Open Heart, Open Home, Chapters 17 and 18

Chapter 17 is titled Creativity and Simplicity

Chapter 18 is titled At Ease

All sonnets must have 14 lines to be sonnets, but withint that restriction, creative genius can flourish (and so can a lot of drivel).  A recipe for crepes has certain restrictions- the crepe, and a filling, but within those restrictions one can create poetry in the kitchen, whether it's an artichoke and chicken crepe or a dessert crepe, or something pulled together at the last minute out of odds and ends from the fridge. Creativity functions best within limits- without limits it's not so much creativity as it is extravagance and something of a spectacle.  We all have different limits- finances, health, house size, lack of skills (cooking, decorating, social graces).  No matter what the limitations, we develop our creativity by using it.

I'm going to go off the reservation a bit with these two chapters, and recommend some other resources for you. I think the best book on creativity you could read is Edith Schaeffer's The Hidden Art of Homemaking.  She writes:

“I would define ‘hidden art’ as the art found in the ordinary areas of everyday life. Each person has, I believe, some talent which is unfulfilled in some hidden area of his being – a talent which would be expressed and developed.”

She also points out that Christians, as children who acknowledge the Creator and their relationship to Him, ought to be creative.

Some of our creative challenges have included feeding large crowds on a small budget (stew is my friend), fitting large crowds into small spaces, and decorating another house every three to five years.

Feel free to share some of your creative challenges and how you overcome them in the linky below.

Or post about chapter 18, At Ease.  This chapter is about manners and making people feel comfortable, at home.  I have two resources to recommend for complementing and implementing this chapter.  One is

Friendships for Grown-ups.  I particularly appreciated especially appreciated the information on how to find a safe friend, and the very straightforward suggestions on conversational prompts and discussion starters. This is so helpful for people like me, paralyzed by small talk.

The second is actually two resources i just discovered yesterday while browsing through a toy and bookstore in Amish country:
How to Behave and Why 
Manners Can Be Fun

These are written for younger children, but they were written fifty years ago, so the dialogue is lengthy, the text is not dumbed down, and I think we could all profit from reading them.

What are your tips (or struggles) for making people feel at ease?

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