I don’t know how you visualize your creativity resevoire. I’ve heard and seen it referred to as a well so often that I see mine in that way. It’s one of those old-fashioned wells, kind of like a traditional wishing well, complete with bucket and crank to lower and raise the bucket.
The point isn’t how you see your well.
The point is that sometimes it needs to be refilled. You can’t take something from it all the time and never put anything back. Something has to go back in or it gets dry and your creativity seems to go away.
I had the chance to do some refilling of my well a couple days ago.
I had gone to Lake Murray State Park near Ardmore, Oklahoma, with my mom. We actually went because of work since we have an office in Ardmore.
We had a good view of Lake Murray from our cabin. Wednesday night was relatively cloudless. I sat outside on the picnic table and looked toward the water. The moon hung low and cast its trail on the water.
It was breathtaking. I didn’t want to miss any of it by going in to get my camera, but in hindsight, I really should have.
I stayed outside and watched the moon’s reflection on the water until it had risen too high to cast the silvered trail.
That went a long way to refilling my well. The next day, I was able to work through something that had been bothering me creatively.
When’s the last time you refilled your well? How did you do it?
Filed under: Uncategorized , creative, creativity, Jen Nipps, jennipps
Jen
Interesting way to look at the creativity thing and so true too that the well must be replenished from time to time – or at least have the sides scraped down a bit to keep things from clogging up, getting rusted out inside, etc. That’s about what I need right now too but haven’t, as yet, come up with a good way to get that much needed renewal. Still working on that one.
I hadn’t really thought of it that way. I guess I refill by leaving the house. I’m not a hermit or anything, but I find that once a day I must get out into nature. For me, that means walking my dog. Recently I’ve been taking new and different routes just to mix it up. Walked to the Farmer’s Market on Saturday. It was beautiful.
Oh and on the camera thing. I think that sometimes we, who are the photographers of our families, miss out on moments because our eyes are behind the lens. You have the memory of that moment, and while it would be nice to have the picture, the memory is something that can’t be duplicated.
Karen (Lavinia from AW)
[...] of us from time to time need to stop posting. Whether its the need to “refill the well“, take care of a family emergency, or simply to get away from it all something is going to [...]