As I move into final stages of our Christmas dinner planning, I have been working on a series I’m calling The Creativity Angels.

Their substance is being formed out of a string of salt dough ornaments I made for above our fireplace.

They began as a happy accident.

I had made salt dough hearts for my creativity workshop in November and decided to make some Christmas specific ornaments as well.

One of the things I made were angels I painted and then strung on ribbon and beads. Each of 9 angels has a word painted on the back. Each word relates to my perspective of the creative process and the birthing of an idea into substance.  The words are:  Faith. Belief. Commitment. Courage, Compassion,  Strength. Joy. Hope. Love.

The angels look delightful hanging on the fireplace mantel and inspired me to create more for gift tags.

And then the magic and mystery of the creative process began to spin itself into something more…

In working on them I’ve continued to breathe into the birthing process as I’ve delved into the question:  “What does it mean to create?”

What resonates deeply within me is that like birthing of a child, the creative process can be ascribed 3 sections:  Curiosity. Commitment. Creation.

Within each trimester there are 3 stages:

Curiosity

• Inquisitiveness – don’t settle for status quo
• Questioning – keep questioning your biases and beliefs
• Exploration – explore ideas, thoughts, feelings without judgement

Commitment

• Be steadfast – don’t give up just because it feels hard.
• Be strong – failure is an invitation to keep going, keep digging, keep exploring, keep being in the process.
• Stay the course – if something doesn’t look like you expected it to turn out, it’s not because it isn’t working, it’s because you’re creating the path as you go — and new paths are vital to creative expression – and you’re not done yet.

Creation

• Accept all – Creation is a process. Stay open within the process. There’s no such thing as ‘bad’ art, writing, dance, music. There’s just what is appearing as you give way to what is asking to be brought into form.
• Be kind – Do not judge yourself harshly. Do not condemn your work. Accept everything you do as an important and vital piece of your creative journey. If it doesn’t ‘please’ you, keep going (and be kind in how you talk to yourself about what you’re doing – your brain does not discern between thoughts that are unhealthy for you or ones that are healthy — it believes it all).
• Give grace – Your creative expressions are a reflection of where you are at in that moment. Encourage yourself to keep going with words of loving-kindness. Celebrate each step and allow the process to guide the birthing of your expression into the world.

Yesterday, I completed painting the 27 new angels I’ve been working on – most of these will be for gift/name tags but 9 have been designated for another string of Creativity Angels. In the process of painting the angels, the framework for The Creativity Angels began to take form as an idea gestating into form.

I am staying with the process. Allowing the evolution of the framework of The Creativity Angels to be born without my forcing it into substance.

Like birthing of a child, I cannot push it out into the world until the time is right. What I can do is allow its framework to slowly become visible, like a pregnant belly growing towards the denouement of the child coming into this world.

I am excited.

I am filled with anticipation. With joy. With possibility.

And just as we cannot know the future of the children we bring into this world and can only do our best to create the space and environment for them to thrive, I am holding space for The Creativity Angels’ life to become rich and meaningful. In the journey, I am letting go of expectation and falling with grace into the creative process and all that comes with birthing an idea into substance.

Namaste.