Wandering

So much has been and still is being written about creativity that I wonder even as I write whether there is anything I can add to the volumes already published on this subject.

I should dive right in, is what my instinct tells me. Don’t wait for the right formula. Waiting for the right moment, the mojo, for my head to be in the right space, for the creative juices to flow will not produce one single creative moment. One could procrastinate until the moment is “right” whatever that “moment” might be. 

I wonder as I wander. Someone wrote a song like this. I could google it I guess, but do I want to google it? I may end up going down some rabbit hole in search of something someone else has written and to what end? Only to discover, they said it first? I wouldn’t be the first to simply wander. Wandering has enabled me to tap into some of my best creative thoughts. The less planning that goes into it the better. Planning being limited to: Bag; apple; phone; kikoy (which doubles up as a towel or a scarf) swimming costume in case there’s an opportunity to swim; book; glasses and a bit of cash for coffee. 

I wander, not lonely as a cloud, not in search of anything but simply to unplug from the schedule of life. Spontaneity needs to be practiced, which probably sounds like a contradiction in terms, but I don’t live haphazardly or even vaguely impulsively. I live with purpose, but without micro planning every second of my day. 

Living gratefully is key to living creatively. I believe that creativity is stunted by thoughts of: “I could be somewhere better, doing something better, be more creative if I were somewhere else, with someone else, had better access to this, that or the next thing.” 

Indulge in some wandering. It may be into a garden or down to a beach. Take a left where you would normally take a right turn. Stop and gaze with absolutely no expectation. Actively escape from your own judgementalism. It’s been the most freeing experience understanding that one does not have to have an opinion about everything. One does not even have to be right. One can be quite happy being wrong which is a subject for another day. 

So with wandering, comes discipline which I hear you say cannot possibly sit in the same space. In order to maximise my creativity, I need to discipline my mind. Focus. Harness the energy and zoom in on the creative process which may not sound possible with all wandering I advocate, even laughable perhaps. But it works. 

Let a child wander and their mind will develop discipline. Rein them in too tightly and they will never develop their own sense of creativity; their own uniqueness. 

So, around about now, I should take a left, or was it right?