Grateful 8 Apr: Being creative

I didn’t sleep particularly well last night. Not because anything was troubling me, but because my mind was filled with thoughts about training - how I could do this better, or approach that differently. Those thoughts kept me awake for a while before I finally slept. I worked on my ideas this morning and the day flew by quickly. So let me talk about being creative, as it appeared in several aspects of my day.

• Training. After breakfast, I went straight to my laptop. My mind was still brimming with ideas for my training session this Friday. How to use activities to teach certain concepts? What questions should I include? How should I sequence the questions? How much time to allocate to each segment? How should I deliver should there be a particular class profile? These were the thoughts that kept me awake, and I wanted to work on them before they slipped away. The morning passed quickly, totally immersed mentally, and before I knew it, it was time for lunch. So yes, when I start to get creative with my instructional designs and time management, I know I am ready. I just need to remind myself not to overdo it - there is still another module to prepare. For now, I am grateful for the progress made.

• Dessert. I’m not usually one for desserts these days. I do have a sweet tooth, and they used to be almost a given. But lately, with calorie counting on my mind, desserts have been one of the first things to go. Today, however, I decided to be a little more relaxed and go with how I felt. During my afternoon walk, I treated myself to a slice of pandan kaya cake (above pic), alongside a second kopi o kosong. I justified it - less rice at lunch, a good walk after lunch - it felt ok. The cake, unfortunately, had been sitting out too long. It was hard and stale. Thankfully, the kopi o kosong softened it and it wasn’t too bad. Most importantly, I appreciated this little indulgence. Perhaps this too is a form of creativity - finding balance, adjusting, and compensating with a lighter dinner, which I did.

• Time & Energy. I’ve been quite caught up with work and various activities lately, and as a result, I haven’t paid much attention to some of life’s simple routines and hobbies. Today, however, after my training preparation and that small indulgence, I found the energies to return to them and once I started, the momentum caught on. By dinner time, I had completed the marcotting process of a Ficus plant I started almost a month ago (below pic), loosened the soil of several pots, washed the balcony, did the laundry, mend my shoes, even as I cooked my dinner. It turned out to be a deeply fulfilling day - catching up on all the little things that had quietly accumulated over time.

So this was my day - being creative in designing instructions, making thoughtful choices about and how what I eat, using my time in response to the rhythms of the day and bringing attention back to little things that matter. It reminded me that being creative is not just about producing something new. It is about being intentional - with my thoughts, my choices, and my energy. In that sense, even an ordinary day can become a meaningful one.