Creative mommies

Unless you have 45 minutes to spare, never bring up the topic of mothers and creativity to me, because it's one I can't shut up about it. In fact, I blog about it very little because it's such a huge passion of mine that I can't seem to be concise and blog-ish on this topic. To sum up: I believe that every woman needs a passion (or many!) and to find ways to pursue and express this passion creatively. And mothers famously neglect themselves, their creativity and passions, in order to give their whole selves to their children.

One of my hobbies is collecting creative mommy stories. Is this odd? About on par with Spengler collecting "spores, molds, and fungus"? (Do people still know Ghostbusters?) There are so many mothers who find ways to keep up with their passions even while being fulltime, stay-at-home mothers, even while children are young. Ack, there are so many "buts" and "hows" and "wows" and footnotes to everything I'm saying, that's it's driving me crazy to try and be concise!

Anyhow, just got back from seeing Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, a production put on by the South Jordan Regional Theatre in my neighborhood. This theater was founded and is directed by one of my old theater buddies, Toni Butler, a mother of five (youngest age 1) whose passion is theater, and finds a way to keep it up. While my passion usually keeps me in my room, typing away by myself, hers involves hundreds of people--musicians, costumers, dancers, singers, actors, many of them stay-at-home mommies like herself, who need that outlet. She's giving so many people a chance to pursue their passions too. I love that. I love the synergy of that, and I find it inspiring and exciting. But here's the kicker--she also casts hordes (I mean HORDES) of children (and husbands!) so these moms and dads can go to rehearsals and performances with their whole families.

If you're in the area, there are a few more performances. Go check it out and be inspired by what one mom can do, with zero budget, no theater to call a home, but a lot of energy and love. "Any dream will do."

And if you have a creative mommy story for my collection, please share!