The sound may be as soft as the flutter of butterfly wings or as loud as a marching band in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Or you may not hear a sound at all, but feel an urging, an inner pull, a sense of excitement and longing that resonates from within. This is the call to create, and it is universal, bidding each of us to bring something new into being.
“The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover is yourself.” — Alan Alda
We create in order to express our unique visions and perceptions. We create to communicate and to form a bond with our fellow human beings. Creative expression helps us feel connected to the world and builds bridges of understanding. It nourishes us and helps us grow, provides insights and deeper understandings.
Creativity is fun, exciting and playful. It relieves stress and releases tension. It provides a way of communication when normal channels may be blocked or are insufficient—when we must speak in colors and textures and shimmering visions and music.
Creativity is love expressing itself; it heals and renews. Our creations are the manifestations that say, “This is how I saw it” and mirrors in which others may see themselves.
We Are All Creative
No matter what you may have been told, I believe every one of us is creative. It is as much a part of us as our voice and breath and fingerprints. Creativity isn’t just about making “art.” Cooking, gardening, handiwork and crafts, keeping a journal are all creative acts. Arranging flowers or rearranging furniture, painting a picture or painting a room, singing on stage or singing in the shower—these are responses to the call.
Creativity is a way of living. It is being spontaneous and playful, exercising the imagination, finding solutions, embracing possibilities, and doing it all with passion.
Yet for all the joy and fulfillment it brings, some resist the call to be creative. In our culture the ideas that “Time is money” and “Art is frivolous” hold certain sway, and old messages such as, “Stay inside the lines” or “You can do better than that” have remarkable staying power. It takes courage to look beneath the surface of what we’ve been told in order to find our heart’s desire.
Creativity requires risk-taking. It asks us to surrender, to lose control and to trust. “Committing to our creativity is an act of faith,” wrote Jan Phillips, in Marry Your Muse. “A promise to believe in ourselves.”
Honoring the creative self means finding time, making space, being patient and taking the chance of looking foolish. You cannot care too much what others think or say. You must be willing to start over and stay with it; creativity takes stamina. There are no magical secrets or absolute rules. Creativity can’t be taught. You just do it.
Like the body’s natural urge for motion and the human need for connection and community, the spirit longs to express itself. So when you hear the call to create, care enough about yourself to answer “Yes.” It’s a movement toward being whole.
Listening to and then responding to my own creative urges has been a huge challenge for me over the past few years. I’ve come to realize that how I respond to those urges is like a litmus test for how I’m really feeling at the core of my being. Grief over the deaths of several family members rendered me so numb for so long that I could not find joy anywhere, and could not even contemplate “being creative” since it took everything in my power just to keep breathing through the agony of absence.
But then I began to notice that I felt better, more alive, whenever I’d bake, or cook my infamous beef stew. And when I could muster the energy to write, say in a journal or an online blog, I was able to completely immerse myself in the words and the joy I always get from putting words together to best articulate what I was trying to say.
Slowly but surely I’ve come to see how vital being true to our creative selves really is…as you say, our spirit longs to express itself; allowing for activities that open the door for that expression helps keep the door of our hearts open to breaths of new air flowing into ourselves.
And baking cookies definitely keeps me connected to my community, since I now have to make sure I bake enough for several neighbours along our street!
Dear Sharon,
Thank you for stopping by and for leaving such an eloquent reply. I was sorry to read that you’ve lost several loved ones but glad that creative expression has helped with your healing.
It’s delightful to me that you mention baking, making your special stew, and writing as creative activities that help to bring you alive. Believe it or not, these are some of my favourite things too! Baking is especially powerful for me. I describe it as being “in the zone” – that place where you’re fully in the present moment, not thinking about anything other than your creation. You feel happy and peaceful; there’s nowhere else you’d rather be and you have no sense of time going by.
I believe the joy and love we feel while in “the zone” somehow permeates our baked goods and gets passed on to our recipients. With the holiday season fast approaching, I wish you many joyful hours in your kitchen creating delightful treats for the people you care about!
Thank you for sharing your wisdom and please do visit again.