A bit late to the Word of the Year party but I have finally arrived upon my word: it is MEANDER. I feel such a rebel choosing a word which turns it’s back on all those goal-centred words of the year, you know the words full of action, drama and ambition? Actually I’m tired after a year of hunting down goals, striving, working against my natural inclinations. It’s time to relax into creativity.

I’m using the National Parks Service definition of a meandering water course as my creativity analogy:

A meandering stream has a single channel that winds snakelike through its valley, so that the distance ‘as the stream flows’ is greater than ‘as the crow flies.’ As water flows around these curves, the outer edge of water is moving faster than the inner. This creates an erosional surface on the outer edge (a cut bank) and a depostional surface on the inner edge (a point bar).

I like this! The stream flows to the same destination as the crow flys to but takes longer to get there. Water flows through the curves of the meander at different speeds. The slow moving water on the inner curves allows ideas, projects, inspirations to be deposited, to bump against each other, to be buried or slowly moved on in a different formation, united or pulled apart. While the faster flowing water on the outer curve is pushing at the banks, taking new ground, absorbing fresh ideas, testing skills, experimenting, creating and undoing.

My creative meandering has already begun. Such a relief to allow myself to dive into squirrel projects, to pick-up and, just as quickly, put down UFOs & WIPs, most especially to drop goal-setting around my patchwork-quilting, to concentrate instead on the process. I’m sure there will be times through the year where deadlines (self-imposed or otherwise) will drive me to finish projects and that’s OK – a bit like digging a waterway between a couple of those meanders to establish a direct course – but I’m determined to find satisfaction in being my indecisive, procrastinating, tentative creative self, travelling the meanders, enjoying the changing views.

Here’s to creative meandering 🙂 I hope my moments of quiet depositing of wonderings mingled with times of fast-flowing cutting into new creative ground will provide some inspiration and food for thought for those who choose to read my blog 🙂 Thank you in advance for any comments you leave through the year.

Allison