Celebrate the Life of the Creative

Posted on June 19, 2017

Celebrate the creative among us,
Who roll out of bed of their own accord,
Without the outside pressure of a job held over their head.
Who answer to the inside yearning to create.

To sit down in solitude,
To pen and paper
To canvas and paints
To blank pages and blank screens
To a piano and a sheet of paper
To a recipe and a bunch of ingredients that are just beginning to introduce themselves to each other.

Who gently and vigorously labor to bring their creations to life,
Coaxing them skillfully to take their very first breath,
And open their eyes to a new world as yet unseen.

Web designers bringing web pages to life,
Artists bringing portraits and pictures to life,
Musicians bringing symphonies and compositions to life,
Authors bringing characters and plots to take their first steps.

It’s a lonely and rewarding life – the life of the creative.

If by chance others appreciate the work they do,
And hand over the currency of life for their creations,
It’s a sweet exchange – though it feels a bit like selling your first-born . . .
Watching as the new owner-admirer walks off with that chunk of your soul you’ve labored
And sweated over for hours, weeks, months, maybe years.
Knowing full well they will never appreciate it like you do.
Hoping that it doesn’t end up collecting dust
In a box in the attic, forgotten . . . far from admiring eyes.

But for the creative,
Many of them do it if they never, ever get paid.
The process of creating is their reward.
To step back and admire that creation
That came out of their mind
And into the world, for the very first time,
Is like nothing quite known to man.

Not everyone gets to experience it.
Not everyone appreciates it.

As children, unbridled creativity was our birthright,
Playing for hours with silly things,
Turning them into our master inventions and masterpieces.
Cardboard boxes transformed into rocket ships to the galaxies,
Books read late at night took us on journeys to far off lands,
Introducing us to characters that would be life-long companions.

But slowly we give over that creative spirit
To schedules, to the agendas others place on our life,
To school and jobs,
To being told to color INSIDE the lines.

But for the creative, they know a truth the teachers can’t teach,
That while teaching, they have yet to learn . . .
That Life, real life, happens outside the lines.

They tell us how we should behave
And what we should think.
Go here! Do this, not that!
Think this! Say this!
Get back in line!

And slowly that spirit of the creative gets replaced — not quenched, but overshadowed.
It’s still there, but dormant, in stasis, suspended.
It awaits the day and hour,
Sometimes far into the future,
Where a gentle well-timed wind blows in just the right way
To cause the dying embers to slowly glow again.
And that magic moment occurs when the creative in you
Slowly and steadily roars back into flame.

So celebrate this day,
This opportunity you have to be a creative.
Enjoy it. Embrace it. Admire it. Adore it. Jealously guard it.
It may not always be your lot in life.
But while the opportunity exists, take it for a spin.
Let it whisk you to new heights of thrill and adventure.

And when you come back down to earth, those of us who don’t fully understand
Your talent, and the frustration you experience in bringing your gifts to the world,
Will do our best to admire both the life of the creative — that’s you,
and the life of the creative — what you brought into being by your imagination and tenacity.

That creation that before you came along,
Refused to open its eyes to the new world.
Because, it responds to your voice, and yours alone.

(Author: Grant Higgins)

Categories: Musings