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Julia Cameron Walking in the World from the chapter: "Discovering a Sense of Personal Territory" Creative energy and sexual energy are both our personal energy. Our use of them is private, and to pretend otherwise is debilitating and abusive. In point of fact, the two energies are so closely intertwined, they may be experienced as nearly identical. we conceive children and we conceive creative projects. Both energies are sacred. They spring from the same source, one inner core. Our creative energy, like our sexual energy, must not be squandered. And yet, we are often asked to do just that. As artists, we must be alert to what people ask us for and reward us for being. Our partners and friends do condition us into behaviors quite unconsciously. We must be alert to what they reward us for with their thanks and reciiprocity. And to what ways they are withholding and manipulative in their lack of approval and generosity. These things condition us, and they are also the conditions in which our art will or will not be made. Festivity breeds creativity. Rigidity breeds despair. When our high spirits are straitjacketed in the name of virtue or discipline, the vital and youthful spark in us that enjoys adventure and is game for invention begins to flicker like a flame in a draft. Creativity responds to nourishment and warmth. If we are forbidden to be childlike--told perhaps that it is "childish" or "selfish" if we are urged to be too sensible, we react as gifted students do to an authoritarian teacher--we refuse to learn and grow. Our considerable energy is channeled into resistance and over time solidifies into a hear-to-penetrate shell of feigned indifference. The universe is alive with energy. It is fertile, abundant, even raucous--so are we. Most of us are high spirited, humorous, even pranksterish with the least encouragement. What is lacking for so many of us is precisely the least encouragement. We buy into the notion that life is dreary and diffficult and something to be soldiered through. We tell ourselves, "Oh, well, what did I expect?" The truth is that as children, many of us expected much more. We had dreams and desires and inklings of delight and full-blown passions. We practiced ballet in the living room, we sang wildly, we loved the goo of finger painting. We loved, period--and love is a passionate and energizing force. In order for our creativity to flourish, we must reclaim our right both to love and to be loved. We must become a little nuts about ourselves, about our notions, whimsies, and ambitions. Instead of chiding ourselves or allowing ourselves to be chided into an "adult" solemnity, we must regain our right to be goofy, earthy, even silly. In lovemaking we speak of "foreplay," and we must allow ourselves to play at the things we love. This means that if our partner is restrictive, we must get a little clever at daring to be ourselves in private. Instead of yanking on our bootlaces and asking ourselves to get better, we need to loosen up the shoelaces, take off the shoes, and wiggle our feet in the green grass of earth. Creativity is sensual, and so are we. As we celebrate rather than repress our passion, we are rewarded by more passion, and that is the fuel for art. Post a comment in response: |
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