Ride The Waves

Today's posting is based on a comment made by an old friend on my first posting here on Time and Tide. He wrote...

 "You're able to take us there Nat." That was a moment for me. It moved me to be honest and it didn't expand my ego, quite the opposite, it humbled me. The reason being is that I don't take any kind of credit for what I create because when I'm in that creative zone it always feels to me that the Zen of the moment comes from somewhere outside of me. The part that comes from me is how much work and effort do I physically want to put into it.

The magic though definately comes from somewhere else. I think you could ask any artist of any genre from painters to musicians and they would tell you that there is indeed a zone they open themselves up to. Most might go so far as to say that a fever comes over them when they enter the zone. It's like a runner running themselves head on into a runners high. They feel like they can fly and never tire or run out of wind. There's a feeling of expansion and freedom and of breaking all the chains and shackles to the order of anything! And when the fever reaches its peak there is only one thing you are aware of, and that is the feeling of utter joy. It seeps into every pore and slides into the deepest darkest parts of our awareness and lights up even the darkest corners of our souls and fills them with it's purity and light. When a person finds their very essence cocooned in the purity of true joy....anything becomes possible. The person can create any moment that their heart desires. THAT is the gift of magic that comes from somewhere else...somewhere outside ourselves, something far larger than us. For whatever it is we have created..when the fever cools and we stand back and look at the creation we know we were not alone in this... we know we can't accept the full credit and that is when we feel humbled.

We also feel something else too. It's called fear. We also know that this zone or fever is so far removed from us and so far beyond our own control that we fear that someday we could sit and wait for it and it might never come back. Like a love affair gone bad we might find ourselves one day at the mercy of this lover, waiting and left wondering if it will ever return and engulf us once again in that burning need and the pure intoxication of true joy. We know we need to feel that fever in order to create. Without it we will fall flat. That our creations will only be merely two dimensional. These are the things that humble the true artist. If there was a secret  door that leads us to that fever then I think it would begin where it ends...in the purity and honesty of our intentions.
 
Are we writing, singing, painting and creating for the sake of the art itself? Or for the recognition, the adoration or the what I like to call 'the lookie me syndrome'.. the vanity. If our intentions are true and pure then we must sing for the sake of singing. If we intend to write we must write for the sake of writing because of the need to tell a story. Feel the need to paint..the need to act! The old saying as we all know it is "If you want to be a writer, then write!" Time will tell if you are any good. And the recognition? If it comes...that's bonus.

May I always be able to ride the waves and take you along for the trip!

That's all she wrote!

Until next time.....Natalie

Special thanks to Mark Gough for being my inspiration today for this posting!