Making Space to Be Creative

"There’s no longer breathing room in our lives.

We can’t wait in line, watch a sunset, or even use the bathroom without taking out our tiny devices to fill an imaginary void. When these small gaps are constantly filled, we close the room our creativity needs to flourish.

The best ideas are claustrophobic. They need space.

How do you make this space for yourself?"

--Paul Jarvis, for Death to Stock in Collaboration with Medium.

I've been feeling pretty uninspired lately. I think a lot of it is being stuck at home every day with a puppy, which I know will pass as soon as he's old enough to go places with me or stay in his crate at home for longer than an hour and a half, but when I don't find the time to be creative and work on something that matters to me, I often end up getting down on myself.

For as long as I can remember, I've always been a bit of a homebody. I guess I just never realized how valuable getting out and talking to people and taking photos and sitting down in a coffee shop or a library can be for living a creative life until two weeks passed without really having a chance to spend a day out and about like I used to. I made a promise to myself and to you to do less this year (both here and here), but I still hardly feel like I'm where I want to be. Maybe that's good--I'm determined to do a better job at almost everything; but it can feel discouraging when the dishes still pile up and a Monday evening passes by with no blog post.

But then there are chilly, Presidents Day mornings in bed that pass by slowly with a notebook and a bottomless cup of coffee; and things start to feel like they're coming together. You organize everything to file your taxes and you take notes and start writing a speech that you were asked to give in the spring, and you make breakfast for your husband and take a walk with your dog and suddenly you realize that maybe you are on the right track, after all.

Sometimes you just have to keep going.