Creativity

To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong. Joseph Chilton Pearce

I don’t know where I received the message but as a child, the message I understood was that Art was frivolous. That working a job in business, was acceptable but creativity was something that foolish people persued.

As a child I devoured books. It didn’t matter if it was fiction or classic literature or encyclopedias. I dreamed of being an author. But I was terrified that if I ever said that dream out loud that I would be mocked or shamed for wanting to do something so silly.

I would hear music and songs and feel like I needed to move; that my body needed to express the sounds and feelings in movement. I wanted to write lyrics and dreamed of standing in front of crowds of thousands singing with all of my heart. But again, I was scared that if I tried, I might fail or worse, look foolish.

I saw art, paintings and sculptures, and my hands itched to create beauty but fear held me back from even trying, “because I might get it wrong, or not do it right.”

Somewhere along the way (and with an immense amount of therapy), the longing and desire to create, overwhelmed the fear. I have begun to accept the child inside of me who wanted to explode with creativity. I’m not a trained artist but I am creative. I live and breathe creativity. It’s like air to me. Without it, I feel like I’m strangling.

I feel like I’m finally starting to live authentically, as who I was created to be. I’m messy. I’m sensitive. I’d rather create something beautiful, different or weird than do just about anything else . I see beauty everywhere. I want to add more beauty to the world. I’m happiest when I’m creating. I want to inspire creativity. I want to encourage others to not be scared to just try; or to just do it, in spite of being scared. I want to encourage others that you can’t do art wrong. You can’t create beauty in a wrong way. You may see my art as mess and I may see it as beauty. We might both be right, and that’s okay.

Once, I started to let go of the fear of doing it wrong, the most amazing thing happened……i started to see beauty and creativity everywhere. I’m so aware that the things we do, create beauty…..and yet, I’m not so sure that people see it that way.

The programmer, the code he creates and what he can create with that code, is beautiful.

The teacher, who invests in the future, our children….they are creating beauty in and for our world.

The plumber or electrician, the way they can run pipes or wire and have pieces of equipment sing to each other….it’s beautiful.

Accountants create beauty within lines and spreadsheets and with money and it’s beautiful.

Librarians create order out of thousands of pieces of literature and they promote wonder and fantasy and knowledge with access to literature. That’s incredible.

A boss creates an intricate dance between employees. They can create a culture of respect and responsibility…….that’s amazing.

A mom literally creates human beings and then has the opportunity to mould and guide those beings into beauty …..that’s a fantastically beautiful thing.

The cashier who can Tetris a bag of groceries in the most incredible way AND communicate love and acceptance to the people they come in contact with……that’s art and it’s beautiful.

We, humans…..I believe we were created to create, to bring beauty into the world; and everything we do can be beautiful.

That doesn’t mean that there isn’t ugliness in the world, because there is……but we have the privilege and opportunity to bring beauty and light into the world, in whatever way we are passionate about…..and that’s amazing. My hearts cry is to create more beauty around me, to tip the scales and drown out the darkness.

We don’t all have to do it the same, nor should we. The diversity itself is beautiful.

I’m so very grateful for art and creativity and for the ability to contribute beauty into the world.

Have you ever considered that what you do brings beauty into the world? I’d love to hear how you create beauty.