I am a Creator

     One of my favorite talks is by President Uchtdorf and is entitled "Happiness, Your Heritage".  In it, President Uchtdorf talks to the women of the church and tells us that "the desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul".  I remember listening to this talk in Ecuador and Becky and I couldn't help but nod and express our heartfelt agreement with his explanation of how women find satisfaction and joy out of creating.  Yes, I need to express my creative energies or else I begin to be unhappy with life.  When I create, it comes in many forms - I sometimes create sound as I play the piano, or I take a ball of yarn and turn it into a crocheted scarf or blanket, or I create a delicious meal from random ingredients, or I take a disorderly or dirty space and clean and organize in order to achieve a pleasing and relaxed space, or sometimes I take everyday moments and travels and take a picture and create a photo book to preserve meaningful memories.  

     Recently, I have let myself become extremely busy.  Between working full time, fulfilling my calling as Institute President,  and dating I haven't left any time for myself.  This has recently culminated in creating an internal imbalance and I became determined to make time for me again.  Yesterday, I experienced my first slow day at work in months.  I've finally reached the goals I needed to and can slow down a bit on my appointments.  So, with my extra time I spent the day brainstorming and pondering how best to express all of my creative energy that has built up inside of me over the past few months.  I considered buying a ukulele.  A guy in Austin a couple weeks ago taught me some songs and I caught on really fast.  I was pretty much a natural.  I also considered taking up guitar again.  I resolved to practice the piano more.  I resolved to set aside time to work on my photo book.  I made plans to make cascarones (confetti filled eggs) for fiesta next week.  Eventually, my ponderings and browsing on Amazon and craigslist led me to impulsively buy my first sewing machine! 

     I spent a solid 20 or 30 minutes researching customer reviews and comparing brands and capabilities and prices and called my mom for a vote of confirmation that my impulsive purchase was acceptable.  I decided to invest in a nice one and ended up with a Brother CS6000I 60-Stitch Computerized Free-Arm Sewing Machine with Multiple Stitch Functions.  Now I can finally finish my t-shirt quilt and stop having to depend on others in order to use a sewing machine!  And after I finish my quilt I will embark on other creative sewing projects.  I took a sewing class at BYU.  I got a C+.  It is the only C I have ever received all through grade school and college.  You can imagine the bitter feelings that leaves me with when I even think of sewing. Not only that, but I know full well that it is much more time efficient and cost efficient to buy clothing these days than sew it yourself.  However, I feel that sewing is of course necessary for basic mending and acceptable for creating blankets, pajama pants, and skirts.  These are the three things I intend on creating.  Skirts to the knee are hard to find these days and I'm excited to practice and become more creative with different trims and accessories on them.  And I have an extreme LOVE for blankets.  

     Moral of the story:  Don't let creative energies build up inside of you until you consider buying a baby-grand piano, ukulele, guitar, AND sewing machine all in one day!