How many times have you turned on the radio and come to a song that just begged for the rest of the story? It’s always been said that there’s a story behind every song and that music inspires.

Well, inspiration comes in many forms. And even the song writer had to have been inspired to write his music. But, what possessed them to write that line or tell that story? While we can’t get their point of view on what works, we welcome yours in this creative bent on lyrics.

We’ll offer you a verse from a song (all credit given where credit is due), and it may or may not be something you recognize. What we’d like to see is your story behind that verse. What do you think happened to have those lines so poignantly written?

Today’s verse comes from The Answer written by Justin Furstenfeld and performed by Blue October:

There’s Zoloft, Welbutrin,
There’s Paxil that’s proven,
No side effects.
But the rest left unnamed
‘cuz they worked like a charm on me.

But when your savings is drying,
you can’t stop from crying
you’ve got to suck it up.
You’re not her buttercup,
you’re not her favorite book.

An inspiration tag is just a phrase or two meant to give you a jumpstart on your creative expression. So read the tag below and interpret it in a creative way. There are no limitations on the medium. In fact we’d love to see a visual or listen to an audio interpretation. Admittedly, some of the tags will lend themselves more to a written format than any other.

So here it is - Tag! You’re It! Have fun!

Looking at the conference attendees was like seeing a rainbow of races.

So, it’s time for dinner and I had no idea what to make. Found a polish sausage and sliced it, dropped it in a pan with some EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) and some red wine vinegar and let that fry on a low heat. Sliced and chopped some onion, grape tomatoes and mushrooms and added it to the pan. Ok… what next, what’s in the pantry that can go with this… hmm… egg noodles… drop those in some water and cook away… now what? Looks okay so far, but… hey, what’s this… a can of cream of mushroom soup… opened that baby and added it to the heating mixture of meats and veggies. Spiced it up with some salt and pepper, drained the noodles and served hot with bread and butter.

Somehow there was nothing left by the time dinner was over so I’m guessing it wasn’t too bad. I believe the term used here was Fabu. This means I watch WAY too much Rachel Ray. ?

But how often does this happen to people? How often do you walk into your kitchen to feed yourself or your family and look at what could be massive amounts of food, a full pantry and fridge and still have no idea what to cook? Too many options? Too few? Want a simple meal or complex? The above took about twenty minutes by the way.

How often have you gone into the kitchen to make dinner and wondered what the heck to do with that you have to cook? How often do you try and experiment with flavors? For some people, cooking is a pleasure better than anything deep fried and covered in chocolate. For some, it’s a stressful situation where everything must be laid out and the recipe at hand. Me, I can go both ways, which is why I hate cooking for the holidays.

But there’s hope for the recipe impaired: All Recipes is a website that allows a user to tell it what is in the cupboard and it will come up with a recipe from its databases that uses those ingredients. Even better, you can get the recipes adjusted for how many servings are needed. Sounds like making that thanksgiving stuffing for 40 just got easier.

How do you handle your pantry pondering? Have you discovered anything incredible or have you suffered a cooking disaster? Come share your recipes, successes and failures with us. And next time I’ll share a flavor nightmare.

The idea behind Break Away is to let your mind go and see if it will break away from your normal thought patterns.

The first word is “Work”

Here’s how it works:

1. Write the Break Away Word in the center of a paper (or if you’re lucky - a whiteboard).
2. Write/Draw the first thing that comes to mind when you look at the Break Away Word.
3. Write/Draw the next thing that comes to mind.
4. Continue the process for 10 minutes or until nothing new comes to mind

Let your pen or pencil find its own way, don’t try to force any associations into a pattern.

When you’re done, take a look at your paper/whiteboard. Where did you end up? Are there any connections that surprise you?

Here’s this week’s Say What?

The goal of all inanimate objects is to resist man and ultimately defeat him.
–Russell Baker

This quote could spawn so many different stories - what’s yours?

Here’s a simple, but not necessarily easy exercise to expand your creativity and attention. For each letter of the alphabet, come up with a movie title. Note the director next to each title if you know who it is.

Can you complete the list without using a film directory? How many can your friends come up with? Which letter was the most difficult to find a title for?
How many of the titles you listed spawned mini-lists? Or made you think about other movies by the same director or actors? How many of the titles brought back memories? Did any make you think of songs or television shows?

An inspiration tag is just a phrase or two meant to give you a jumpstart on your creative expression. So read the tag below and interpret it in a creative way. There are no limitations on the medium. In fact we’d love to see a visual or listen to an audio interpretation. Admittedly, some of the tags will lend themselves more to a written format than any other.

So here it is - Tag! You’re It! Have fun!

He was being drowned in a flood of complaints.

There are lots of things we’re told to invest in - our education, career, retirement, health, family. . .

How many times have you been advised to invest in your creativity? Once? Twice? Never?

Investing in your creativity might just be an investment in all those other things we’re told to invest in.

Dan Godwin’s article got me thinking about this.

Investing in Creativity = Investing in Your Life

How can investing in your personal creativity be considered an investment in education, retirement, health or family, you ask?

• It opens your vision up to more possibilities and options
  • These may be in the form of alternate income sources, a new course of study that you’re enthused about, unusual activities which can bring the family closer, trying a new and interesting workout or way of eating.
• It increases your excitement about your life
  • No longer are you stuck in a rut doing the same old thing. There’s always some new project or activity to keep your motivation going
• It can increase your social circle
  • Investing in your creativity gives you a whole new set of conversation topics - one that may never run dry. In addition, as you exercise your creativity and start new activities, you come into contact with new people who are interested in the same things.

Is There a Creativity Investment Account?

Not in the sense that you might have an IRA or other investment. There’s no balance sheet for investing in your creativity. Only you will ever know if your “account” has a positive or negative balance. A journal or blog can help you to keep track of what deposits you have made to your creativity.

How Do I Invest in My Creativity?

1. Make it a priority
   You make your family, health and retirement priorities. Give your creativity equal time, effort and importance.
2. Feed it
   Every month or every paycheck you feed your health insurance and retirement accounts. Do the same with your creativity. Try something you’ve never done before, read a book in a new genre, go someplace you haven’t been, try looking at things from a different perspective. Give your creativity something to chew on and digest.
3. Give it a break
   Anyone investing for the long term knows that you have to wait awhile after putting in your money before you see results. Daydream, meditate, take some quiet time. Give your creativity some time to draw nourishment from what you’ve fed it
4. Express it
   Maybe you exercise or research your investments. But I’ll bet that in some way, you express your concern and interest in your financial and health future. Do the same with your creativity. It doesn’t matter how - in fact, the more ways you express it, the better dividend you’ll get out of it.
5. Donate it/Give it away
   It feels good to give a few dollars to worthy cause, and often it comes back to you with interest. Share your creativity with others, helping others stoke their creativity will help stoke yours as well. And when you have a dry spell, they’ll remember your help. Dan Goodwin’s written a good article on this. He says:

By being supportive to others, you’re also acknowledging the importance and value of creativity in the world today, and therefore validating your own creative identity and work.

Are you investing wisely in your Creativity?

Here’s this week’s Say What?

The trouble with facts is that there are so many of them.
–Samuel McChord Crothers

Let’s play a little name game Since this is our first name game, we’ll keep it simple.
You can use any resource you have available to you - the internet, books, friends or strangers, your address book - whatever you need.

• Start by writing down your first name.
• On the next line, write down a name that starts with the last letter of the name on the line above. (don’t repeat a name you’ve already used!
• Repeat until you run out of names

Here’s a short example:

• Jennifer
• Rita
• Alison
• Nick
• Kelly
• Yosef
• Fred
• Daniel
• Louis
• Steven