Recently, I had a bit of an AHA moment, and I was left wondering about why we create. Now, I’ve pondered this question a lot over the years, and I’ve even explored it a bit here in The Wonder Full Creative. In the past, I have spouted about how we create to share our stories and to make meaning in our lives, and though I still think that, a huge thought struck me as I wrote a couple of weeks ago.
Often when I create or write, I get into that flow state, and the work seems like it pours out of me. I don’t see this as a supernatural thing that only a handful of folks are privy to. I see it as the result of consistently showing up and doing the work. In doing so, I set the conditions so that it becomes easier to reach that flow state when I create. Sometimes, though, it seems that lightning strikes when I’m in that state, and as I wrote that day, a new thought flashed like lightning. It took my breath away when I paused and reread that simple statement, and emotion welled up in me. It was a pretty extraordinary moment.
What was that insightful statement? I was writing about voice and how finding our voice was linked to finding what we wanted to say by sharing something personal and vulnerable. At one point this thought rolled out: “Often you share a story of when you went through something similar as a way to say that if you got through it then they can too. You give the person a gift that they are not alone.” That notion that art is a gift that you share with others to let them know that they are not alone struck me hard, and I had to stop for a moment and make a note to explore this idea further so that I wouldn’t forget about it later on.