Illustration “The Seed” by renowned Polish artist Paweł Jońca
Darkness Before the Dawn
Winter 2014
A writer and teacher I admire, Jill Jepson, recently posted a piece on what poet Grace Paley called “thinking time…hanging-out time…day-dreaming time” and how essential what might look like “doing nothing” is to the creative process. Jill quotes a Los Angeles Times article on the topic that is essential reading for those of us cursed (or blessed?) with being both creative and what is often called a Type A – i.e. driven – personality.
It reminds me of something Marion Woodman said when I interviewed her for my book The Fiery Muse. She spoke passionately about how critically important it is for us to allow time for creative ideas to “gestate”, using the imagery of what would happen if a gardener kept poking in the ground and digging up a seed to see if it was sprouting. Her words triggered the image of a delicate, luminous-green seed, safe and just beginning to sprout in the warm, black earth.
This image makes me think of the darkness before the dawn in a new "light" so to speak. What was once thought of as a useless, wasted time becomes one that is deep, rich, fecund, full of potential and possibility.
Marion talked about this creative process in terms of the divine feminine and said, “The feminine has its own rhythm, and it cannot move at the pace of the patriarchy. It cannot! So one has to slow down – walk on the earth in bare feet and allow the imagery to come through the body, and it will…. But that cannot happen when we are exhausting ourselves in the fast lane. The creative fire burns deep, and it needs time to come up to the conscious surface. We rarely take time for it to surface.”
Oh, mea culpa!! Racing here, there, and everywhere!
I suspect I am not alone when I say it’s time to stop – to breathe… and to thank both Jill and Marion. I really needed to be reminded that just being is as important as, if not more important than, doing when it comes to producing our creative work.
Creativity Exercise
For this week’s creativity exercise I challenge you to spend some time doing nothing. Of course, even when we are doing nothing we are doing something… we are sitting in a chair; lying in a bed, walking through the snow… But we are not working. We are not accomplishing…
This is hard for me. It seems like every minute of every day I have to be accomplishing something. The moment I notice that I am not, I begin to feel a little bit anxious. It is a very faint and subtle feeling that is on the far end of the scale from anything that could be called anxiety. Because it is so subtle it is easy to miss and/or to ignore. In fact, in my own case, I have only become intensely aware of it in the last year – even though I imagine it has been there for ages.
As you give yourself permission to do “nothing” scan your body. If you feel little tingles of anxiousness or discontent start to wriggle their way up, sit with the sensation. Feel it. Stay in the “now” even if the sensation of anxiousness intensifies. Bring your awareness to your breath and breathe as deeply as a baby. Stay focused and be aware as the unpleasant sensation dissipates bit by bit with every breath you take….