Must Creative Juice Create Things?

Must Creative People Create "Things" to be Creative?

Daikon - Mmmm Tasty! Photo by Hancockseed.com

I read a post the other day from a creative teacher who said that after he had studied hundreds of creative people and worked with creatives that he has concluded that you will know if you are a creative person - "if you create things."
While I understand his point - it suggests a polarity of thought from GUTSY ARTS.

You are creative.  Period.

You were born with the ability to think of things a different way, to see something different than it is, to solve a problem using the unexpected, to find resources for what you need - in other words to be creative.

One doesn't need to produce a Mozart sonata to be a creative person.  You may never be a Stephen Spielberg or Meryl Streep.  But baby, you "guts"creativity.

Cultivating creativity it is another issue.  Recognizing it in your life - takes awareness.  And learning to play with it - is an extraordinary gift you can give yourself.

Here is an exercise for today: 

Eat something different.  (Trust me on this)

Go to a different cafe if you live in the urban centre, go to a different deli, and even better - pick up a few things you never have picked up before and make something at home.  Try out some new veggies (or just try a veggie for pete`s sake!).

Recently I plundered the market for daikon.  DAIKON?  In my California and Colorado childhood I guarantee you, we never had Daikon - and neither did my friends or neighbors.

A full size daikon is HUGE.  I learned about it from Alicia Silverstone at the Kind Life.com (for vegans)
 
When I had my first bite (a sample at a farmers market) I thought immediately -  "no way"!  It was bitter, much like a radish.  But the clerk suggested I take it anyway and grate into a salad, add to my miso soup, or roast with veggies.  I did.  And I am here to tell you after 6 months, that the Daikon is a new member of my veggie family.

I practiced a precursor to creative juice - openness, flexibility, willingness to experience something different than I know it to be.

So try it.  Just go eat something different today.  Be open.  Be Brave. Be Gutsy.

Things to note: how willing were you to try it, how much resistance did you feel, did that feeling of resistance feel familiar, what did your head say when you had the new food at your lips?  Just how willing are you to unleash your creative?