inspiration

Dating the muse

Imagine someone asks you out on a date and you agree to go. So they make a reservation at a nice restaurant and you both make plans to meet there. 

As the day approaches, you get offered a ticket to go see your favorite sports team in the championship game, but it’s on the same night as your date. Conflicted, but not wanting to miss this once in a lifetime opportunity, you call up your date and ask to reschedule, explaining the situation. They understand and change the reservations to another day that works for both of you. 

You have every intention of going on the date, but again, something comes up. This time, an emergency comes up at your job. You are needed there. Once again, you call up your date and explain the situation. They are a little less understanding this time, but agree to give you another chance and so they once again change the reservation to another day that works for both of you. 

Again, you have every intention of going on the date. But something else comes up.

How many times do you think this can happen before the other person stops taking you seriously? How many times can you not show up before they stop wanting to be with you? How many times can you stand someone up before it is obvious that they are not a priority and they move on? 

Now imagine the person asking you out on a date is your creative inspiration, the muse if you will. You say you want to be creative. You say you want to make art. You claim to want to be taken seriously and to be able to make a living with your creative work. But your actions say otherwise. 

How many times can you ignore inspiration before it starts ignoring you? How many times can you choose something else over your creative work before your creative work has had enough of you? How many times can you stand up the muse before it goes elsewhere and leaves you to that which you consistently choose over your art? 

Set aside time to make do you creative work. Choose a time and a place and show up. Show up consistently. Take your art as seriously as you want it to take you. You are not promised inspiration. The muse owes you nothing. Form a relationship with your creative work. Be attentive to it, nurture it, and care for it. 

Treat your art like you would treat a loved one. Better yet, treat your art like you would like to be treated by a loved one. If you take it seriously, if you show up for it and care for it, your art will always be there for you, but don’t take it for granted. Don’t make it wait. The muse is a jealous lover. 

Your art is not just for you

When I read, it inspires me to write. When I listen to music, it inspires me to play. When I look at a painting, it inspires me to paint. That is why, if you are an artist, it is so important that you create and share your work. 

Your art is not just for you. It is also for those who may be inspired by it and, through that inspiration, create and share art of their own. You are perpetuating the creative cycle. 

This is why creating and sharing your art is a generous act. You are giving others not only the joy of experiencing what you have created, but also the permission to create and to share their own art. 

Courage is contagious. Through your art, others are encouraged to make art. In this way, your art changes the world. 

Write anyway

Sometimes writing is a pleasant experience. Other times, it is quite painful. Tonight, for me, it is painful. 

The words are simply not coming. I’m grasping for ideas, but they continue to elude me. 

I’m clawing around in the dark for a lifeline, some relief, some inspiration, but all my desperate fingers can find are the empty corners of an empty room where ideas used to live.

And I know they are just words, but they are more than that. When they come to me, I am comforted as if by a dear friend. In their absence, however, I feel lost, frightened, and alone. 

Tonight, I feel as though I have been abandoned. I have nothing to say and no one to say it to. In this moment, this is all I have to offer, that I write anyway. 

Journey of Imperfection

One of the most difficult things about writing is knowing where to start. A blog is no different. 

As creatives, we tend to have high standards for ourselves and for the work that we share with the world. We want our art to be perfect before we put it out there for others to interact with. 

The truth is, however, perfect does not exist. Perfect is a lie we tell ourselves in order to hide. It is a shield we use to cover up our vulnerabilities in an attempt to keep them hidden away from the world. 

But the best art is fueled by vulnerability. It is formed from the broken pieces. It is shaped by the hurt, the pain, and the confusion of being a sensitive human in an often insensitive world. 

This is not to say that art is sad. On the contrary, art is hopeful, uplifting, and inspiring. Art is transformative. It connects us soul-to-soul and tells us that we are not alone. 

And in that spirit, I write my first blog post.* My goal with this blog is to embrace both my imperfection and the imperfection of the world around me, and to simply write. 

Unlike my other projects which have specific external focuses (foci?), each representing a different part of who I am, this blog and this site is just about me. I will use it to tell stories, share my ideas and opinions, and to wax philosophical as whim dictates. 

My main goal here is to follow my muse wherever she leads and to share what I find with anyone who is willing to join me on this journey of imperfection. I am not asking permission, I have no one to answer to besides my own conscience, and there are no rules other than that I remain true to that which calls to me. 

And so I will write… 

Regards,

Robert Van Valkenburgh

*I have been posting to my other blog, Holistic Budo, for several years, but this site serves a different purpose for me than Holistic Budo has. While Holistic Budo is largely advice written to myself, my writing here will be largely about myself, my experiences, and my observations.