I Just Want to Create Things

"I just want to create things."

About 8 years ago, after resigning from a school-based wellbeing job, again, a friend asked what I thought I would do next. I had an insatiable hunger to be more creative, to create things that didn't exist before that could bring joy and delight to others.

It was clear to me that the work I had been involved in, while serving others, wasn't meeting my need for creative expression.

This desire to create, often literally felt as a hunger in the belly, is part of human nature. Rather than embarking on the creative journey, many of us have learnt to:

• Feed the feeling with sugar, fat, salt and booze.

• Find distraction in passive entertainment.

• Focus on busy work that helps others.

• Fill our time with social obligations.

And all of these distractions work, they dull the sensation, the hunger for creativity. Until one day, a string of events strip back our ability to hide from the creative call any longer. We find ourselves faced with the time, resources and skills to tune into our creative work.

When blues legend Robert Johnson sings, "I went down to the crossroads, fell down on my knees. Asked the lord above, have mercy, save poor Bob if you please."

Johnson is singing about the creative call, at the crossroads between repeating old patterns and stepping forward in faith.

Which way are you going to turn?