(“Stillness” |  PHOTO CRED: Michael Hyatt.)

We have – without permission, without warrant – entered into a present reality that has altered the way in which we process our time, our focus, our priorities – our habits. One cannot simply head out to a group mixer, a networking meet-up, or the social event of the century, in the wake of feeling restless on a Thursday, Friday or Saturday night. Among millions of others, we are essentially ordered to Stay Home and Stay Safe. Periodical walks, bike rides and runs are all within a respectable reach – provided we keep far enough distance from others in the process.

What’s even more at a visible standstill, is our external list of activities: gatherings, concerts and shows; a cocktail of busyness that would tire any 5 year-old, sugared-up on a pixie stick high. This visceral stillness that we have been sentenced to - summoned to adopt for an elusive length of time – is at the very crux and core of our new societal challenge. What do you do, when the presumed way in which you managed your stress – i.e. bar or party hop, social scene or not – has been temporarily removed from your list of remedies? Instead, introspection, reflection, time with family and/or your passions, are the inevitable relief.

This other ‘new reality’ – where all former manufactured coping remedies, once prescribed by ourselves – are now out of the question for the foreseeable future.

So now what?

As insurmountably daunting these external issues are, the hope we have in this ‘internal new reality’ is found by unlearning former coping habits, and learning new, effective ways in which we face the music. Honest introspection – one that unearths a gravity-pull of emotions, never once fully addressed, never once adequately resolved – plays a pivotal role in crafting this internal, new reality.

(“Calm”  |   PHOTO CRED: Google Images)

Patience, another integral ingredient to our personal cross-examination, proves powerful: how and why we process our past, current misinformation and the like. While we may be physically bound to a certain square-footage within our respective areas, our ability to see our surroundings and circumstances differently, are not. This freedom and liberation we experience from every ineffective, past habit once deployed, will ultimately come first; it ultimately must come first.

In this present time, I encourage you to be brave, be patient with your growth – you can do it.

-Linds

With focus and fire towards the right things, you are unstoppable.

Evidence of my skill level left a trail of paintings hung on walls; intricate and stylish sketches, whose strokes rivaled both classic and modern era’s acclaimed. I was made aware that I- this long professed artist- was capable of committing concept to visual; visual to finished product. And yet, amid exhibit A through Z, I could not recall nor point to any work from recent months of creativity come to life.

Where had I, the artist, gone? And why hadn’t I given time to one of my loves?

It could be and has been one of the hardest things to confront; this, being the mere fact that no one else, no other force, could take the blame for my absence of creating in recent months. There was and has been no one to blame for this lack of productivity. Could time be the reason? Perhaps I could heap every reason on the limited amount I’ve been given with the recent swell in both my professional and personal lives. But, I’d like to think we are wise and responsible enough to make time for what we love.

I’ve often found that the mistake we blindly or pridefully make is not confronting the real reason we encounter an issue- and, as a result, we continue missing any real ability to solve the problem. When the power to settle into self, (a topic that we will explore later this month), rests upon our ability to create, there’s not a thing that should stand in our way.

Dire Dawa, Ethiopia: Ethiopia skater catching some air above two retired train cars at an old railway station. (PHOTO: www.ethiopiaskate.com)

And so, I write to you, another monologue and soliloquy of confessions, putting into practice what I preach.

“Be accountable for the creative calling you’ve been given. How else will we see our gifts move, if we ourselves do not?”

A movement laced with order and focus is the only ‘moving’ I can be a part of. Senseless movement is just as unproductive as no movement at all. Scoffing at order and the need to institutionalize its power to focus our talents, must be an integral part of our creative trajectory. Without it, the dream remains only an idea, never conceptualized or realized.

In the way of the artist is often times our inability to infuse order into our creative goals. For there to be change- the productive way- the artist must incorporate discipline, which then provides focus. Focus will fine-tune the reasons you have the gift in the first place.

Focus, (on the right elements), with the fire to create, is unstoppable.