For The “Wishes It Would Flow” Creative

Part seven: Bother us with your brilliance: your art, your weird, your “too out there” ideas—your disruptions to the status quo

Perched beneath my laptop sits a penguin.

A penguin crocheted in sky blue with a dandelion yellow beak. It’s tilted forward as if in flight. This tiny yarn creature is unaware that penguins can’t fly.

It stares at me, urging me to write. And I’m supposed to be writing a flash piece, but I don’t think I can. The words are coming slow. Stilted. I want it to be good! I want it to move you! I look at the penguin again.

See the balls of yarn it used to be. Remember how I pulled each loop through the one before, forming a penguin—one so full of life it appears in flight—from bits of a yarn and a hook.

Remember too, before that, the failed attempts to make the magic loop to start a different piece, a fox, the frustrated putting of the yarn away.

And the joy when it finally clicked.

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I was recently having a chat with a creative courageous human and they expressed that they’d love to sit down to work on their project and have it come pouring out of them, like it sometimes does. (I wish that sometimes too, don’t you?)

And they speculated that the not flowing could be a sign that it’s not the right time to work on it. (I’m sure many of us have thought this too!)

I know for sure if I waited for my writing to pour out of me, you would never hear from me. And also, there is a difference between putting in the work of writing and forcing it.

But the more I sit with it, I don’t think I believe in the concept of a vague “not the right time.”

Maybe it’s more:

“I’m still exploring what this is so it’s too early to try and produce a finished piece.”

Or: “I need to develop my skills so I’m capable of closing the gap between what I envision and what I create”

Or: “I didn’t sleep well last night and I need a nap.”

Or: “I’m terrified I’m not capable of creating what I’m envisioning.”

I think we owe it to ourselves to get a bit more specific about why it’s not the right time—otherwise it might never be.

I’d really love to know your thoughts on this:

Until next time,

Ryn