Do you need a low stress way to include seven minutes of creative contemplation into your week? Consider this your helpful nudge towards a slightly more creative life. If it helps, come back every week for a quick hit of creative contemplation. Each week I’ll share a new nudge. It will include a Thing (T), a Place (P), and a Sense(S) for your focus, a TPS creative nudge.
Welcome back from last week’s automotive travelogue! What was the “best” time to catch lots of traffic sounds where you live? Whether you created an orchestral masterpiece from a car alarm, composed rhythmic poetry inspired by car creaks, visualized rush hour commutes in watercolors, or choreographed a dance routine set to the tappity-tap-tap of traffic, I hope you found richness in everyday sounds we make just trying to get from one place to the next. Cars, with their mechanical musical notes, reminded us that we can find stories beneath the hood of every vehicle on the road, especially while navigating on a creative path.
This week, we’re poking around into another familiar yet often overlooked part of our daily lives: pockets. Pockets are more than just functional spaces whose invention made our lives better; they are small, intimate compartments where we store our essentials, our secrets, and sometimes even our forgotten treasures.
I find lots more life lessons than treasures, but maybe I’m just picking the wrong pockets. I usually forget at least one Kleenex, important receipt, or stick of gum in my jacket or pants pocket on laundry day…doubly bad because washing and folding is my job in the household!
Pockets in clothes, bags, or even the metaphorical pockets of our lives offer a multi-sensory experience that can spark our creativity. Let’s explore the potential of pockets and see how they can inspire us in unexpected ways.
Tell by Touch: Feel the textures, the seams, and the depths of pockets. Place different objects in your pockets and reflect on how they feel. Which pocket is your phone pocket? Write a short story or poem inspired by the tactile experience of reaching into a pocket of a rarely used coat.
Teensy Treasures: Empty your pockets and examine the contents. Arrange these items artistically on a flat surface and take a photograph. Consider the significance of each item—why do you carry it, what does it represent, and what stories does it tell? Create a visual diary or collage that captures a theme of your pocket treasures.
Hidden Messages: Write a series of small notes or sketches and hide them in the pockets of different clothing items or bags. These hidden messages can be positive affirmations, questions to ponder, or mini pieces of art. Over the week, randomly discover these notes and reflect on how finding them influences your day.
Ta-da: If you were a magician, what would you hide in your pockets? Imagine a performance piece where the act of reaching into pockets and retrieving items becomes a central theme. Each item pulled out can represent a different emotion or story, creating a dynamic and surprising expression.
Did you know that pockets have a long history, evolving from pouches tied around the waist to the sewn-in compartments we have today? Their evolution mirrors our own journey of adaptation and innovation. Finding ways to add several minutes of creative activity takes some creative adaptation.
Embrace the small, intimate spaces and let them inspire your imaginative journey. Together, let’s continue to explore the world around us with curious minds and open hearts. Here’s to finding beauty and inspiration in the most unexpected places, and to the endless pockets of creative discovery that lie ahead.
