Sometimes we stand in our own way; our own plans block the path for a new thing that's ready to come forth. How do we know when we're getting in the way? What does it look like when a new thing gets ready to make its way in? Does it come down the street waving a bright flag? Well, no. Does it march to a beating a drum? Can you smell it, touch it or taste it? No. If we stand in the way of something new, it's because we usually don't sense it coming, at least not like that. There is another sense of perception that alerts us of the new things. It's not visual or audible, touchable or tastable; it's a subtle sensation, a tug, a yank, like an invisible toddler at the hem of your skirt. This unseen sensation won't leave you be. It's as hard to ignore as it is to pin down. It's strong yet peculiar. It conflicts with what we know. But it is to be trusted. If we learn to trust that sense, we might learn to get out of the way. We may even find ourselves to *be the way* through which the new thing will come. I moved out of my lovely little gallery last month- against my own will. I abandoned my carefully made plans, the vision and the venue. I left the pretty, polished showroom for the roughed-up, paint-stained studio. There was a yanking sensation that told me to do it. It said it needed less of that and more of this. It needed me here, not there. It was hard, but I abided. And as soon as I did, the new things arrived. A light came into this studio with a truth so strong it burned off anything excessive and distracting. The light surrounded the truth at the core of my work and reminded me about the power of trust. Trust got my plans out of the way. Trust erases the plans we penciled in for ourselves. Trust unties the knots we tied ourselves to. Trust sets us free to be creative. At the end of the day, a creative life is what I crave, but a truly creative life requires Trust- not firm plans, not fear, Trust... with a capital T. And this kind of Trust can take us precisely where we need to be when a new thing gets ready to parade through.
"See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?"
-Isaiah 43:19
sho, september 7, 2022