Feeding My Creativity Nurtures My Soul

I’ve written before about how important it is for creators (or really all humans) to nurture our souls through artist and creative endeavors.

While writing is my usual medium, it doesn’t have to be that. In fact, when I feel creatively stymied, moving on to another kind of activity often helps me break through.

Back when I used to dance regularly, I got some of my best ideas for blog posts or other writing projects when I was driving home from a dance practice. (Or sometimes during the practice itself which was, admittedly, distracting). The act of getting my hands moving with embroidery or knitting helps to calm my mind so that creative insights can bubble to the surface.

I don’t know if this is because it is using a different part of my brain or because it brings down my blood pressure and quells my anxiety but it usually works.

My gift to my husband this year has been to set aside time one or two nights a month (more often when I can manage it), for him to go be creative. After dinner, I shoo him off to his office to paint, write, or play musical instruments. He is a software developer by trade but a creative at heart. After almost twenty five years together we both recognize that while his job often tasks his mind, he needs to feed his soul. (And being too busy to do so comes at a cost.)

For me getting started is the hardest part. There are always other things that demand my attention. My children, my paying job, my house projects, homeschooling and home keeping are all important to me. But something happens when I actually stop long enough to let the words distill in my mind and begin to come out my fingers. It’s feels like when I put my glasses on or my contacts in first thing in the morning and suddenly everything comes into focus.

After a hard day, sometimes that last thing I want to do is pick up my knitting needles or my embroidery hoop or sit down at the piano. But when I do, my body is no less tired, yet my spirit soars. I am strengthened despite my exhaustion and when I do go to bed I feel whole rather than fragmented.

We were made for creativity, for the spiritual experience of creating to connect us to our Creator. We get the privilege of calling into being that which does not yet exist. In a universe filled with brokenness and chaos, beauty as a pursuit towards better understanding the heart of a loving God, brings us rest, nurtures and heals us.

If you enjoyed this Five Minute Friday post, check out the other people free writing on the word Nurture.