A Creative Valley

Sometimes the blank page calls to me, hollering out words that demand to be written, thoughts that demand to be shared, pictures that demand to be painted. Work grows from me. I create. I generate. I am part of the flowing forward of the tide.  

Other times I stare at the blank page with contempt, even anger, as it taunts me, hiding it’s message. Receding away from me. Previous work that glowed with the first light of creating, now pales and I delete half of what I wrote before. I weaken. I retreat. Creative energy ebbs away.

Although I know that I am not alone in this creative ebb and flow, and that it is quite normal, I fight against it. I try to rush through the walls that block my creativity and try to lengthen the muses visits in whatever way I can. I hate my own seasons of receding, disdain my writers block, and long again for inspiration.

But, wisdom has been gently whispering to me a new truth, “there is a time for everything.”

The ebbs in creative energies are not dry deserts, they are rich landscapes filled with the food to fuel the next creative endeavor. Creating requires gathering, observing, and living. The uninspired days of weakened resolve and receding inspiration are not to be disdained they are to be respected. In the long run they are actually the true power of the creative process.

This is where I find myself today. Riding the receding of the tide. Ready to throw out every creative project I’ve been working on for the past few weeks. Staring at a blank page that taunts me. And then I look out the window and see the bare trees just beginning to blossom again. Everything must have a season of dormancy. I notice a squirrel gathering a seed from a bush and running off to hide it for use at another time. We must gather before we can feast. I can almost feel the wind as it blows the trees into a dance, back and forth, back and forth. And my mind wanders to the coming and going of the waves on the shore and the cyclical changes of the moons glow. This is as it should be.

This ebb and flow of creativity is not only quite normal, it is quite natural and necessary. We need both seasons to create and seasons to consume.

So, where do you find yourself today in the ebb and flow of your own creative endeavors? If you are, like me, in the midst of a creative blank page what are you choosing to consume, to gather, to observe?

Rejoicing in the journey, Bethany Stedman