Celebrate with Creativity

I love this video about how to stay creative. Thought I'd share it with you today, since it's my birthday and on birthdays I tend to get philosophical and think about life . . . and all the things I've been so lucky to do and all the people I've been so lucky to meet. 

I feel particularly lucky to do creative work that I love, both in my teaching at the university and in all the translation and writing work I do as well. I sometimes feel overwhelmed by all my work commitments, but I never wish I were doing something else. 

I love to create a lesson to help my students reach a new level of proficiency in writing in a foreign language and to help them see the world from a different cultural perspective. They don't know it, but they are such a pleasure to get to know and work with. How wonderful to have a chance to meet a new group of interesting people each academic year! 

I love the mental gymnastics required to render an Italian text into a meaningful piece of writing in English. The Italian and English languages are so similar and, at the same time, so dissimilar that the job never ceases to be challenging.

I love sharing the beautiful corner of Italy that I live in with people around the world in the articles I write on-line. There is so much to see here and tourism is so underdeveloped. The lack of heavy tourism can make it difficult at times for the visitor (public transport could be better, more signs could be in English, etc.) but that very lack offers the tourist a more authentic experience of the region. 

And that's just work . . . I have so much else to be thankful for in my family life, with my friends, my health! None of it perfect, but all of it really good!

Enjoy the video and add stay creative!

29 WAYS TO STAY CREATIVE from TO-FU on Vimeo.

p.s. I hope my students noticed number 3!