A Recommitment to My Creative Process

I have reached a point in my life where I am plumbing the introspective depths to assess who I am and where I am going. Certain events in my life have brought me here. It continues to be a harsh and painful process. I also understand these life changing events can make me whole and more solid if I am willing to walk through them with my eyes open. A friend of mine recommended journaling as I reflected on my life. So I started to journal. I believe the powers in the universe conspire for me, or any of us, to succeed; aiding me in finding the things I seek. As I started to journal and look for ideas in creating a journaling practice, I discovered a class by tiny house living, minimalist, blogging, creative person – Tammy Strobel.  I signed up for her online course, “Writing in the digital age – a creative guide to writing anywhere”. So far, the course has been just the medicine I need. I have always fancied myself a writer, a musician, a creative person, but I have only stuck my toe in the water around my creative projects fearing full immersion. Over the winter, I even went as far as to say to my stepson Erin (the link is to his latest song, which is in development. I highly recommend checking it out), who happens to be a musician and one of my best friends,  I didn’t think I was all that creative.

You know in sitcoms when someone says something and you hear the record needle scratch? Well, that happened.

– I hate it that the record needle scratch has become  passé, it was such a poignant demonstration of everything stopping –

He looked at me, along with everyone else in the room, and very lovingly and gently told me I was full of crap, then proceeded to list all the creative things he has seen me do. Ah, the stories we create in our minds, they’ve built and toppled kingdoms.

I’ve always been a creative person. It’s just my inner committee has often  gotten in the way of me doing something about it. My own mind has been a great companion and a woeful nemesis. I start to want to create something and the endless analysis gets in the way of me actually starting the process. I believe I could rent my inner committee out as a think tank to aid the U.S. Congress.

There are a bunch of statements of simplicity about what it takes to start moving on a project: “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”– Lao Tse, “You can’t think and hit at the same time” – Yogi Berra. Okay, two. There are two sayings I can think of right now apropos to the reboot of my creative process. If you can think of more, I welcome them in the comments section.

The reason for this post is I am making a recommitment. I am recommitting to being actively creative. On a daily basis I will be doing something outwardly creative. This means there will be some kind of daily output, not just spinning it in my mind. I’m curious to see where it is going to take me.

Peace