It’s a couple of months since I’ve posted, and here we all are, my friends; another full circle on the calendar, the holidays with us yet again. This is always, always my very favorite time of year- it’s magic, and if there’s a lack of that in your universe, just call me. There’s always room for another plate at the table, and plenty for us all.
Frankly, magic was not much on my mind the last few months and so it’s reappearance is quite welcome. I’ve been “inside” for a bit- working through the complexities of life, love and necessity, which made more room for work than inspiration. The good news is that all of the pragmatic processes of the past year are coming to fruition quite nicely, and I think 2010 will be a good vintage: Life is sweet, those nearest and dearest intact and blooming. Fruition and harvest with great bounty, as always anticipated but not always managed. And a little real magic: I am standing on my head once again, through the real miracle of modern technology. Hip healed, life moving on. So. Maybe time for the intangible again…?
I was hunkered down with tasks at hand when a bit of “design esoterica” made me look up, in the form of a blog post by an architect whose many, many talents I highly respect. He was questioning: In the midst of the massive devastation to the design community from the present economic conditions, from whence comes “inspiration”? Are we, have we, in our quest for creativity, focused on all the wrong things? Is design school thinking and teaching, as presently structured, relevant?
Hah- I thought. Leave it to architects to second guess their own creative impetus. I kind of felt like telling him to go size a beam, please. The rest of us have such a firm grip on confidence in this economy, right? But my less flippant response: if school isn’t the place for dreams, then what is? If we can't stretch the sense of the possible there, when will we? Soon enough we deal with the pragmatism of everyday work- and life. We need the dreams to sustain us when our days are filled with tasks at hand, when our lives and careers hit those inevitable, death defying bumps in the road.
There are times of inspiration and others for perspiration. We "creative types" know that better than most, but here it is: in these times we need to (and do) pull the proverbial hood up, hunker down and get the work done. That is the grownup way to deal, and must be. But when your work is based in creative thinking, and one can’t count on inspiration to lead the way through difficult times, what exactly do we do to get the job done? Because our work, when we have it, is grounded not only in pragmatism but in some semblance of creative vision.
Well, here it is: the answer from the gods at large, a proverbial “Fountain of Creative Youth”: Stop focusing on it. Stop thinking about what isn’t, what doesn’t work, what’s broken or stuck; and build on what is, what does work, what is fluid and whole. Creativity, and life, will come full circle in ways most unexpected. Or so it seems; I’ll let you know next year…
Simple, yes? I’ll hold to that thought and squeeze it. Cause next week that elusive thing called clarity will have slid/ slipped away. Yet again. And I’ll be back in the conundrum of life. But hopefully I'll be following that moment of…inspiration...to something new.
Today, for now, let me just say: I’ve stopped thinking about what doesn’t work and turned my attention to what does. I’m taking care of business and not worrying about what I can’t control, or what doesn’t come to me. And after more than half a century of massive confusion about what is or isn’t important, what I should or shouldn’t be doing, it’s been that incredibly simple. Do the work, the rest will follow.
For the last couple of months my attention has been on things tangible and fundamental- making my leg work and paying bills have had star billing in the show of life. The rest seems to be taking care of itself. Thank you, Universe.
Inspiration is a slippery thing. Seems if you try to follow it, it will lead you down blind alleys and through twists and turns that seem insurmountable. But if you just do the work, it all does come together. Maybe not in ways you expected. Maybe even better.
Right now, I can’t do many of the things that worked for me in the past. But this is the time to push past the things that don’t work with the impetus of the things that do. And inspiration is coming from turning my head slightly. It’s just a matter of focus.
Of course, new reading glasses help.
To all my friends: a most magical Thanksgiving. Call me if you’re hungry, for magic or the more mundane… dinner’s at three.
