THE WHEEL OF CREATIVITY®

It was one of those moments in life that come by surprise, bearing unexpected gifts. I was walking to meet a friend for coffee when I got a text asking if we could meet 15 minutes later. With the extra time, I decided to take a different route. As I turned around, I met this couple beside me on the street.

I do not know them. They did not see me. I did not speak. But, in that passing instant, Life gave me a gift I shall not forget.

I witnessed, first on the woman’s face and then the man’s, the light of love. For her, it came as the coy kind of smile that might have lit up her face 50 years earlier; her look expressed something daring, innocent, knowing and rare. For him, it came as a look of sweet surprise, as if he had just seen the love of his life for the first time in as many years. It was a moment of intimacy, tenderness and love. And I was privileged to be there.

Such moments are fleeting. I count myself fortunate to have gotten that text and to have changed my mind. Had I continued up that sidewalk, this lovely couple would have been walking behind me. Their private moment would have passed between them, unnoticed by me. I was not looking for this moment, but I am richer for it.

Every moment in life is rich with possibility, especially the moments we see as “getting there.” When we are willing to be surprised, willing to be touched, willing to engage, we open the door for Life to come in. Life is always in the street with presents, and it’s looking for collaborators. How we respond is our choice, and that choice can be creative.

What gifts have you found in the street today? How are you responding?

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Ferran Adrià has a new project. The celebrated chef, whom Spain has made a national icon, has taken Spanish restaurant elBulli to what is now accepted as the best restaurant in the world. Now he is closing his doors and preparing the next course.

According to one of the 8,000 diners per year who defeat a million other people vying for reservations at elBulli, Adrià’s beyond-innovative cuisine extends their experience of what life can be. If I were speaking, I’d probably use the term ‘spiritual experience’, but I haven’t been fortunate enough to dine there. Thought I must say, just a visit to elBulli’s website is a mouthwatering, not to mention inspiring, experience.

With the support of now 70 international chefs in his kitchen, Adrià has created 1,800 envelope-pushing recipes in his 25 years there.  His joy is creation; his medium is food. His next step is to share that with the world.

Adrià’s project is to turn elBulli the restaurant into elBulli the foundation.

Adrià has always loved mixing cuisine with other disciplines, and his latest is telecommunications. With R&D from Spanish telephone company Telefónica, Adrià will create the world’s largest digital recipe exchange. Using technology to embed recipes in kitchen gadgets and even Andrià himself as an avatar, he will bring his cuisine to the people.

Adrià hopes the elBullifoundation will “change the relationship between creativity and society,” giving people all around the world the chance to engage with him creatively from their own homes. He calls it “a social project to continue creating and to share everything by Internet.”

As quoted in his interview with CNN Revealed, Adrià said, “The most important work is theoretical, to have ideas. The rest is trial and error.” Adrià recognizes that in order to keep your creative edge, you have to be free. You have to upset the status quo. Quite a courageous act as his stage of the game. Felicidad, Señor Adrià. We’ll be watching!

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“If you don’t design your life, someone else will design it for you.” (Nigel Marsh)

What ever gave us the idea we could delegate this to anyone else? No company, no government, no spouse, no circumstance is responsible for the fact that I don’t (or do) have the life I want. In this 10-minute video of his May 2010 TED talk in Sydney, Nigel Marsh describes his way home to the center of his life.

Nigel Marsh at TED Sydney

Nigel Marsh is one, like me, who had to leave the grid for a while to discover that there is a different way to live. This begins the cycle of the creative process.

Surf’s up! Enjoy the ride!

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“To establish a place of work where engineers can feel the joy of technological innovation, be aware of their mission to society, and work to their heart’s content.”

Masaru Ibuka (Co-founder, Sony Corporation)

Seems to me Ibuka had a good idea for the rest of us.

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Throughout the Western world today, love is on display. Hearts, diamonds, chocolates, champagne and red roses, the symbols are everywhere, usually showered on us by commercial cupids to get us to buy their products. But where is the soul of love in our lives today?

In some parts of the world, such as France, Valentine’s Day is only for lovers; but when I was a child, it was for everyone.

Valentine’s Day was fun. We celebrated at school with small flat cutout cards, 30 to a box, envelopes included. Enough for everyone in my class, we all gave them and we all got them. Not because we were special (though there were always one or two that felt different from the rest), but because we were there… and it was Valentine’s Day.

The love we celebrate today is good old-fashioned romantic love. But it is not the only kind. In ancient Greek, there were four words for love, generally understood today as:

1. Éros:  romantic, sensual longing, passionate love
2. Philia:  loyalty, equanimity, enjoyment, virtuous love
3. Storge:  parental affection, family love
4. Agápe:  high regard, contentment, unconditional love

In the face of myriad marketing messages of love, it is easy to lose sight of its true creative power to change the world.  It was Mozart who put it best for me:  “The soul of creativity is love… love… love.” In my experience, the love that flows through a creative spirit encompasses every other kind.

So today, whether your status is married, in a relationship or single, think about the power you have to give. There is nothing more creative than that.

Give love. Live love. Dare to live creative.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

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I love Seth Godin! Well, actually I love my husband. But Seth Godin inspires me with his pragmatically creative approach to doing whatever you do. Last night, I watched his 2009 talk for TED Talks… Ideas Worth Spreading. And his certainly are.

The title of Seth’s 17-minute talk is Seth Godin on the tribes we lead. He began with the statement that the creation and implementation of ideas have moved on. In a sense, this change is taking us back to humanity’s early days of tribal living. In fact we need to live in tribes. Does this ring a bell inside? It did for me.

Isolation may be the modern-day plague, creating a sense of malaise and listlessness that weakens us individually as well as collectively. It’s ironic, isn’t it, that in the Tech Age, we have such an opportunity to connect with people who share our passions. Yet, we are still using it in the old way, and we still feel disconnected.

Seth spoke straight to me when he said that people are waiting for us to connect them.

The Wheel of Creativity is a framework for connecting:

1. Connect with yourself. What do you long for?
2. Connect with the Source of all ideas. What needs to be created?
3. Connect with the people who share your longing. Who’s waiting for just that?

If each of us simply listened to our own personal longings and acted as if they were the guideposts to our creative paths, the world would be a different place.

So, today, I leave you with Seth Godin and three questions he has embedded in my mind:

1. Who are you upsetting?
2. Who are you connecting?
3. Who are you leading?

Not everyone will agree with you. But someone will breathe a sigh of relief that you are putting it out there. And a tribe will form around you.

Connect. Create. Live.

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This past weekend I had the opportunity to visit Cornwall for the second time. I was thrilled, knowing I would be there, to get back to what has been called “the eighth wonder of the world” – the Eden Project. Each time I go, I feel like a kid again; each time I learn something more about our planet.

The Eden Project is an environmental tourist attraction delighting and educating thousands of visitors every year. Two major biomes – one of which houses the largest indoor rainforest in the world – nurture plants brought here from all over the world. Kids and grownups alike have fun while learning exactly how we are connected to the earth.

The Eden Project is the result of one man’s creative vision and those who joined him in his creative process. More than 12 years ago, Tim Smit had an idea to reclaim a gaping hole in the Earth (an old china clay pit) and build on its depleted surface a visitor attraction that would educate and entertain thousands of visitors about the earth. It took 2 ½ years for the team, led by architect Nicholas Grimshaw and engineering firm Anthony Hunt and Associates, to construct the project. It will celebrate its 10^th anniversary on 17 March of this year.

All it takes to change the world is one person with a vision and the commitment to see it through. Creativity is nothing if not this, big ideas sprouting and growing from nothing in small corners all over the world. As I have been fortunate to travel a fair amount in recent years, I have seen dozens of these corners; and they never cease to inspire me.

Every corner of the world has someone like Tim Smit in it with an idea waiting to be born. So I have decided to share the best of these with you here – postcards from the creative process – in hopes they will inspire you too. What is your corner waiting for from you?

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Last night, as I was removing the lid from a scorching-hot oven dish, I was stunned into slow time as the escaping steam engulfed the fingers on my right hand. By the time I got the glass lid down onto the counter and my hand under the coldwater tap, four fingers were badly burned.

I was frightened. I felt the panic in my heartbeat and heard the little-girl whimpers escaping my lips. I wanted to cry; but it was as if the responses were coming from someone else. As soon as I noticed that, after about 10 seconds, I let go. I decided to look for Life and its creative force instead.

It is a technique I first heard from a meditation teacher I met only once 15 years ago. She was out for a walk with her husband on the huge red boulders of Southern California, when he slipped off the edge and tumbled down the canyon wall. Spontaneously, she yelled to him, “Go to God!” I guess he must have, because he walked away.

Last night, I went to Life. It wasn’t a prayer exactly, but a choice to open and allow and receive. Slow time continued through the evening, as I sat with my hand in cold water and waited to see just how bad this burn was. The night was moistened with waves of excruciating pain, as my fingers grew swollen and redder. I slathered them in aloe and slept with a sock on my hand, conscious of its placement through the night. This morning, there is redness, stiffness, tenderness, but no blisters and no deep burn. I am truly grateful to be typing.

Last night’s opportunity is the counterpoint to one that came at the start of the week. Sunday afternoon, while doing dishes, I found a ladybug in the kitchen sink. I must have picked her up in the back garden and brought her in on my clothes, but here I was about to drown her.  I stopped everything and took her on my right hand to the sun. I wasn’t sure she was even still alive, but then she started to stretch her wings. It was a sweet moment. For about 10 minutes I sprawled out on the floor and enjoyed her company; I think she enjoyed mine because she would not let go until I put her back in her place in the garden.

Having earned my keep as a professional writer for more than 25 years, my hands and fingers are particularly important to me. Twice this week, they have been my teachers. They have reminded me in my very body what I know to be true… that the Creative Force of Life is flowing to me and through me all the time. It is flowing to you. Every breath you take, every moment’s experience is an opportunity for personal transformation.

Just Say Yes!

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