Lucy Reflects

A special Mother’s Day feature by Lucy’s mom, Sheila Redcay

“Most of us have two lives; the life we live and the unlived creative life within us. Between the two lives stands resistance.” - Steven Pressfield in The War of Art

Some time ago, while rambling around at my favorite flea market, I spotted a handmade child’s toy. It was a hand-crocheted stuffed elephant. Although it had a distinctive mid-twentieth- century style to it, the toy elephant was in pristine condition. It had certainly never had a baby’s sticky fingers lovingly holding it, nor had it spent any time lying on the nursery floor or the bottom of the toy box. The handiwork was lovely. I don’t know how to knit or crochet, but I could truly appreciate the time and care, even love, that went into the building of the elephant.

“Gimme a dollar,” said the man behind the table. “I don’t wanna haul this stuff back home.”

I had no choice but to give the man the dollar. For me and the crocheted elephant, it had been love at first sight.

Later, at home, I wondered a great deal about the person who crocheted the elephant. It had taken a great deal of practice to reach the skill that was needed to produce a three-dimensional toy from yarn. I pictured a woman in her sixties, contentedly rocking in her kitchen rocker as twilight fell, listening to her radio or perhaps the television from another room, and crocheting the elephant. Did she know it would be sixty years before another person admired and loved the elephant? Did she hope the crochet pattern would “go viral” so she could start mass production of the elephants? Did she stop crocheting mid-trunk and bitterly declare that her toy elephant could never compete with the ones being produced in China? I don’t think any of those thoughts crossed her mind as she crocheted and rocked. By crocheting the toy elephant, the woman simply attained peace, happiness and great satisfaction.

Deep inside your own heart, mind and soul you know that you are creative, too. I know you come up with hundreds of reasons to not get around to creating or doing your own art or craft. I know them all and I’d list them here, were it not a bottomless pit of pathetic excuses; a thousand reasons that can all be boiled down to just four letters – FEAR.

FEAR is the most poisonous, wretched, repelling and negative force on this earth. If FEAR is allowed to triumph during our pursuit for our richest lives, the world does not become a better place.

Remember back when you were a kid? You would just do things. You just ran around the backyard or the playground and built sand castles and mud pies and looked for bugs and dug up grass and pretended you were a dragon.

Nobody told you to do it, you just did it. You were led by your curiosity and excitement.

And the beautiful thing was, if you hated making mud pies, you just stopped making them. There wasn’t any guilt or analysis involved. You either liked it, or you didn’t.

What if tomorrow morning each and every one of us woke up with the power and determination to pursue the creative life we’ve been resisting for so long? Would the shrinks go out of business? Would our overflowing prisons stand empty? Would the pharmaceutical and alcohol companies collapse?

Steven Pressfield also recounts this chilling scenario in The War of Art:

“Hitler wanted to be an artist. At eighteen he took his inheritance, seven hundred kronin, and moved to Vienna to live and study. He applied to the Academy of Fine Arts and later to the School of Architecture. Ever see one of his paintings? Neither have I. Resistance beat him. It was easier for Hitler to start World War II than it was for him to stare at a blank canvas.”

Here’s the bottom-line question we ask ourselves when we reach down into our souls in an attempt to live our richest life. “What if I go through all the trouble to make something if the outcome might be nothing?”

As we approach Mother’s Day 2017, I have a few motherly words of wisdom for you and for me and for all of us. We were born to create, regardless of the outcome. Create whatever you want to create whether the final product is gold or trash. Create regardless of whether your critics love you or hate you. Create regardless of whether people get it or don’t get it. Create regardless of whether anyone has ever heard of you and perhaps never will hear of you.

Pursue whatever fascinates you and brings you to life. Your creation doesn’t have to be perfect and it may never be noticed. But you must do it. You must do it to help make the world a better place. You must do it for your sanity and as your gift to the rest of us.

Begin anywhere. Preferably right now.

We’d like to hear from you! Leave a comment below on how you make time for arts and crafts. Share your ideas, some dreams of your own, and help us all make more time for the arts.