Creativity doesn't end

You don’t just run out of creativity at one point. It’s not like you had a specific amount at the start of your life and each creative act depletes the reservoir.

Instead creativity comes from a rested mind, a frantic mind, a nervous mind, an angry mind. There’s so many places that ideas want to leap from, your brain and body want to make things. We’re built for taking things we see, riffing on them, and putting something else out.

Each of us want a tiny stamp on the world. There, that’s my thing, right there, I made that, and don’t you see it? We want to make because of some unknown force inside us compelling our hands to move forward. But we also want to be seen, to be known.

The Sculptor is such a beautiful and conflicting story. To just give away the very start, imagine you’re an artist and you make a deal with a higher power to make the perfect art, but your lifetime is severely limited. Would you take that deal to be seen, to create, to have that thing be perfect?

I wouldn’t. Because I don’t have a limit to my creativity, there’s no clock running out on what I can create and by what date. Instead each day is a chance at something beautiful. Combine that with the other two areas, always being curious, and having a community to connect with and share. And well, that’s the beauty of life and it’s why I keep enjoying every day and look for something small to make a little impact somewhere no matter how hard the day might be.

When I run out of creativity, stop caring, stop feeling, stop believing that anything artistic matters, that’s when I know I need to pause and find that space again. It’s much easier these days because I’m aware of it, looking for it. The biggest risk I run is not feeling at all. Anger, frustration, sadness, joy, elation. All these are good. The absense of feeling is when creativity slips away and care ceases. And therein lies a sadness. Each and every one of us deserves the right to exist and make and be seen. That’s the beauty of being human.

For anyone who doesn’t feel they have that right I just want to say that you’re seen and loved and you matter. And if you can’t find a way to be creative that’s ok too, you’re still human with value. I’d warrant that you’ll find it again, at some point, and you’ll see the world sing.