The Creative Process

I find that there are highs and lows in the creative process. We start out with an idea, or an
activity. At first it is fun or kind of exciting because we are at the beginning and there is only
open space for us to create something, anything is possible. We start working and our
investigation is fully engaged in what we are doing because we are at the beginning and have to
create something from nothing, so almost anything will do. But then we start to run into trouble.
Maybe we don't have enough skill to create what we want, or we don't like what we see
ourselves making. We start to compare ourselves to others and maybe we find ourselves to be
inadequate. Also, the creative process starts to become difficult. We are not sure where we are
going, and not sure what to do. Maybe we don't understand the teacher. Maybe we don't
understand ourselves. It becomes confusing, maybe even depressing, and we start to give up. The
creative process has moved from the inspiring promise of creating and expressing something to a
dark brick wall that we cannot get passed.

We hit our heads against the wall and fall down. We stay down for a while and fall into a sleep.
But deep inside something is happening. We started it at the beginning, but it is buried inside,
and we cannot see it. But it is growing. We wake up and try again. We try to climb the wall. We
fall down. We hit the wall. We fall down. We scratch at the wall. A little bit comes off. We walk
for miles to see if we can go around. Back and forth we walk, or we stay in one place and scratch
away.

We fall asleep, exhausted.

We wake up and do something different, we are almost ready to give up for the second time
when something happens. We see a connection. We see a flash of light. Then it's gone. But it was
just enough to get started again. We hit the wall, or maybe just put our hands on the wall and say,
"you are my wall, I put you here, you are not my enemy".

All of a sudden, we are through. We don't even know how this happened but everything we did
before has come together. The seed that was planted and growing deep inside has reached the
surface. We are flying, running, floating. We have given birth to something we didn't know we
could do but it is perfectly what we are already. With this new creation we are bigger. We have
expanded. We are realized.

The universe is constantly creating and destroying, birthing and dying, over and over again. We
have obeyed the impulse of the universe. We have mirrored it.

This is the creative process.

James Cosman 2020