Mar 12, 2015

small towns and creativity

it's interesting how it will be 2 am and i'm sitting and pounding the keyboard, the words flowing easy,
and the next afternoon baking cookies because i just can't write or play music. 
 i'll sit in my cozy little corner in the van for miles and miles just gazing and thinking
and a moment later want to capture everything i see.  
creativity.  words. 
 it's like an turbulent water faucet, either on or off. 
if it's on, it's on.  if it's off, its off.  with no way to control it.
i wasn't going to write anything right now.  just try to share some of the mountain of picture files.
but then i just sat down and suddenly this happened. 

i've been thinking a lot.  and working. and writing, and making photographs. 
and sometimes sitting and staring at walls or roads or passing fields.
staying up late. going to bed early. long days at home. days when i'm hardly home.
now, this weekend we don't travel for music, so of course i'm going to go stay somewhere else.
sometimes i have a lot to say.  sometimes i just don't. (thank you for listening.)

Sweeter Gets the Journey

16 comments:

Shady Del Knight said...

Hi, dear Abigail! There have been many times in my life when my feelings and behavior were similar to what you are describing. Sometimes I have felt like I'm in a free fall, lacking a sense of solid footing or a clear direction forward. Some days I have found myself filled with energy and new ideas. Other days I am lethargic, my mind is blank and all I feel like doing is drifting for a while.


The following are a few helpful principles that I learned in seminar training:

* Whatever is going on with you at any given moment, make it okay.
* There is no such thing as wasting time.
* Even when you are dong nothing you are doing something and it is necessary.
* It's okay to have the blahs now and then and not get a doggone thing accomplished.
* Happiness is overrated. Make it okay to be sad sometimes.
* When you stop pursuing happiness you start to experience it.
* Ride the horse in the direction it's going (and enjoy the ride).
* The river cannot be pushed. It must flow.
* You are not your thoughts and emotions.


You posted another wonderful set of pictures. The images of vast flat expanses of land, small towns, the American flag, the electric fan and the movie theater being to mind two of my favorite movies, The Last Picture Show and Easy Rider.


Dear Abigail, as I told you on my blog, I need to suspend blogging for a couple of weeks starting this coming Monday. I am moving to a new residence in another city and need to concentrate on packing, moving and getting set up in my new place. I hope to resume blogging by the first week of April. I will miss you and Daisy. I will visit your blog and catch up with you as soon as possible upon returning from my hiatus. Please take good care of yourself, my dear friend. God bless!

Amy said...

Wow, what beautiful photos! It looks gorgeous there ♥
Amy xx

Perfect Imperfections

Eve said...

Oh my! Your writing, your photos- they're just so, so so gorgeous! Loved this. <3

Lyssa said...

Crazy how creativity works like that, yes. It's not really a switch that we can simply flip on or off. That's why I simultaneously hate things like NaNoWriMo, and also being a music major in college, but also love them, too. If I am demanded to create something, I either have to wait for the right moment (which could be today or next month) or force myself to spill words/notes out onto paper for hours in the hope of getting a shimmer of decent art. Yet with the discipline of urging myself to continue, giving myself the time and opportunity to create, I've never been disappointed with the long term results, because even if the current product isn't great, my creative "muscles" are stronger from the effort and I am more trained to be ready for when the true spark of creativity lights up my heart and mind :-) You know? Just some random thoughts.

Lana said...

Have you been in my brain lately? I'm going through a funk right now, there's some stuff going on that was out of my control and that irritates me to no end. I've been taking pictures but not editing and not writing and that has to end soon. I look at the computer and think tomorrow night, tomorrow night, tomorrow night. And it never happens.

R. Ann said...

This is so awesome! I think living in a small town you can have so much time to think freely. When I grow up I hope to live in a small town and be close to my neighbors. These pictures and so simple and lovely.

~Racic || Washed by the Water

MegBird said...

"it's like an turbulent water faucet, either on or off. if it's on, it's on. if it's off, its off. with no way to control it." So very true!

Hannah Batchelder said...

Wow, you put thoughts into words so extremely well! Sometimes I'll read your blog and I'll be like, "YES!!! I was wondering what that feeling was!" :)

Abigail said...

Thank you! this is a good list. I'm learning to just sit back and go with the flow, hey, if i'm not feeling creative there's always creative people online i can keep up with haha. Happy moving!

Abigail said...

what a lovely idea! i do agree. thank you.

Abigail said...

Ha! i do understand that! it's kinda funny, but i'm learning to jsut sit back and go with the flow. whatever you do is awesome, so it doesn't matter when you do it, Lana!

Abigail said...

YES. i've always wondered how people do the writing month thing! or do art for a living. great thoughts!

Rachel said...

Stunning photos!

Sarah Albertson said...

Creativity is interesting, you never know when it's going to hit, and it's nearly impossible to try and force out. I love it when it just seems to sneak up out of nowhere and surprise you with something wonderful.

Meg Kernaghan said...

This is so very true! I am often frustrated that my creativity seems to have stopped flowing just when I have found the time to blog. Or that I can't turn the tap off while I am lying in bed trying to get to sleep.


This was such a great way to put it :) xx

Jessica Cangiano said...

Beautiful, honest words, sweet dear. No matter what you share with us here, it is always grippingly expressive and immensely relate-able.

♥ Jessica

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