Creativity Tapping ~So UnScrap Related~

My mother came to visit last week, and that visit was by far the best time that I've ever had with the woman who brought me into this world! I guess I could prelude this entry with the obligatory "I don't share a close relationship with my mom" disclaimer, but it's only relevant in my little sphere of existence. I won't bore anyone with the details.

The reason that last week was so memorable is that for the first time in my life, my mom expressed an interest in my craft hobby,particularly my jewelry making. She has never expressed a desire to even think about scrapbooking and drawing/painting are wastes of time according to her. All she wanted was to learn how to make jewelry. Initially, she expressed an interest in the financial benefits of selling handmade jewelry, but as the week progressed, her outlook changed dramatically. By the end of the week, before me stood a woman who was so proud of having tapped into a well of creativity that she never thought was there, so proud that we could hardly stand to be in the same room with her and her ear-to-ear smile. When she was getting ready to leave she looked at me for a long while and then thanked me for helping her find something that could be hers. My mom has never thanked me for anything, this was a big, huge, genormous deal!

My mom was awarded for her voyage of self discovery. She discovered that she has a keen eye for design and that she could easily duplicate much of the beaded jewelry that she has seen in stores and liked. Not just duplicate though; she could take a piece of jewelry that she likes and create something similar that she loves. It has taken 25 years for her to desire to tap into some of the creativity that runs rampant through her children. I, for one, am glad that she did because I don't feel like such an oddball now.

This whole thing has been flitting around my mind for a few days now. The whole creativity thing. Here was a 54 year old woman who had gotten used to accepting what life had to offer and understanding that little of that offering was going to wind up on her plate. That 54 year old mother of 3 decided in an instant that she was going to find something to do for herself and she nailed it. Yes, she struggled a bit,let's face it, life has been hard on my mom and her eyes and hands don't work the way they used to, but she persevered (and whined)until she had the basics down. I will never forget the way that she would just sit at the dining room table beaming down at a pair of earrings that she'd just made for herself. It meant the world to me.

My mother's visit was also pretty darned inspiring for me as far as my scrapbooking is concerned. I watched her dig and dig until she found her creative well and then I watched her draw from that well with reckless abandon until she created something that held her satisfaction. Not once did she hold up an incomplete strand and asked how I felt about it, though I can admit doing exactly that with my creations. The woman was focused solely on doing what she liked and the only help she needed from me involved making sure she had the various techniques right enough to make a secure piece of jewelry. My mom...my hero...she's where I was 3 years ago, and unlike myself, she will probably never get to where I am today.

So why am I writing this? Heck, I don't know. I just wanted to put to 'paper' all of the feelings that the memory of last week conjures. I am a creative being and I believe with my entire being that all scrapbookers, regardless of the motivation for their creations, are creative beings. My mom re-taught me a lesson that I learned and lost a long time ago: Creativity doesn't necessarily need approval. I plan to remind myself of that every single day because it's important. When I think of how my dad's ill views of anything 'creative' stifled her discovering her inner artist and I remember how very close he came to discouraging my brother and I from pursuing careers that made use of that creativity, I cringe. I'm a Drafter, my brother's a Graphics Designer...I wonder what my mother would've become is she'd not bought into her husband's narrow minded ideas about creative hobbies.

Again, this has very little to do with scrapbooking, but it's an important occurrence in my life. I hope that if anything, someone can read this and get something out of it. If not, oh well...at least I did.

Rambling Complete