The 12 Days of Creativity… Day 10.
In Station 10, you enter the final quarter of the Wheel, where the new thing takes shape and finds independence. From your simple longing for something more, you have manifested a new form. But that form needs to mature if it is to serve a purpose in the world at large. The Cultivation quarter is where that work is done, and Station 10 is the first part of that work.
Station 10 is Nurturing. It is the mothering energy of the creative process. It accepts the new thing unconditionally and protects it from outside criticism and judgment until it is strong enough to withstand it. This quarter is where you begin to integrate the masculine and feminine energies of creation, as they work together to protect and perfect the new form.
This station is an integral part of every creative process. It may last days or months. It can occur when life is in full swing or may require a time of withdrawal. But if it is bypassed, the new thing will emerge in the world immature and underdeveloped. Its capacity to truly serve the world will be thwarted.
I can cite several periods of my life where I’ve been given the opportunity to nurture a new thing to maturity, and other times when Life has nurtured me.
For me, being led to France was a mystery of perfect design. When I left the USA, I had no idea that it was France to which I was being called, much less what would nourish me there. I was an ambitious, driven, self-employed writer and producer. I knew my life was out of balance, but I had been unwilling to let go of anything. I thought I was taking a short timeout from the life I would return to in a few weeks. I couldn’t know what I didn’t know.
I’ve often said that the US and France are strong in opposite domains: the US is a master of doing, and France is a master of being… la vie quotidienne (daily life). My time in France showed me another way to view the world and another way to live; and, by offering me my opposite, it brought me naturally into balance. As I became more accepting of the process of my life, I found that Life itself nourishes me. And it teaches me how to nourish the new things it sends me for creation.
Sometimes it is you who nurtures, and sometimes it is Life which nurtures you. This is true of every station, as the process of creation is a collaboration with life itself. This dance between the world and life and you is a dance between Form and Essence, between the perimeter of the Wheel and its center, with you as the bridge between the two. The work you create in the world is a reflection of the work you do within; the work within frames the expression.
The experience of Station 10 is tenderness, and its task is to protect the fledgling new form. Today, as you contemplate your vision, become a steward of it. Hold it with tender loving acceptance, while it matures into a form all its own.
