The Spacious Disciplined Community-filled Vulnerable Communicator

Oh hey there, my blog! Long time, no see.

I've been wanting to write for three months now. Something's been stewing for some time, I just haven't been able to identify what it was...what am I learning, and about what do I actually want to write? If you know me well you know that I'm thinking about a LOT almost CONSTANTLY, so you'd think I'd be well versed in the ability to pinpoint the answers to those questions. I eventually get there, but usually things must steep for quite some time...which can be frustrating to me, and frustrating to others. (Shout out to those few sweet, wonderfully patient, safe people who allow me to verbally figure myself out and listen when to me it feels like a mystical jumble of words. I find that this handful of people has been growing lately, and for that I am filled with gratitude. I appreciate you.)

Jumping right in

Before leaving Chicago for Christmas break in Albuquerque, I posted a picture to Instagram stating that reflections on 'space' were forthcoming: "I've been thinking a lot about space lately...not the final frontier kind, just space to exist, think, create, and be. More on that later". Now is as good a time as any to explore the thoughts that have been percolating over the last semester on space (and beyond) insofar as it applies to the components of creativity.

So, what are the main components of creative expression?

Space

To some degree I believe that the majority of Americans have subjected themselves to endless seasons of ceaseless activity. It is a culture that we have cultivated to our detriment to the point where 'self-care', rest, and 'being' are social movements that have to be taught. Our eyes, necks, and fingers are perpetually plugged into our devices that we do not allow ourselves down time, times of silence, or times of reflection (for it is in these times that we actually begin to confront the larger questions in life - the ones that truly matter, and we're frightened). This perpetuates our feelings of harried-ness, our pressure to be something else, compare our lives, as we grasp for things that we do not currently have, unable to be thankful for what is ours, unable to sprout new thoughts of our own, incapable of being curious, unable to explore. However, when we make room for that space, we can find that uprising from the doldrums of boredom spring new ideas, inquiries, inspiration, and invention. When I am endlessly tired from ceaseless input and activity, I have no energy to create.

I just finished a season of busy harried-ness. While in this season  I found myself longing for the space to create, for boredom, and for a blank canvass of time.

Discipline

I finally got that blank canvass of time.

Currently, in a four-week season of 'space', I've had almost literally nothing to do.

(...As far as routine goes. I've made stuff to do...Related side note, there's nothing like not having a schedule for an extended period of time to remind you that humans are meant for work and purpose.)

My break consisted of four weeks. The first week I spent sleeping and getting over altitude sickness. (Albuquerque is over five-thousand feet higher than Chicago.) The second was family focused. The third and fourth have been spent back in Chicago where insomnia and extreme loneliness hit. I've been doing a lot of reading, a lot of podcasting (listening to not making of), a lot of thinking, and a lot of exercising.

And a lot of avoiding. Yup. Avoiding.

Where space is available, there must also be discipline. Without discipline and the decision to just DO something, just START, even with ample space, nothing is created. Whatever your process, whether it's scheduling time to create, or making yourself put pen to paper, finger to keyboard, palm to paintbrush, or breath to vocal-fold, just begin. Your creativity is a blessing waiting to happen, not only for yourself, but for others as well.

Which leads me to...

Community

Creativity is never done in a vacuum. There is nothing truly new under the sun.With the exception of YHWH, who created ex nihilo (out of nothing), we always have something influencing our creativity. YHWH, as the Triune God, Creator out of nothing, Beginner and Originator of all things, created in community with Himself. The Creation account in Genesis 1 makes it clear that the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters, and the first four verses of the first chapter of John clearly state that Jesus was with God in the beginning and through Him everything was made.

Our creations are never solely our own. Yes, we may add a new twist, and of course we offer our own perspective and life experiences to whatever we touch, but we stand on the shoulders of thinkers and creators who have gone before us. We learn from their mistakes, improve on or seek to emulate their successes. We ruminate on their styles, their approaches, their time-period, their socio-economic status, etc., and all these factors (and more) affect our own creations. Our creations are made better because we explore the thoughts of others, while seeking to maintain a desire for growth and understanding, and we express these things through our own works.

Furthermore, creation in community is Truth-seeking. When left to our own devices, holed up in an apartment somewhere for two weeks alone (ahem), our minds tend to turn inward, we become self-focused, navel-gazing, and often depressed...(I wonder who she's talking about?). But when we open ourselves up to community, to the people who love us, and also to the thought processes of those whom we don't understand, we have a broader understanding of knowledge other than our own, of experiences other than our own, and our world becomes a little more we-focused than me-focused.

Our creations are often from a single-person perspective - an expression of something you the creator have been through - but your creation is still not a result of your being the only being in the world. Your creation was shaped by an experience which was most likely caused by other humans in your little world, which is part of the large, messy, beautiful winding tapestry of all humans in the world - community.

This certainly does not mean that every work of art must be done in collaboration. Of course not. I am saying, though, that it is naive to think that our creations are ours alone. We are influenced and shaped by those around us, and we are the better for it.

Furthermore, placing your own creation out in the world for others to see means that is is now part of the influencing sphere. It is available to look at, ponder, hear, agree with, disagree with, touch, hate, love, talk about, discuss...this in of itself can be terrifying, which brings us lastly to...

Vulnerability

Oh vulnerability, you saucy little minx. You seduce us and repel us simultaneously. We're both horrified of and drawn to you. We admire those who've learned to use you well, saying we wish could be more like them, but we also criticize the same, saying, they share too much, they are too much.

For any human the process of creating is one that reveals the inner world of the self. In this way creativity is very raw. It's a grappling with emotions and influences, thoughts, and imagination. Sometimes it's a reconciling of a hurt, of a past, seeking to understand emotions that are still very present. At the time of creation and presentation, the emotions that we focus on are our own. The fear of rejection, of not being good enough, of being weird, of failure, mixed with the fear of not completing something, the fear of not accomplishing a calling, or expressing something well enough, of not doing a feeling or a message justice; these all co-exist in those moments of creation and presentation. But as creators, we have to try.

The dictionary of human emotions is a deep and endless pool which separates and connects us - for though we may not share the exact same emotion stemmed from the exact same situation at the exact same time (separates), we all have some point in time where we can identify a similar emotion (connects). However, the revealing of the self provides opportunity for another to find agreement, and to give voice to their own experience. Vulnerability sows vulnerability. Vulnerability levels humanity on the same playing field. Vulnerability creates opportunity for understanding. In this way vulnerability ties into community. We truly benefit others when we dare to be courageous enough to reveal that which would seem safer to conceal.

Vulnerability is the shaking hand of courage, acknowledging that this 'piece of me' could touch and encourage you, my neighbor.

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I'd love to hear your thoughts on these things! Do you consider yourself creative? If not, why? What do you like to create/how do you perform? What is your process? What would you like to create? What are your thoughts on Space, Discipline, Community, and Vulnerability? What might you add to this list? What would you change? Feel free to comment here, or under the Facebook/Instagram post. I'd love to hear from creatives in all art-forms. How have you experienced these things in your creative journey?

Stay tuned for an upcoming post where I'll explore some of the ways that these things have been manifesting themselves in my own journey through the discovery of my voice.