When I nurture my creativity, things change.
There are moments where I can feel it, a sense of there being something more. I hear a whisper of a story. See a flash of a painting. Notice a song has played in my head for days. I can choose to step out of my routine and follow the creative energy or I can continue going through my days.
The biggest changes of my life arrived when I didn't know I needed them, when I wasn't looking, when I had surrendered to the flow. For me, creativity is about surrender. It's about looking out the window watching the robins nap in the sun or walking along a wooded path and listening to the trees sway in the breeze. It's about going to galleries and plays, conversations with friends and family, chocolate covered strawberries and red velvet cupcakes. Creativity is a sensory experience. It's being alive, connected to the self and the pulse of the river that flows beneath the every day.
If the seasons change four times a year (and all the changes that come within each), then I want to change like that too. When I allow myself to be carried by possibility, naturally evolving slowly and without big expectations, then change always delights and surprises. I've learned the importance of getting out of my own way, of releasing my grip on outcomes, and of focusing on the here and now. If I can do this in life, then I can do this in writing.
I still have a lot to learn. I'm just at the beginning of this path. I know I'll make mistakes along the way. And I'm grateful to realize that change and transformation are easier than I thought. I don't have to work so hard to make things happen. I can nurture creativity by being awake, feeling alive, and surrendering to the pull of story when it appears.
And then, word by word (or as Anne Lamott famously says, "bird by bird") my stories are growing on the page. It's all connected: art and life. They continuously feed each other.