Start At The Beginning

I have a burning question in my mind. What have I made today? I wrote about it a few days ago. I intend to create something every day. I intend to be more creative and in the flow of creativity than any time in my life. I believe creativity is divine in nature and I believe divinity is expression, expansion, truth and love. I believe that creativity brings us closer to our true selves and bring us back together as a species. To create we need to act and the best place to start is at the beginning.

The question alone is not enough. First comes the desire, then intention, and motivation. Next up is action. I hope we can explore this together and be inspired to create our own art. For in our creations lie the ability to listen to our souls and see the hearts of others.

“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it.

Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.” – Goethe

I spent many years thinking about writing, drawing and singing. Not just thinking about it, but waiting for the perfect moment to start. It is true, at times the moment was perfect and in those moments, I wrote, I sang, I acted and I drew. I have published poems, written songs, recorded an album, painted pictures and stepped into roles for the stage. But those creative periods have been erratic. I have not always felt inspired and most of the time I have felt scared to act. Scared to begin. Filling my time with reasons to distract myself because I either did not feel the pull of inspiration or I felt unworthy, useless, amateur, or not good enough.

We tend to call these distraction techniques procrastination yet misunderstand what procrastination really is. It is fear masked. Fear of being judged, fear sown as a seed, being told that the arts are not viable career choices, being told we cannot sing, dance, draw or act when young. Dreams squashed by a false premise of who we really are. Who are we really?

We are pure potential, life force, universal consciousness wrapped up in a temporary human-shaped bundle and we can do anything. We can all be the artists, creators, dreamers, lovers, and astronauts of our dreams. We just need a little courage. Inspiration is waiting for us to make the first move.

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” – Lao Tzu

We have to start somewhere. We have to be willing to be a beginner. To make mistakes. To not be good. That is okay. We become good by not being good. We learn by making mistakes and adjusting our strategies. That is part of life and that is the way of putting spirit into our creations. This makes things real and relatable. This is how we become authentic, genuine and accountable.

This year I have had to tune into the voice of my soul a little more rather than the voice of my body or my mind. My body-mind has a whole bunch of needs, habits and sub-conscious patterns that have somehow gotten in the way of me starting something. My soul voice assures me that just by starting the inspiration will come. My body-mind wants to seek solace in eating biscuits, drinking beer, watching movies and escaping. My soul shows me that simply beginning something, even for five minutes will fill me with a greater sense of belonging and fulfillment.

Is that not what we are all seeking? Fulfillment? If we begin, by taking that one step, with courage then we can see where we go. This applies not just to art but to life itself. But we have to put aside our distractions just for a few moments. We have to put them aside fully. Let our body-minds let go for five or ten minutes, maybe even half an hour, and give ourselves totally to our dreams. Five minutes of drawing, five minutes of writing, dancing, singing… it matters not. Five minutes of time that become your sacred window to create and listen to your soul.

Then show up the next day and repeat.

Much courage to you.

You can listen to Matt Rivers’ new album Nature on Spotify or Bandcamp.