Dead or dormant? (And a song)

Do you ever feel like your creativity died when your adult responsibilities took over?

This is a topic that comes up occasionally among my friends who are raising young children. It sometimes feels like there’s just no time, or energy, to explore creative habits, old or new.

While it’s true that seasons ebb and flow with regard to creativity, it’s important to mentally put dry seasons in their place, lest we become discouraged:

Our creativity has not died, it has either taken other forms, or is simply lying dormant (which, just as in nature, is not a bad thing).

As long as we don’t think of ourselves as having failed, our creative pursuits will always be there waiting for us when we are ready to come back to them.

Let’s say you are a writer, and you haven’t written anything beyond texts and emails since before you had a full time job, or before you had kids.

Your creativity has not died, it’s simply taken other forms: managing people in your job, solving problems creatively, organizing your week so that you aren’t coming up with dinner on the fly every night, being the peacemaker between a sibling squabble, etc.

You have to remember that those are related to your writing in some way, because they are all creative acts.

Do you want to know what I really think?

I think nurturing creativity is such a wonderfully good thing to contribute to the world — a gift that strengthens and makes better ourselves and our communities — that there is no end to the little voices seeking to discourage us.

We have to fight those voices.

That’s what I think.

I never meant for this post to get dramatic, but I’m begging you: if you haven’t touched your electric guitar or a paint brush or a crochet needle in years, please don’t think of yourself as having failed creatively.

That’s exactly what the enemy wants you to think.

That’s exactly the kind of thinking that will keep you from ever picking up your creative habit again.

Maybe you are in a season where survival is simply all you can manage. It’s never a time to beat yourself up for not doing x, y, z, creative thing, but this time is especially not the time for it.

If that’s where you are at right now: hang in there, and remember that you are in a creative season of receiving, not outputting.

Meaning, your creativity looks more like being gentle and patient with your thoughts toward yourself, listening to beautiful music, or reading a good book at the pace of a paragraph a week.

Those things may in fact take more courage than taking on a big creative project when you have ample time and energy.

If that’s not where you are at, and you are ready to dip your toes back into the thing you enjoy (drawing, playing music, gardening, cooking, organizing closets, etc.), here are a three simple ideas to rekindle your old love without feeling overwhelmed:

1. Revisit some of your old work (read an old poem, read your journal, look at the black and white photos you took in high school). Look at it to enjoy it, not critique it.
2. Open up a notebook and write down something funny your kid said today, or something that made you laugh.
3. Admire someone else’s work — whether it’s a famous artist, a friend’s substack, or your first-grader’s water colors (encouraging other’s creativity is a wonderful, and often underestimated, way of participating in the creative act).

Speaking of creative acts lying dormant …

My creative outlet in college was writing and performing songs at open mic nights and other small venues.

Up until recently, I hadn’t written a song in 15 years. I wondered if that part of me had died (or, er, forever dormant), or if it had simply taken other forms in my art and book writing and I would never see it again.

But then, about a year ago, out of seemingly no where, a song came. The words, then the melody, then the tears. It was a gift.

I’d love to play that song for you some time, but not yet.

For now, here’s a song from my past life about delighting in the little surprises a day can bring. I hope you enjoy it!

Tell me: what creative acts are you enjoying now? What did you used to love to do that has taken other forms or is simply lying dormant? I’d love to hear!