Creativity is a fragile little thing – have you noticed? It’s hard to predict what and how it’s affected by the life surrounding it. Sometimes it thrives under misery, sometimes in the highs of happiness or in the dullness of life. And then out of the blue, it can be startled into hiding. And oh boy can it hide!
With a touch of your fingers
When you are one in the creative tribe you probably are familiar with it and this seductive dance of it. It’s a wonderful gift to have when it’s blooming. It feels amazing – creating worlds with a touch of your fingers. Doesn’t matter if it’s by words or drawings. Photographs, music or videos – creativity has so many different forms and it would be an utterly dull world without it.
This world has evolved into the appraisal of material wealth. We are so caught up with money and properties, earning more and more. This comes with obligations to find proper work. Human needs food and shelter – basic needs that we need to work for. But creativity rarely pays enough to keep the roof and the food so we are trapped in other obligations, which have the power to kill this fragile fairy.
The pressure to choose
I remember being younger – the stories and poems poured out of me. It even didn’t matter if was I alone in the woods or tackling school assignments. I never wondered how or where it came from and I took it for granted. It has always been there, within me and felt as natural as breathing. The older I got, the more I felt the pressure to choose my path. My career path – something that would provide a decent salary for me. Decent! I hate this term.
While we were taught about possible career paths all the focus was on how profitable and how sustainable they are. I don’t recall any talk about how to choose the path where one could be happy. And hardly any mention of creative works – writers, musicians, painters. Which seems rather a hypocrite since we did have to learn and study about them. We were taught how arts and crafts changed the world and how important these were. That’s why we had to learn poems and songs.
But when it’s time to choose – we are discouraged to embrace our creativity and try to make living out of it because it’s not glamorous, profitable, or sustainable. But yet again arts are important – they have the power to change the world. And can any of us imagine a world without art?
The world without
The world without fairytales we can read to the kids before they fall to sleep – to dream the tales and live them in their dreams. Or songs to sing when we are happy or sad. When we need encouragement or comfort. The world without paintings and movies and books.
We tend not to appreciate artistic people enough and maybe we never will learn to do that. But regardless of that – we can’t imagine the world without it. We use books to travel through time and space, to another world – to learn and feel things we can’t in our own lives. To help us imagine how things once were or could be. But do we ever wonder what the life of the person providing us with these lines was?
The killer of creativity
The burdens of life will take their toll. Demanding sacrifices to make a living creative people are often forced to abandon their gifts to make a decent living. Often hoping to return to them when decent living has been achieved. But somewhere along the line, this fragile spark will fade until it’s gone for good.
I lost mine for a while. I could still write when given a task, write pieces that served a purpose but not the stories that would carry readers’ imagination somewhere else or light a fire of emotions inside. Or in me. Along the way, I found my way to blogging and could feel the spark lighting again. The last year and a half have been a wonderful journey and I do hope to continue on this for a long time.
I hope this little fragile fairy inside of me will grow into a big and mighty beast. But at the moment it’s still a little fairy and easily scared by the monsters of dull life and stress. This is what has happened – what has caused a small unplanned silence here. I am still hopeful, trying to nurse this fairy back to life and for a while, words have been lost, I have indulged myself in doodles. Hoping they will tell a story stuck inside.
Lost but not forgotten
I do hope you, my lovely reader will bear with me on this journey. That you have not forgotten me in the silence and you will keep track of my blog to keep reading future stories. Stories that are still bubbling inside waiting to get out here even if it takes me a bit longer to find a way out. I won’t give up, will you?
