Have you ever heard someone say they aren’t creative? I have, which led me to explain creative can be about anything from painting, crafts, cooking, thinking or even the way you move. I believe everyone is creative, they just might not know it.

When people see one of the traditional quilts I have made they tell me I am creative. Yet, my art quilt teacher coaxes me to think out of the box and create from within. A traditional quilt is made from a pattern, generally using squares, triangles, rectangles; you get it, common shapes. An art quilt may have those common shapes and it may not. An abstract design can leave a viewer wondering what the artist was thinking. Making an art quilt is a fun process when there are no boundaries.

Meals can be creative when the cook tries new spices or different combinations of old stand-byes. I was once told I had no creativity in the kitchen. I wasn’t amused as I had just made an apple pie (with no recipe in hand) and baked it in a square glass dish because no pie plate was available. You can guess that relationship didn’t last long.

A teacher can come up with new ways to make learning fun. That’s being creative for the benefit of her/his students. A choreographer creates dance routines by adding a shoulder shrug, a head turn, a body slide across the stage, or flailing arms to emphasize an emotion or movement. (Go to a  musical play and pay attention to the way the dancers move their bodies and you’ll see what I mean, if you don’t already know.)

I have even watched a pet get creative in how they maneuver their human to get what they want. My cat’s current trick to get me to sit and hold him is to scratch the edge of my recliner. He stops if I put my feet up and place a blanket on my lap for him to curl up on. The blanket is a must, but which human is under it he’s not so fussy about. At my daughter’s, her two dogs have different tricks to convince me they haven’t been fed in a week. Luckily I know they are fooling.

I urge you to give a new craft a try, or change a recipe, or write a poem if you never have. The outcome doesn’t need to be stupendous. The idea is to give yourself a chance to live a little more creative.