It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly – Aldous Huxley
I write and take photos all the time. I sit there editing something I know will never be any good.
Most of the time it doesn’t go anywhere. I don’t know if anyone will ever read my words or enjoy my photos. But I keep on writing and shooting because something in me that I can’t understand needs me to keep going.
Something in me has so much to say, that when I write, multiple stories come out at once.
So many lessons I’m learning flow out and passion takes over. My instinct is to bring it back, edit it, rework it, change it, improve it. When I do that, it sucks even more than when I started. Most of the time it’s incomprehensible, but I keep doing it.
My issue with art is paralleled with my struggles in life. I want the answers now, I want to be who I aspire to be now.
When I explain myself in a situation, I always say too much.
When life doesn’t turn out how I expect, I dissect every layer, finding that sometimes things simply won’t make any sense yet. Just like art.
Life takes draft, after draft, after draft to get to a piece we’re proud of.
I have to constantly remind myself that art can’t be controlled and may never be understood. Tamed art isn’t art. It’s dull. It loses its magic.
Tamed life isn’t life. It’s dull, and it loses its magic.
When we attempt to create in the hopes for others to like it, we lose the purity of our inspiration.
When we live our lives inside a little box that we’ve built, we lose the excitement of feeling alive, and it becomes more difficult to step outside of our comfort zones.
Someone recently said to me “I’m afraid to share my writing. Writing is a crazy thing. You risk writing forever, with no one ever understanding your words.”
Being understood is an ultimate perk if you’re lucky enough to find it in you to create your masterpiece. But even when you’re lucky enough to have your work loved, it still may never be understood. Artists don’t create to be understood.
Artists create because they have to create.
When we force control in art, or in life, shit hits the fan to remind us of how little control we have over anything outside of our own thoughts.
So, the answer to getting us through the creative process must lie in Aldous Huxley’s words. “Lightly child, lightly.”
The answer lies in not giving up because we’re not where we want to be yet. We must live lightly, released from our old baggage, and flowing gently through life so we don’t miss out on the enjoyment of it.
Life is crying out for us to dig deeper. It desperately wants us to create our masterpiece, and it needs us to share our work along the way.
∞ ∞
Aldous Huxley’s full quote below, courtesy of @__nitch :
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