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What Makes Your Creativity Thrive?

Dawn Lawrence.png

BY DAWN LAWRENCE

Of What Surrounds Me

What it is I am saying, I always

need a leaf or a flower, if not an

entire field. As for the sky, I am wildly

in love with each day’s inventions, cool blue

or cat gray or full

of the ships of clouds, I simply can’t

say whatever it is I am saying without

at least one skyful. That leaves water, a

creek or a well, river or ocean, it has to be

there. For the heart to be there. For the pen

to be poised. For the idea to come.

-Mary Oliver

Creativity thrives under certain conditions.

This poem speaks volumes to me, reminding me of what it is that I need to have my writing come to life. Creativity thrives under certain conditions, but I know that these vary for all of us.

For me, it is much like Mary Oliver. I need to be immersed in some sort of nature, in flowers, fields, skies, or bodies of water. I often long to be outside, in beautiful weather – in a soft breeze, sunshine on my face, especially in the springtime when flowers are being birthed and the color green is most prominent.

What do you need to flourish in your creativity?

Are you surrounding yourself in the things that make your creativity come alive? Sometimes I get in a rut, the words do not come and I am left feeling empty and as if I have nothing to offer.

Go there and let your creativity grow wild. 

But then I go outside. I spend time with my Creator. And I remember. I remember that my creativity flourishes with certain surroundings, with beauty and simplicity echoing around me. Is it music, is it silence, is it a certain coffee shop or mountainside, the dock by the lake or the backyard? Stay in those places and pick your head up. Invite the things you need to come along with you in your day to day. Don’t neglect the things or the places that give you creativity.

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Published on March 11, 2014 by Artist Reformation.

Tags: Dawn Lawrence, Mary Oliver, Of What Surrounds Me, Creativity, inspiration, poetry, poem.

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