Check out my creative family!

I have a lot more creative family members than this. But these are the only ones with their creativity posted on the internet : )

My dad, Leonard Payton, has a doctorate in music composition. He plays a lot of different instruments and thinks about a lot of different things. My mom, Lori Payton, uses her creativity within her hospitality and it is a real work of art. She should have an honorary doctorate with how much knowledge and experience she has on the subject.

My older brother, Richard Payton, is a really cool artist. He and I are very similar in a lot of ways. We often keep our creativity to ourselves, but sometimes there’s too much and it just overflows. I wish he would make more art.

My brother-in-law, Timm Heath, is creative in a lot of different ways. He and I are similarly blessed with the kingdom of heaven. When he’s plugged into it, he takes it and transforms it into the most amazing stories for his children. They have an entire lore in their house about another world of fairies that live in their kitchen cupboards. At least I think that’s where they live. It’s kind of like a different language to me. The same way A. A. Milne speaks in a different language. It’s the sort of language that, if you listen to it long enough with your eyes closed, you can smell and hear the sounds and scents of your childhood.

My aunts on my dad’s side (Wendy Payton, Lorna Johnston, Maureen Keil and Brenda Milam) were always sending us quirky and creative things when we were young. One time Aunt Wendy sent me a package of already opened blank sticker paper for Christmas and it was maybe my favorite gift that year. There should be an honorary degree for the art of gift-giving too. I am constantly getting re-inspired just from the memories of the things we had in our house from those lovely aunts. The one that sticks out the most, as probably one of the biggest seeds of inspiration in my heart for creativity, is the nativity scene that “Aunt Mo” made for us. The clothes were all made from old buttons and jewelry. So resourceful. So inspiring. None of those aunts post anything creative on the internet, otherwise I’d be sharing those things here. Can you imagine how much joy and light we would all have if we were just making things and giving them to each-other simply as gifts from our hearts? I can. I imagine it all the time. Let’s do it.