Creative November Challenge Day #4: Puppy love

You didn't really expect me to go more than a few days without mentioning Jackie Blue, did you? This wee bundle of puppy love occupies considerable real estate in my heart and mind - not least because she's so darn cute. But, truthfully, it's more than that. I also love her for her energy, curiosity, and sense of fun.

Not to mention the fact that there are few things nicer than puppy snuggles in the morning.

My affection for Jackie (aka Sausage) and our other four-legged companion, Nemmie the cat (aka Her Highness), has me thinking about relationships between humans and their critters.

In my view, we owe our pets a lot and should value their companionship more than we sometimes do. It's no exaggeration to say our elder cat, Ranee, saved my life more than once, and Jackie's arrival earlier this year helped ease the heaviness in Husband's heart brought on by the loss of his Mum, Dad and big sister a few years ago.

My favourite thing about our critter companions is that they encourage us to spend time hanging out with them - not accomplishing much, just communing. They also seem to understand basic truths that many of us have forgotten - that we can only ever live in the present and that it is our relationships with one another that make life worth living - and are able to forgive better than most. Best of all, they inspire us to be the people they think we are - loyal, caring and brave.

So here's to puppy love. And here's hoping Her Highness and Sausage are with us for many years to come.

Creative November Challenge Day #3: Beauty in unexpected places

They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and that's certainly true of photographers. Many are inspired to capture images of objects we wouldn't normally consider beautiful - like the old painted pipes above.

And we're delighted when we stumble on natural beauty persevering in harsh circumstances - like the impatience I found blooming near a massive construction site on an early November day.

Or the bush tenaciously growing from the third story window frame of a derelict building.

Beauty of a different kind often appears in our darkest hours - when human connection and compassion glows most brightly.

Tonight, I am remembering my gentle father-in-law, in the late stages of Alzheimer's disease, sitting by my mother-in-law's bedside, clasping her hand as she lay dying of cancer. Though severely incapacitated by his disease and barely able to speak, the beauty of his love and caring was transcendent.

That humans are capable of appreciating and creating such beauty in unexpected places is perhaps some reason for optimism.

Creative November Challenge Day #2: The magic of light

Light is magical. It can make even the most commonplace beautiful and interesting.  It's why photographers get up early, when the light is at its most warm and generous - though the time just before sunset is good too.

Figuratively speaking, shining a light on people and situations can have a similar effect - though too often it exposes things we'd rather not see - greed, selfishness, cruelty. It's why we have auditors-general, and freedom of information acts, and sunshine lists - because subjecting decisions and decision-makers to the harsh light of day lets us see them for what and who they truly are.

I have to admit there are times when I prefer to stay in that quiet, comforting space between darkness and daylight, where the light is most magical and forgiving.

Creative November Challenge Day #1: The Goal

When I first started jotting down ideas for Creative November posts and photographs, I realized I wasn't entirely sure what I meant by "creative".

According to one definition I found, "creative writing" is writing that displays imagination or invention, in contrast to academic or journalistic writing. However, it strikes me the distinction between them isn't so easily drawn in the real world. Good academic and journalistic writing also displays imagination and invention - in the choices writers make to establish the style, focus and tone of the piece, if nothing else. The best of it ignites imaginations and touches hearts in the same way good fiction does.

It seems to me writing creatively has a lot to do with a writer's intention. Is she trying to do something more than recite facts or explain technical details? Does she aspire to write beautiful prose, connect with her senses, or paint pictures in the reader's mind? Does she hope her work will have an emotional, spiritual or psychological impact?

Writing creatively also involves making space for reflection - for figuring out the how and why, as well as the what, of a piece.  Like many people, I create stuff because it helps me connect more deeply with other people, the world around me, and my sense of who I am at some fundamental level.

The distinction between creative and journalistic photography may be much the same, but it strikes me as more difficult to draw at times.

With today's technology, good images are easier than ever to produce. Pretty pictures can be made with basic gear and the bare minimum of imagination and invention - particularly, if the photographer is content to rely on technology and make virtually the same images over and over again.

By contrast, a photographer who approaches her work with intention, taking time to consider the story she's telling, the impact she aspires to make, the experience she and others have in the course of making an image - in addition to the aesthetic qualities of the final work photograph - is engaged in a process that seems more genuinely creative.

Over the next month, I hope to exercise creative muscles in both mediums, though I expect the results will very often tend towards the journalistic - this post being a case in point. Whatever the outcome, my goal is to take the time to be thoughtful about the words I write and the images I make, to reconnect with my senses, to learn new things, and to produce stuff that matters to me, if no one else.

Onward.

Celebrating All Hallow's Eve

Like many people, I'll be rushing home early from work tonight to prepare for the trick-or-treaters who will be ringing our bell from 5:00 on.

Though I haven't any children of my own, I always enjoy Hallowe'en. When my sisters and I were small, the day was magical. Even now, if I close my eyes and think back, I can hear the sound of children screeching with fear and delight as they run from house to house, smell the scent of dry leaves crunching underfoot, and taste the rich hot chocolate offered by an elderly neighbour. The night always felt so safe and so dangerous at the same time. Safe because we were well-loved children living in a close-knit caring community. Dangerous because oft-repeated stories of razor blades in apples and knife-wielding boogie men filled us with fear.

Much as I enjoy Hallowe'en, I've often wished it was more like Mexico's Day of the Dead, when families take time from their normal routines to remember and celebrate loved ones who've passed away. It strikes me the celebration must make death and dying feel more normal and less final somehow - one more transition in the cycle of life with bonds of love remaining to keep the departed close in spirit.

After we've said goodnight to the last of the trick-or-treaters this evening, I plan to pour a glass of wine, light a candle then spend some quiet time remembering family and friends who've gone before me, wishing them well on their journeys and praying we meet again one day - in my dreams, if no place else.

Happy All Hallow's Eve!

Don't forget to check back here tomorrow for the first installment of my Creative November Challenge.