It’s been almost six weeks since my hip replacement and finally I am beginning to feel like exploring my creativity again. The creative spark is back!
The Creative Spark
There are times in life when you cannot push yourself to create because you don’t have enough resources to spare the energy creation takes. The creative spark cannot ignite. I am learning that if I wait through the my creative “fallow times” that sooner or later the creative spark will re-ignite.
After weeks of focusing on healing my hip, I felt the creative spark come alive again this week. I clearly felt the urge to pick up my camera to make images and my paintbrush to play with watercolor painting. It started when a little bouquet of flowers inspired me to want to make photographs. Then I heard a voice in my head that said, “It’s time to start painting again.”
What a joy to feel like creating again!
When the spark is not there, everything feels a bit dull and uninteresting. But I have learned that even when it feels like I will never feel the spark again to simply be patient and wait. Just as a farmer’s fields benefit from fallow time, so too does the creative spark.
“Don’t push the river, it flows by itself.”
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Creating is healing.
I have experienced the healing power of creativity again and again. Everything feels a bit brighter when I am creating. I feel more gratitude and notice the beauty all around me with clearer eyes.
Today I noticed that one of the flowers in a bouquet I photographed earlier this week had faded and begun drooping heavily. I pulled it out of the bouquet intending to simply observe it’s beauty even in the process of decay.
Deciding to photograph it, I placed it on a blank sheet of watercolor paper. After photographing it from several different angles, I wondered, “What would it look like on the watercolor painting I made yesterday?” I had been viewing the painting as a failure as it had not turned out at all like I wanted it to. But looking at it through fresh eyes today, I enjoyed the abstract bright colors. I placed the flower on the painting and began making photographs. What a difference that colorful background made in how I felt about the images I made.
Though the flower was fading, the beauty of it continued to radiate.
That beauty helps me appreciate my aging body that doesn’t quite work as well as it used to. There is still beauty and grace and capability even if I cannot do everything I used to do.
When was the last time you listened to your creative spark?
May you walk in beauty.
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