Memory Lane

I recently traveled back to Pennsylvania to help out my dad. He’s moving in a couple of months, and there’s so much to go through and pack. I spent time packing up some things and also sorting out stuff that he can get rid of, especially since he’ll be moving into a smaller place. While going through things, I came across a bunch of stuff from my childhood. My parents, like many parents, had kept a lot of stuff like the Mother’s and Father’s Day cards we made in school, our report cards, sports photos, artwork, and more.

A flood of memories hit me as I saw the photos of my little league teams, the stuffed dragon pillow I sewed in middle school home ec, the Christmas coloring books, and the drawings that I made in elementary school. It brought overwhelming feelings of nostalgia as I pulled these from their bins and boxes. I grabbed all of my things, and packed them in my car. I’m not sure what I’ll do with it all. Some of it will be trashed, some will be saved, and some will be documented digitally. A few special things will be placed on shelves in positions of importance so that I can see them on a daily basis—a reminder of a time long since passed, but most of what I keep will go into boxes and bins that already hold so many other childhood treasures.

But one thing stands out through all of it—the artmaking. I have always loved to draw and make things, and I still have many of my drawings from childhood. But what I discovered in those bins at my dad’s was school work like the autobiography that I made in second grade and is full of drawings. There are also the gifts and cards that I made for my parents like the Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer drawing that I made for my mom when she was in the hospital for back surgery.

They’re all treasures, and they’re all reminders of how much I’ve always loved art. There is even a “ What I’d like to be when I grow up” page in that second grade autobiography where I said that I wanted to be an artist. And here I am 46 years later!

All kids love to draw and make and create, but very few stick with it. However, many people rediscover the joy of making and creating much later in life, but there is often a lot of judgment and hang ups that come with that rediscovery. It can be difficult to create like when we were children. But what if we gave ourselves the permission to simply create for the joy of it? What if we picked up a pack of crayons and began coloring or picked up a pencil and just started drawing? What if we dropped the judgment, dropped the excuses, dropped the resistance, and just made and created for ourselves—for the sheer enjoyment of it.

How can you give yourself permission to engage in simple creative acts?

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Happy Creating!

Eric