A trip to the countryside can yield many rural art objects. These are visual delights, made from whatever is around…such as old tools, wood, flowers, or rocks. It is an informal process of taking ordinary items and giving them a new purpose or meaning.
Spring flowers + a rusty old pump…
A piece of wood with scratched on letters–on a fence…
Limbs from a tree nailed together and twigs woven into a basket… And, scraps of wood, bolts, rod, and paint mounted on a post.
How many times in our lives and families are we required to do the same? Take what we have on hand…certain resources, opportunities, or situations…and improvise and adapt responses and ways of living to meet a challenge? For example, when a person’s dreams and job goals do not develop exactly as planned after school, a person may find creative ways to make a living, earn income, or begin a business. Or, when a loved one develops a chronic illness, families find new ways to meet the normal daily schedule, while at the same time adjusting to a “new normal”.
In life, as in rural art, creative solutions require improvising, adapting, and designing novel outcomes…
Out of seemingly ordinary things.
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Joni Beach 
Not only do they improvise but they can make something more beautiful than it was to begin with. I really enjoyed the pictures it helps me to see in life I can make something out of what is given to me. Thanks.
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You said it very well…”they can make something more beautiful than it was to begin with”…I’m glad this post was helpful to you!
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Oh, dear Joni–this is by far my favorite post of yours I have read since discovering your blog last autumn! I am a country girl, a farm girl, and now live with lots of green spaces, a creek, and wood lots around my home in this small town. EXACTLY “spot on” is your analogy between being creative and adaptive with making art out of natural objects and doing exactly the same with the ups and downs of our lives! Bless you–have a MOST blessed Springtide!
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Granbee, I am so glad you liked this post…and that it was true to your experience. Thank-you and may your Spring also be a very good one.
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