Taking Time for Yourself:
The Importance of Artists Dates for Creative Souls
This morning I drove Bee to Blacklion to catch the bus to Enniskillen. She is taking herself on what is called an “artists date.” This is date you make with your creative self. This term comes from the book The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron.
So, do you spend time with your artist or that aspect of yourself that is so important to a sense of wellbeing and self-esteem? As The Mindful Gardener, I invite you to the practice of cultivating your inner garden. This is within you and is forever waiting you to tend the seeds of its blooming.
How would you spend your artist’s date? For Bee it will be browsing Waterstones for books and looking in Fermanagh Cottage Industries for wool or artists materials. It may be browsing secondhand charity shops for yet another handbag – bit like me and another power tool.
For me I take my artist to a garden center. Most of the time that would be at Ardcarne close to Knockvicar. There I can lust after all the beautiful plants and imagine various combinations. There I can have a coffee or lunch and sit and write about my adventure.
There is no time pressure. There are no goals to be achieved. There is no mobile phone or laptop to interrupt may time with the flow of the creative. It is sacred time, sacred space and much of the time it is silent. This need not be the way it is for you, but this is the way I recommend.
Creativity is not something you achieve. To use the word achieved doesn’t feel right. It’s like saying that the river achieved its flow, or the sun achieved its warmth. Creativity is the nature of life. You are designed to be a unique expression of this infinite possibility.
If education were less about creating workers rather than people who allow the beauty of who they are to be the work, they do there would be much greater happiness for all.
Let the beauty you are be the work that you do – Rumi.
In this quote by Rumi which I used to have on a favorite mug Rumi invites you to the mindfulness of the beauty you are. For most of this the idea that we are beautiful is an anathema. The word “beauty” is not to be confused with the word “glamour.” Beauty is so much more than the time bound limitation of “glamour.”
Taking yourself on an artist’s date is acknowledging the work that you are here to do. Even the word “do” is not correct. Taking yourself on an artists date acknowledges the work you are here to be. You are here to be a unique work of art – a work of the heart.
What do these words make you feel? Maybe they inspire you. Maybe for many people they create a sense of resistance. The voice in the head assures you that the work the art that you create cannot be considered beautiful. It’s what we all learn. Look around at much of the world and the work that many of us do does not emanate from the feeling of the beauty within.
It’s important that if you are to become a Mindful Gardener of what is seeded within you that you commit to exploring that which is beautiful within. This is not something designated beautiful by the time and the culture you live in. It is designated by the way you feel and flow.
It you take your artist on a date with the idea that you plan to have a result then you are like the gardener who plants the seed and then decides to dig it up because its not going the way you want it. Creativity has its own time, but you have to create the time for its unfolding. It may not unfold according to your wishes, but a large part of the creative process is trust – also practice.
In addition to being The Mindful Gardener I love to play acoustic guitar. This requires practice and enough practice so that the fingers of my hand can begin to play and find creative combinations of notes. My hands get drawn into playing Celtic riffs that I hadn’t planned on but become a kind of happening.
I used to watch sitar players when I lived in India. Indian musicians understand the importance of disappearing into the music. It is when the music plays through them. This takes a lot of practice to learn to let go and trust. This is what artists teach, which in the Western culture is not so much appreciated because it’s not controllable enough.
I remember seeing one of the most perfect dance performances of Indian dance and music. In the words of W. B. Yeats, “How can you tell the dancer from the dance.” – In Praise of School Children. This was a mesmerizing performance, and I will always remember it.
Let me invite you to consider going on an artist’s date.
There is a decline in the West in attendance at places of religion. Make your artists date an invitation to communion with that which is sacred within you. Honor the way that Creation designed you to express through you for the glory of its forever becoming. You are that magnificent but don’t be surprised if you doubt it.
As the Mindful Gardener I let the beauty that I AM be the work that I do. It isn’t really my doing but my willingness to have Creation do through me. I create blogs and spaces that invite the return to the Presence within you that knows how to do through you so that you get to feast on your life. In the words of W. B. Yeats, you recognize that “I am blessed and can bless.” (Vascillation IV)
Are you prepared to be this magnificent? Are you prepared to companion your greatness? Are you prepared to date the artist within you so that you can express what Creation intended that be gifted to the world through you.
