The past several weeks have been filled with creativity and hard work. In addition to revising my latest novel, I edited book-length manuscripts for three of my colleagues. I also took a painting class, traveled to Texas for a sewing retreat, and went to see the Wonderful Wizard of Woz. Yes, that’s Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak in the photo above, explaining Moore’s Law while drinking an imaginary cup of tea.

Wozniak was in town for The Conference on World Affairs, which I mostly missed this year due to pressing work commitments. But I’m so glad I stood in line to get tickets for his talk, because the Woz is an absolute geeky delight.

Wozniak is a true creative, and his wide-ranging interests and his passion for learning really inspired me. He talked about the early days of Apple, teaching computer classes in his local public schools, encouraging girls to code, and learning Spanish and Japanese. I just loved him.

Wozniak claims that the creative mind constantly needs to mix things up, and I tend to agree. Sometimes you have to go at things from different angles, resulting in a learning curve that is more like a swerve.

Whenever I need to take a break from the written word, I like to knit and sew. On one of the last days I spent with my friend Solveig before she died, we went together to Fabricate, a pretty crafting store in Boulder. I’ve started taking sewing lessons there, partly to remember my fabric-loving friend, and partly because life is short and I’ve always wanted to learn to sew.

I’m not a particularly good quilter–not yet, at any rate–but in December I joined the Denver Metro Modern Quilt Guild, which has monthly Sew Days at the Idea Forge Maker Space in Boulder. Here I am at the Maker Space cutting up squares in preparation for a spring break “sewing retreat” in Houston with my nieces. [Many thanks to Amy Wade for this photo.]

My kitty Snowy helped me choose out the best fabric squares to bring to Texas, for some reason insisting on the purple lion print.

The sewing retreat was so much fun. My nieces loved the vibrant Tula Pink and Lizzy House prints, and each girl made two doll-sized quilts. We also baked gingerbread cupcakes and spent a day frolicking at the beach. My sister’s puppy had never seen the ocean, and she delighted in chasing the waves, then running away, then chasing the waves once more.

Waves tend to remind me of Matthew Arnold’s great poem “Dover Beach,” wherein the rattling hiss of receding water reminds the speaker of all he has lost:

Listen! you hear the grating roar

Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,

At their return, up the high strand,

Begin, and cease, and then again begin,

With tremulous cadence slow, and bring

The eternal note of sadness in.

I think we can agree that Arnold was a bit of a depressive. Still, his poem concludes with a beautiful exhortation: “Ah, love, let us be true to one another!” We need to treasure our time together, because life is hard for everyone, and it’s shorter than we think.

We also need to learn something new. When I got home from Texas, I took a painting-and-wine-sipping class with my husband, where I managed to make a faux-Monet. Will learning to paint help me as a fiction writer? Maybe not, but I learned a few things about color theory, and my joy in the creative process has definitely received a boost.

We should always be learning and growing as artists, as much as we possibly can. Every day that I’m on this earth, I want to learn something new.