Simple, Creative Pleasures in Uncertain Times

December 7, 2020 2:32 pm

I am peering into the oven where my father kept the cookies. I can hear the squeak of the oven door as it opens. I can smell the chocolate and vanilla. This magical oven and its magical cookies are stuff long forgotten. As I create, I reach to seize it and remember it fully. Just that fact that it was once wonderful makes it worthy of capturing and taking with me as I go forward to “What’s Next.” My creative process lets me enjoy the simple, creative pleasures of “Right Now” as I sit in our present, uncertain times.

COVID has left us all anxious as we wait for a better tomorrow. We are missing out on creating memories with friends and loved ones. At the same time, we face an uncertain future. This all happens from the present moment that we sit in. How do we make the best of these uncertain times that we wait in? Creative process can help with the uncertainty of the “Right Now.” Simple pleasures gained from creating something meaningful, useful, powerful, or beautiful can transform the present moment. We can wait in impatience and anxiety for “What’s Next,” or we can find ways to make our “Right Now” a place of peace and hope. Art making can offer us this path to peace and hope.

A liminal space is a place where we wait for “What’s Next.” It’s a space that can cause us to feel at unease and even disoriented. Time can become surreal as the impatience and anxiety of not knowing the future pushes us to force the unknown to be known. How we wait in a liminal space determines our experience of the present moment. I paint my way through the liminal experience. While others wait with unrest and fear for the future, I paint my way into the oven where my father kept the cookies. I smell the chocolate and vanilla, I reexperience the magic of memories, and I uncover wonderful things long forgotten. How can you create your way through the liminal experience? How can you use creative process to embrace the present moment and the unknows of your future?

Consider this blog to be a place to discover your creative path to meaning, peace, and hope. I encourage you to find a way to harness the power of creative process in your liminal places and spaces. Consider sharing your experiences here or elsewhere. Pay it forward by encouraging others to explore creativity’s power to make “Right Now” someplace much, much better than it might otherwise be.

Stuff Long Forgotten, 2020