{"id":17967,"date":"2021-09-12T07:47:19","date_gmt":"2021-09-12T07:47:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/barazalab.com\/?p=17967"},"modified":"2023-07-12T13:02:37","modified_gmt":"2023-07-12T13:02:37","slug":"childlike-creativity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tuwele.com\/baraza_update\/childlike-creativity\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00a0Childlike Creativity"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Nepurko<\/span>,<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Greetings, friends:<\/span><\/p>\n

This week\u2019s newsletter is continuing the tradition of inviting members of our community to write From The Curator\u2019s Desk, and for this edition I\u2019m happy to hand over to my friend and colleague Nepurko, a writer, agribusiness entrepreneur and digital marketing consultant for women-owned businesses, better known for the\u00a0<\/span><\/i>Weekly 500\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/a>newsletter she publishes on Substack. I\u2019ll be handing over this section of the newsletter to my fellow colleagues and to Baraza members from time to time, please do reach out to me if you\u2019re interested in writing this section and you have something of interest to share to our community — a trend you\u2019ve noticed or something you\u2019d like us to think about.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

~ Christine Mungai, Curator<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n


\n<\/span>We\u2019re living in strange and curious times, friends. Everything; our world, our lives, and our known rhythms are struggling to rise from the ashes of a truly grueling\u00a0global pandemic. Life as we knew it is gone and with it comes that dreaded \u201cnew normal\u201d everyone has been throwing around.\u00a0<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>I\u2019m not going to attempt to talk about this \u201cnew normal\u201d though. I don\u2019t know enough about normalcy to even dare. When the first lockdown of 2020 hit, I was at peace in my apartment making banana bread, naan and curry, brownies and enjoying the solitude. I didn\u2019t have to worry about livestock, client work or relationships. That\u2019s when my idea for the Weekly 500 finally came to fruition. I\u2019d been flirting with the idea of writing fiction again; after almost a decade of fits and starts.\u00a0<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>I started off my career in creative work almost a decade ago; back then creativity was the sole preserve of a very select, and privileged few. But with time I\u2019ve come to realize that creativity is not a singular, focused talent that very few in the population can have. It cuts across gender, age, religion, race, and just about any other definite, polarizing line human beings want to draw.<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>Creativity lives in every single word and act that passes through human imagination and intelligence. Anyone can be creative. Even accountants (no shade!); they don\u2019t call it creative accounting for nothing. Creativity resides in the deepest recesses of the human soul but it also has a finite quality to it.\u00a0<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>We start off in life filled to overflowing with creativity, then along the way, as we grow into adulthood, we abandon it, to get \u2018more serious\u2019 in order to join the ranks of the workforce. Sort of like taking our rightful place in the assembly line of an ordinary human model, complete with part numbers.\u00a0<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>Creativity needs a childlike awe for us to tell our stories, paint our worlds and sing the verses of our beautiful lives with confident freedom. We need to be curious, and observant of the world around us. Creativity also needs a healthy mind that\u2019s at peace so that it can show up.\u00a0<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>During the solitude of lockdown, my creativity was getting a much-needed boost; hat tip to fellow Barazite (Barazan?), Dan Aceda for speaking so fluently in a previous newsletter about joy recently. For me, writing gives me joy, peace and all those other wonderful dopamine-loaded feelings.<\/span><\/p>\n

I have written and published fifty-four (54) 500-word short stories on Substack during this pandemic; the practiced and deliberately consistent act of discovery, writing and storytelling is something I came to look forward to every week, for however many hours I could dedicate to this pursuit of mine.<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>Still, there will be days when the world becomes too much, when your mind betrays you and you can\u2019t do the thing you love the most.\u00a0<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>That\u2019s a sign from the universe that you need to stop, slow down, and rest. Creativity cannot thrive in the absence of rest. Taking time out to take care of yourself, learn, luxuriate, and refill your creative well is important. Just like joy, these moments are fewer and shorter these days, but they exist all the same. Savor them.\u00a0<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>Savor your first coffee in the morning, your 15-minute walk in nature or to the shops, your one hour of uninterrupted reading\/ doodling\/ knitting time. Lean into that pocket of rest, because that is what releases your true creativity.\u00a0<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>If you lean into hesitation, resistance and discomfort, your creativity will show up and shine a light leading you to the next level. That is a promise I can confidently make to you.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/span>In the meantime, here\u2019s:<\/b><\/p>\n