Gardening at Night
Welcome to our ongoing chat about creativity and navigating of its worlds of charm and mystery. This article will focus on creativity and time and how to use the two in a balanced way to make your best work. The title of this article comes from a cozy old R.E.M. song called “Gardening at Night.” Gardening is a lovely metaphor of course for creativity. Night can stand for the concept of time, the unconscious/creative/hidden self, or the shadow- to name a few. I am fascinated by time’s relationship with the creative self; the former being our worldly realm of deadlines and finite boundaries, the latter being a complete “free for all” of unlimited possibility. As any editor or company that I have designed for can tell you, I can be maddeningly frustrating to deal with regarding deadlines. I truly need a time deadline to force me to create and birth something, as the creative part of me resides in a world of "no-time" and requires something to focus on. But I am equally frustrated by our culture’s speed of light pace, and the fact that something of quality often takes time to make. The irony is that great creative work can be executed quite quickly (van Gogh being a perfect example), but ideas do require what I call “percolation time” to grow and work themselves out. I will explore some approaches that have worked for me to deal with our culture and time’s demands, while developing a fruitful interaction with our creative self.
Our creative self is the place where creativity springs from. I could just as well say your “right brain”, Spirit, or the Great Realm of Unmanifested Possibility. I hope you get the idea. This is the repository of all the creative things you will ever create, speak, sing, write about, or live-and it holds the past, present, and future in no particular order! I have grown humble enough to realize that my best work does not originate from my ego but from this other vessel or place. I love the strange accidents that happen in creating that lead to a far better piece. My ego may hold one image in its mind and I must always try to remember to make room for the part of me that holds an even better idea or image so that it may bloom instead. Your creative self/storehouse must be approached with respect and tenderness. You must knock on its door and patiently wait for its answer. Imagine setting the seeds-your initial ego ideas-in a basket at its threshold and in the nighttime something beautiful will surely grow. Your everyday self and your dream/creative self is a relationship of equals; one to be aware of, appreciated, and never taken for granted. You don't have to have an idea to begin creating, you can simply make regular time to sit with your favorite materials and let your creative self move your hands and get to work.
Intention is also another important piece to hold in mind before you begin or during the creation of a new work. What particular emotion or quality of energy would you like to express? What would you like another to feel upon experiencing your work? You can simply intend to have alot of fun and experience as much freedom as you can when you scrapbook or create. It can just take a moment and can really impact your experience in a more positive way. You can also set the intention that you are going to love whatever you create, however much it diverges from your initial ideas of what you wanted it to be.
When I create I walk a fragile line between faith that something good will arrive on the page, and that whatever it is will be authentically “me”. Another irony-that what you create does not originate from the everyday you, and yet it is absolutely and authentically you and no one else but you. It is a tricky dance to both control and not control, and that is alot like life, so creativity is always good practice. There is a great workbook/saying by Cheri Huber called “How you do anything is how you do everything.” You may find that how you approach creativity is alot like how you live your whole life, so take advantage of practicing new approaches to your creativity and it will surely rub off on the rest of your life.
Time is where the “rubber hits the road”-where the unconscious has a place to land in our world of the physical. The clock ticking may seem to have a tangible boundary, but if you are truly present in creating, time can contract and expand in remarkable ways to channel what the creative self holds. Time can stop if you are engrossed in a work. If I want to really focus on something creative, and I have a limited amount of time to do it, I will ritually remove my watch and turn off the radio or any other worldly markers of time. I’ll write down all the other things that need to be done in my life, set my intention for that piece, and then get to work. Having a clear mind to focus is key, because your brain will constantly being reminding you of all the things you need to do if you don’t write them down. I highly recommend the book “Getting Things Done” by David Allen. His work has helped me immensely in dealing with time and the demands of all there is to do in a grounded and practical way. Even if you have only 20 minutes to create something, you will be quite amazed at what can be accomplished if you only have that clear brain! You will always have other parts of your personality with other agendas that may not honor your creative projects and ideas. Hold a place in your mind, or even a container on your desk, that these personalities can hang out in while you work, and promise them you’ll let them out again when you’re done.
Well, my time is out! I hope this was in service to you. Slow is where the soul is, but time deserves a place of honor too!
Kimberly Hodges
