If someone claims not to be creative, don’t buy it. She or he is lying, either to you or to themselves. Creative thought is a part of what has helped us move from caves to subdivisions. Of course, some creative thought has been destructive, but let’s talk about the positive uses of creativity.

Early on in our evolution, humans worked the land and lived with only primitive tools. Tree branches, rocks, and animal hides were the only kiosks you would find at prehistoric malls. One of our clever creative ancestors, most likely by accident, discovered that round boulders rolled. “Viola!” said our ancestor. “That’s a good idea!” That person’s mind began to come up with hundreds of uses for round boulders. Skip forward a few years and Henry Ford is churning out the Model T.

Is that the same creative thought that helps a person write a book or a poem? You betcha! We tend to draw lines. A person is an auto mechanic or a writer. They can’t be both. If you’ve looked under the hood of your car recently you would have a sense of the creative thought required to work on it.

Many people never think of themselves as creative because they draw those lines. That’s where we humans set some serious limitations for others and ourselves. Richard Bach wrote one of my single favorite lines of text in his book ‘Illusions, The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah’. ‘Argue for your limitations, and sure enough, they’re yours.’

‘I don’t know if I can’ translates into ‘I’m not even going to try’. Not trying is a good way to deal with never having to face setbacks. I’m not fond of setbacks and I’m not fond of having to admit to a less than successful outcome, but I’ll be damned if I’ll surrender. I am creative enough to find other ways up that hill.

What do you want to do? Do you think it’s impossiblethat the deck is stacked against you and you don’t have a chance? Looking back on my own life, I’d have to say, I doubt it. Your ancestors not only passed along the wheel, they passed along those creative genes.

You find courage when you’re brave. You find wisdom when you take a minute to look at what you’ve learned, and you find life, when you live it. Creativity is as simple as closing your eyes to picture a round boulder, and giving it a gentle nudge.

Jean Sheldon, a native Chicagoan, spent much of her life as a graphic artist. She self-published a book of poems called ‘Jelly Side Down’, a book on basic car repair called ‘Glove Box Guide to Keeping it on the Road’, and co-authored, with her cat, Xena, ‘The Way of the Cat: Teaching Humans to Be’. At fifty-three, she began writing mysteries and in May of 2007 published the first book of her Chicago Police Detective Kerry Grant series. Website: http://www.jeansheldon.com