Imagination And Story-Telling

When you are developing your skills in making relationships, those first couple of years in school have a big bearing on it all. Prior to that, your parents are letting you know how to work with others and about expectations . But as a kid, you are also watching to see what is appropriate and what they would do in any given situation. Sometimes this can be confusing, especially if neither one of your parents are creative.

But as it turns out, my dad loved wood working and made many a piece of furniture much to my mother's benefit. I still remember that 'Hi Fi' which was shorthand for high fidelity and he put those components in a beautiful cabinet he made by hand. There were also bookshelves and in my later life, he made wall time pieces that chime for each one of us. I still have mine.

So even though this was not his career, he really enjoyed working with his hands and his second love had to be camping and being out in nature. We kids loved that too and I think my love of nature was due to this input. When it came to mom, she was a great organizer and did have a creative eye when it came to decorating our home. She also liked to experiment sometimes in cooking. But usually she was the one who preferred doing things much the same because it gave her pleasure.

Creativity demands experimentation and so often I had to turn to my new experiences to get that. Gardening was creative and I initially learned about that through my grandfather. We also always had a garden and we helped my parents with it every year. I am still a gardener and love the natural aspects of it. Many a happy moment is spent there and I am always dreaming up new gardens or plots.

I think my love of history came from those years camping when we would look for old ghost towns. I began to appreciate how people lived back then and how creative they had to be to survive. That got the stories flowing about old timers and practical uses for things. This led me to learn about preserving food and using implements for many practical things.

We also were encouraged to have hobbies which included learning how to create jewellery from stones, becoming a girl guide and a brownie. That led to learning how to knit and sew and design certain pieces of clothing. Later I advanced to learning about herbs and healing. There was plenty of material to lead my mind into the mystery of things. The stories just seemed to develop from there. You just never know where they will come from.