It has been awhile.

So I'm going to ease back into this writing/blog thing with a wonderful quote from Kurt Vonnegut, one of my favorite authors, from his book A Man Without A Country. I was re-reading it on the plane ride back from L.A. to Omaha (or to be more precise, Phoenix to Omaha) and found it to be inspiring:

"The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something."

It is exciting to think that we always carry the power of imagination and creation with us. At any given moment you have the opportunity to create something, with your mind or your hands or both, and bring something wholly new and original into the world.

To extend what Vonnegut said, much more simply and eloquently than I will here, you can create to have fun, to express yourself, to make others happy, to give as a gift, to share your thoughts and feelings, to discover something about yourself, to pass the time, to experiment, to make a mess, to distract, to play, or to grow your soul. You don't need a reason either, but you may find one of these along the way.

Art is created every day by people around the world, many of them not even knowing it. Doodling while on the phone, taking the time to create an outfit, preparing a sandwich the exact way you want it, making a homemade card or cd, signing our name on a receipt, dancing to music in the car, practicing a new basketball move, these are a few of endless examples of everyday art occurring at a constant pace. We are all creators of art, and together we make up a world where a second doesn't go by where a performance or piece of art isn't created. It's pretty wonderful and uplifting when you think of life in that way.