Finding a specialty can be gratifying. I like to play cribbage and came up with the idea of designing my own crib boards and pegs. From a round of wood cut from a tree that was salvaged when my birth home was demolished, I designed a track and laboriously drilled the necessary holes. Later boards came from a wooden duck decoy, cut in half and with a two-player track. Next was a bowling pin. The local Western Hockey League team donated a goalie stick that turned into two crib boards— one from the blade and another from the wide portion of the handle. Team members signed the handle board and then used it in a fundraiser. Incorporating dowel, trimmed med nail shafts, a drill press, and a 0.005 mm micro-nib ib pen, crib pegs with jokes and sayings written on them now complete all of my cribbage boards.
Keeping an open mind can frequently lead to some of the oddest, yet still satisfying, creative challenges. While playing tennis recently, I spied a garbage pail filled with the cardboard lids from the sleeves of tennis balls— what a waste to throw them out! This idea led me to arrange the lids onto a 1 / 8 inch panel board in the shape of an oversized tennis racket.
Cribbage board
Oversized tennis racket racket
As you can see, I tend to gravitate to what
I call“ handyman” projects. But the creative habit can be employed in almost any endeavour. The same mindset helped me to develop my recently published children’ s book and a crime drama I penned. Suggestions for book club questions are currently in the planning stage.
Being creative brings me a sense of fulfillment. With each endeavour, I find myself more likely to try something else. Eventually, it becomes a habit. The repetition of my attempts to march to a different tune continues to lead to a parade of interesting outcomes.
Jock Mackenzie, retired from teaching, searches out both communal and solitary pursuits. After a busy season at the Christmas Bureau, in spring he moved on to cleaning out bluebird houses and adding more houses to a nearby bluebird trail.
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