muse

motor block reclaimed by sea

I question the concept of relying on divine intervention to complete a finished work. I have heard many times from writers, painters, photographers, musicians and gardeners that their creative muse works through them and it is not them creating. It is the divine, the muse, their sacred self. However, I believe it is a mistake for us to stop there. Allow me to explain beginning with this quote:

“When you breathe in, breathe in the whole universe. When you breathe out, breathe out the whole universe.” – Koryu Osaka

I admit to slicing through ego thinking and allowing intuition, my muse, the divine to “have its way” with the page, the brush, the lens of my work. It is this first blush of inspiration, of whole body mind and seeing that comes from a still point where we connect with all that is… seeing, hearing and being as if for the first time. However, that is not the end point. As John Daido Loori, author of The Zen of Creativity, confides, we must continue our journey straight ahead from the mystical peak “down the other side of the mountain, back into the world. It is in the ordinariness of our lives that this intimate experience of the self merging with the absolute can begin to express itself.”

view from the top

This is why we need to learn the sacred breath of editing. Creative work is rarely ever completed in a single session or in the first instance it comes to us or is given to us. We receive or are inspired by the essence of what must be expressed. Now we must also complete the work. We must edit, taking away the extra, closing in on the core essence of what we intend to convey. The sacred breath of editing is the breath that allows us to reconnect with the resonance present when we first created the work. Then we remove what is not absolutely necessary. If we lose the resonance we know we have gone too far.

all that is - reclaimed

So just as your muse, the divine, your sacred self has a role to play in your creativity so does your critical mind applied to the sacred breath of editing. To bring your gift of creativity into its fullness requires a critical viewing, a reviewing and shaping. We must bring our whole self to our work. Trust your critical mind and strengthen its ability just as you have learned to listen to your muse. Yet remember not to invite your critical mind too soon. Savour and complete that first blush of creativity without review, editing or engaging in critical thinking. Allow the work to rest then breathe it in again and begin editing. Ruthlessly edit – with purpose, care, passion and regard for the essence which inspired you in that first instance.

Sprout Question: What might your sacred breath of editing sound like?

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Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

Last evening when I was turning out the lights I had a plan for this morning’s Creative Potager post. I would post a couple of red tulip photos I’ve been working on with a simple sprout question about “red” and that would be it. I wanted quick, simple and something ready to go as I have a busy day today.

Well, this morning it was all soft, misty and raining. As I sipped my coffee and contemplate the day I think about the tulip draped in morning light with big drops of rain pooling and running down its smooth surface. That is about the very point when my good intentions from last evening begin to unravel.

Sniffing the freshness of green and moisture, I slip into the side yard where two ears wiggle and a curious nose sniffs back at me from the other side of the deer fence – which, as a gardener, is where I like to see these critters… on the OTHER side of the deer fence.

Since we are going round to the front yard, I might as well show you the new garden bed I’m digging while we are here. I wanted a labyrinth but the space is too small so this is my creative solution.

Oh yes, the tulip…

Then I decide to be a raindrop having fallen for thousands of feet clinking and clanking into other raindrops before seeing my destination… oh what a place to land!

Since we have gone this far and I am only slightly damp, why don’t we go part way down the eighty-one steps on stairway-to-heaven and have a quick look out over the valley from under the firs?