Welcome to Phrase Art Phriday, #19. This series is a way for me to explore photography and experiment with graphic design. Combine those with an inspirational phrase and my thoughts and writing around it all and you have Phrase Art Phriday.

This week I have squeezed every drop of enjoyment from my beautiful peonies, in my home and in my blog posts. In my two previous posts I showed you four of my five arrangements.
Here is the fifth.

Now onto the featured photo with a phrase that I absolutely LOVE.

The funny thing about this quote is that while looking for the original author I discovered that it is somewhat unknown. Almost all of the references to it that I could find online (and there are MANY) give Anais Nin the credit. But no one has ever been able to document it for a fact. I also came across an article that gives credit to Elizabeth Appell a.k.a. Lassie Benton, along with some pretty convincing documentation to back it up. For this reason I have not included an author’s name with the quote on my photo. This bit of information also served as the jumping off point for my deeper thoughts on the quote itself.

As a creative person, I have had to deal with the protective feelings that creative types feel for their creations. Anyone who is creative knows how it feels to have their work copied or “stolen”, and how the fear of that happening can cause one to hold tightly to their work and be afraid to share it with the world. I absolutely confess to having had those feelings at various times in my life. I have also fully understood what this quote is expressing and have known the freedom afforded to those who embrace its truth. I have discovered that as I share my creativity I am filled again with ideas and designs that I can’t wait to become immersed in. There is no end! Shared creativity never runs out and can never be used up. The ultimate creator, God, has an endless supply! He is an infinite source of creative thoughts and ideas. But if I keep my ideas to myself and hold onto them selfishly they can never blossom.

I find it ironic that the author of this quote is disputed. What a shame it would have been if the person who thought it never shared it for fear of having it stolen.