375. Creative Possibility

You’re always too busy to do anything creative. So much is happening around you and you’re caught up in all of it. Work is repetitive, tiring, and endless. Demands on your time are overwhelming and you can’t keep up, no matter what you do. Your attention is totally consumed by obligations and basic needs, and genuine creativity feels entirely out of reach.

You try to incorporate creative ideas into your work when you can, but this doesn’t really satisfy you. You want to be able to write and draw and sing. You want to be able to devote your entire body to creative exploration, at least some of the time. But you simply have no realistic way of doing this right now. There is no time, no money, no resources.

But even in the bleakest of circumstances, creativity remains possible. It is possible in everything you do, including activities that seem completely rigid and mechanical. It is possible in your relations with other people, especially in the way you help them meet their needs. It is possible even as the practice of making art, although it might take some time for this to become a reality.

You might not be able to immediately create the kind of art you most desire, but you can begin to increase the likelihood of creative action right away. You do this by keeping yourself open to creative possibility in all things. You do this by engaging your imagination in every part of daily life. You do this by allowing yourself always to consider new ways of doing things and new forms of expression.

In this way, you gradually build your creative resources, until you are always imagining and considering. As you do so, you will begin to discover new ways to inject creativity into your life. And when opportunity finally presents itself, you will find yourself energized, engaged, and ready to create.