CREATE

I know I’ve been MIA here for quite some time now.  In case you’ve missed the big news, I took on a new role as the editor/curator for Odyssey, a conscious living magazine founded here in South Africa nearly fifty years ago.  Steering the Odyssey ship is, it seems, what I’ve been preparing to do for my whole life and the entire process has held one synchronicity after another. Our entire team has been so focused on creating the next iteration of Odyssey, virtually and in print, that it’s become our whole world.  You’ll find the website here – www.odysseymagazine.co.za – I’d love to hear your thoughts.  Lots more news to come on that front!

I’ve learned a big lesson along the way, not for the first time though I hope it’s the last. Not only have I been neglecting my own site and readers, but I’ve not spent any time in my art studio for four months now. And I know better. I do. Yet it’s reminded me that for all of us, creating in some way is a critical part of being human.

Many of us are, as I was, taught that art is for the serious artist. Or that art is for dessert - only to be indulged in after you’ve done all your “real work” and your chores, and perhaps taken care of your family. And, and, and. Somehow in the whole mess, art has become “other” and a label for all creativity which keeps us from expressing ourselves in any way. 

 I wonder what this has cost the world, don’t you?

In our chaotic and oh so challenged world today, it’s become so obvious that creativity is missing in our day to day.  Once upon a time, it was part and parcel of the everyday.  In a village, there would be the person whose innate skills made them the bread baker, or the candle maker or even the herbalist.  Most people gardened out of necessity, turning tiny shriveled up seeds into magnificent beauty or nutritious food to put on their tables.  Creativity brought people together too, in gatherings like barn raisings or quilting bees. Children learned from infancy how to make things and how to engage in the world via imagination vs. screens.  Adults got their news through interactions with neighbours or the occasional visitor from the outside world rather than through boxes which constantly stream images the human mind wasn’t meant to cope with 24/7. 

The pace at which our world moves has been inhumane for a long time now. Making time to be creative in any way which feeds you is the most effective way to slow it down, as impossible as that sometimes seems.  Set a timer so you can go back to all that you feel must be done and go for a walk. Shut your wifi off and use your phone to capture images of what makes your heart glad.  Or put on some music and dance while you make dinner rather than listening to the news.  You can be informed and emotionally regulated at the same time – but it requires intention right now. Finding your way to what makes you happy is one way to heal the world, I promise. It can all seem too much, I know, so just start with these little things and see if it doesn’t help.  

Imagine if we all did that, how quickly things would change.

Whether you call it art or making or creativity, it comes down to consciousness in action.  Creating is a base human need, and one our world has somehow lost along the way.  In times when the most stable of human beings is feeling challenged to cope with the constant barrage of the manifestation of shadow, it is perhaps the most effective way to bring light to the world.

So I’ll find my way to my studio, to my garden, to watching the clouds and the moon – and I hope that in your own way, you’ll do the same.  Let’s create a new way of being human, one closer to the original intention, shall we?

It's time.