Happy Thursday! I recently read a post at Deb’s World about embracing creativity. She wrote about how she doesn’t particularly view herself as being a “creative”. But as she thought more about the things she does on a daily basis, she discovered that she (and everyone) embraces creativity differently and uniquely. I agree.

I also don’t view myself as being creative. But I’m a huge wannabe creative!

Creativity is defined as the tendency to generate or recognise ideas, alternatives, or possibilities that may be useful in solving problems, communicating with others, and entertaining ourselves and others.

I suppose the more one attempts to be creative, the more likely they’ll gain and/or strengthen their tendency to generate ideas. I have a little sewing table in my laundry room and above that table I put the quote attributed to Albert Einstein that says, “Creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.” Haha! That’s typically my style of creativity. Finding something I can be inspired by, and basically copying it. Sometimes (but not always) I can put my own spin on it, to make it more of my own creation. It just depends.

Take poetry, for instance. My mother was a prolific poet. Me – well, I can never think of the right words! Therefore, below is a poem generated with AI! My contribution was creatively giving AI the prompts to get started, based on the photo I recently took of these roses, (still in bloom in November!), in a little town in Kentucky.

Frost whispers secrets the twilight keeps.
Yet there—against the fading gray,
A pink rose blooms, defying decay.

Its petals blush with summer’s song,
A tender flame where nights grow long.
Soft fragrance drifts through brittle air,
A promise kept, though time seems spare.

The world turns bare, the branches lean,
But roses dream of what has been.
And in their bloom, a truth is shown—
Beauty endures, though cold winds moan.

So let November’s silence fall,
The pink rose answers winter’s call.
A fleeting gift, a fragile sign,
That hope still blossoms out of time.

And here’s a haiku to complement the longer poem, distilling the mood into a fleeting moment (also AI-generated):

Pink roses linger,  
November frost breathes silence—  
Hope warms the cold air.

With AI changing how we do things at a rapid pace, particularly some traditionally “creative” things, AI is being discussed quite a bit. What are your thoughts about AI and creativity? How is AI going to play into people’s creativity? I’d be interested in knowing your opinion!

I hope you have a great day and do or learn something NEW today!

Happy Monday! Since we’ve been traveling for the last 3+ months, we’ve enjoyed a lot of beautiful scenery, we’ve done a lot of hiking, biking and sightseeing and we’ve learned a lot of random stuff about a lot of random stuff! The photo above is near Blowing Cave Park in Kennebunkport, Maine. The photo below is a pond at our campground in New Hampshire.

This is a four-faced Buddha surrounded by a suspended halo at Bedrock Gardens in Lee, New Hampshire.

We rode our bikes around Martha’s Vineyard, then took a tour out to see Aquinnah Cliffs and the Aquinnah Lighthouse. (see more lighthouses on my lighthouse bucket list).

We’ve hiked to find trolls! We found all 5 in Rhode Island! (See sculptures of Thomas Dambo)

We hiked to more waterfalls (see updates on the Waterfalls bucket list). This one is Sabbaday Falls in New Hampshire.

And this is the labyrinth, designed by Marty Cain, located in Heritage Museums and Gardens in Sandwich, Massachusetts. The labyrinth was initially created by using a dowsing rod to find the garden’s natural energy and, therefore, the best location for the labyrinth (only one of the many random things I’ve learned). We’ve also learned random things about cranberries and carousels, but that’s enough miscellany for one Monday.

We’ve learned or done something NEW almost every day on our travels. I hope you have a terrific day and do or learn something NEW today too!