Reaching out to touch someone is different than it was before.
In a matter of clicks we are displacing electrons.
Instead of misplacing hand-drawn ‘do you like me’s,
A page (in a book with no pages) allows us to affirm or deny:
Leaving digital trails, crumbling microchip cookies.
Image Source
Sustain the spark that you’ve kept dim,
Hidden by cupped hands in near prayer.
Candles are made to show light.
Clutching the embers to the chest
Sears the hands with selfish worry -
A burn touching more than the skin.
Instead set it out for others to see
With passion – your new lantern’s oil.
Image Source
A few years ago, illustrator Eric Smith was diagnosed with three different types of cancer. Instead of labeling his experience as a negative one and resisting the situation, he embraced it in effort to seek out harmony in his life.
“Having my physical life threatened, provoked within me a strong separation between my spiritual and physical being. Although my physical body was being attacked … my spiritual essence was untouchable.”
Before, he was cruising along through life. His diagnosis challenged him to make a conscious effort to recognize the gift that the situation had given him – the ability to live in and through each and every moment of his life. It led him to launch the Live Now Project – a community of artists that collaborate and share their message through art, storytelling, words of wisdom and more. And oh, what a wonderful message it is.
Image Sources
I say we yearn to leave something that lasts
To be known for what little we’ve done
Men tell their children the tales of their past
And each man gives his name to his son
Something in song or in story
Something in blood, something of glory
Something that won’t fade away in a year
- “I Was Here” from The Glorious Ones
Why create? A question with a million answers. Is it merely to communicate in a method stronger than words – in a language that has no boundaries? Is it because there is an innate need, a hunger to get something out? An expression of a conversation with one’s soul?
The most valuable thing that we have as humans is the ability to feel. Every experience, however difficult or challenging, leaves its impression. And creativity stems from a feeling: a twinge of anger, utter confusion, insatiable wonder.
Creativity can also help to stave off the feelings of insignificance when confronted with one’s own impermanence. When an individual comes to terms with the fact that life is short – a blip on the universe’s timeline – what better reaction than to try to leave something behind. A marker of one’s existence.
If you are only going to watch one video on creativity in your entire life, let it be this talk that Elizabeth Gilbert gave in 2009. Every single moment is worth it. Here’s to the “genius” inside each and every one of us.
