"I am thankful for all the food my family gets to eat this Thanksgiving. The yellow circles are the happy plates. The blue lines make the turkey look like it is floating in air, but they are the good smells. The black rectangles are all the kitchens that the turkey will be in."

This week, Brush Fire’s topic for paintings is What are you thankful for? We’ve had a wonderful array of responses, from holiday dinners, to love of family and friends. One young painter said she is particularly happy for some time off to do her own thing.

We all need that down time in order to nurture our creativity, but isn’t down time hard to come by with all the obligations of the holiday season? Edward Unger provides some great tips to prevent any type of creative hindrance so you can keep moving forward:

1) Comparison – If we’re too busy looking at what the next person has, we can forget to be thankful for what we have. There’s always going to be someone who has more and someone who has less than us. But what makes your life special and unique to you and only you? Be thankful for those things…

2) Attitude of Entitlement – Lots of times we can believe that we deserve this or that and as Americans it easy for us to slip into being ungrateful for what we have. The reality is…there are billions of people in the world that don’t have clean running water, safe grocery stores or a government that doesn’t steal from them. If you’ve ever done some traveling to 3rd world countries you’d be truly grateful to be an American. Lets allow this season to permeate every area of our lives…and truly give thanks for the bare necessities that we all can take for granted.

3) Think about What You’re Thinking About – Anyone who’s worried all day long knows how to meditate. So what have you been meditating on lately? Are you keeping your mind on positive things as soon as you get out of bed…and throughout the day? Or are you sabotaging yourself with your own negative thoughts? Think about what you’re thinking about…and maybe just for this week…turn your negative thought around to thanksgiving and see how much better you feel.

4) Relationships – In my opinion, good relationships are the true meaning of life. Relationships make or break the holiday season. Focus on bringing new life and love into your relationships this Thanksgiving. Surprise that special someone with flowers or jewelry…bring your mom a sweet potato pie. We can’t go through life with catcher’s mitts on both hands. You’ve gotta be able to throw something back once in a while.

5) Watch Your Mouth: – The Hebrew word for Thanksgiving is Yadah…as in, yada, yada, yada. So what do you hear yourself speaking about? Do you gripe and complain to anyone who will listen or are you talking to people about what you are thankful for? Maybe over turkey dinner this year you can go around the table and ask everyone to list 5 things they are thankful for.

Find the original post at http://www.computerproducer.com/unblocking-creativity-during-thanksgiving/

And have a restful, creative holiday!

"People locked up the animals..."

J. is a soft-spoken 3rd grader at Malcolm X Academy with liquid brown eyes, round cheeks and a beautiful smile. He’s a serious, thoughtful boy, who gives a lot of attention to his paintings, so I looked forward to seeing what his painting would look like on the day’s topic: if you could be any type of animal, what would you be? He grew restless and agitated during the brainstorming portion of our last class, which surprised me, but he didn’t let his bad mood stop him.

Instead of picking one animal to represent himself, he painted square cages across most of his painting, with a dog and a lion standing outside. He told me that people had locked most of the animals in cages. When I asked him about the dog and the lion, J. said they weren’t caged yet, but they were about to fight each other because the people who caged the animals made them. He said it wasn’t possible for them to disobey; they had to fight even though they didn’t want to. Across the page, J wrote: Jail. I’m ready.

It seems clear to me that this is what his future looks like to him. I’m just heartbroken. We have to do better for sweet, beautiful children like J. What can we do to give them hope for the future?