On Creativity, Courage, and the Pursuit of the Divine
Bold. Be bold. Be alarmingly bold. That’s what you are if you are really living. For many years I have worked with scores of amateur poets in Montana, in almost every state in our country. Fully half of their writings have been pallid, timid, soft, ever gentle, pussyfooting. Think about how bold you are in feeling, thought and expression in your privacy. Don’t write as though you were sucking existence from routine and monotony. Nobody need live a life of monotony—“My mind to me a kingdom is…” and it is your kingdom, no one else’s, yours. Don’t trim what you think and feel, speak and write out of timidity, out of modesty, out of fear of criticism. Every day think and feel and write something bold. It’s good for your writing. It’s good for your thinking. It’s good for you.
~H. G. Merriam 1977, Missoula, Montana
The world in 2000. Few folks had mobile phones. There were celebrity websites and chatrooms, but no social media and no YouTube. Mani-pedi wasn’t common parlance. Artificial nails weren’t common. Simpler times. This is the world of Ballad of the Drover set in Madison County, Montana during the 2000 Celtic season of Lughnasadh.
Fortunately for me, I had in the summer of 2000 attempted a novel set in McAllister, Montana and I had those descriptions of Madison County available to utilize in this series, Landscapes of a Montana Heart. Many of the landmarks have disappeared in the last quarter century and I wouldn’t have been able to remember with great accuracy how my home country had looked. I read my detailed descriptions from that time and I am grateful for my earlier effort at writing, although my first novel attempt was dreadful in terms of plot, characters, and dialogue. My earlier attempts at writing have served their purpose as they provided the backdrop for this series.
The writer, Anne Lamott, was correct. Your initial attempts at writing will be garbage. Mine were. Do it anyway, recognize your limitations, keep on writing. Story tellers are good listeners. That’s how you get inspiration. Story tellers are perceptive. You can’t describe what you don’t take time to observe. Practice listening. Practice seeing. You will get better at listening, better at seeing. Write what you hear, write what you see. Learn to listen to the heartbeat of God and to the earth breathe.
Always remember to do what Anne Lamott suggested in her classic book on writing, Bird by Bird. Put your voice of self-doubt and insecurity in a Mason jar. Screw the lid down tight. Put it on your writing desk. Watch it suffocate. Self-criticism is an important feedback loop in creativity but you don’t want to let it stop you from creating. Be careful with the people around you. Don’t share your creation with every Dick, Jane, and Sally. Be selective. Some people will be very jealous of your creativity and they will try to crash you. Don’t let them. There are bullies on the playground and there are bullies in the creative world. Seek out fellow creative souls and kind honest people. Remember that your art is your baby. You birth it and raise it and then it’s on its own. It’s part of you, but it isn’t you. Don’t take criticism personally. If the criticism is constructive, listen and grow. If it’s destructive, ignore it and move on. We connect with other people or we don’t. Aesthetics is a personal choice. Respect that.
Being creative and searching for beauty in nature, in photography, in music, in literature and poetry, in art is a search for the Divine according to the Irish poet and philosopher, John O’Donohue. Searching for the Divine is not an easy task; it takes courage, perseverance, strength of character, and a reckless disregard for the odds. As Joseph Marshall III, the Lakota writer, said so brilliantly, “Being strong means taking one more step towards the top of the hill, no matter how weary you may be. It means letting the tears flow through the grief; it means to keep looking for the answer though the darkness if despair is all around. It means to cling to hope for one more heartbeat, one more sunrise. Each step takes you closer to the top of the hill, closer to the light of the next sunrise, and the promise of a new day. … The weakest step toward the top of the hill, toward sunrise, toward hope, is stronger than the fiercest storm."
Don’t ever give up on hope. Don’t ever give up on love. Don’t give up on yourself because your weakest step is stronger than the fiercest storm. Take the first step and don’t look back. To be creative, you must dig deep inside yourself, hone your craft, and make love to the nine muses.
Be brave, be bold, search for the Divine—create.
C. G. Eberts