The Creative Observer

We are natural-born creators, the architects of our lives and the sculptors of our shared reality.  We’re born into this realm with a personal toolkit that allows us to alter our world from the inside out.

In this toolkit we have a physical body that can build, a mind with which to invent, and a spirit that can energize anything we craft.  We hold the power of creation, and this life is our sacred opportunity to learn how to mindfully wield that power.

As a species, we have used our creative powers to improve most everything about how we live our lives.  We have become healthier, happier, and more productive; we’ve lengthened our lives and freed up our time – but improving some things can cause as many problems as it’s meant to solve.

When we make our lives too comfortable, we can easily become intolerant of discomfort.  We end up thinking of the uncomfortable, unsettling, or unsatisfying things in life as if they are wrongs that must be righted; and this extreme focus on what things can be distracts us from appreciating them for what they are.

Simply put, our eagerness to influence the world often interferes with the pleasure of just experiencing it.

We are all artists and our lives are our art –  and like any artist, we must temper our voice with a well-developed ability to listen.  Just as a writer must spend as much time reading as they do writing, we as creators must spend as much energy admiring the world as we do painting it.  This means that sometimes we have to allow things to be what they are, without altering them, even if they are less than what we would have hoped for.

This willingness to let things be is an important part of learning and growing in life.  Sometimes we need to feel discomfort and struggle, and we even need to feel the occasional heartache and pains.  We’re like diamonds; our beauty is born under pressure.  When we eagerly alleviate every little thing that rubs us the wrong way, we never have the chance to really develop our shine.

Often times letting go and letting be requires more courage and grants us more power than desperately trying to change something.  By listening, watching, and learning, we nurture greater awareness and we gather more inspiration than when we’re busy building, imagining, and changing.  This means that, when we do decide to bring out our toolkit and get to work, what we create surpasses those things that we immediately rush to improve.

When we nurture a state of inner calm and contentment, it’s easier to accept the world as perfectly imperfect – we can enjoy having our toolkit without always having it out and chiseling away at everything we see.  This actually reduces our suffering in life, because our struggles are really just lessons in disguise.  Every time that we push them away or try to fix them, they just come back around to us in another form – and each time that they come back they are a little bit tougher.  When we stop trying to always correct discomfort and instead allow it to be what it is, we give ourselves the chance to learn those lessons the first time and save a lot of unnecessary difficulties later on.

Sometimes it’s important that we put our toolkit away, let our art breathe a little, and spend some time just observing.  Even when the winds are blowing harder than we’d prefer, it’s often better in the long run if, instead of trying to fight against the storm, we just watch and wait for the silver lining to illuminate the lessons that wait just on the other side of the clouds.

It’s okay to take a break, and to give the world a break, and to remember that although we should appreciate our power to influence the world, we must also appreciate our ability to just experience it.  Perhaps this will help us appreciate that unique and perfect kind of beauty that can be found in living a sometimes imperfect life.

©2016 Cristen Rodgers

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