Reflections on Living

Tag: creative

Good Things Grow From…

Most of us know this song.

Sing along:

“We all live in a yellow submarine.”

Now, hear the demo version for this landmark song:

Doesn’t sound like the final version that we know, isn’t it?

That’s why I love hearing musician’s demos. It the genesis. It’s the raw “toddling” beginnings.

 

Scrambled Eggs

Play along with me for the next one. Can you guess what song this is (hint: It’s a famous hit):

“Scrambles eggs, oh baby how I love your legs.”

Any luck?

That is the first lyrics for Paul McCartney’s hit, Yesterday.

The lyrics erm, improved.

“Yesterday, all my troubles seem so far away.”

 


Take the First Step (Not the Second)

All things start from somewhere.

And that somewhere may seem unpromising. Heck, you might even feel like an impostor, or not good enough. And that does not matter.

What you think about you and your abilities, doesn’t really matter.

Say you go for a job interview. Who gets to decide whether you are “the one” for the job?

Not you.

When you go on a date, who gets to decide if you are “the one”?

Not you.

When you release a song to the streaming platforms, who gets to decide if your song is going to be a hit?

Not you.

So what are we to do?

Take, the first step.

That first step, is everything.

Here’s the poet David Whyte:

Start Close In

Start close in, 

don’t take the second step, 

or the third, 

start with the first 

thing

close in,

the step, 

you don’t want to take. 

 

Because, as we observe this in nature and biology—just notice your gardens and potted plants—good things grow from sh*t.

The Invisible Essentials

Everywhere a greater joy is preceded by a greater suffering.”

~ St. Augustine

Yes, we all have invisible wounds. At the same time, what’s truly essential is also invisible to the eye. And in some sense, we wake up to joy after the ordeal of trials and tribulations.

The impulse of desire, knowing what we want, is the seed of vitality. It’s a powerful life-force inside each of us exist, if we learn to tune in, adjust and calibrate the frequencies like an old transistor radio.

This life-force within us is a creative force. Not just in an aesthetic or artistic sense, but a potent energy waiting to be nurtured and shared generously with others.

Others people would often fail to see this seed of desire within you. Only those who know you in a deep way are able to sense this providence, and only a fewer selected people—mentor, teacher, wise friend—can help unearth this with you. If you know such individuals, stay close to them. If you don’t have such individuals in your life, seek them out. Everyone on this journey needs a guide, especially in two particular phases of life:

  1. Periods of struggles and ordeal, and
  2. Periods of renewal

One way to begin tapping into this creative force is to sit with this one question, “What do you want to create in this life,” [1] and refrain from settling with familiar and norm-based responses. Because each of us, given the matrix of our unique burdens and blessings, have something remarkable to give.

Footnotes:
[1] Robert Fritz, The Path of Least Resistance.

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