The Creative Ecosystem

A Quiet Realization

This year has been an incredibly eventful one. And with it came a quiet realization that creativity isn’t something we do. It’s something we live inside of.

It’s not a hobby.

It’s not output.

It’s not productivity.

What I have come to understand, and I talk about my “space” often, is that creativity is more like an entire ecosystem that surrounds me. Even its nourishment alone shapes the way I am moving through the world.

Have you ever thought of your own creativity as a sort of invisible ecosystem filled with not only what you do, but how you think and how you view the world around you?

My thoughts are that most of the time, we aren’t even aware that it is forming.

We are all caught up in the busy-ness of things.

That is until one day, the light shines in a certain way or a thought rises quietly, different somehow, and from a deeper part of ourselves.

And then we realize:

I’m not creating a life.

My life itself has become creative.

“To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.”

— Mary Oliver

So What Is a Creative Ecosystem?

For some folks, creativity means workspaces, supplies, and of course, projects. This certainly sounds like me.

But inside these spaces, a place to pause begins to develop over time. And when that happens, even people like me begin to understand that this creative ecosystem is actually a lot more subtle:

It’s the way ideas begin to gather in my mind.

It’s the way emotions soften and take on new meaning.

It’s the way noticing becomes attached to breathing.

It’s the way certain places feel like home before you ever step into them.

It’s how seasons become the moods of expression.

It’s how there is a renewal of feeling connected to people who are long gone, even cultures we have never met, yet something in their spirit aligns with our own.

“When the eye wakes up to see again, it suddenly stops taking anything for granted.”

— Frederick Franck

So I guess what I am saying is that a creative ecosystem is not something that lives on my desk or in my studio.

It seems to be more of an energy in the space between my inner world and the world around me.

The Invisible Work That Built It

I don’t think ecosystems appear quickly. I think they grow slowly and quietly underground over a few seasons.

For me, my creative ecosystem followed this same model.

Its foundation began with:

• Small daily habits

• Questions to myself

• Longer conversations with myself

• Things I have read and revisited

• Different ways of letting the light be the guide

• Emotional rewiring that happened without notice

And when I say it like this, I realize it all happened because of a devotion that arrived without force.

I believe this is what happens when we stay with something long enough for it to reshape us.

Creativity Beyond Making

How often have you heard someone declare they didn’t have a creative bone in their body, or that they were the least creative person in the room?

Here is a truth we don’t talk about enough:

Creativity is not just about what we produce. It includes:

• How we see

• How we seek meaning

• How we remember

• How we listen to ourselves and to the world

• How we align ourselves

• How we choose and interpret experiences

• How we look for understanding from the inside out

Craft is a form of creativity.

But so is perspective.

So is gentleness.

So is resonance.

Sometimes the most creative thing we can ever do is learn to live from our center outward. This is our creative ecosystem.

My Own Realization

A creative ecosystem is not built to impress. It is built to be inhabited.

It is a landscape I want to move through each day.

I want it to include paths that I return to.

I want it to have an emotional light, sometimes to follow and other times to lead with.

Fill it with thoughts I can tend to.

Give it stories I can shape and a presence I can cultivate.

And when I am fully settled into it, I will be in my natural state. A place where I understand that creativity was never about output.

“Do not lose heart. We were made for these times.”

— Clarissa Pinkola Estés

We are all carrying some sort of ecosystem inside of us. Some are quiet, some not so much. Others are still growing in the dark.

What about you? Maybe you don’t need to build one.

Maybe you just need to notice what has already taken root.

It’s worth a look.

Can you live inside of it with gratitude? Curiosity?

Maybe even a little more wonder than you had the day before?

Talk soon…

G