"What you can do, or dream you can, begin it;
boldness has genius, power and magic in it."
---
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Do you have a burning creative spirit? Do you have
something you can do to contribute to the arts?
Have you always felt like you could paint or write or
sculpt or dance or create music? What's stopping
you?
I think there are only two reasons that we don't fulfill
our true creative selves.
1) Lack of importance - We often do not
create
because we don't consider it important enough.
Sometimes this is due to the other things happening
in our lives that take precedence. The problem with
having our own creativity take a back seat to
everything else is that there never is enough time to
do what we want to do. It's like a savings account.
If you wait till the end of the month to put some
money aside, it won't happen. If you "pay yourself
first" you are much more likely to build up a nest
egg.
Sometimes this reason for not starting a creative
project masks itself as laziness. Have you ever
noticed that you seem to have enough energy
(unless you are ill) for the things that "have" to be
done? It may appear that the creative project takes
too much energy or time or effort. When you hear
this go through your mind, understand it for what it
is. You aren't interested enough. Expressing your
creativity just isn't important enough to you. Don't
give yourself a hard time about this. Just accept it
as a fact and move on. Do what is important.
Eventually, the creative urge will nudge you again,
and if your creative self-worth has increased, you
will make time.
2) Fear - There are two kinds of fear. One
is the
fear that is borne of experience. This is the same
type of fear that keeps us from putting our hand on
a hot stove. We have a decent idea what will
happen if we ignore the warning.
The second type is the fear that comes from trying
to do something new. When we face this fear, we
may not have any rational reasons for it. The
majority of the time when I am blocked creatively or
I postpone creative projects, it is due to this type of
fear. I've learned that the stronger this fear
appears, the more I need to try.
Creativity is a gift. If you have postponed
sharing
your gift with the rest of us, take a first step. Give
yourself a few minutes at the beginning of each day
to work on that project. Your expression of this gift
may be just the trigger that someone else needs to
get started on their own creative action. There truly
is magic in beginning. Let yourself enjoy a little
magic and see where it leads you.
Meanwhile, if you want to help the arts in San
Antonio, contribute to theFund. Give $60 or more
per year to theFund and receive a card that gives
you and your family discounts on admissions and
purchases at participating arts and cultural
organizations. See www.thefundsa.org
for details.
Last month's puzzle was: Divide the number
100 into four parts (call them A, B, C, and D) so that
adding 4 to A, subtracting 4 from B, dividing C by 4,
and multiplying D by 4 gives the same result. The
answer was A = 12, B = 20, C = 64, and D = 4. A
gift certificate is on its way to
Maggie Seay, one of five people who answered the
puzzle correctly.
This month, I have a very different type of
contest for you. Earlier in this column, I referred to
a "nest egg." I'm fascinated by the history of
common idioms (okay, I'm a little bizarre) and I
recently discovered the origin of this phrase. This
month's puzzle is not to tell me the origin of
this phrase, but to make one up. Email your
answer to me. I'll award a gift certificate at one of
my favorite restaurants to the response that makes
me laugh the most.
