Empty yourself.
If you consider yourself a creative, you might relate to this.
When you create something you love with all your heart and soul and you put it out there, it can sometimes feel like you’re emptying all of yourself into a black hole of nothingness.
There is no audience sitting in front of you.
There is no one clapping for you, cheering you on, telling you to keep going.
You can keep pouring yourself, but there is no sign of a finish line.
And yet, there is something greater inside of you that drives you to keep showing up to create anyway.
Because at the end of your life, you know that you don’t do it for the applause — even though our social platforms condition us to believe this.
Every “heart” we get is another dose of getting high.
But when you ground yourself into the Earth—
Onto the piece of paper that you’re writing.
Onto the blank canvas that you’re painting.
Into the mic that you’re singing.
You realize deep down that you do it because of that Creative Force that is relentless in its pursuit to express itself.
It will keep nudging and nudging until you do something about it.
It is energy stored within you deeply desiring to be expressed.
And just because it’s there doesn’t mean that there aren’t hard days.
Some days the struggle is real.
Some days you will sit down and stare at the cursor blinking on a blank page for hours and your hands still doesn’t seem to move.
Some days you have to really face deeper parts of yourself and dig—
Dig so deep inside of yourself until whatever you eventually yank out becomes your creation and you transform it into art.
Today I went to a gym I used to go to over 10 years ago.
I signed up so I could workout while i’m in New York for the summer.
As I checked in, I greeted the woman at the front desk.
She was eager to share with me:
“Hi Sandy! I wanted to tell you. My sister showed me a post you wrote this weekend- it was about your cousin and it was so eloquently written. My uncle passed and his funeral was this morning. It really touched us." It was a piece I wrote last week called “Life, death and everything in between”.
She was the sister of an old friend from over 10 years ago.
I felt deeply touched that something i’m publishing on my computer while sitting alone in the dark at night while everyone is sleeping is reaching another human that shared this insight with me in flesh.
I felt deeply touched that in their moments of mourning, they found a little comfort in reading something I wrote.
I felt deeply touched that they pulled out their phone and read it out loud to the rest of their family in the car.
I felt deeply grateful that God is using me in this way and I pray that I continue to be used through the words I create and the stories I tell.
You will never know who needs to hear the message that has been put on your heart to share unless you share it.
You will never know who needs to see the art you have to create unless you create it.
It was a God wink moment — and all times — that’s all you need, the little wink of acknowledgement from the Lord — to keep doing what you do.
To keep showing up to create, however that may look for you.
And if you do not sing, dance, draw, paint, — don’t underestimate yourself and exclude yourself from being a creator.
In every moment, we are co-creating life with God.
If you change your perspective on what you believe it means to be creative, you will see that even a janitor cleaning a toilet is an artist.
So empty all of yourself.
When you empty all of yourself, it is as if you are offering all your pain, your burden and your suffering to the Lord.
Empty all of yourself in prayer.
Empty all of yourself in a journal or in a conversation.
Pour your heart out like you don’t know what it feels like to break.
Pour your art out like you don’t know what it means to be judged.
Pour all of yourself out into the black hole.
It may seem like a black hole of nothingness but trust me when I say,
that it is pregnant with an abundance of LIFE.
Science tells us we can only see 4% of the universe.
4% of stars, planets and galaxies.
That means that 96% is all energy that even astronomers cannot comprehend.
The same is true for our brain.
There is so much we still don’t know about the human brain and what it is capable of.
So it is safe.
It is safe to leap and pour yourself into the unknown.
Into the dark void.
You might be scared because it looks like there’s no light.
But that’s because you have forgotten,
you are the Light.🍵
Warmly,
