How do you respond to your antennae?
For all of you, artists, creatives, or those who think you aren’t creative, I finished reading The Creative Art: A Way of Being by Rick Rupin, which was a gift. It was a read that required a yellow highlighter!
The first chapter is entitled “Everyone is Creative.” No, you say, I don’t believe that! I love how Rupin explains how creativity is our birthright as humans. “It’s for all of us.” He writes in detail about all the avenues of creativity that should chase the “I can’t” words right out of your brain. He asked are you “a problem solver? Do you write cards and letters? Do you bake cakes or cookies? How many of you rearrange furniture?” I do that; my family will walk into a room and say, “Oh, you moved that? Or something looks different.” My young granddaughter says, “Nona, I see we have a moving situation going on!” She put one hand on her hip, and the other hand flipped in the air, and I laughed.
I appreciated Rubin pointing out that “not everything creative means it is for sale or exhibited; it can be something we witness and respond to.” How do any of us respond to the world around us? In doing so, we practice our “personal creative activity.”
The Artist Way, by Julia Cameron, is another book I open and read when I become discouraged. Both authors believe creativity is part of our being, so why do we reject those tendencies? Is it our denial, insecurities, comparing ourselves to others, or focus on the negative: why does it matter? I think of others who have creative gifts yet do not see it in themselves. Nowadays, all one has to do is scroll through social media to see exactly how creative people are when they share many talents. In that respect, it is easy to compare yourself to others. According to Rubin, each one of us is creative.
Rubin and Cameron both initiate the idea that creative thoughts zip around the universe and if you don’t act on an idea, someone else will. That may sound strange, even uncomfortable, but I have witnessed it for myself, so I know it is true. If we don’t respond or act upon our creative ideas, someone else will bring them to life.
I love the image when Rubin suggests we all have antennae.
What is the first thing that comes to your mind? I think of insects; their antennae help them feel or experience their surroundings. Antennae mean different things to individual insects, paired with their needs. An essential sensory requirement determines their environment; they receive information to react to their surroundings.
How do you respond to your antennae or “creativity being” when you smell flowers in your garden, pull a cake from your oven, or write a letter to a friend? How do you feel playing an instrument or sketching an idea on paper?
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