On February 20th 2011, I wrote in my notebook that I would have to take inspiration from Edisson and explore 1,000 ways of how not to make an image before I would know how to do it! I didn't really know what blogging was, I hadn't used a Digital SLR before, I switched from PC to Mac overnight, I didn't know what twitter was, and I hadn't a clue what to write about!
Julia Cameron describes blocked creatives, as artists who have sublimated their true path and creative lives to pursue other work, often meeting the desires and needs of others. She says that creativity as a commodity is absorbed and exploited in every possible way, and that the creatives at the heart of this are often unaware of it, feeling guilty anytime their own creative urges arise.
The on-line open journaling process, that is blogging, has reminded me again of my "unremembered wings" and over that year I have felt the soaring pleasure of it. This poem to me is such a perfect capture in words of what happens in the pursuit of the creative path.
I didn't know what to say, my mouth
could not speak,
my eyes could not see
and something ignited in my soul,
fever or unremembered wings
and I went my own way,
deciphering the burning fire
and I wrote the first bare line,
bare, without substance, pure
foolishness,
pure wisdom
of one who knows nothing,
and suddenly I saw
the heavens
unfastened and open.
Pablo Neruda translated by David Whyte
If you are beginning blogging or any creative endeavour, a good place to start is not knowing. As Neruda says there is a pure foolishness and pure wisdom in one who knows nothing. The excitement is in "deciphering the burning fire."
And just in case there is any confusion, the liberation of "not knowing" mercifully continues almost a year later!
