Tag: creativity

Humble Before My Creation

There is something I came to understand when I was seventeen. Something that myself as an artist and possible many other artists out there, came to understand about their creative works.

This world is full of stories. The world thrives on stories of all kinds – may the stories be of gossip, news of the day by the strumming bard’s lute and song, or by stories to teach from teacher to student. A whole countless collection of fictions and real life tales of days gone by.

Each of these stories, told by many over the centuries, may take on a unique quality of existence. A life of their own far away into the universe. In an alternate universe maybe, just maybe, the stories we create to share with one another, the storyteller’s world becomes flesh; real with time in an alternate universe and world.

If this be true, the storyteller would never know of their creation being flesh. The physics of our world forbids us passage to such worlds, at least for now. The only way close enough for the storyteller to touch their creation is through television shows and movies and plays on a stage.

This is where the storyteller who created their fictional world cries; weeps for joy seeing their world made flesh. A happiness that no other artist, save for the team that helps put the fictional world into flesh, could understand what that feels like inside the heart.

Having come to realize this so long ago and revisiting it now, knowing the hard work it takes to edit a manuscript to full polished beauty for agents and publishers, I feel humble and grounded. With the hope of a final product waiting in the wings of my mind and on the page…I am more humble before my creation than ever for whatever it may become.

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Garden of Future Possibilities

There are those creatures in your mind that claim to take control of you when you are not looking.  These creatures of the mind have many names – Depression, Anger, Fear, Sadness, Melancholy, Moody, and Demon. They whisper in your mind’s inner ear hurtful; untrue things to us.  They pretend to know us with calm voices, angry voices, emotional voices to sound like you.  The way to hush these creatures inside us, these demons is to force them into submission.  Crack a whip at them like venom from a snake.  Crack that whip as loudly as you can inside your mind.

The demon Depression is among all the others in your Garden of Doubt.  You stroll through it careful not to step on any of them so not to rouse their sleeping heaps of flesh and shadow.  Soon, you find an ‘interesting’ demonic Depression or Fear.  You walk up softly to it, and as the demon awakens, snarls at you throwing its venomous words your way, you stand tall and crack that whip of Submission. The sound is mighty loud as though Zeus the God of Thunder himself threw a bolt at the Demon’s feet.

Cracking the whip once more, “NO! You are my bitch! You come with me! NOW!”

That very moment the Demon Depression has a steel collar around its neck.  Demon Depression whimpers, but then screams at you obedience hoping you’ll cave in.  You crack the whip once more, the Demon cowers back and follows you to your work space.

Crack the whip again and point, “Get over there to the wall! Chain yourself or else!” The Demon growls angerly at you, but then gazes at the whip and obediently takes its place against the mighty Wall of Faith.  Looking upon this Demon of Depression chained by all four limbs, you study it to great detail.  Then, a light bulb goes off over your head!  You star to write!  You star to paint! You take a break from the work and you dance with glee at what you created from said Demon of Depression. Soon the work is done. You admire the beauty of what you created.  As you hand your piece onto your Wall of Creation, you look back to see that the Demon of Depression has shrunk in size to that of a puppy. The darkened colors of blues, purples, sickening greens and brownish-yellows has all be faded out. All that is left of the Demon of Depression’s colors are transparent, fading ever so more and more as the life energy from it’s darkness has been transformed by your work of inspiration.

Just before the Demon of Depression fully disappears, it transforms into a seed.  A single seed in a shape it chose to be – pastel colors in oval shape?  A glorious gold in shape of a twenty side dice? Silvery shimmers come off of it like light from the sun or moon as you old it in your hand. You hold the seed close to your chest as you smile with love all around you. Turning away from the Garden of Doubt, you open a gate to another garden – the Garden of Future Possibilities. You walk through the garden with pride. For each battle with the Garden of Doubt, you reap what you sow of the seeds in which the Demons transformed into.  The Garden of Future Possibilities is colorful beyond measure. The colors are endless. The flowers of all kinds of shapes are endless and beautiful.

Finding an empty place to bury the seed, you place it in the hole and cover it in the good tilled earth. Water it with light. Give it plenty of shine from your soul. Watch your garden grow with strength of your heart.

What will you find in your Garden of Future Possibilities? You won’t know until you put that Demon of Depression into submission. You are the Master of Depression. It will be hard work to fight them all even if you have thousands to face every day. It is your job to face them, but remember you don’t have to do it alone. Call a friend to help you fight the demons with you. You are not alone in your darkened garden. There is light and love waiting to help you. Reach out. I know you can do it.

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