It’s spring time-Use your noggin!

Engaging your brain in new tasks is a key to boosting brain performance, or at least that is what the website of “Brain World Magazine” says. I will summarize the webpage here to get to my point: Most fabulous inventions happened when someone asked themselves- Is it possible and how can I do it? When you ask the hard questions, you expand your brain. This makes sense for it forces you to think and problem solve. As healthy humans, we WANT to discover-to search for new. This process keeps our brains active and functioning. “True creativity comes from an integrated brain that establishes new, robust connections between the parts of your brain dealing with cognition, emotion, vital functions, and crosstalk between the two hemispheres of your brain.”  ( http://brainworldmagazine.com/ask-brain-spring-creativity-within/)  My thoughts today are about creativity.

Think about a snake, a crab, a caterpillar. They all shed one skin and start anew. If we don’t keep trying to rejuvenate ourselves, we too can get stuck in our old skin. It’s SPRING, the season of renew-Go For It! The transformations we create and abide by change with the times and what is going on within ourselves. It is this pursuit of transformations, this metamorphosis, that forms the very base of the process of LETTING GO!  I believe this shedding is the core of what I will call creative imagination. My imagination most often happens when I just “DO”, when I don’t worry too much about what I may be creating.  I might not know “the hard question” and that’s ok. My brain is stretched by the creative process regardless of a conscious question. The process relaxes me and lets the questions flow. Right now I am working on an array of new projects. That alone is maxing out part of my mind. Creativity churns and keeps my imagination going full steam. (Or would it be imagination churns and keeps the creativity going?) It’s hard to dial my brain down and do things like sleep sometimes.  One project is my third children’s book which is indeed about imagination. I am struggling with a cover design. Resisting the usual exploding of things from a cloud, or a head, is difficult. Colors are about the only thing I have come up with. I might resort to the ‘norm.” After all, it is tried and true- but, it doesn’t feel very creative or imaginative.

So far I have a line drawing of a book open and exploding colors.
I like the “look,” but it does it say – “Hey this story is about the main character, our friend Fuddles, who has lost his imagination and then it’s found! Ideas?

Possible book 3 cover
Possible book 3 cover

32 pages of Awesomeness!

Fuddles the Feather
Fuddles the Feather

• It was Tuesday morning.
• I was a bit nervous!
• I put on my best fluffy pink boa, and my magic feather hat
(which is technically called a Fascinator Headband.)
• I picked up my basket, took a deep breath, and jumped in with both feet.
• My audience was unfiltered truth tellers – Toddlers!
• Kids tell it as it is, they would either be interested and engaged or not.
• My stage was story-time at the local library.

To my total delight, the kids were totally engaged! On each page, they were chanting the word Awesome with me. They were searching for Fuddles, and enjoying themselves! I was (and still am) THRILLED.

Birds fly – Awesome! – Sample Page

For those of you unfamiliar with my book – called Awesome, here is a bit of info: It is for the younger set – three to about six, maybe seven-year-olds. The words of the book are simple, however, the concept is not. It is about Awesomeness, and what makes something/somebody awesome. The illustrations are a large piece of the book and in part carry the younger children along. I see lots of potential for interactions and ‘projects’ that can weave their way around the themes of kindness/awesomeness. I am working on many ideas, so, stay tuned!

I am looking for places to read to more kids-schools, libraries, playgroups, even parties! Have other ideas of places? If you are interested, or know anyone else that may be, please contact me at botanicalbb3@gmail.com.

If you are interested in purchasing a copy, please contact me at botanicalbb3@gmail.com.   Please put Book Purchase in the subject line.(The price is $20 + shipping. It is a 7″x 7″ full-color paperback.)