The Long Road

It is so hard to be creative when so many words and ideas are swirling in your head. Most do not understand why you would be awake at 3 am in the morning and you have to go to your regular job in the next few hours.

Creativity takes on a life of its own in a way that is never imagined. Waking up in the middle of the night to write a song, a poem, an idea or some sketch to a part of something else you have been working on. How many ideas you thought about in that half awake state that you lose as soon as you try and capture them. Go back to that half awake state and keep trying. The beauty of creating lies in the process of doing. The hours do not matter, the struggle does not matter, it is the process of giving to the world something new or different.

Sharing is the goal....Getting it out there....

Though many may not understand, you will find a few that get it. Those are people who can embrace others as they are, whether they understand what you are doing or not. Appreciation is an extension of creativity. It is so nice to hear from those who benefit from your efforts and others who just applaud the outcome of the work.

The fastest way to kill a dream I am told is to share it with a friend or a family member. I have seen this in action in my own life, fortunately my feet ignored everything around me and kept walking. "Nose to the grindstone" is something I was taught, meaning to keep at it. Too many start and give up because it is not the right time or it is too hard. Learn to say one word after you state a perceived failure.

Yet...

"I have not finished or accomplished (whatever it is) yet". That simple word "yet" gives us license to accept a setback and reset our feet on the path to continue our journey forward. Some goals are continually moving forward as we reach a milestone and the road stretches out further in front of us, and that's OK. Walking forward after taking a step back or stopping is OK....You only fail in the creative process when you quit altogether. A project set aside is still a project, a story yet untold is still a story.

The amount of effort put in has a great deal to contribute to your outcomes of the creative process. A myth of the instant success is pushed on society in the form of edited lives. They only show you the good parts in 180 characters or less and videos of 5 minute bites or so. We are never shown the Days. Weeks, and Years it took to get there. Work has become a four letter curse word that seems to have escaped from everyday language, other than as an evil we have to endure to get a few bucks.

Blind luck, inspiration from heaven, I do not know. I am just grateful that there are words in my brain and songs in my heart plus the work my hands are still able do after Decades of using them to fix and repair and craft all sorts of things, doohickeys and whatchamacallits.

Gratitude is the word that I use for being able to keep on walking and talking and creating. Gratitude makes up for the lack of progress that sometimes makes us question why we are doing what we are doing. Being grateful lifts our creativity to something beyond us.

Gratitude moves my feet when I wake and my heart when I give back through fixing things or creating something new.

GT