Scope for the imagination! Mountaineering Club of Alaska Cabin, Hatcher Pass, Alaska.

For the last decade-and-a-half, my husband and I have been DIYing our quirky old East Lawrence home. Every year, right around now, our inner squirrels kick in: With skies and temperatures lowering, it’s time to batten down the hatches and start seriously cozifying the nest.

One year, we blew insulation into our attic. Another year, we reglazed the sashes of all nine windows in our sunroom (that’s 18 sashes reglazed, folks!) and hung new storm windows. (Because I am an old window evangelist, here is where I climb on my soapbox: Contrary to popular belief, well-maintained historic windows paired with properly installed storm windows can be just as energy efficient as new windows. The more you know!)

Whatever the project, there is one end goal: When it is dark and damp and cold outside, our home is warm and dry, and with gratitude we can nestle into the warmth and light within.

These years of homemaking have taught me that keeping a shelter in order is no small feat — nature is always working to deconstruct it. I’ve also come to realize that our stewardship of our home — we are just the most recent in a line of tenants stretching back 140-plus years — is an act of creativity and handiwork. Repairing a crack in the plaster upholds the work of my forebear, the unknown craftsperson who originally plastered the wall; the integrity of the repaired wall — my work blending seamlessly with his — brings me joy. (Interested in making your own home cozier before winter hits? Linda Cottin — aka “The Fix-It Chick” — from Cottin’s Hardware will be at the library on Oct. 19 to give us some tips on DIY weatherization projects.)

As Elizabeth Gilbert (of “Eat, Pray, Love” fame) maintains in her latest work, “Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear,” we are all intrinsically makers, calibrated to find joy in the act of creation. Her take on the source of this motivation has a decidedly supernatural bent: “Ideas,” according to Gilbert, “are a disembodied, energetic life-form… Ideas are driven by a single impulse: to be made manifest. And the only way an idea can be made manifest in our world is through collaboration with a human partner.”

If you’ve been feeling stuck, Gilbert’s quick-reading treatise on living a creative life is your permission slip (literally, she offers you a permission slip) to let yourself be receptive to the ideas seeking your help in realizing them. Gilbert’s exploration of the nature and nurture of creativity rests on a paradoxical premise — making art is a serious matter that we should not take seriously at all — that is refreshingly freeing.

And the concept of shelter is an excellent springboard for creativity — I don’t think I’m alone in loving the notion of crafting a handmade home. Certainly, the current interest in treehouses and tiny homes stems, at least in part, from the perhaps primordial siren song of making a shelter with one’s own hands, which can be seen in Zach Klein’s book “Cabin Porn: Inspiration for Your Quiet Place Somewhere.” It’s a collection of photographs of stunningly idyllic and/or idiosyncratic structures paired with essays detailing the creative processes of builders.

Klein’s compilation illustrates beautifully the ingenuity and artisanship people around the world have brought to bear in solving the puzzle of how to balance the human desire to shape the environment with the need to engage with the restorative power of the natural world. Perched on a mountaintop, nestled in a forest glade, cobbled from salvaged materials (like a boat for a roof!), hewn into a hillside — whatever form your ideal quiet place might take, there is endless fodder for inspiration here.

So, when it’s cold outside, stoke the inner fires of your own creative life: Settle in a cozy spot (we’ve got some lovely places here at the library!) with an inspiring book and an open mind.

-Melissa Fisher Isaacs is the information services coordinator at the Lawrence Public Library.

Image courtesy of Cecil Sanders under a CC BY 2.0 license.