Autumn at the Lake

I don’t know how much more cliched it can get. I am at my cabin, near a lake, in September. The leaves are changing much more rapidly than I expected. Yesterday, I sat out on the porch with my dad. I played the mandolin while he played the guitar. As I strummed, I kept getting (lightly) whacked in the head with crispy, crunchy leaves. Suffice it to say, it was an ideal setting for generating creative work.

Recent guests on the podcast have been posing “creativity challenges” lately. I decided to take them on. So, I have been creating my very own music room. Due to the amount of rooms in my house, I am privileged to have a “bonus room.” It didn’t really have a purpose for awhile. I realized that I had a bunch of instruments sprawled about the house – a mandolin, a keyboard, a guitar, and two ukuleles. I have a couple of egg shakers too – but those are my traveling egg shakers, in the event that someone wants to play an instrument but doesn’t have one! I ought to invest in some egg shakers that live in the music room.

So, anyhow, by deeming this room “the music room,” that inspired me to take a couple of trips to the local music store. There, I got to talking with the salespeople and learning about the latest technology in stringed instruments. I bought new chairs. New stands for instruments. New tuners. New sheet music. I brought it all home and got to work putting everything together. Now that I have an official dedicated space for creativity, I find it infinitely easier to be motivated. When I walk into the room, I can simply pick an instrument off a hanger. Before, I used to make a trip to the corner of the basement, dig through the laundry and the cleaning supplies, find the instrument, get it out of its case, figure out where to go play it, and so forth. That process just became a big hassle. Often, the instrument would just sit there – remaining in its case, un-played. Even though the process of retrieving it was not taxing whatsoever, I had inadvertently created hurdles to playing. I think the biggest hurdle was mental. Since that hurdle was put up, it paved the way for the physical hurdles.

Now that I have the dedicated space, I walk into the room and my instruments are not in cases. They are all out in the open, ready to go. The space is inviting. Art is hanging on the walls. The lamps give off gentle lighting. The space inspires me to simply pick something up and play it for ten minutes. If I don’t feel like playing a mandolin today, no problem. I can simply walk five feet over and play the keyboard instead. And I set reasonable goals and expectations for myself. I do design a constraint based on time. My goal is to do “something creative” for at least ten minutes per day.

Of course, sometimes I don’t even feel like playing an instrument. What I do instead? I find YouTube videos. These are typically tutorials on the mandolin. I even found a channel that keeps every video from five to six minutes long. So, if I just watch two of those for the day, then there we go – I have achieved my goal of spending ten minutes on it! I don’t feel guilty for not picking up an actual instrument. I have accomplished my goal.

So, all that to say, I hope that in your world, you have a space. It doesn’t have to be a single master bedroom. It could simply be a corner. For that matter, you might have multiple spaces! If you were to set a daily creative goal for yourself, what would it be? What is your medium? If you wanted to consult a YouTube video for creative inspiration, what would that be? Is there a specific channel that you can follow? Are there other creative people that you can work with in real time? Who would those people be? When can you get together and work on creation?

Whatever your space for creation is, I hope that it is inviting. I hope that it brings you joy. And I hope that it inspires creation – if only for ten minutes per day.

Happy creating! – Molly

Western Whim

On January 8th, we went on a whim…. to Denver, Colorado! We drove through Nebraska during the worst blizzard of the year, visited the Colorado capitol building, stayed in a beautiful boutique hotel, and Kyle picked up some ridiculously gorgeous “Old Paris Porcelain” vases from an auction house in the artsy neighborhood. We had LOTS of time in the car to discuss the future of our podcast and to brainstorm ideas, including Molly’s dream of someday hosting a creativity retreat. And so, our first unofficial creativity retreat was held in Denver (and Kyle finally experienced going west of Minnesota!)

The dome of the historic Colorado Capitol Building visible through a crescent of contemporary architecture.