Make Me Smile Monday

I'm sure most of you reading this knows already, but I'm a HUGE fan of Pinterest. I'm also I big fan of I Heart Organizing and Mini Manor. There are many, many other great organizing blogs out there that I also drop in on, but these two remain my favourites. After a recent discovery I think it's likely Simple Mom will be taking a permanent spot on my list. We'll see.

Now when I say I'm a huge fan of these blogs, I'm not kidding! I find them inspiring, encouraging and, well, to steal the oft-used phrase of a good friend of mine, they "make me happy"! I find seeing others who love the same things I do, helps me think more creatively about caring for my house. Seeing beauty and function with shelves and baskets and bins almost makes me giddy!!! New ideas for organizing my house in a pretty and practical way makes me want to put the extra time and effort needed into getting it done. Have you ever noticed that some things (like organizing) sound painful and tedious for some and fun and exciting for others?

I found myself wondering at this and I think I've been able to piece together why...

I think that the reason I love organizing and caring for my home is because for me it fulfills a deep seated desire to be create, and be creative. Seeing others who share this passion inspires me and helps me find my own unique way of doing this. When I organize and decorate my home, my desire is to create something beautiful! It helps make it about more than just scrubbing floors and sorting laundry.

Before going through a stage where I thought I didn't ever want to get married or have kids, when I was really little I always played house. It always won out over playing school, nurse, bank,store or anything else make believe involving paperwork of any kind. As a child I loved also loved seeing my friends houses and was continually in awe of all the beautiful houses I saw and the variety of ways people would decorate them. That remained true into my teenage years and even now as a adult. From very early on this stirred in me a desire to have a beautiful home. 

As a teenager there was a period of time where this longing got a bit mixed up in the idea of being wealthy, assuming that being wealthy was what made homes beautiful.

As an adult I'm discovering that the desire to have a beautiful home comes from a place so much deeper than that. It comes from that place inside all of us that longs to create and be creative.

I look around and I see this drive to create and be creative in everyone around me.

Likely you can see it in your  children.

Maybe they "create" stories, crafts or games. (I love hearing stories about Jason and his brothers used to create new sports.) "A" who I babysit has an incredible imagination and I've thought many times how easily I could see her growing up to write children's books. Who knows where that imagination of hers will take her?

I see it in cupcakes, cookies, pies and cakes. I see it in clothing and shoes, hair and make-up. I see it in computer programing and graphic design. I see it in poetry and paintings. I see it in floral arrangements and gardens and stone work and framing. I see it in program planning and teaching. I see it in cooking and travel planning and recipe making. I see it in picture taking, house staging, picture taking, dance, music and video making. I see it business and health and fitness. I see it in knitting, crochetting, sewing and re-purposing.

I look around I see it everywhere...and I can't help but think it's beautiful!

In what area of life are you inspired to be creative?

When you think about it, can you see this urge people seem to have to "create and be creative"?