This is a repost of my final post on my original blog, Recover Your Joy! A restless sleep. A sleep-in and I am running late. I decided to ‘cheat’ and repost — one of my favourite posts from the past. Have a beautiful and creative day.
***********************************************
When I was a child my mother said to me, ‘If you become a soldier, you’ll be a general. If you become a monk, you’ll be the pope.’ Instead I became a painter and wound up as Picasso. Pablo Picasso
When I was a child, my sister and I spent hours re-enacting scenes from our favourite movies. Gone with the Wind. The Parent Trap. We knew all the characters, all the parts and we each had our favourites.
It didn’t matter that our stage was a stretch of lawn or that Tara was a sheet draped over a tree or that we each had to play three or four different parts, differentiating the characters only through our voices as we didn’t have time to change wardrobe — we didn’t really have any wardrobe to change into anyway. This was a low budget reproduction — very creative, just not very accurate.
But none of that mattered. What mattered most was that we spent the time together. Laughing. Sharing. Creating.
When I was a child, I liked to draw. To sing and dance and to play piano. I liked to write and make up stories. To play dolls and the now politically incorrect, “Cowboys and Indians”.
It didn’t matter to me what the game or activity. What mattered most was that I was being creative. Expressing myself through arts of all nature.
And then, I grew up.
I still liked to write. To create. To make something out of nothing.
But the tone was different. There was something lacking in my creation.
I kept thinking it needed ‘A Purpose.’
To create for creation sake just didn’t seem to be viable, make sense, have meaning. If I was painting, there needed to be a reason. If I was writing, there needed to be an audience. And, if I was dancing, there needed to be ‘the right steps’.
I’ve grown beyond those ‘grown-up’ days of believing I need ‘A Purpose’ to my art. I’ve grown beyond thinking there are right steps, wrong moves, perfect brushstrokes or perfectly turned phrases.
I’ve grown into being me. Creatively. Expressively. Passionately.
Today, I know that at my core I am a creative being. That life is an act of creation.
Today, I express myself in ways that fulfill on my belief, and need, to create beauty in the world around me.
Today, I let go of the right steps and move with grace and ease into being each step I take to create beauty in the world around me.
There’s freedom in each movement. Freedom in being my creative self.
And, there’s joy in knowing every breath I take is an act of creation. Every step I take is an expression of the beauty I want to create in the world.
You give me hope ~ I love that you’re giving your creativity such freedom! I’m following you! Lead on! xo
LikeLike
Let’s create together Yvonne! We could share a creativity circle to inspire eachother to keep creating!
LikeLike
Ohhh…that sounds inspiring, fun-filled and motivational! Count me in! 🙂
LikeLike
If only some people could see how much their own free creativity could unchain their view of the world and how they relate to people. Best wishes for a good upcoming autumn and lots of creative discoveries.
LikeLike
Thank you Jean — I so agree with you — wouldn’t it be amazing if all the world could see their unlimited capacity to create awe and wonder! Wow — same to you. May your autumn be filled with auburn hues and golden days spent creating.
LikeLike
I’m so glad I got to read this today! Thank you for re-posting this.
LikeLike
Thanks Ann! 🙂
LikeLike
This was no cheat, this was a TREAT! So glad we’ve both had a second chance to grow up and out of the “right steps” phase of dancing and creating.
LikeLike
Tee hee! Love the poem. 🙂 and yes Susan — when growing up entails remembering how to be free — it’s awesome! 🙂
LikeLike
You remind me that that unconscious, natural creativity of childhood is something I want to restore–and that’s a ball I drop so easily. I’m not necessarily stuck on feeling it must have purpose, but I lost the ability to play somewhere along the way and imagination wavered. The inner critic wants any creative endeavor to be “good” so it’s hard for me to venture into something for fun unless I know I’m good at it. Good reminder, thanks.
LikeLike
I love the act of ‘to restore’ — such an embracing and inclusive and healing way to think of it! Thanks Leigh
LikeLike
I love when you say that you have grown beyond needing the perfection you thought you did. It gives me hope!
LikeLike
Well Di — it is a work in progress!
LikeLike
I’ve always loved summer re-runs!
LikeLike
Tee hee! Me too Mark! 🙂
LikeLike