Day 17 of 100 Days of Creativity

 Prompt: Compose a list of things that are true about you. Sit with each item, making sure you really mean it.

I was working with a therapist last July and we worked on my values at the time. These were the ones that I picked:

Love

Justice

Community

Courage

Creativity

Adventure

Optimism

Forgiveness

Vulnerability

Responsibility

Integrity

I started Justice, Creativity, Forgiveness, and Integrity as the core of my person. These were born into me. And I couldn't tease these out. I also couldn't tell you where they came from. This coach pointed out that these were all how I showed up in the world. She asked me what did I want from the world. I don't know that I've answered that.

This therapist is asking me to do the same thing. Look at my values. And then set goals around them.

The thing is when you go through big things like we all have this past few years, we might want to sit down and rework our values. Do these things still resonate with us? Are they still true?

So composing a list of things that I know is true about me has me thinking about values.

Yesterday I said these things are true about me:

I get my energy from people.

Exercise is essential to me.

I love color.

I love writing letters and cards.

Traveling is very important to me.

These are true. I think the I love letters and cards could be expanded to:

I love my community of friends and I thoughtfully care for them. I value my friendships so very much. I show my love for them by showing up, participating in adventures with them, walking, talking, and having tasty beverages with them. By dancing in ballrooms with masks and joy covering our faces. By walking neighborhoods in search of flowers and kitties, by taking their tearful calls, by going t their life events. I call them. I share with them. I make them delicious birthday cakes made with their preferences in mind. I also love sending mail. I want people to know that I'm thinking about them because I think it's important to know that you're loved and that someone cares about you. It doesn't have to be in a big way. I love the colorful, funny, meaningful cards that you can pick out and the brilliant stamps that you choose from. We always got "decorative" stamps growing up. Never just the plain ones. Because again, life is too short to be anything but colorful. Why get boring flag stamps when you could get Lunar New Year Oxen, Coffee cups filled with sunshine, spring flowers, states, famous writers, singers and athletes, landscapes, seascapes, moonscapes, galaxy, other country flags. There are so many beautiful ways to tell people that you're thinking of them. And that you care about them. And their love and care in return is the best gift.

I'm most content when creating. I can sew all night long. I can write for hours. I can read or listen to music (which I consider a part of the creative process) all day. I swear my heartbeat drops to 50 BPM when I'm in JoAnn's. However, I'm not a crafter who buys things and never does the project. I really don't have the room in my apartment or life for unfinished projects. I might have a few running at the same time, but they're small. If I had space big enough to dedicate to all my projects, that would be a different story. But I don't have that space.