WHERE WE DISCUSS CREATIVE EXPRESSION
Are you there?
Yes, we are here.
Today, I would like to talk about creative expression.
In what regard?
I came across a quote recently that I kept pinned to my bulletin board at work. This quote has helped me to remember how important it is to respect my own unique abilities, to honor my own creations regardless of what other people think, and to always strive to keep my channel clear and open.
Would you like to share this quote with our readers?
Of course. The quote is taken from a letter written by well-known dancer/choreographer Martha Graham in response to a request for advice from another well-known dancer/choreographer, Agnes DeMille. Shortly after the opening of the original Broadway production of Oklahoma!, which Agnes choreographed, she expressed some feelings of self-doubt. “I suddenly had unexpected, flamboyant success for a work I thought was only fairly good, after years of neglect for work I thought was fine. I was bewildered and worried that my entire scale of values was untrustworthy. So, I decided to talk to Martha.”
Here is what Martha wrote to her friend and colleague: “There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. If you block this expression, it will never exist through any other medium and be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, nor how valuable it is, nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, and to keep the channel open.”
I do believe that Martha was speaking specifically about creative artists in her advice to Agnes, but it has always struck me that this kind of advice works for all individuals whether they are artists or accountants or nurses or cab drivers. In a real sense, at the level of our true selves, we are ALL creators, and would do well to listen to Martha’s advice.
You are correct when you point out that this quote applies not just to artists, but to all human persons. The artist is the model for the creative expression of all 7 billion human persons currently incarnated on the physical plane. It is the artist – the writer, the singer, the dancer, the video game designer, the graphic artist, the painter, the architect, to name just a few – who is the most visible creator. But cab drivers and nurses and accountants create their own lives, their own experiences, their own relationships, in much the same way that a playwright or screenwriter creates a play or a film. The writer conjures up a unique world out of the recesses of his or her imagination, puts it down on paper, and then it is fully realized in physical form when the play or the film is produced. That is exactly what the cab driver is doing. Creating his or her own world.
I know we have been over this ground before in previous posts, the idea of creating our own lives, but is the way we create the stuff of our everyday lives, the relationships and the circumstances and the moment-to-moment experiences, are they really created in the same way that an artist creates?
Absolutely. Artists use their imagination and their emotions to conjure up a vision of the world, whether that world exists on the stage or as a painting or as a video game. And that is what each human person does. You use your imagination and your emotions to attract experiences and relationships into your life. That is how you build your personal world. And like the artist, you can change your mind, you can edit, you can re-arrange the players, based on your preferences and your belief systems. It is all the same. The only real difference is that the artist works in a conscious fashion and most human persons work unconsciously and by default.
What do you mean, by default?
Most humans at this stage of their evolution create from a default position. They simply allow their life creations to repeat themselves by focusing almost exclusively on what is in front of them. Remember the Law of Attraction. What you focus on is what you create, is what increases in your life. If you are not creating in a conscious fashion, examining your belief systems, monitoring how your thinking translates into your physical experience, attuning yourself to your personal vibrational frequency, the frequency that the Universe uses to gauge exactly what you are desiring, then you are creating by default.
That’s why we feel so powerless so much of the time, that we don’t have enough control over what is happening in our lives, because we are creating from a default position.
Exactly. The important point to remember is that, conscious or unconscious, by design or by default, you are ALL creators. Each and every moment of your lives is spent creating. Much of it, as we have said, is done by default, which means that most of you tend to create the same types of experiences over and over again. But you are creating nonetheless. What you must strive for is more conscious creation. Taking back your personal power from whomever you have given it away to and reclaim it as your own. Then apply it to your own life, to your own creations.
That is very difficult to do sometimes.
We understand. That is why it is so important for all human persons to heed the advice that Martha gives to her friend Agnes. Her words are a reminder that each of you is unique, distinct in the gifts that you have brought to the Earth plane; that you have come into this life purposefully and with great intention to share those gifts with others; that it is not your job to calculate the value of your gifts or compare your gifts to others, only to be generous with yourself and share all that you are; and that the way to access your gifts and keep them vital and alive is to respect and maintain your connection to your creative energies.
I think we will stop there for today.
As you wish. Until next time.
Thank you all.
NEW POSTS APPEAR REGULARLY MONDAYS & THURSDAYS
SHARE THIS POST: