Creation

Over the past few weeks, I have surprised myself by finishing projects queued up over the course of the last few years and producing art, food, and writings at a rate abnormal to my current adult self. It kind of astounds me how good it feels to create. I feel so fulfilled.

Creation is a part of our humanity that makes us unique. We make things beyond mere practicality. We savor textures and flavors and melodies and place our mental and emotional imprints on all of it. It’s addicting, and through it, I realize how much more important having the space and time to create is than dinner parties or nights out.

Here is a list of some things I have created, along with their general descriptions:

• Green Cardigan: I have been knitting this green cardigan slowly for over a year. In the past month, I knitted like, the final half. It’s finished. It’s made with Peruvian Alpaca wool knit in a difficult stitch called a moss stitch which alternates two knits and two purls across rows like so:
  kkppkkppkk
  ppkkppkkpp
  kkppkkppkk
• Singing Felt Bluebird: I put artificial Eucalyptis leaf around a wood framed wall clock a few years back, and started making this felt, embroidered bluebird to sit atop it. I set is aside for knitting and dancing and board games for all that time. A couple weeks ago, I sat for a day and a half and stitched each piece together. It’s my first completed embroidery project, and it has these pretty glass beads sewn onto it. When you press its chest, a little voice box makes it sing. It is now happily perched atop my clock, though I still need to grab my glue gun to affix it there.
• Corn Bread Taco Bake: The difference between a “bake” and a “casserole” does not exist in my mind. Maybe the word casserole is too outdated and would make younger people not want to prepare it. I’m not certain. I recently purchased a box of gluten free corn bread mix, but before I prepared it, I saw a recipe for a “taco bake” on the back, so I went without cornbread and prepared the taco bake last week during my meal prep. Oh. My. God. It is so good. Sometimes eating the same thing multiple days in a row seems like a pain, but this was not one of those things. I looked forward to this dinner every night, and it kept perfectly well in a container in the fridge.
• A Song Secretly about Writing Code: I met with my friend Navdeep and we decided to play our guitars and write a song together. After we found a simple chord progression we liked, we wrote lyrics until they made sense to us. I feel it’s really illustrative of the emotional relationship a developer has with her code, and it’s kind of catchy. We’re thinking about putting it up on YouTube when we have finished refining it, but don’t hold your breath. I haven’t put any of my music on the internet.
• A Blanket that will instead become Multiple Pillows: I had all this yarn for a sweater, but decided I didn’t like it for the sweater pattern I had purchased it for. I took a while to dig through patterns and see if I had the right gauge and amount for any other project and found this block pattern blanket made of nine squares. I am four squares in and decided that I would rather make it into four or nine pillows. I have never sold my creations at a market, so this winter, I want to make all kinds of things and then get some tables at craft shows and farmers markets until I manage to sell it all.
• Peanut Butter Cookies: I almost bought a box of cookies from the grocery store when I realized I had all the ingredients I need to make fresher, tastier cookies at home. I baked a batch of peanut butter cookies and shared them with the writing group. Sharing them was the actual hard part, I was so torn that morning between bringing them to hand out or hoarding them at home for myself. Then I remembered something I had committed to in my life philosophy: Giving is a Growth Strategy.
• Succulent Terrarium: I recently acquired a dead terrarium. I pulled it apart, put in fresh soil, and some little succulent propagations my roommate had started. I planted them and re-decorated the little glass bowl. It sits in my windowsill right now and seems quite happy.
• A New Journal: I finished working through a guided journal during my morning coffee time, and needed to replace that practice with some other little meditation. I purchased a cute brown bullet journal with a doe on the front (it represents grounding to me) and have begun a journal “unconstricted by lines.” The practice has helped me be more creative in the way I process things in my life, using doodles, mind maps, and checklists to illustrate my thoughts.

It feels so good to create. I will continue to do so and hope to share it with you in this place – another of my creations.

Love Always,

Rachel