The Circus, Creative Blocks, and Tracking Wild Animals

Margo Always Wanted to Join the Circus
encaustic and paper on birch 16x16
not quite done yet..

I was chatting with a friend of mine.  I mentioned that I'm feeling blocked and creativity just really isn't flowing like it was a few months ago.  I feel like things have gone quiet and the creative juices are just not flowing.. trickle, yes - but not flowing.  Her read on it was maybe I was making it into something that shouldn't be - that I've gone down the wrong road and all is quiet so that I will reevaluate.   This got me thinking..

What if, in fact, a creative block is a very good thing? What if a creative block is a message from the Universe that this path is no longer the one for me?  Somewhere I've made a wrong turn and ended up at a spot where I don't need to be.  Or, maybe I've misread the signs and I'm headed a direction that is just OK... but not really where I need to go.  Therefore the further I go along this thread, the farther away I get.. the more the distance, the greater the feeling of losing my way.  The more I feel that I have lost my way, the harder it is to get on track, to show up, to keep going..  Perhaps there is a point to recognize this path no longer serves me.   Its frustrating when it happens because its so easy to look at it in a negative way. - I can't (whatever) - paint, draw, write - I'm at a lack of creative ideas... all is quiet and I'm stuck, I can't seem to produce - whatever it is.. usually the vibe is negative. 

I tend to take the stance that I am going to get beyond this block and its my nature to keep running up against it thinking I will break my way through.  What if instead of trying to get over, under, around the block that has been set before me that i actually take a step back - or perhaps what if at this point i turn back and retrace my steps to the point where i last felt success in my work.  When I say success I mean, joy and happiness - that i felt like it was the be all end all and i was definately doing the right thing, creating from my heart with bliss.  A point at which ideas were more than I could keep up with... all was well.  What if i go back to that spot and take a look - carefully at all the signs that are left there.  How did I miss the trail?  It happens, it happens to the best wildlife trackers in the world.  The subtley of the way the paw print reads in the sand can be misread and send a tracker in a direction that is not correct and the trail runs cold.  You know what they do?  They go back to the last good footprint and reevaluate.  Did the tracker see the way the print was slightly more indented on one side, showing a change in direction?  Only the keenest eyes can see these things... I'm still learning, I"m not an expert, therefore I do misread the tracks.  Its OK, its not detremental unless it brings me to a halt.  There is nothing wrong with side roads.  Sometimes we find the best things when we make a wrong turn.  But, if the trail is running cold... maybe its best to turn back to the point at which things were clear and redirect from there.

UpDate::  The golf shoe painting that I did for the raffle... One of my favorite golfing friends was the lucky raffle winner - YAY!  Nice to know they went to a good and loving home :)

It's party time!!