Love and Light and Chips
You may have noticed that, while I do share from my own experiences – and I often am quite serious about what I’m trying to convey – I still generally aim to keep things more or less on the Fluffier Side of Life.
I like chuckles and light-heartedness peppered amongst the observations, ideas and recommendations. However, at times life as it is can temporarily derail us, sometimes just a little, other times, a lot. This is not a unique phenomenon. We all go through similar rites of passage, and over the decades we encounter a healthy dose of contrasts between the lows and the highs which, when navigated, can fuel a creative life.
I have many times joked about being older than dirt and having had dinosaurs as pets, but I am really only just at an age where the generation above me is now leaving me behind. I know they are not doing this to me personally, and the reality is I’ve lost people of all ages over the years – as many of us have. Part of grappling with moving forward is how I, as a creative, use these experiences. In my world, this column will be the first one my father will not have read.
Every month for years – almost always on the first of each month when the Rapid River on-line version hits the web – this man named Jim, to whom I am related, would email me a short message along the lines of: “I read your column. As always, enjoyed.” Or any number of variations of that. I always joked that he was one of my three readers, and when he made it clear he intended to fight back against an illness, I reminded him that he had my support, because I couldn’t afford to lose any portion of my fan base. Some might find that morbid, but he and I chuckled over it.
Even with the occasional down or dark time due to any number of influences we encounter in life, creatives are creative to the core. I draw more days than I do not draw, no matter what is going on in the world. That’s as much a given as it is that I will nearly always reference science fiction, or make up fake words, or find another brand of chips that I can eat when a favorite converts to using the dreaded canola oil. (Give up chips? That’s Potatodiculous!)
I’ve learned that, for me, I can’t stay down for long. And my father would tell me not to dilly-dally, as he was always encouraging of my endeavors. And several losses during this past year have reminded me that life is short, and wasting it is kind of insulting to Life itself. (Seriously. I called Life and asked. Life confirmed that it is indeed insulted every time I waste It. Life then advised me there was a call coming in on the other line, and that was that.)
Since not everyone is always in a bounce-back frame of mind, here are some of the most basic of thoughts I find helpful when I need to get back on my creative track:
Sleep. Seriously, go lay down. Preferably with a rescue pet.
Nutrition. (I SHOULD say “stop eating chips” here, but…) Re-balance the diet.
Exercise. Because eating chips is NOT burning enough calories. Or raising endorphins. Or lowering blood pressure. And all the other beneficial things exercise does.
Personal Spiritual Practices. Pray, meditate, attend, assist. No end to the things we do.
Be Kind to Oneself. One of my Comfort Things is… watching sci-fi. Gee, who would have guessed?
Draw Anyway. Write Anyway. Just pick up the chalk/pen/whatever, and watch what your brain and body do on that mysterious autopilot function, where, suddenly, stroke hits paper, and the flow continues.
Life is not always roses and t-rexes and chips. But, it turns out that what happens along the way – especially for artists – can become kindling for creative fires. I don’t always get to draw yippy-skippy yellow cats floating in fields of happy swirls (But how cool would THAT be. Oh, wait. I DO do that.), because life is more like one big conceptual, editorial assignment, and it’s all pretty interesting.
No matter what the circumstances, it’ll be OK. Whether it’s the best day, or seemingly the worst, whether the monthly validation arrives or not, and even if, oh please don’t make me say it, we run out of chips, we adjust, move forward, put that chalk to paper, and watch the hand start to move.