Creativity Tips: Create happy traditions

Every Easter, we'd go out to my in-laws' house in Independence and the girls knew just what to expect. Grandma would make more food than an army could eat. Grandpa would hide Easter eggs in the backyard.

My father-in-law was the cutest man who ever lived. Not much taller than me -- maybe 5'2". Baldish. Adorable. Every Easter, he put on bunny ears and hid those eggs. Every Easter, he hid them in the very same spots. At the bottom of the deck stairs. In the clothesline pole. By the stump of the tree.

Every Easter, my girls and their cousin Amanda had the joy of finding those eggs -- with Grandpa walking around the yard helping them until they were old enough to do it alone and he was too old to get around as well.

Grandpa would have been 105 today. He died at 96. Morris Harness was the very best kind of creative instigator. He instigated happiness. My wish for today: We should all hone that talent.

(If I find a pic of him in the Easter Bunny ears, I'll post it later. I was just missing him this morning and wanted to share.)

56 + 90 = Happy

Two posts today that launch a new category on the CI blog: Oldies but Goodies. And you can twist that to mean whatever you want. Here's one for me. And one for mom!

Creativity Tips: Writer, interrupted

So ... I just wrote a BRILLIANT post and can't get Blogger to publish it. I will figure it out and post eventually. For now, here's the lesson: You really can't always get what you want when you want it. That's OK -- that's life. Breathe in. Breathe out. Move on.

Creative Query: Can You See Me Now?

We can draw tremendous creative energy from the people around us if -- and this is a big IF -- we're really aware of the people around us.

So, here's your creative query/exercise for the day: Consider one person you spend significant time with -- it could be a colleague, a kid or a lover. For the sake of this exercise, it doesn't matter.

Now, think about your last few conversations with that person. When you were talking, how often were you solely focused on each other? You weren't talking and driving, talking and cooking, talking and playing on the computer. All you were doing was talking and listening.

Add this to the equation: How often during those conversations did you make -- and hold -- direct eye contact?

We all want to be seen. We want to be heard. Take the first step. See and hear someone. Today.

Creativity Tips: Follow Your Own Advice

As I mentioned earlier today, my HTML code wasn't working on the blog. I asked Tom how to fix it and he gave me a suggestion. However, instead of playing with it on the test blog that I set up for experimentation, I played with it on the CI blog.

This, my friends, was an error.

If you got the post re: changing your standard font to boost your creativity, I apologize. I zapped it off the blog immediately, but I know the Networked Blogs feature picked it up faster than I could zap it.

I deleted it so quickly, I don't even know what it said. I know I was still editing it. I hope it wasn't complete nonsense. I'm fairly sure there weren't any curse words included ... despite the week I'm having.

On the bright side, you can learn from my mistake: When you have a good plan, follow it!

Creativity Tips: Explore Sarah Kay's Playlist

For some reason, the HTML coding on the CI blog is zapped. I can't do paragraph breaks. I will figure it out, but for now ... join me in exploring poet Sarah Kay's playlist of spoken word poetry. It's a gift to all of us for National Poetry Month. Enjoy!

Creativity Tips: Have Some Guts

One of my all-time favorite quotes is: What would you do today if you were brave? Angela is brave. Thoughtful. Creative. And the step she's taking is divine.