Sometimes I get frustrated with where I am at. I wish I were a better artist, a better musician, a better writer. I wish I had gotten focused earlier in life and started developing my talents years ago instead of waiting till my mid-30s. I look at other talented people and wonder if I will ever be as good as them. However, I need to stop comparing and just embrace the process.
These thoughts are dangerous. They can suck the life out of our creativity. That is why it is important to learn to be present and appreciate the process and not just the outcome. I don’t paint just to have something pretty to look at. If it were so, then I would just buy other paintings. I paint because the process of painting is wonderful. Painting is full of problem-solving, figuring out how to create images and emotions.
When you embrace the process, you see that the process is your story and stories without conflict aren’t stories, just descriptions.
I’m a songwriter. I play very few covers because I have a hard time leaning other people’s songs. I think that is because it is harder to link other people’s songs to a personal story or process. When I sing my own songs, in a way, I am re-living the process of getting inspired, and then shaping that inspiration into something beautiful. The idea of creating something motivates me to do the hard work of memorizing lyrics and building the muscle memory needed to play the song.
Likewise, we are all in a creative process of becoming better. Your life is an unfished song, a half-written poem, a painting that is missing something. We must learn to enjoy the process and stop craving results.
Below is free verse poem I wrote using my right hand (my non-dominant hand, I’m lefthanded). This is a technique I talked about in an earlier post which you can read here. I learned this technique from the book, The Power of the Other Hand, by Lucia Capacchione. There is something about embracing awkwardness and persevering with it that releases creativity and awakens inner wisdom. This technique has also helped me learn to embrace the process.
Where I am today
By Luke Vandergriff – 2019
Where I am today, I don’t feel like anything special. I haven’t achieved all my dreams. The building I started still isn’t finished. I’m not 100 percent healthy, maybe still a little crazy, still a little worried, a little insecure. I still haven’t learned to love with my whole heart and impatience still gets the best of me from time to time and resentment still finds a way into my soul and I’ve not been able to convince unforgiveness to leave.
Where I am today, I hope I am at least halfway, but there is no way of knowing where the finish line is until I’ve crossed it. I don’t know how much more strength I will have to muster, if I have what it takes. Will I have enough? Am I enough? I wish I could stop wishing and be satisfied with what I have and who I am, but…
All I know is that to get where I am today, I have fallen seven times and seven times I’ve gotten back up. I started building and though I’ve been hit by storms and quakes and disease and hunger, sieged and threatened, accused and abandoned, I’m still placing brick after brick, row upon row. My limbs have been clipped but my roots still grow.
To get where I am today, I’ve crossed rivers and I’ve crossed seas. I’ve sailed and I have flown. I’ve walked and I have run. I’ve gotten lost and I have found my way. And here I am today, scared but willing, broken but healing, exhausted and now I’m resting because tomorrow is another day.
Where I am today, I can see the sunset and I can see the sunrise. The moon, though ever-changing, accompanies me night after night. I can hear birds singing and I can hear wolves howl and I am more than aware that I am here, where I am, right now.
Where am I today? I am here, where I am, right now.
Please tell me how you are learning to embrace the process. Leave a comment below.
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Hii good job. İ liked your opnion
Thank you. I enjoy your feedback.