Ruminate on the robin
Many find doing nothing remarkably challenging, which is strange really when you consider that things keep on happening whether you care for them to or not. There has been so much talk of ‘creative productivity’ since we have all been in lockdown but really, don’t bother. Firstly, most people are trying to balance the extra work of looking after their kids with the difficulty of doing their actual jobs, and secondly- no one wants to feel forced into being creative, there’s nothing worse. I would go so far as to say that trying at anything at all is unnecessary- everyone knows that it’s far nicer to put on the telly and eat some crisps.
No one wants to feel forced into being creative, there’s nothing worse. I would go so far as to say that trying at anything at all is unnecessary- everyone knows that it’s far nicer to put on the telly and eat some crisps.
So, what to do then- if you are time-poor and not trying anyway? The fix is easy. Stop viewing creativity as another thing on a list, it doesn’t work like that. Open a window and watch the birds. Before long you will see a robin and that will give you all kinds of ideas. You don’t even have to write them down, just keep them in your head for later. Ruminate on the robin, or on the man in the yellow hat. They have been put there for you and the key is try and understand why.
Probably though, before you can even begin to think of those things a shrill cry will come from the living room. Kid one has tried to put a bread stick in the other kid’s eye. Perhaps an encyclopaedia salesman has come to the door or worse, someone campaigning for the conservative party. The robin is forgotten.
The good thing though is that robins are always around. You might not even want to draw or write about the silly robin, but they are there to remind you that beauty is everywhere, nature is infinitely complex, you are part of that complexity and everything that comes from you is perfect. The sun isn’t ‘trying’, the moon never gets a creative block, it just is. It’s very important to remember that essentially you are the same. If you get two minutes to yourself, just be beautiful. If that beauty happens to get put down onto a page then it’s the same as the wind making patterns on the sand, no big deal.
A little bit of making a day is fine. Engaging with things of meaning and beauty on a daily basis is the real heavy lifting. Yet let’s not even call it heavy. Really it’s light lifting. The rest will come.