How Do Creations Come To You?
I want to start off with a thread from Twitter that brought me this idea. It was originally posted by Martin Heavy Head @mheavyhead in Alberta, Canada. The entire thread can be found in my Twitter Moments, but I will re-post it here:
An Old Man from our Tribe had gotten sick and was in a coma. He wrote a lot of powwow songs his whole life. His songs became so popular that they're sung at different powwows, and mistaken for traditional songs. He knows they're his songs...
So anyway, he had fallen ill, and his Family was around him. While he was in a coma, he was dreaming. He was in dark deep water, and all of these things came around him, like Fish, but not Fish. they surrounded him, and told him they were his songs.
There were hundreds of them swimming around him and one came close to him, and said "Sing me! I'll help you!" and in the dream he started singing.
He came out of the coma singing that song while his Family was all around him. He told them what happened right then.
i wanted to tell that story because it makes me think of what we create, and what stays. What we bring into the world from the world of thought. From the Dreamworld. That ethereal space where numbers exist, where songs are alive, where there are thoughts and creations, waiting.
I think that thoughts and creations are out there waiting for the right person to bring them into the world. The idea finds the conduit, and comes into the world through that conduit. Regardless of that, what we create remains. Someone will sing our songs after we're gone.
Read our words. View our art. Live in what we build. So in THIS moment, what you're creating....is it the best it could be from the best parts of you?
Can it live, and bring you out of the darkness?
I found this very thought provoking. Not out of irony, a song came to me:
I'm gonna live forever I'm gonna cross that river I'm gonna catch tomorrow now You're gonna wanna hold me Just like I always told you You're gonna miss me when I'm gone Nobody here will ever find me But I always be around Just like the songs I leave behind me I'm gonna live forever now
~Billy Jo Shaver
What are you striving to create in this world? Isn't it a great thought to ponder that the idea might not have exactly been created in your brain by you - BUT - that you could simply be a conduit through which the idea has been able to come into the world?
Are you creating from scratch or birthing something from another place?
Did you find it or did it find you?
I wanted to share this so that those of you creatives out there today who are discouraged or frustrated with an aspect of your creative life might pause and shift perspective on your work.
What you are creating will remain. The energy you put into your creation will continue to vibrate and resonate with someone else, somewhere else...even after you are gone.
You might be the only one who has the proper energy and passion to allow the idea to come from the dark into the light! You might be the only spirit with the energy to understand and see the idea as a finished creation.
What kind of energy are you putting into your creation? Frenzied 'this has to make me money' energy? Genuine 'this is authentically part of me' energy? Is your heart in it at all? Is it a display of your heart?
“Ogni blocco di pietra ha una statua dentro di sé ed è compito dello scultore scoprirla”
~Michelangelo
(translated roughly to "Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.")
Are you allowing the flow to lead you into revealing the full expression of the creation? Are you forcing the creation in a direction it is not meant to flow into? Are you following your intuition, or the masses?
These might not be easy questions and they may take time to answer. But for those who are feeling 'lost' in their creative journey, they might be just the questions needed to get one out of a dark place and back on track with where they are meant to be.
I tried to follow the masses and maximize my efforts financially and it creatively burned me out to direct that flow uphill. That is why this blog has changed this year as I set a new creative goal. Already, I can feel that allowing myself to honor the original flow of my creativity has helped unblock channels. It feels like a relief!
Now, if that means that financial opportunities will arise, that's still okay. At least now I know that I am not forcing things, but allowing them to come through as they are meant to. Organically. It gives everything a more authentic feel, which is incredibly validating to myself as a creative.
Perhaps you need to take a break away from your current project and focus on yourself. This is not bad - everything happens in its own time.
Journal.
Walk.
Meditate.
Play.
Relax!
Know that the idea IS there and that by not beating yourself up and stressing yourself out, you will immerse yourself back into the flow and make that connection again. Trust that the time needed to reconnect is time well spent with yourself and your idea
Just like the fish in @mheavyhead's tale above. You might be in dark waters, but you are surrounded by the fish who will help sing you back to the surface.
Go with the flow!
