As young schoolchild I remember the joy of expressing my love in poetry for my first pet, a black pantherish kitten... And the wonder of receiving a shiny gold star in return!
 
That joy and wonder faded as the complexities of growing up took over until my 30's when my family was rocked by a hugely traumatic event. Poetry then rekindled out of necessity to purge and process arising and overwhelming emotions, a very different life ensuing and evolving.  The smoldering embers of any creativity were quashed in the effort to recreate a new life and home for our family.
 
Throughout the last years of that period I wrote three travel journals and am still painfully and slowly dabbling to turn odd paragraphs into book format whenever lifes pressure-cooker lid lifts just a tiny bit. Much later in my 60's, creativity began to emerge again, more copiously in the form of music and poetry.  Again always born of sadness or despair, wonder or joy, normal human emotions we all experience and need to share at times in our lives.