I have a deep respect as well as a righteous contempt for that divine instant when my brush hits the canvass; my pick plucks the string; my stick hits the skin; or my fingers grace the keys—that magical Muse-inspired moment when the creation begins. It’s at that critical instant when I’m about to express a feeling, an emotion, or an idea, that “IT” shows up, and everything changes.
I may have a melody stuck in my head from the night before, but when I sit at the piano the next morning, and my fingers first touch the keys, “IT” shows up and EVERYTHING changes. Or I my have an idea for a client, or a blog theme (like this one), and as soon as I barely touch the keypad “IT” shows up and EVERYTHING changes.
In that instant when “IT” shows up to lead the way, “IT” usually sweeps me up inside a mind-storm of possibilities, each one beckoning me to go in their direction. That’s what makes creativity so exhaustibly ambitious for me—there’s too many fantastically impossible choices! I know, I know, poets write about “IT,” songwriters sing about “IT” and philosophers opine about “IT.” And they all use beautiful emotional pithy prose to describe “IT.” But when I come face to face with “IT,” I don’t always see beauty, I see BATTLE, and the struggle begins!
What ever I choose to call IT; inspiration, divine intuition, my Muse, it doesn’t matter. All that really matters is that I continue to work on resisting the tug to lead, question, doubt and judge, and simply embrace that gentle whisper to follow “IT,” in the direction “IT” wants to go. Because as I reflect back over my career, my art, my music and my personal life, although I’ve fought many gallant battles, “IT” has always led me in the right direction…. right up to this very instant.