As with anything creative, change is inevitable.
– Enya
Change your ways – change your days (and nights). On the eve of the September 23 equinox when the number of hours of daylight and darkness are exactly the same (12 hours), we witness the perfect hand off of partners in an elegant dance. The equinox (Latin aequi for equal and nox for night) occurs the moment the Sun crosses the celestial equator – the imaginary line in the sky above the Earth’s equator – from north to south. From then on the days become shorter, the nights longer.
So what about change? And creativity? Making change? Changing direction? Change plans, channels, language, location, address, clothes, passwords, time, trains, planes? If a tadpole can change into a frog and a fairy can change a frog into a prince, well imagine…? And what about a chameleon?
Or do some things never change? Weather patterns change – rain, sun, sleet, hail, snow, hurricanes, tornadoes, cyclones, and hot dry Santa Ana winds blow. In the Northern Hemisphere seasons cycle winter, spring, summer, fall, while simultaneously in the Southern Hemisphere seasons change summer, fall, winter, spring. Skilled at orchestrating change with grace and power, nature performs awesome acts in the spirit of renewal or rebirth. She makes some moves so seamless they go undetected, but she can also unleash an apocalyptic warning with cataclysmic force. Nothing stays the same in the natural world. Except the Doldrums…
Change doesn’t always ask for permission. Sometimes change reins down like an avalanche we’d like to beat back with a club. Other more covert changes might best be halted with exotic snake oil. But what if you just woke up and decided to choose change? You made change a choice. Or does the concept of change instill fear and smack of uncertainty? So you stall.
If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.
– Lao Tzu
Shred the pseudo blueprint, throw the compass overboard, and feel the change in the wind. If it’s white, make it black, if it’s black and white try color. If you’re at a crossroads, embrace it. Change your perspective, change your surroundings, switch patterns. Exchange, rearrange or consider an interchange.
If during the act of creation things aren’t going well, Picasso would say, Every act of creation is at first an act of destruction. Break it apart, turn it upside down.
To change is to chance. Shake it up. Experiment with variations: large, small, incremental, rapid, slow, strategic. Is the lens in the optimum position i.e. the point of view? Could you begin at the end, end at the beginning, or plunge into the midst of things – in medias res? Change the tense. Go for the close up. Reconfigure. Twist the plot, interrupt the rhythm, and liven up the cadence. Play with line – alter stale design. Discover…
You can always change back. Well OK, that’s not entirely true. But the payoff may exceed the loss. I’d be willing to gamble – even raise the stakes. Otherwise you will never know what might have been!
Can you spare some change?
Loose Change
As someone who is in the middle of overwhelming and inevitable changes in my life, I find reading this very helpful. There is power in aligning oneself with the seasonal changes on the planet, as if Mother Earth lends her eternal rhythm of ebb and flow to my own journey. It's good to be reminded I am not alone. Thank you, Martha!
I usually say things like “Great Food for Thought” but this time I am going to change and try to be a bit different!
I am at a stage in my life when change happens every day. Getting wrinkles! Can’t run fast anymore! So I often think about changes that I can make to my life. Be with my grandchildren more. Finish writing my book I have been working on for five years.
Buy a different house so I can have fun re-decorating all over again. That is probably enough already but the truth be told, I am a lover of changes, the seasons, the holidays, scenery and my surroundings, change brings excitement and youthfulness into my life so I will continue the way I have always lived, chopping and changing, enjoying every moment to the fullest.
Loved your piece about change. I’ve seen it frequently in the way you’ve tackled my writing. You practice what you preach. It feels good to suspend the usual and take the risk. Creativity is all about risking change.
It's really easy to stay stubborn and always want to be repetitive in what you do, but sometimes change is a good thing. Change has given me many opportunities I never thought would arise and many unexpected good surprises. Like you always say you don't know if you don't try!