Christmas is upon us.
So each day from now until December 25, drop by the Wheel of Creativity blog
for a deep breath of spirit in the midst of the festive flurry.
Let’s be creative and connected this Christmas!
It’s the best gift under the tree!
Lean back. Take a deep breath.
Look up from the screen. Relax.
Station 10 and the Wheel of Creativity gives me… a newborn to nurture
“Some say the creative life is in ideas, some say it is in doing.
It seems in most instances to be in a simple being.
It is not virtuosity, although that is very fine in itself.
It is the love of something, having so much love for something
—whether a person, a word, an image, an idea, the land, or humanity—
that all that can be done with the overflow is to create.”
– Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Ph.D.
Music has always touched me. Not just listening to it, but also making it. One day in 1992, inspired by the music of Peter Gabriel, I wrote a song about my own creative process—the journey of it—and all the creative “children” I had abandoned along the way.
Alone in the house that night, I left the handwritten sheet music on my keyboard and went to bed. I couldn’t sleep. I kept getting up and going back into my studio to check on it. At one point in the night, I realized this must be what new parents do. “Isn’t he beautiful?” “Is she still breathing?”
The tenderness flowed from somewhere deep within me, unconditional love for the New Thing I had mysteriously created. And I realized how rare this is. The judgments all too often rise up instead, flashing feelings more akin to shame than appreciation. The judging mind was there with “Not good enough,” but that night I managed to keep it at bay.
You would not expect a newborn baby to go to the office. Yet all to often we want our new creations to make money right out of the delivery room. Hold on a minute! The time for perfecting the New Thing will follow. For now, it needs protection and care. It’s okay. For today, just love what you’ve done. Just give what you have to give.
NURTURING is station 10 in The Wheel of Creativity.
What is needing your unconditional acceptance to grow today?