A summer of creativity?

So, here's what I'm thinking.

My summer plans got shot down big time.  Not one, but two jobs won't work out.  I'll be spending a good amount of time recovering from surgery or doing lots of physical therapy. I'm still gonna be doing worship planning at Cornerstone, and I'm hoping to be on staff at Christian Athletic Camp this year...7 years as a camper, and this is the first year I'll be able to do that!

Now, those things will take up a decent amount of time, sure.  But...right now, my 9-5 on Monday thru Friday is wide open.  Experience shows that when I don't have a reason to get out of bed in the morning, I don't.  So, the task becomes finding something to do with my time, finding something that will get my bum out of bed...something that will hold me accountable.

Getting a job will be tougher than it already was, being that I will have recovery from a surgery to work around, not to mention I won't be able to be on my feet all day.  There's finding somewhere to volunteer or something like that, but I'm again not sure where exactly I could help out while staying seated.

Beyond working or volunteering, the first thing that comes to mind is letting this be a great summer of slowing down and spending daily time with God...and a lot of it.  Enough time to truly be silent before God daily, to read and grow in scripture, to pray just for the sake of praying, not just because I want something or someone asked me to pray for them.  I'm really looking forward to the potential here.  After I finally finish the semester and get thru surgery on the 16th, I'll start figuring out how I'm gonna actually go about this, keeping myself accountable to it and maintaining the discipline.

But then today, something else came to mind...and it kind of gets me excited.  You see, I don't know if I'll ever have free time like this ever again.  Well, maybe when I retire (if I retire...).  But, I have a pretty cool opportunity with a lot of free time.

What if I committed to doing something creative every day of the summer?  

So often, I've really wished that I could get better at writing poetry, covering awesome songs that I love, maybe writing and playing/singing my own songs...things like that.  And see, the only way you get better at any of those things is by doing them.  Poetry is stressful and frustrating, and I feel clueless...but it's because I have no practice.  What if I practiced it?

So, something creative...not the same thing every day, but just something.  Maybe it's poetry.  Maybe it's writing out a blog entry on here. Maybe it's recording a cover, or recording my own stuff.  Maybe it's just making another funny and stupid video, or a lip sync.  The list could go on.  But...something creative, everyday.

Now, I say every day, but with the nature of summer (and life), I know that weekends might get busy, or I might have other things to do on some days...so, I could set my goal to be 4 days a week. 4 days a week, I want to make something.  I want to create.

We'll see if this can work.  It's definitely just an idea right now, and who knows, I could end up finding a job that works for me and not end up with all this free time.  But, honestly...I'm kinda hoping this could work out...cuz I think this could be really cool.  :-)


Alright...no more procrastination.  Papers won't write themselves.  (But it would be SO cool if they did.)

Tom