The light at the end of the tunnel...

Can I just give a 'shout out' for a minute?

(No, not to Neal Stephenson and his latest novel 'Anathem' from which the above shot is bit, though you should check the book for real...)

To the creative process.

Yes, a shout out to the muse, The Spirit, that divine spark.

So, I spend the last two days basically farting around.  Part of that is due to extreme (borderline burnout) fatigue and general transitional-listlessness and another part is because I need to be creative.  Of course, anyone who does any kind of consistently-creative work knows that you can't really manufacture creativity.  Sure, you can cultivate work-ethic, you can invite the muse (see 'The War of Art' shout out of Jeff C. Kelly on that one...) but, at the baseline, you can't really force the muse to do anything for you.  

Then, two hours ago, I sit down and SLAM out two huge, new, life-changing, multi-hundred thousand dollar impacting treatments in twenty minutes flat.

The Spirit does what The Spirit will.

And we're just along for the ride.

So you are likely to spend several days at a time, maybe longer, feeling like your life is going nowhere and, depending on the relative (in)security of your life, you'll feel like your inaction is slowly dooming you to a rapid demise.

I'm here to remind you to 'chill out and trust the process.

I just said to my wife that I'm amazed to have been working with myself for all these years and to still find myself uncomfortable with and scared by the creative process in my life.

I think it comes down to a general unease with the lack of control that is assumed in any creative pursuit.

If you can't make it happen, you can't make it happen.

You can work, you can put yourself in the position to work, you can listen and be sensitive but you can't make it happen.

Remember that it will.

Happen.

So, don't rush into writing that script.  Until you can 'see' the thing--fully formed--in your head, wait.  Until that proposal fair 'sings' with passion and urgency in your mind, don't pitch it to your boss.  Wait.  Don't pop the question yet.  Wait.  Don't force it.  Wait.  Don't fret about it either.  Just wait.  Read the passage and wait for it to sing to you.  Wait to see what The Spirit is saying to His Church...

If there is a Creator and/or if our creative impulses are rooted in a greater creativity than is ours alone you must assume that the very nature of sometime-creativity suggests that creativity is and that means that creativity will come to you.

As you wait.

T