Crafting Inspired Links from Nothing
"You have brains in your head and feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose!" —Dr. Seuss
It's amazing how our brains work, isn't it? Think about it: this computing device that we carry around in our heads not only controls automatic processes in our bodies, but helps us learn, connect, and express our intelligence and creativity in ways that can benefit other computing device carriers.
Think about common language and how we can understand one another through shared symbols and sounds and empathize through our emotions. The letters you see right now as lines of text on a screen form words and ideas that become part of your thought process and move through you by synthesis.
It's also interesting how by default, our brains look for patterns and try to make meaning when presented with seemingly unrelated information and other stimuli. Why is that?
This is one of the fun things about creativity: when unexpected twists and turns result in delightful surprises. Author Naomi Rose says "it gets your pattern-and-meaning-maker going."
How would you like to get your pattern-and-meaning-maker going in today's play?
Today's Play
The Pleasure of Making Creative Connections
By Naomi Rose
One of the most enjoyable things, creatively, is the ability to make connections where none existed before. This is often the "payoff" of a creative challenge, as far as the brain (perhaps even the soul) is concerned. So in this micro-activity, you will have the opportunity to make connections and make your brain (as well as your whole creative self) happy.
Materials you will need:
- Paper and pen
- A dictionary in print
Preparation instructions:
You are going to choose some words at random (seed words), write them down on a piece of paper, and weave those words together in a surprising and pleasing way.
The random choice is so that the words don't come with contexts and meanings ready-made. The creative challenge is to get your own internal pattern-and-meaning-maker going.
With closed eyes, open the dictionary. Move your hand across the open page with pointer finger extended until you feel moved to stop. Then open your eyes and write down the word you're pointing to. Do this process again, for a total of 5 to 10 words.
Entering into the creative process:
Your creative play is to find a way to make unifying sense of the discontinuous words you chose.
- Look over your list of words. Take a breath, relax, and allow images, associations, and words to rise up from within to bridge the gap between the words.
- Write these bridge-thoughts down, focusing on how they feel energetically as well as on what they mean. Allow them, and the connective web they weave, to surprise you.
Here is an example of my own word-play from Starting Your Book: A Guide to Navigating the Blank Page by Listening to What's Inside You:
The words:
Windswept / Memories / Sustaining / Tides / Plate-glass window / Smell of stew cooking
The written weaving:
Windswept memories comb out the gems and shards I was hoping to forget, a simplifying gift of the sky's vast breathing. Sustaining tides keep the world's breath alive. Somewhere, small-scale ordinary life continues: dishes are washed, supper is made, and what of the windswept memory of sustaining tides? Yet a silent bustling human form calls my sight back home: how could I see, through the plate-glass window, the smell of stew cooking?
Enjoy the process — you can't go wrong. Discovering how seemingly disparate things can come together is one of the great joys of creating anything.
Naomi Rose, the creator of Writing from the Deeper Self, is a Book Developer and Creative Midwife. Learn more at www.naomirose.net.
Copyright ©2020 by Naomi Rose. All rights reserved.