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I’m about helping people to relate, create & be well. They’re not three separate dance spaces. It’s one dance space, viewed from three different balconies. It really floats my boat. I’m mixing metaphors. Dance halls and boats.

Come, let us set sail and dance.

I jumped the ship of stable employment and dived into uncertain waters to start up Creative Wisdom in Feb 2015. Here I am nearly 2 years later finally launching. I thought it’d take 6 months.

It took 2 years because I thought I just had a to build a website but as it turned out, the website was just the outer window dressing to the dance space. The space itself is the philosophy and practice of relating, creating and being well. The website was gradually constructed alongside my thinking and it all finally clunked into place.

It took 2 years because, happily, I kept getting drawn into the work of helping people and organisations traverse the actual waters of relating, creating and being well.

It took 2 years because almost everything takes longer than I think it will. I’m actually quite a good planner. Yet I still have such great capacity for self deception regarding forecasting time and task. And the long haul on the high seas of creative endeavour tests my capacity for both patience and passion.

Which brings me to my insight and top-tip take-away for you dear reader:

Creativity is generated by tidal currents of Passion and Patience.

These wonderful forces, Passion and Patience, each have their respective shadows, namely; Tyranny and Passivity.

Passion becomes Tyranny when our ambition becomes divorced from the spirit of the endeavour and impatiently drives the ship, mercilessly whipping the oarsman onward with no respect for the natural movement of the winds and ocean currents. The ship of endeavour has become a slave ship. This gets very tiring. People may jump ship. You may jump ship.

Patience becomes Passivity when our genuine need to slow down slides gradually and imperceptibly into procrastination, justified as “going with the flow”.

Tricky waters to navigate.

“So how do I get this handled?” you ask.

“You don’t get it handled,” I reply, “You work with the tension.”

What’s so marvellous about human beings is that once we become aware of these contrasting and complimentary forces, we can mindfully toggle between them in a lively process of ‘recognise and readjust.’ For example: You catch yourself becoming all try-hard, joyless and besieged by your ambitions. And so you choose to take a break, or phone a friend, or go for a swim. Or: You find yourself staying up in the early hours watching, “Just one more ep of game of thrones because the kids are in bed and it’s okay if I’m a bit tired tomorrow and god knows I deserve some me-time”! And then you realise you’ve taken your eye off the prize. So you get back onboard your goal and hoist the sail. Or, as in my case, you keep watching game of thrones because it’s so damn great and then after some weeks pass you realise you’ve taken your eyes off the prize.

The ‘perfect balance’ myth

Creativity doesn’t require a perfect balance of Patience and Passion. Nor does it require some ‘enlightened’ freedom from Tyranny and Passivity.

At times we’ll achieve (or be graced with) a beautiful, energised-yet-effortless ‘flow state’ where Passion and Patience work in perfect union. This will arise naturally out of the ‘inner work’ of managing our Tyranny & Passivity, and the ‘outer work’ of taking action to get the work done.

Just don’t get too attached to the flow state. No one is immune to the struggles of the creative process. No one has it locked down.  The creative process refuses to be cornered and controlled.

Creative mastery isn’t a domineering mastery that ‘nails down’ the creative process to some perfect state. Mastery is an agile and ongoing dance of recognition and reorientation. A tango of surrendering and intending. Of letting go and getting back on board. Pushing and pausing. Rigour and relaxation. Failing, forgiving and forging on.

Creativity, human connection and wellness are born in the tension of opposites. I’ll be exploring a bunch of them in my ‘woven’ blogs.

At this launch of creative wisdom I wish you well in any endeavours you’re launching or continuing this year.

Happy sailing.

May you dance on deck occasionally.

May your sails be big-bellied with favourable winds.

When becalmed, may you enjoy the stillness until the winds lift your sails again. And if the winds of inspiration don’t pick up, may you pick up your oars and start rowing a good while before your run out of fresh water.

Enjoy your Creative Wisdom.