To be born creative, is to enter life inextricably conjoined with an exquisite hindrance.
We emerge into our lives governed by powerful innate urges; the insistent curiousity to experience new things; the exhausting swoon of constantly witnessing beauty in places others may not see it; an irrefusable necessity to obsessively *convey* through brush strokes, words, images, forms, or dance.
To be born creative, is to walk slowly through Venice, Italy — and while everyone else is people-watching, looking in the storefront windows, admiring the gondolas skimming across the smooth water of the quiet canals; your eyes and mind are skyward, completely transfixed by the patterns, textures, color, movement and connections between the crumbling bricks, aging wood, patches of concrete, growths of mold, splotches of grime, and the interplay between the sunlight and gusty November breezes among the freshly washed bed-and-bathroom linens of the local residents.
To be born creative, is to grow accustomed to spending time alone. We leave the well-trodden thoroughfares and walk in directions others may have never considered — not just in the brick and mortar world, but also in realms of conscious thought. Even while surrounded by crowds, we’re often alone in our perceptions and our intentions.
The work we produce requires a singular focus of its own. It’s a solitary process. This recurring isolation to which we submit ourselves is required to midwife our intentions from whence they’re conceived into the physical reality of this world.
To be born creative, is to be fueled-and-fatigued by empathy. It’s as if we’re electromagnetic antennas receiving and amplifying the loves, hurts, desires, anguishes, hatreds, pains, joys, jealousies, happinesses, numbnesses, and uncertainties of the entire population.
The thoughts, feelings, ideas, and creations come through us, not necessarily from us.
The same empathy that powers our creativity also fuels our self doubt. It makes us feel the indifference of others too deeply. Don’t let the lack of reaction to your passion hinder you. Let those feelings wash through you; cleanse you. Channel that doubt into persistent momentum. Keep creating until the sheer truthful force of your authenticity delivers you the correct audience.
Don’t let anyone shake the confidence you have in your ability to provide value.
Never stop taking the next step, however far away from the crowd it may lead.
If it weren’t for us creatives visiting the distant horizons, the lower levels of the dark abyss, and the blindingly bright vertigo heights — always bringing back a little of of what we saw mixed with a little of ourselves — the rest of humanity might never know what else is out there in the world, or buried deep within the human heart.
