I have been in a creative slump lately and so I called upon nature to inspire me and slap me back in to my excited happy place of creating and enhancing the beauty around me.
A couple of evenings ago wispy, airy clouds hung in the sky.
It was close to sunset, so I pulled over to a local park and with camera in hand wandered up and down the side walk deciding which angle to take the photo. There was a hint of color in the clouds but nothing dramatic. I waited. No wind and only a couple of birds squawked.
While I waited and wandered, a woman who was out walking her dog stopped. "What are you waiting for?" she asked. Smiling I said, "Oh, I'm thinking this will be a nice sunset photo, so I am just waiting to see what I can capture and create." (When asked lately what I use to get great photos, I steal someone's answer and say "MY EYES") "there's not a pretty picture there, don't waste your time." and she quickly tugged at her pup and walked off.
Wow, what a grand example of two people being in the exact same place and time and seeing two different things.
I've listened lately to NPR where I found a wonderful series of talks presented by the TED foundation (Ideas worth spreading). What I enjoy is the fact that the talks are generally about 18 minutes long. (about the length of my attention span) Check out their site if you need some inspiration or entertainment.
I am attaching the link of a great talk by Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of EAT PRAY LOVE.Click Here
Remember it's only 18 minutes... my guess is that you will be as inspired as I was.
Elizabeth Gilbert muses on the impossible things we expect from artists and geniuses -- and shares the radical idea that, instead of the rare person "being" a genius, all of us "have" a genius. It's a funny, personal and surprisingly moving talk.
I love her idea. Tell me what you think about this?? I would love to hear your take. Perhaps it will be just like the lady at the lake and you won't see it like I did.
Remember to head on over to our Flickr page and show us your abstractions this month.
11 comments:
lovely photo! :) i think creative people are inherently optimistic - finding beauty where others see nothing special. thanks for sharing your creativity. :)
I love the TED talks - I listen to them alll the time. I'm looking forward to listening to this one tonight after work.Your vision for this pic is great - what a loss for the woman who can't see it!
Thanks for sharing this link, Claudia. It was wonderful! Just keep showing up. That's excellent advice. Sometimes I think we put too much undue pressure on ourselves to excel every day, not just in our creative pursuits but in other life tasks as well. Let's face it, some days, we're whirling dervishes and surprise even ourselves with our creativity and productivity; other days, not so much. And that's okay. We need to give ourselves permission to be human. The key thing is to keep showing up. Day after day. Picture after picture. Blog after blog. You can't hit it out of the park every day but we can show up for the game.
Hugs,
Dotti
Oh, and I love the photo! As I moved down the page and it came into view, it took my breath away. It's so lovely.
Ditto what Dotti said! Some days we are amazingly creative, some days, not so much. I feel like I'm in one of those "just showing up days", but hey, I showed up! :)I loved listening to Elizabeth Gilbert speak, she has a great sense of humor too.
I love what she says about things being on loan to you - it is so true - everything, and everyone is on loan to us. And by just showing up we are certain to not miss anything, but I really believe that there are blank spaces in our creativity so that we are able to recognize them when they show up as well.
And too bad for that woman who couldn't "see", she was walking with her eyes wide shut. Because that is a gorgeous sky and silhouette!
Loved listening to Elizabeth, thanks!
Thanks for providing that link to Elizabeth, she certainly puts a spin on our creative process, getting help from some other source so we don't take full responsibility for our successes or our failures. I will have to let that digest for awhile. I agree that we need to continue to "show-up" and keep doing what we creatively do, some good, some not so good, some great but keep doing...
And I agree with all that the poor woman couldn't really see at all. Beautiful image of a beautiful sunset.
I agree that it's amazing how 2 people look at the same thing and see 2 different things! Thanks for the link! I'm off to it!
xo,
Linda
I finally got to listen tonight and enjoyed it alot. Thanks for finding it, and passing it on - Ole!
Hi Claudia,
What a gorgeous sky, and your capture is wonderful. I think that you are right that the two of you were on different perspectives. I love TED and the talks are truly inspiring, when I leave here I'll go have a listen.
This week has been a challenge, yet I was in the kitchen and thinking about how as my husband gets weaker, I seem to be getting stronger. It's the ability to change the channel in our minds that is the key to staying happy.
Have a beautiful night, and I love the way you see beauty around you. You are an inspiration.
Karen
Your sunset pic is gorgeous! I enjoy TED a lot too......heard Elizabeth Gilbert last year was was so impressed with her. There are so many great talks on so many subjects, it's a wonderful resource.
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