Creating vs Not Creating: Is it Possible?

I'm borrowing the idea from Diane Evans' entertaining blog relating her adventure in Celebrity Land to tell about my adventure. I hiked my first two high peaks in the Adirondacks this week.

I hiked the Inca Trail in Peru in 2006 and managed to haul myself over Dead Woman's Pass at 14,200 feet, but it's not the same as hiking in the Adirondacks. Unlike the terraced and well trodden Inca Trail, we have rocks, roots, streams, and mud in the trails here not to mention black flies and mosquitos.

"High Peak" here means over 4000 feet high. There are lots of people here who hike in the mountains and lots of people who have hiked the highest 46 mountains which earns them the designation of being a "46er". Some hardy souls are also "Winter 46ers" which means hiking these mountains on snowshoes during the Adirondack winters...if you can imagine that...but I digress.

Of course anyone who hikes here and knows the area will tell you that my first two high peaks are the easiest of the 46 high peaks to do. But that's okay. After a two year break from hiking and having started again April 1, I'm happy to have been on the summits of Cascade and Porter Mountains Thursday. I'm not one to ask someone to take my picture, but this was a monentous occaision, so my very patient "46er" hubby, my own personal hiking guide, took the picture. You can see some of the other high peaks in the distance. They're waiting for me on another day.

The mountains are wonderful with the birds singing, the brooks babbling, the wind rustling the leaves and the sunlight drifting through the trees. I've been carrying my camera and taking pictures. The images are making their way into my work.

Where does the creative process go when we're out of the studio or out of the creative zone? All those sights, sounds, tactile experiences and emotions become part of our souls and emerge in our work. So...do we ever really stop creating even when we're living our "other lives"?