Stop waiting for a good reason!

A short Wednesday missive from me, your dear friend in “forever figuring it out and then re-figuring it out again”.

Stop waiting for a good reason!

I need this reminder.

Today, I sat down to work on a creative project with a deadline I agreed to, and I came to life again. Wait, was I dead? Admin, that’s what got me. Admin likes to fill the studio time-slots before art-play-soul-joy, unless there is a deadline. A deadline is a magic spell, and a good reason to make art… according to my current delusions about what a good reason is, that is…

It wasn’t always like this!

I have just realized that for the past year or so, I have let “deadline requested by someone else” creep up to the top of my list of good reasons to make art. Making art for ~ mystical purposes ~ has somehow trickled down to the bottom.

It is a contrast I can feel, especially when I look back on some work I was making several years ago. Maybe when things were a little weirder, a little more raw, a little more unruly… like a global pandemic?

Good reasons push me to create work. When I create work my heart glows, even if it is not “good work”. I felt so happy drawing shapes today, and to have a good reason to do so. But I have just caught myself at a loss of something I used to hold very close, and it’s good to catch this while it’s red hot. There is hope, because I can see it twinkling like a bedazzling jewel star hiding in the reeds, a findable treasure for open eyes. Sometimes I just need to be at the right angle to notice the reflection.

We have two options, folks:

1. It ends here! Good-reason-only-making ends right here, right now.

2. Redefine ‘good reason’ into something more expansive.

For me, both options involve a renewal of an agreement with myself to hold my creative intentions with passionate, purposeful, discipline. To trust in ritual with clarity. To not be convinced it’s not important. To stay committed to what I love most - deep relationship between the physical material world and the subtle, nonmaterial meanings found through, around, and within it.

I think it is helpful to be in touch with our own guiding lights.

When you get lost, don’t fret, just look at the stars and return, return, return.

Blessings!

♡ - Kristen