About a decade ago, I was working for a printing company that had a website from which it sold checks direct to the consumer. Yes, personal checks… Those things grandmas give you when they don’t know what to get you for your birthday. Those things you only fill out once a year for some random reason – and some of you probably never have.

We’d started a program in which we were licensing artwork from independent artists to print as personal check designs. Part of my job was to write short bios of the artists for our website.

A common theme quickly crept up in these mini biographies. So many of the artists talked about their interest in drawing as young kids. Quite a few of them also specifically mentioned loving their collection of crayons.

One of my colleagues on the marketing team sort of scoffed at this. It wasn’t unique. To him, it wasn’t interesting. “Everyone says that. We all loved to draw with crayons when were little kids.”

Of course, that’s kind of the point. That’s why Pablo Picasso famously said:

“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.”

None of the artists licensing their work for those personal check designs are famous, and I highly doubt they got rich from our little e-commerce operation either. But what they have done is they’ve discovered a way to remain artists as adults. They should be applauded for that.

Do you remember what it felt like to get a new box of Crayolas? The smell of the wax, the sharpened tips. Whether it was the little box of four colors you got for free with the kids’ menu, the basic box of eight, or the highly-prized box of 64 shades, those new crayons meant something.

They represented a fresh start, possibility, and an opportunity to open up your imagination and create. Whether you were using a blank sheet of paper, a coloring book, or figuring out the maze on the back of your kids’ menu, you were making your mark with those crayons.

You probably don’t use crayons very often any more. But I bet there is something in your life and work that represents the same thing. If not, try to find what it is. It could be a pathway to your creative calling.

If you don’t know where to start, get yourself a new box of crayons and see what happens.

Main photo by Kristin Brown on Unsplash