Creativity requires the courage to let go
of certainties.
Eric Fromm
Seducing the muses in to play is hardly ever very easy. It seems require a balancing act of showing up, doing the hard yards of being available with the blank canvas and the willingness to begin even when you have no idea where you're going, with switching off, the art of doing nothing, idleness, allowing dream space. All those creative ideas amount to nothing if you don't show up and make marks, write words, hit the notes. Many creatives will speak of the hard work, the routine and regular hours, the 100 bad paintings before they get to a good one. This all needs to be offset with the opening, creating space for dream work, for noticing new connections, for imagining new things, for allowing the subconscious to churn it all up and spit out something new. These seemingly contradictory practices are integral to each other. Together they form a certain "Wise Effort", actively seeking while simultaneously releasing and staying open. Keeping these two in balance with each other is at the center of my practice. Today I showed up but the muses failed to come and whisper to me and as I reflect on it I know that after weeks with a sick household and the ensuing cabin fever, what I need is to take myself out into the forest, to walk the solitude and certainty of the trees, to sit at the foot of a waterfall and to surrender to Wise Effort, to touch the ground.
