Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Creativity

I've been thinking about this mysterious thing called Creativity.
What is it?  
How do you get it?
How come I am not as creative as so and so?
So many things you go through when your heart's desire is to be creative.  
What I find to be true is that the desire to be creative is the desire to express yourself.  This desire to express yourself can come in many different ways according to the person you are. Maybe you want to paint or sing, play an instrument or garden, cook wonderful meals or take photographs of the world around you. 
We all have different ways to express ourselves.  Expressing ourselves is expressing how we see something, whether it is with color, design, taste, sound, or touch.  And then there is happy, sad, bold, quiet, peaceful, raging.  The list is endless.
For those of us who may have difficulty expressing ourselves, what stops us?
I believe expressing ourselves means believing in ourselves.  Believing that our voice counts and that we, as human beings count.  
So how do we believe in ourselves?
By Honoring our spirit.
This is such a loaded topic in which I have so much to say, and so much more to explore.
But what I want to say is that being creative doesn't mean being perfect and waiting until you can paint that perfect painting or take that perfect photograph or cook that perfect meal.  It means honoring the voice of your spirit by picking up that paint brush and brushing it across the canvas, digging up the ground and planting those flowers, picking up the camera and pressing that shutter.  
Just take that first step, and do it day after day, just to show your spirit that you Honor it, that you Honor its voice.
The skill will come later.
But just for today, Honor your spirit by giving your spirit a voice to express itself.  Let your spirit sing with Creativity.
It has waited long enough.
Express yourself today.
Carol B. 

2 comments:

julie king said...

so well said, carol! i've suffered from the inadequacy phase of comparing myself to other artists and finding myself so lacking. and, i've gotten cuaght up in the it's not perfect, i can't do it well phase. but i've learned to relax into it and just create for the joy in creating. the only thing that matters is if i like it. it is freeing to be able to do that.

thanks for this reflective post!

Catherine Holman said...

Practice make perfect is what I always told my students. Keep up the good work. This is a sweet painting!
Hugs,
Cathie