Creating a Creative Space
My backyard is a haven.
My backyard is a haven in the spring. There is a pond that stretches under the deck and a waterfall that provides a constant soothing rush of water. When the trees spread and fill in, I can barely see the neighbors in the cul-de-sac the yard faces so there is a sense of seclusion, even in the middle of the suburbs.
Saturday was a perfect 80 degrees in Chicagoland. I wanted so much to have some time to myself, but with three kids at home that was an unlikely event. So I went with the adage “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” — or rather, have them join me. “Everybody, grab something creative and OUTSIDE!” I ordered.
My oldest son chose to simply run around in the yard. It is his method of decompressing. And the eight-month-old was confined to an indoor-outdoor bouncy seat. My six-year-old brought a portable easel, canvas, stack of paintbrushes, and proceeded to paint the backyard waterfall. My husband brought the Surface and tried to see if he could draw the waterfall using the drawing tools of the tablet.
Me? I brought my Kindle Paperwhite, Garrison Keillor’s Good Poems for Hard Times (whatever I may now think of Keillor as a person, the collection of poems he selected and the way he would read poems was always particularly striking), and a notebook. I read a few chapters on my Kindle…
