Reflection

The necessity of pain and the creative process

We avoid pain. Physical pain, emotional pain and psychic pains are all pains we try ti steer away from.  A good life is a happy life – we think or at least we hope it will be when we can attain this happiness.

Can you live a life without shadows?  I walk 6 kms to work each day, in summer I walk on the side of the road which is most in shadow.  It is shady and cool from the heat of early morning sun light.  Likewise when walking home, I shadow hop as the pavement and road throws of the heat it has absorbed during the day.  We sit in the shade of trees, to read, write, reflect and watch the world go by.  Shadows are part of life, they are a necessity, so with pain.  It is a necessity.

Happiness is the holiday; life provides us in between the lessons of pain. It is how we react to pain that determines who we become.  Emotional pain, psychic pain can cause us to contract, to shut down, to become bitter and cynical or it cause us to become more receptive to life, more accepting, more welcoming.

When people admire the beauty of the lotus flower they do not see the mud in which it grows.

There is mud in all our lives, it is whether we allow the mud to fertilize the beauty of our souls.

The past few weeks’ life has decided I needed another lesson from pain.  I would have preferred not to have had the lesson yet it was gifted.  For what purpose remains unclear.  The pain and confusion was such that I could not continue my usual practice of writing a poem a day.  The mud in the pond of my life was stirred up.

Sometimes we need to learn to wait.  Sometimes we can be like petulant children demanding an answer, a reason.  Sometimes it is necessary to sit, to wait for in waiting pain sharpens the creative spark.  Pain can be like the flint, the stone against which creativity strikes and the spark of something new is born.

Pain is a necessity of life.  This does not mean we become masochists, it is simply the realization pain will be our lot.  It is facing that realization with calmness, with equanimity.  It is waiting for the mud to settle.  It is trusting the lotus flower of creativity will bloom again in all its uniqueness, its beauty and its individual perspective.