New Light

What is your favorite way to start the day? For beginners, I prefer to awaken naturally--NO ALARM CLOCKS--followed by strong cup(s) of coffee, low light, and low volume. No questions that require answers, please.

Early in the morning just as the sun is coming up, my husband asks, "What do you plan to do this weekend?" He asks before my third cup of coffee so of course, he gets 'the look'.

"I haven't decided. Why do you ask?"

He is a scheduler, a planner.

It's challenging for me to pack for trips. I don't know what I will feel like wearing seven days out. I would rather decide what to wear the morning of; dinner is based on what I feel like eating at the moment. That's how I roll--inspiration in the moment. How is that a bad thing?

My job requires that I perform the role of a planner so I've learned a thing or two. Itineraries and hotel reservations can be a good thing. Planning is what brings things together and directs the flow. What I'm willing to do for a paycheck.

The creatives in life see things along the way that others going 60 miles per hour totally miss. I know a talented musician who has a limitless ability to compose melodies. When he was a child, the smallest things would evolve into song. He heard tunes in everything--the drip, drip of water from a faucet was all the inspiration needed.

Creative flow is something that planners resist. Planners need to nail down what, where, when, how, and sometimes why. It satisfies their structured brains. Creatives observe, dream, imagine, and respond--thinking outside the box, seeing things others cannot see.

There is a season for everything. A time to plant and a time to sow. Creatives now and then benefit from structured planning; planners now and then benefit from just going with the flow--seeing things in a new light.