Lookin’ for Love: In All the Wrong Places
- At February 08, 2021
- By Write in Community
- In Blog
12
[Love] is art’s most powerful and enduring muse, fuel for the creative process, more potent than anything the world has known. –Maria Popova
Priming the pump.
Songwriter Johnny Lee and I have something in common– I [am] lookin’ for love in all the wrong places. For if love is the most powerful muse, why is a blank page staring back at me? So, where is the love? Then I remember, and the exhilarating joy of looking, unfolding, breathing in begins… Which image or stunning poetic lines are going to inspire me, lead me down the tortuously sweet path of flowing blue on my pages, into the mad scramble of fingers on the keyboard? In to love?
Is it the beautiful animal photographs in The Photo Ark by Joel Sartore that move me? Who hasn’t been touched by the melancholy of a lone gorilla? Yet nothing stirs within. The amazing volume of Swallowing the Soap by Bill Kloefkorn? No, not that either. But then my eyes wander over to Pablo Neruda’s 100 Love Sonnets with no less a pink cover. These lines encircle me like hypnotic perfume –“Oh, love is a journey with water and stars” and “When I hold you I hold everything that is.”
The lightning bolt.
I turn the pages, aimlessly poring over sonnet after sonnet, letting myself walk into the lines and revel at the intimacy, the undiluted elation of what someone means to another. And suddenly get lost, deeply lost, deliciously so. The “I” that began the ritual of browsing, attending, becomes an “us.” The process of letting go unfolds, and I lift lightly as if winged. Finding my journal, my portal into an expanding universe, the world opens.
David Whyte, English poet and author of several books, calls this experience of encountering a “firsthand” experience. In this kind of experience, someone doesn’t tell us what was stirred or created—we experience it directly. It’s our visceral reaction. All our own. It has our heartbeat and breath. Like lookin’ for love…and falling. Remember that unforgettable feeling?
And so…
If an African Tribal Chief asked me what is love, I would reply: First of all, love is madness, Loving him is like driving a new Maserati down a dead-end street faster than the wind, Taylor Swift sings in “Red Lyrics.” Love is rhythm and harmony and sometimes flat notes. It’s standing on the brink and jumping. Not knowing if he’s going to catch you. Breathing is hard. This isn’t the story of the prince rescuing the princess. It’s a dream in a secret language, both sweet and combustible at times. Always there’s a pursuit. Someone is caught. You’re in a stormy sea, being tossed here and to. Love is like a long river that never ends. Where we are forgiven and at our best (most of the time). That’s not lookin’ for love, it’s love. – Becky Breed
Creative/Writing Exercise;
- As artists, we listen, explore, touch, taste, and breathe in this beautiful world, both the beauty and the tragedy, letting all of it resonate. And then, we use these powerful emotional experiences to create our work. Consider using a line from a popular love song such as “Thinking Out Loud” by Ed Sheeran to get you started: And maybe we found love right where we are. Then quickly list your first love, high school sweetheart, your soulmate or a love triangle, whatever you’re drawn to, giving attention to what arises. Create. Let love lead the way.
- Or, perhaps, think about other firsthand experiences. Consider looking at favorites in your photo library selecting two or three that touch you deeply. For example, seeing your child or grandchild for the first time, a deep and abiding friendship, viewing the Mona Lisa or other great art, a stunning sunset. Select one that honors that experience. What would you create to show you were wonderfully touched?
For more information about The Writing and Creative Life, see http://www.thewritingandcreativelife.com.
Rosanne Liesveld
Love is unselfish, unrelenting, and undying.
Write in Community
Thank you, Rosanne. Your three words help tell the story of love.
Jan Bretz
Becky, I’ve had the experience of touching and opening books looking for inspiration, or a way to “prime the pump,” and the magic when something clicks and the brain and intuition synchronize to cause the ink to flow. I didn’t know the expression from Whyte about “firsthand experience,” but I do know how much stronger and real my writing is when I write from it. Which you did! When you wrote about falling in love. It took me back. Made me want to dance in the kitchen with my husband of 53 years. And I have an idea about writing a firsthand experience of learning to row a boat. Thanks!
Write in Community
Yes, “touching and opening books” is a wonderful way to become inspired. I can’t wait to read your firsthand story about learning to row a boat.
Lorrie Bryant
Love is being there for each other no matter what struggles life may bring your way! Human life is filled with joy, celebration, hardship, trauma, and even tragedies. Those I love, and those who love me back, provide strength and support to move forward no matter what. Without that love, I would feel hopeless.
Write in Community
I think one of the best things we learn when we write down our thoughts is what’s really important to us. And you did! Thank you for your beautiful sharing.
Victorine E. Lieske
Great post! As a romance writer, love is inspiring to me. And thrilling. I adore writing about those first moments when your breath catches and you have those first feelings of stirring in you, from a touch, or a look, or just the way someone is when they are near you. Thank you for this post about love. 🙂
Write in Community
I’ve never thought of myself as a romance writer, but I do write about love a lot. You are a great role model for helping me stretch and see new possibilities.
Barb Highstreet
As I think about how love has affected me in my watercolor painting, I realize it has to be personal.
My first thoughts about painting and love reaches many levels. The first being my growing up with an artist mom. In my family, art encompassed all of us, each in different ways.
I started painting tractors only because my dear friend loves his tractor so much. I painted him on his tractor as a gift. That small gesture of love spurred me on to love the look of tractors and how to create them for the people I love.To date, I have painted 9 tractors. Not because I grew up on a farm, or ever drove a tractor, or have any association with them, but because of the people who own them. They were the catalyst that made painting tractors important.
As I started working in watercolor, the love of painting has become spontaneous as well as intentional. Intentional in that I wanted to share that love of art with other women in class. The success and enthusiasm that they are able to achieve has been overwhelming. Their individual work is a testament to the love of creating.
Write in Community
Lovely and thoughtful words. How fortunate that your love of art has nurtured so many! Reaching thousands of children over the years, and now, continuing to give back by paying it forward to women who seeing your passion and love of water colors want to be encircled, too. The endless joy of creating and making beautiful deepens the circle of belonging. Yes, “their individual work is a testament to the love of creating.” Thank you.
Nancy Childs
My first reaction to the idea of Love is the feeling I have when my grandson sits on my lap or I hold him in my arms when I greet him with a hug. He is such a sweet child. So trusting. He relaxes against my body and the warmth of that connection says”Love” to me. There is the the physical warmth as two bodies connect and there is the spiritual warmth of glowing joy as I connect emotionally with someone I love deeply. This love is a bit of a mystery to me. On the intellectual front I know that I love him because he is of my blood. But there is something so magical about this bond, because it just IS. I don’t actually put any effort into this love, it just springs to life when I see him, when I look at him. He is this pure little human, untouched by any tragedy ay this early age. As I observe each movement, each joy of discovery, each surprising sentence, I am constantly reminded of what a miracle human beings are. And how blessed we are to be able to experience connection with them.
Write in Community
Love comes in many forms. The love of a grandparent for a child is special, perhaps freer and more unhindered compared to the day-to-day responsibilities of parents. You’ve captured the joy and the unique relationship felt between a grandparent and a child, Nancy.