Let's get creative

This is one of my all time favorite pictures of my son Phillip. Phil(now 19) was four at the time. Matt, his brother and playmate, had deserted him to attend all-day first grade. Phil was home with me and his nine-month-old sister. She wasn't much fun. He was bored.

At the time I had more imagination than money, so to entertain Phil, I'd look around the house for random objects to fashion into a game. The game depicted above is, of course, scuba diving.

You couldn't tell? See the oxygen mask? Made from a plastic milk carton. And the oxygen tank? It was so new-fangled, it didn't even need a hose to connect it to the mask. And the spear? Useful for poking exotic undersea creatures--and sisters and brothers.

In this get-up Phil wriggled on his belly around the house for days on end.

Now, he's in school to become an engineer. He aspires to become an inventor. I like to think his ingenuity is due, in part, to the games we played that year when lack of money, lots of time and necessity spurred me to be creative.

I feel like I'm not as creative now as I used to be. I think time constraints, a culture that values sameness are two things that have muted my creativity. I want to get back to intentionally practicing creativity.

I'm looking for places to start. What do you do to get in touch with your creative bent? Send me your ideas!