. .."

Although this sounds obvious when you read it the thought of learning to love by loving has really stuck with me. We often think of love as a feeling but this clearly puts love into the verb context it fully deserves. When applied to creativity it is the same process: you learn by being creative not simply by thinking about it. Its the process of getting stuck in and doing things. Learn to be creative by creating.

Alot of artists have said the same in different ways Andy Warhol ' Do not wait until others have decided if they like what you are doing, whilst they are making up their minds just keep creating more'

Artist Carlos Delgado “Show up every single day in front of the canvas and paint, draw, throw color on the canvas—whatever it takes to just keep working. I don’t always end up loving everything that I do, but the more I show up in front of my canvas, the more I know that being an artist is a process and not a final place to get to. This allows me to work through any doubts that I may have.”

As we think about Christmas lets create more! We often learn to give by giving to each other. Giving is is the gift of our time and our sharing of food with each other.

So lets get creative by creating, lets get loving, serving and giving by doing each of these. Lets make Christmas about doing creativity and show up everyday to our artwork or our form of creating and lets love those around us by being loving.