A New Day Dawns...

Blue Bench

Blessed, blessed, blessed is how I see my life. With all the talk and doom and gloom surrounding the retirement age and the fact that we'll all have to work until we are at least 80 years of age, I raise the question, Why would you ever want to stop working? Can we all work smarter not harder?

For most we are all retiring from the minute we start work, when the honeymoon period finishes and the fascination for discovery is overtaken by the drudgery of day-to-day routine, we are all looking at the hour-glass. It is said that around 30% of the working population are happy in their current jobs, so what are the other 70% dreaming of doing with their lives as they gaze out of windows, or become lost in thought during meetings as HOD's drone on about fluff and stuff.

If you have good health and all your faculties, then why would you want to sit in an armchair waiting for the end, or faff around dwindling the precious hours that fate has banked for you. There are so many opportunities to combine and create new paths that may lead you to realise your dreams if not your aspirations. If your dreams involve Ferraris, Villas, Jimmy Choo or expensive bling, then perhaps it's not your dreams that need review, but your aspirations.

Surely dreams should be about lifestyle, quality of life, surroundings, achievements, creation, motivation... not about 'stuff'... something that will help you leave a positive footprint on the map of society, add value to your purpose on earth, release the pent up creativity that has for so long been locked away while you've toiled to earn a crust, maybe in a job that you've tolerated or a place you've had to live in, because the need has had to overcome the desire in order to meet the bills.

I am living proof that it can be done, reversing the trend, taking the leap of faith, switching the balance between desire and needs. There will come a time when the hamster will have to take the leap of faith and jump out of the clutches of the spinning wheel that threatens to chew him up and spew him out.

During my discussions and interviews with other creatives, I notice a common thread, the need to have the courage, not only to recognise the calling when it comes, but bow to her wisdom and take up the challenge and release the creative within.

For me I knew I had to write; regardless of quality, good or bad, like OCD I am compelled to write, ignore it at my peril. I have always written, considered myself a writer, been driven to write. Sometimes captured in fragments, sometimes in prose, sometimes in poetry and if I'm lucky these all come together in the visual tapestry of a script; those are the good days, filled with light and gossamer. All creatives appreciate that from time-to-time they need outlets, catalysts, space to think, places to dream and opportunities to breathe from the soul. When the brain is in danger of crushing the spirit, you need to talk with the gaoler to set it free. We are our own gaolers.

So it is with pleasure I bring to you two new ventures that can help you release the prisoner within.

Firstly, Laura Cousins and Brian Jenner have teamed up to bring you Bournemouth Creative Breaks check it out here at the Arlington Hotel, Bournemouth. A variety of creative programmes through music or the written word.

The second is around writing breaks and our own Bournemouth Queen of the Pen herself, Tricia Walker, who penned the novel Benedict's Brother, now undergoing transformation and serious film development. Tricia is writer in residence at the Queen's Hotel in Bournemouth and is running a series of writing workshops throughout the year.

This is just a nano print of activity that bubbles away in a Southern corner of this rich island I am blessed to call home.

Listen to your creative Siren, set it free, only you are the Gaoler...