covid and creativity

It's been a while since I posted anything so I wanted to share my thoughts, mostly about creativity in the time of covid-19. My family is fine so far, though there was a little scare a couple of months ago which really made me rethink my priorities. During my MA, I researched creativity, it's origins and underlying purposes. One of the things that stood out for me in this study is that creativity is all around us and people utilise it in a myriad of ways. I am engrossed in family life now, as a mother of three, homeschooling. I am gardening, cooking, playing the fiddle and I find that creativity seeps into all these activities. All have to do with time and concentration. I am observing the amount of attention needed to give to others and to my own practice. What can be incorporated and what needs to be set aside for the moment? What can I do with others and what needs more individual attention? I find I have islands of creativity, twenty minutes to draw or paint or cook, and so I live on that island for a moment or until the tide comes in. Though usually, it arrives in great waves... These are more than just moments of quiet concentration, but constitute a state of active listening and full involvement. I believe that being an artist is about the ways one applies creativity to the changing elements that surround you, it means going beyond the restraints of time and place to see the possibilities for innovation and change. So I'm searching for islands every day, not just in the moments of solitary work, but in the struggle to stay present and creative in collaborative family life. Maybe one day we'll touch land, but for now, I'm happily out at sea.