This is a question I have often pondered and I think that we are all creative to a degree but there is always a choice. The creative path is presented to us, but it doesn’t force itself on us. For it to take root in us, we have to say yes, come and turn my life upside down! We have to be willing to go on the journey, to give it room. There’s plenty of pressure to say no, I need to grow up, get a proper job, get a mortgage, provide for my family, get realistic… but still some choose to say yes. If you are one of those people who thinks you don’t know if you have what it takes, then say yes to the adventure and start taking steps. Who knows where you will end up? If you say no, that’s fine, go and have another adventure with your life, the creative path is not for everyone. If you have slowed down or been side tracked but still feel the call to create then keep going! There is enough time, it starts with today.
Should we choose to accept the creative mantel in our lives, it will grow in us until becomes like an instinct or urge to create that can’t suppressed, and then no matter how many times we try to turn our back on it, it won’t leave us alone, for it has taken root. It is like the way my cat follows me around the house when she wants to be fed, and just sits just behind me silently. She waits there as if to say, ‘When are you going to pay attention to me?’ Once we have said yes, it remains a part of us, gently calling. Mary Oliver, in her book ‘Upstream’ recognises this call and the price for not responding to it. She puts it like this: ‘The most regretful people on earth are those who felt the call to creative work, who felt their own creative power restive and uprising, and gave to it neither power nor time.’
My new book: Circles: Nurture and Grow your Creative Gift talks about how to say yes to this creative call, how to give it time, how to keep going despite discouragements, how to find your voice and be all that you were intended to be.
Starting the journey need not be a scary thing or a big thing. It all starts with today. It begins with just the smallest step.
Circles: Nurture and Grow Your Creative Gift (ISBN 978-1-78815-733-9) was released on April 1st 2019 and is published by Onwards and Upwards. It will be available from onwardsandupwards.org, Amazon and all good bookshops.
You can also find it in my Etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/681250504/circles-nurture-and-grow-your-creative?ref=shop_home_recs_5&pro=1&frs=1
elisabeth pike 