For those that have been following me on here for a while, you will know that my season in the last couple of years has changed significantly.
I am now mostly a stay at home mum and there have been many times that I have struggled with the tension of still pursuing my career and wanting to lead a significant life helping others to live creatively but also not wanting to miss the season I am in.
I was a part of a women’s event last week and the team recorded this story of mine.
I hope it inspires someone out there.
Live in the moment that you find yourself.
Moments pass so quickly.
Life is not about the number of breaths we take, but those that take our breath away.
I love this quote but sometimes we end up holding our breath waiting for those moments, when they were right under our feet we just never realised it.
Not the terrible images of crazy craft classes in the back of the YMCA that you are imagining. I mean there is a skill to living a more creative life.
I am often classified as the loopy creative and pushed aside at the beginning of a dinner party and categorised as fruity.
Despite this prejudice, I believe everyone can be creative. It’s not just the creative crazy cats who walk around dressed in top to toe op shop clothes, you are creative. Every part of your being is founded in creative inspiration. There is something only you can bring to this earth. It’s as unique as your thumbprint, your DNA, your essence.
I am bold enough to believe that we have been made in the image of a Creator and we reflect his creativity.
What I have found however, is some people create a scaffolding across their week that enables the craft of creativity and others don’t.
I am working on a workshop at the moment called this ‘The craft of creativity’ that I am doing this creative workshop with a whole group of radio presenters for a radio station here in Perth and I am sure that some of them will classify themselves as creative and others not.
I have been studying an Australian bird as a part of this workshop. This bird is the ‘Bowerbird’. Here is a classic David Attenborough clip about this bird.
The Bower bird is a collector. The master builder of the animal kingdom.
The bower bird collects and collects and builds a master piece with their nest and lives within this creative inspiration.
What does your week look like?
Do you have a scaffold to your week that creates a space of creative inspiration?
Are you a collector?
A collector of moments, of things, of images, of quotes, of inspirations, of stories, of beautiful memories.
Thats why I love pinterest so much.
It enables me to categorise my moments, of web inspirations into boards of pleasure that inspire me at a later date.
My question is creative pilgrims, how are you creating a scaffold across your week to collect and categorise your creative musings?
If you learn the curious art of creative pilgrimage and also find a way to store these collections you are well on your way to being a master at the craft of creativity.
Lately I have been stretching out and creating new and exciting networks mostly in the name of creativity.
It has been really exciting on one hand and super vulnerable on another.
I remember doing some counselling once and the counsellor told me that to acheive the depths of creative pursuit, highs and lows are all a part of the emotional creative process. We must go to the depths to be able to express them.
Her wisdom to me was to not be hard on myself for feeling those emotions, because they were deeply intrinsic to the creative process but find ways to travel them with health.
I realised quickly it is how I handled those places and also how I involved those closest, in both negative and positive ways that was fruitful or destructive.
We all need to learn what our triggers are, finding ways to process the vulnerability and loving those close to your deeply in the process.
I have been really deeply processing who my real friends are in this journey. I think the consumerism of our age, has created a false friendship that is so counterproductive to true relational intelligence. This is significant to this topic, because I believe only true friends have the capacity to journey with us through the highs and lows of creative process and we only have the capacity to be able to do this with a small group of people.
Two of my great friends Jeff and Julie Crabtree have written a book called ‘Living with a creative mind’ and they have a whole chapter dedicated to creatives and how to handle the emotions expressed as a part of the creative process.
This week I pulled this book out, I sat and read this chapter and reminded myself about the creative process and how emotional it can be.
Every new connection we make creatively, whether its with someone we are collaberating with or a new pursuit of something we are producing, a whole level of deep thinking and criticism is a part of the journey.
Here is my little insight of wisdom though.
Be very careful who you allow to speak feedback into your life.
Be very careful who you listen to critically as a creative.
Why?
Because the vulnerability of the creative process is full of enough criticism already (mostly from your own mind and emotions) so allow people who believe in you and love you to speak loudly and let everyone else fade away.
If you listen to the crowd, you will lose your own voice.
If you create for the masses, you will lose yourself at their expense.
We know what creativity for the masses looks like: two words ‘clip art.’
Create out of your own lived experience, out of your own wisdom, out of your own uniqueness and you will make a creative impact that leaves a legacy.
For today, my prayer is that you would live inspired and also you would have safe people to explore creatively with and you would allow the noise from the crowd to fade away.
Lately I have been quite concerned about the interactions of people on social media. I have watched a few different scenarios play out and I have been so ashamed of what people do in the name of creativity, purpose and self promotion.
I am currently working on a creative workshop which is called ‘Influencing Culture Creatively; the good, the bad and the ugly’
The ugly I am referring to is self promotion. Seeking others approval to validate and affirm ones own creative endeavours.
Unfortunately from a cycle of addiction point of view, our seeking of approval from a social media platform is reinforced daily by the culture it has created.
Even the language reinforces our desire for approval.
Someone likes your photo on instagram, someone likes your status on facebook, someone follows you on pinterest, someone becomes your friend at the click of a button and then defriends you as easily.
How much of your self worth do you gain from your social media interaction?
Do you believe your creative pursuits are validated by the amount of times you are liked?
I have been thinking about this all morning and I believe the best way to kill our creativity is to seek approval from others about its worth.
Johannes Kepler said ‘I much prefer the sharpest criticism of a single intelligent man to the thoughtless approval of the masses.’
This is true.
A deep, frank, honest conversation from someone who is safe and trustworthy is much more beneficial to our creative space, than a quick thoughtless like from hundreds of people.
Please don’t allow the quick consumeristic flattery of a social media platform to create an addictive cycle of approval of others.
Friendship and deep connection from a small circle of people who are for us, define our character and bring a depth of creativity that is revolutionary.
Seeking approval for our creativity is a one way street to isolation and disappointment.
For those that have been following me on here for a while, you will know that my season in the last couple of years has changed significantly.
