Craving Creation • by Christine Gross-Loh

As a busy parent of four young children, I’ve found myself craving the satisfaction of creating things with my hands. Childrearing is rewarding work, but you don’t often see immediate tangible results, and I have a strong need to see something tangible and beautiful I’ve made every day. At times in my life this need has been expressed through cooking, through writing, and more recently through sewing, knitting, sketching, photographing, and papercrafting.

Satisfying my Soul
The urge to create comes from somewhere deep within, and it is simply unstoppable. There are times when I have ignored it, or times when the urge hasn’t been as strong, but when it is there, it’s always a sign that I ought to slow down, still myself, and listen to the voice inside me — so in that sense it is a wonderful way for me to get to know myself, something I wasn’t always good at doing when I was younger. As I get older, though, I feel as though I’m getting more in touch with what I really want to do and create and am finding the courage to do so.

It’s breathtaking to work with color and texture and pattern — it satisfies my soul in an indescribable way. When I knit, especially for a loved one, there is hope and love knitted into every stitch; when I work with paper or fabric and shape it into something beautiful, my heart soars. Something that some people might find tedious becomes a form of meditation for me and brings me to a state of balance. Our years living in Asia have added another element to my artistic ventures — blending Japanese aesthetics and sensibilities with Korean and Western influences in my life has helped me to find a creative path that mirrors my own multi-cultural life journey.

Expanding my World
I’m grateful to art for the beauty and fulfillment it brings to my life, and for the connections it opens up between myself and other people who understand the strong pull of creativity. I love how it has helped me expand my world. I love the idea, too, of modeling to my children — just as my mother modeled to me when I was a young child — that they, too, can create beauty — entire worlds in fact — with little more than the power of their own imaginations.

Christine is a mom of four young children, a crafter, and a writer. A former academic with a Ph.D. in East Asian history, she now turns her creative pursuits towards raising her kids, writing, doing sorts of crafts, and photographing. Her craft book and kit about Origami Suncatchers will be sold in Barnes and Noble stores at the beginning of March. You can read more about her at her blog, origamimommy.org.

Comments

[Chris]

Creating is something inherent in each of us. I think it's part of divinity that each of us is born with, we just have to find the avenues that work for us.