This is one of the bookshelves in my home.

It is only one of many that contain my hodge-podge of journals. If you research journaling or keeping a sketchbook you will find examples of finished, decorative, and beautiful work. If you flip through mine, you will find some finished work, but very few that lean toward beautiful, and a lot of unfinished exploration of line, subject matter, thought and, honestly, helter-skelter scribbling. They contain odd bits of paper that also have drawings on them and lots of bulletin pages with sketches of people. I use them as resources for later work. I use them to remind myself of trips. My sketchbooks will make sense to almost no one. They don't always make sense to me. But this process of drawing, writing and scribbling is part of the way I make sense of life. (It is also a handy way to direct energy when I have trouble sitting still.)

Here are some pages from my sketchbooks. An insider's view. (Notice that I cheated and included a few more finished pages.) 

But since I'm trying to be open, here are some of the pages I usually do not show people.

Here are some of the bulletin drawings. In recent years I've started to combine these bulletins into larger pieces. 

Why have I decided to show photos of my messy shelves and scribbled pages? Because creativity in all its forms helps us process life. It's a way to understand our world and our responses to it. I know someone with beautifully organized and colored journal pages. I envy those, but that doesn't seem to be what I do. 

What do you do to express yourself? How do you interpret and interact with the world? I know someone whose creative gift is to find, write, and mail cards to people who need encouragement. Do you dance in the living room with the music turned up? Do you find a new way to organize your paperwork? Do you write? Draw? Take a wonderful meal to someone who is struggling? Are you a creative problem solver?

Creativity is an expression of our humanness, is it our desire to understand what is, and what can be.

We are created to create. 

Tell me about your creativity. I'd love to hear.