A stream called Gender used to run through the city center of Eindhoven. Over the years this stream was rerouted for practical reasons, and its flow was cutoff from the city.

But the city missed Gender. In some parts, the rainwater had no stream to drain into, so those parts started to overflow during rains.

To solve the problem, the municipality is now unearthing the original course of Gender. Partly underground and partly above, it will cross through the city, past the shopping center and the train station, and finally meet another river.

The creative energy in my life has been like Gender. As I child, I always did something creative - speaking, writing, dancing. But as I migrated abroad to study and work, practical concerns took over life and the flow of creativity was cutoff. All that remained was work.

No wonder that the stress started to overflow in my life. One day, out of frustration, I created a tiny squiggle. That tiny squiggle was a precious taste of possibility, an unearthing of the creative stream within. If this squiggle could come into being through me, what else was possible?

And so I started to follow the creative flow within me. First I met calligraphy, then abstract art, fantasy landscapes, and these days I paint nature, and write stories and poems. The more I make art and write, the closer I come to meeting the rivers of my soul and life.

Does the stream of creativity flow in your life?