Are you a maker?

When did you last create something?  A pirate ship in the clouds, a wolf profile out of the shadow of your hands, a line in the sand, a ballerina from a poppy.  Being a maker doesn’t have much to do with exhibiting the items you make, it has to do with the ability you have to fully enter the creative process.  Whatever the result is.   

The finished object is only a by-product of the creative process.  It is obvious in the ephemeral arts like dance: it only exist in the moment, then it is gone.  We are fooled by the “solidity” of other arts because objects can remain in the physical world for so long.  Long after the silence, the focus and the intention that brought them into this world have disappeared, objects are still with us. Sometimes one can still sense through the object the presence that created it but often they are simply a distant witness of it, the soul is gone.

When we buy, break or covet objects, we confuse them for the creative process.  That, we cannot buy.

The world doesn’t need more objects.

What the world needs more of is silence, peace, focus and intention.  You, need more of that.

Sadly, we often choose to not explore our creativity and many of us declare themselves “useless with their hands”.  Why not start with very simple creations? 

It is a matter of trusting your potential and going from there. Don’t look for the essence of creating in the finished product, because it lies in the “making”.   

When we fully engage our attention in simple creative projects, we discover we *can* make something.  Anything.  The small item you create can be an answer to a need you see, it can bring a smile to somebody’s face, it can make a difference in your community or it can have no purpose at all.  But the process will surely fulfil you. 

 When you begin to sense the dissonances between your words and your actions, when you try to align internal values and life path, you start to see, to listen, to create, to make items to accompany the journey.  It usually happens effortlessly. 

You want to have a lighter footprint ? You start making simple things alongside the movement away from the single-use mindset.  You are concerned about the threat to our ecosystems ? You build feeders for the wild birds and make perchs for them.  You realise that the fashion industry is not sustainable ? You have a go at making and mending your own clothes.  Anything you create is an expression of your inner journey.  Being a maker lies in the process and when it comes from a place of presence, you don’t have much to do.  It simply happens.  You don’t make it, it makes you.

The world around us is a treasure chest. Let’s open eyes and ears and heart.  Let’s copy natural patterns,  let’s integrate natural elements in creations.  Let’s make something.  Anything.

Being inspired by the beauty around is free and accessible here and now.  Take it all in and make something out of it, whether you  show it to the world or not.