Why do we so, often berate ourselves when we feel unable to begin a new piece of creative work immediately on finishing the last? We worry about losing the thread of our creative habit and we feel guilty for needing to rest. Yet, how successful do you think it would be to sow seeds into hard, weed-filled, denuded ground where last season's plants still languished?
If we want new plants to grow in our garden, we need to hoe out all the weeds or annuals whose season has past. We need to loosen and aerate the soil. We must make sure the whole area has been leveled off so that one part doesn't end up benefitting from rain and watering more than another. Then, finally, we must add nutrients. Once we've done all of this, its good to leave the area fallow for a few weeks to let the nutrients be absorbed by the soil.
Just as we prepare the soil in order to be able to successfully grow next season's plants, so too do we need to prepare both our physical and psychic creative terrain in order to ready ourselves to create again.
In the creative cycle, preparing the ground is when we achieve closure on one piece or stage of work and mark the transition to the beginning of another. Its the time when we tidy up the clutter that has accumulated in our workspace during the previous craze of creativity; The time when we assess how the last phase went and how we might proceed with the next; Its the moment when we try, once again, to 'weed out' old, non-productive thoughts or habits and prepare our creative ground for fresh growth. Its also the time when we nourish ourselves, we feed our creative souls and we replenish some of what we have expended in the previous creative act.
Preparing the ground may not seem like the most exciting of gardener's tasks but tackled in the right frame of mind it can be a cathartic break from our usual routine and one that we can be sure will reward us in the not-so-distant future with a brand new bed of healthy blooms.
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2 comments:
Muy buen artículo, lo disfruté bastante, y pienso que precisamente el sembrar o el vivir una vida donde se observan de manera natural y sin intervenciones externas y propias de la "civilización" nos permite entender la naturaleza cíclica del universo que se expresa en todo, incluyéndonos. Eso es me parece, lo más sano y la mejor forma de vivir y existir, sin embargo, nuestra cultura actual parece estar mucho más enfocada en lo que erróneamente calificamos como exitoso y productivo y consideramos que todo lo que carezca de resultados comprobables, visibles o prácticamente utilitarios es inútil, banal y una pérdida de tiempo. Qué error!
No es de a gratis que cada vez haya más estrés en personas de todas edades, depresión y demás tristes y dolororsas manifestaciones de la falta de equilibrio en nuestras vidas.
El alma también necesita nutrirse, el pozo llenarse como bien dices.
Buena reflexión! Un abrazo.
'nuestra cultura actual parece estar mucho más enfocada en lo que erróneamente calificamos como exitoso y productivo y consideramos que todo lo que carezca de resultados comprobables, visibles o prácticamente utilitarios es inútil, banal y una pérdida de tiempo. Qué error!'
For the benefit of the non-Spanish speakers amongst us: 'Our present culture focuses on that which we erroneously value as successful and productive and we consider everything that doesn't have verifiable or visible results or at least a practical application as useless, banal and a waste of time. What a mistake!'
Absolutely right, Vanyvalu, and what makes it even more difficult is that - like the seasons in different parts of the world - each of us has different capacities for different aspects of our lives. I might need a three months to revive my creativity, someone else might do quite as well with three days or three hours. The biggest stress-inducer of all is the way that we try to be like other people instead of expending our energies in understanding who WE are and what WE need.
Un abrazo a ti también :-)
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