All change, creativity, and growth spring forth from an abundantly free vital source. It is the same energy that nature employs to power its colossal path through the seasons.
Springtime is a dazzling profusion of growth.
One year, Anne and I took walks in the New England woodlands, following stream courses, catching the opening of the sun-generated blooms. It was Heaven on Earth.
I took some photographs, capturing the patterns of light in matter, particularly in the movement of water, where I see universal energy flowing. Single moments, so fleeting, so filled with color and change.
Inspired by the beauty and the quiet, I wrote a poem.
We sit by the stream
All the brain buzz, balanced
by the white noise of water over stone.
We have time
to listen to its
rushing voice.All is well in our moments together.
I take my socks off
place my feet in the stream,
heal the wounds of my soul,
wash away the static charge, accumulated in daily life.
My poem expresses the “off” part, the mind-space inside where time slows down or stops. It is an open place, a place we can learn to cultivate – like a garden within – where thoughts and songs and poems grow.
You can’t reach creative process if you are always “on”
Most of what human beings do is repetitive and boring. What we think of as “creative” is usually imitation. Our minds are limited by what has been done before. But the creative impulse of the universe is constant. Free will allows us to choose whether we open the windows of our souls or not.
Nature abhors a vacuum. After a fire burns through a forest, the ash-laden soil, coupled with water and seeds and abundant sunlight creates an opportunity for new growth.
The muse
Human beings have the potential to broadcast a unique signal – if you listen/sense it. By not listening to that signal, we miss the moment, lock-stepped to an artificial rhythm, not really alive at all!
Shakespeare called his signal his “muse.” I imagine that he sort of went out of his body to write his work. He did not map out his prose. He sat down and wrote it, entranced in the imagery as it unfolded before him, through him.
Some of the most beautiful creations come from the mouths of children.
There are so many ways our socialization process shuts down a child’s connection with his/her muse. Sometimes later in life, after the trials and tribulations of a career and family cease to control our lives, the artist re-emerges. How great! I watched my mother pick up her brushes again at 50, to begin her prolific career as a painter and printmaker.
When we take the time to listen, we can hear the still small voice, the creative breath, that waits patiently to be heard. Can you hear it?
Left and right brain function
We are a left-brain-dominated society with an engineering worldview. Most of us are very good at linear application: A + B = C, always – and we build from there.
The right hemisphere is the “outside the box” activity location. When we use our intuition rather than logic to arrive at conclusions it is a right-brain activity.
I am ambidextrous. I use both hands and sides of my body for skilled tasks. I write left-handed, play racket sports left-handed, shoot the basketball right-handed, and hammer with both hands. This indicates that both sides of my brain are open and active.
A brain is a tool of the input response cycle, a shaper like a carpenter’s rasp. Getting into a creative state of mind requires using the open patterns of the right hemisphere. In this location, A + B does not necessarily equal anything – or could equal everything. When we are being truly creative, we are letting the abundant free energy flow through us – shaping it with the feelings of the moment – and our intention to write or sculpt or play something new and unique.
My creative zone
I sit at my dining room table. I pick up the red pen that I leave there. Blank white paper ready to go. During the day I brood about a topic, letting the ideas come freely, picking up a thread of thought or remembrance.
It is kind of like a surfer waiting for a wave, digging it… In the ocean swell, board-ready, totally relaxed. She probably wouldn’t be out there if she wasn’t ready – thousands of waves under her board. Mind open, patiently aware of the next wave coming.
So, how do you get into this open-minded right-brain place?
The universal creative impulse wants to become whatever you can imagine or shape.
The first step is to stop all of the negative programs you might have around “being creative”.
[Perhaps like Mrs. Fisk in 3rd grade who told me I could not sing and that I could not be in the choir at School 16 in Yonkers, New York. When I chased her down the stairs pleading my case she pulled out her pitch pipe and right in front of everyone made me sing the scale. Failure lurks large in our hearts!]
In essence, I believe that everything we think of or feel becomes real.
We build the world we live in. What could be more creative than that? Trust me, this is totally true. The difference between an artist and an engineer is being aware of this and surfing the waves as they come in, rather than trying to control them or measure them. Same process, different result.
Craftsmanship is not art.
The flow of universal creative expression moves through the craftsman, becoming something fine indeed. By paying your dues to a craft, fine-tuning the tools will pay off big time in artistic satisfaction.
Get out in nature.
Don’t jog or mountain bike. Or if you do, stop, sit, listen, and breathe. Holding your breath too tightly restricts natural rhythms. Sit and let your breath flow easily in and out.
Let your thoughts move through with as little resistance as possible. Listen to the birds, the wind in the trees. Close your eyes say a prayer. This is a basic meditation practice. It is doing while not doing and it is a great way to court your muse. We are looking for inspiration that jump-starts new opportunities for self-expression.
It is important to be non-judgmental, especially during the early courtship.
Art is not about what is better or worse, it is about feeling in touch with the greater meaning of life.
So go out and make a joyful noise. I am sure it will be wonderful!
