link, a dink a link, a link a doo

Miranda at Creative Construction pointed out a nice bit about viewing your creative endeavors as you would your child. This is an ongoing conundrum for creative mothers, beyond the balancing act. I think we we are so often surprised by our children and our creations. What we need to remember is that they both are part of the larger world outside ourselves.



When I read Miranda's blog, I immediately thought of Khalil Gibran's poem, On Children, especially as sung by Sweet Honey in the Rock. Go ahead, go give it a listen here. I'll wait, while you listen and cry and sniffle and blow your nose and listen to it again...it's that beautiful.



The idea that we let our children go and be themselves, and we let our creations go and be themselves is what it is all about. They have their own spirit and purpose to be, outside of an extension of ourselves as mothers or artists. How much better they both turn out when we're not too busy hammering away at them to be some preconceived notion of what we think they ought to be.



I commented to Miranda:



if we can think of our creative endeavors in the same way as this song, this poem…’as life’s longing for itself’ in the same way as our children, respectfully as beings in and of themselves, wouldn’ they grow and flow so much better than with our ‘hammering away at them', trying to make them bend to what we want?


of course then i start to think, well what about keeping in the form i’m working in, this novel can’t suddenly be poetry or the other way around….or can it? can poetry be inherent in a novel? can a story be in a poem? immediately i think zora neale hurston and homer and say, yes! yes they can!



I like how the stream of consciousness led me there. After all, I like when fiction is poetic and when a poem has a story to tell and does so simply and beautifully. The same idea can be applied to painting or musical improvisation, or pottery or any other art. Everything works better when a little control is given up. Beauty lies in grace and all that.



Okay, musing over. Time to go listen again.



By the way, I am so happy to have figured out that little highlight to link doohickey, finally!