As a child, I often would stay home from summer camp (in Chicago) and wander the alleys alone, playing in the mud or going through someone's trash or exploring a vacant building. I made up games and spent all day in an imaginative world, totally engaged with my own company.
Someone recently asked me where I get inspiration for new creative projects. One answer is that I give myself time to "wander the alleys" of my mind and just sit in silence and imagine. I read once, "If you don't imagine anything, then nothing will happen." I think of things I love to do and then I imagine ways to do it and whom to do it with.
Lately I have had a a lot of fun putting old poetry (19th century) to music. The trend of writing then made usage of meters and rhythms and rhyme scheme that is so easy for me to imagine music. I have 6 poems now made into songs.
I also spend time looking at music lesson videos. I watched one the other day where a music teacher talked about an African rhythm exercise taking a 4/4 beat and counting it as a 6/8 rhythm. Then I realized I had done this very thing with one of the poems I put to music.
Taking time to explore is something I really value. I am happy that my lifestyle now allows me time to not have to adhere to goal oriented deadlines. Time when I can plant seeds and incubate and grow new ideas.
I've set aside today for another creative day. I have some jazz videos to watch and a new instrument to explore too --the Indian Shruti box. It is a drone instrument with a deep an resonant voice.
What ways do you nourish your creativity? Do you make time to imagine and play?
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