A Noble Word
Creativity is a noble word, like justice, compassion, or humaneness. Creativity is a basic component of right living, for it is nothing less than a special loving attitude, a love of learning, a love of action, a love of self, a love of others. I affirm - simply, surely, unequivocally- that I am a creative person.
- Eric Maisel
The idea that creativity is a component of living, of right living, is startling to me. I suppose I have thought of creativity as an approach to life - as in "he or she is so creative" - as though one might also comment how a person behaves in a reasoned, analytical, or spontaneous way. But if creativity is in fact an attitude that has all the aspects from action to love of others contained in its meaning, then the word opens up to us all. Not just the Jackson Pollocks, William Faulkners, or Cole Porters of the planet, but to all of us. Of any age. Lead foot dancers to tone deaf shower serenades. Creativity radiates life. We create instinctively and for unlimited reasons and audiences - for the self, the universe. We create because we live.
My son, who has of late lived within a focused, structured and directed environment with scarce time for the spontaneous creative, has begun to draw again. Pulled out an empty notebook, unearthed a black fine tip calligrapher's pen. Discovered, as he used to as a child, the pleasure in sketching. Spooling deeply tamped energy into daydreams on a page, releasing the pent-up in the psyche. Letting the possible find itself in the undirected line. Wholeness reconnected. I know I often spend time on these pages speaking of intention, of the mystery of any given day. But I'd like to crack open this idea of the organic creative. See what's inside. The cook, the warrior, the musician, the builder, the dancer - any one of us. Creativity as active loving? The opening of the self? If creativity is, as Maisel writes, a basic component of living and a loving attitude, perhaps joy lies in the nature of intention. Engaging the action of creativity.
More than a noble word, creativity is a very human word.
- Eric Maisel
The idea that creativity is a component of living, of right living, is startling to me. I suppose I have thought of creativity as an approach to life - as in "he or she is so creative" - as though one might also comment how a person behaves in a reasoned, analytical, or spontaneous way. But if creativity is in fact an attitude that has all the aspects from action to love of others contained in its meaning, then the word opens up to us all. Not just the Jackson Pollocks, William Faulkners, or Cole Porters of the planet, but to all of us. Of any age. Lead foot dancers to tone deaf shower serenades. Creativity radiates life. We create instinctively and for unlimited reasons and audiences - for the self, the universe. We create because we live.
My son, who has of late lived within a focused, structured and directed environment with scarce time for the spontaneous creative, has begun to draw again. Pulled out an empty notebook, unearthed a black fine tip calligrapher's pen. Discovered, as he used to as a child, the pleasure in sketching. Spooling deeply tamped energy into daydreams on a page, releasing the pent-up in the psyche. Letting the possible find itself in the undirected line. Wholeness reconnected. I know I often spend time on these pages speaking of intention, of the mystery of any given day. But I'd like to crack open this idea of the organic creative. See what's inside. The cook, the warrior, the musician, the builder, the dancer - any one of us. Creativity as active loving? The opening of the self? If creativity is, as Maisel writes, a basic component of living and a loving attitude, perhaps joy lies in the nature of intention. Engaging the action of creativity.
More than a noble word, creativity is a very human word.
No comments have been added yet.
