The choice to be creative

This post may be somewhat unusual. And over a week in production because my camera phone decided this week to be a PITA!

I'm going to start with this...

Oooh, pretty isn't it?

That's okay if you don't agree. I abhorred it too when we first moved into our new home ten years ago. This lovely piece of outdated, seventies style Formica wall décor covers the walls in my bathroom in our basement. The basement is one area of the house my husband and I haven't tackled yet. Soon, soon.

I avoided the downstairs bathroom in the basement at all costs. Broke out in a cold sweat thinking about it and cringed when I was forced to use the facilities. The visual appeal similar to hearing fingernails running down a chalkboard. That bad! But since I started writing I've developed a love-hate relationship with this "decorative" atrocity. My girl cave in the basement is directly across the hall from the bathroom. Now the majority of my day, eight to nine hours, is spent in my girl cave writing my novels, blog posts or thinking of new story lines. And well since the bathroom is a stone's throw away...you see where I'm going with this.

Lately, I've been trying to come up with innovative and creative ideas to unblock the flow of words that occurs from time to time. I realized as I took a minute or two to take care of nature's call that I had a bit of a writer's gold mine right in my own basement.

As I had time to ponder while I rested a moment, the stress of being blocked and stuck in my beta brain wave slowly ebbed as I let my mind wander through the lines and shapes on the wall coverings. As I relaxed and my alpha brain waves took over, I began to view the lines and shapes as something more than a distasteful piece of wall covering. I saw images as real or as imaginary as I wanted because beauty is in the eye of the beholder. My creativity knew no boundaries as I opened my mind to the flowing lines. I saw human images that ranged from random things such as feet, toes, women's hair and nails and a few other images I won't mention here, to animals such as deer and rabbits to houses, cars, trains and many, many more. The more I looked the more my mind wandered, the more I relaxed, the more my alpha brain waves surged and the more creative I became because soon the images created tiny, quick stories. And before I knew it I was back at the computer ready to pick up the axe and break through the block.  

Now, when it's time to remodel the basement bathroom instead of torching the wall coverings as first planned, I'm going to save sections of it and place them in my office.

I'd love to know what you see!