Your Creativity Has Seasons.
Let me share something I learned when I was still a teenager-- about art, creative endeavors...life:
Beautiful things happen when you find a larger movement in a smaller pattern.
This is a lesson I learned thanks to a wise studio art teacher when I was 16. I was struggling with a project, where a pattern had to repeat itself...I had these suns, starbursts that were not so bad in themselves but I couldn’t get them to hang together.
What is all this doing here? I hate this project. Is what I thought but didn’t say.
Ms. M didn’t explain, or speak, or ramble on--she just grabbed the sunbursts I’d designed in her wrinkled and always slightly shaking hands. And she began to play with them, arranging my sunbursts on the page--this way, that way...until suddenly, a movement appeared. Then another.
It gave all those little pieces I’d created meaning. Direction. Flow.
Since then, I’ve always remembered to look for the larger movements behind the details…
The symphony beyond the individual drums, winds and strings.
The sparkling path the stars make in the heavens,
The essential and the beautiful in a book as I turn page after page.
The message hiding in someone’s creative project...
The seasons in our creativity.
In fact, in our Tip of the Iceberg Writing Community, our writing follows seasons that take us through a year of creativity.
I may have never mentioned this before...and yet, here it is, hiding beneath the surface:
The larger movement in our work that brings us depth and direction.
Yes, we have smaller patterns--we read together, gather ideas, words, images, themes, characters...we come together monthly for writing sessions, and share our work. But there’s a hidden depth, a further pattern.
These creative seasons to guide us, to give us meaning...and to build resilience.
Knowing the Seasons in Your Creativity Keeps You Strong.
I say it all the time: so often, what is good for your life...is good for your writing, your creativity. Your creative projects.
Tapping into your creative seasons forges resilience. When you know your creativity (and your life) follows a larger rhythm, a fundamental pattern, you can see beyond the day to day.
You won’t get lost in your tiny repetitions: wake up, check email, (see how bad the news is), drink coffee, dread, procrastinate….get some things done...then lie in bed thinking about what I didn’t get done. Ok, maybe that’s a personal problem ;)
You’ll remember what matters most, where you’re going. What’s really important.
You’ll remember that you need people--humanity, Culture, inspiration, the arts… But that you also need silence, introspection, rest, moments to return within.
You’ll remember that you have a body, that you ARE a body. And you’ll think to get out of your head and BE in your body.
And your body? Well, it will naturally take you into the world, out to walk barefoot in the grass, out to travel and see new sights, cultures that will teach you about the world--and your place in it.
You’ll know something that will keep you strong and sure—that you’re not spinning your wheels endlessly, pointlessly. You’re revolving. With purpose.
Your writing will thank you. Your creativity will thank you.
And, of course, life feels different when you live by your seasons too…
Finding the larger movement in your creative endeavors changes everything.
It can seem inefficient, it can even seem unproductive, all of this looking within, this searching for patterns. It’s not simple. And? It’s not a linear process either. You can’t just check all the items off your list, tick, tick, tick and it’s finished.
But knowing what really matters to you? Knowing what makes you stronger, what you want to bring to life in your creative endeavors?
It’s worth being brave enough to try something a little messy, a little new.
Understanding the movement behind your creativity is the difference between:
Rowing in circles in your tiny dingy lost at sea day after day,
Or finally finding your north and setting off in the right direction.
On the days I wake up knowing I’m on the right path—life feels different.
Care to join me on a search for your creative seasons?
For a revolution around the sun. For a trip into meaning. For that first step in the right direction? I’ve got a few suggestions for you.
Here is our writer’s group, the place where a handful of us show up to take shelter in writing, creative work, and resilience.
And maybe you’re on your own path? You’ve got your own creative undertaking in mind? One of my favorite things to do is talk to writers, teachers, authors who have the direction, meaning, and flow right there in their hands...but just can’t see it. If that’s you? Get in touch.