Find Your Creative Edge: Follow the Love Trail

“The events in our lives happen in a sequence in time, but in their significance to ourselves, they find their own order…the continuous thread of revelation.” – Eudora Welty

Dreaming Asleep
I had a dream the other night which encouraged me to follow the love trail, confusing in some ways, yet wonderfully reassuring. It took me to a deeper place, a place of invitation that led me as poet David Whyte writes to “where we are most alive and awake…living on the edge of our existence.” Following the love trail takes writers and artists to a creative edge when remarkable and lasting experiences reach for you and move you forward. And where you think-especially sweet-of him or her and sometimes it.

Life Holds Mystery
Looking back holds mystery for us. We want to think more about life”…the brevity of it, the complexity of it, the incredible richness that enters into it…” writes author Marilynne Robinson. These moments of transformation fill us with joy, celebration, longing. What else is love? Like telling dad at his graveside that his beloved barn is gone. Went up in a hot fire. Brother used an old electrical heating lamp to take care of baby pigs and over heated. I know losing that barn was like losing a friend I whispered. But we still have the memories. The only thing good about the barn being gone is on a cold, winter morning you can watch the sun slowly rise.

Writing to connect Memories
Powerful stories and images emerge when we follow the love trail connecting what we’ve experienced to our art or writing. These lived stories radically resonate in us; we did not learn them from books or from other people, but gained them firsthand as personal encounters of love, commitment and longing. Moments of truth, of loss and the everlasting search for meaning and love hard-wire into our memories pivotal moments that continue to surface. But they can be bittersweet. We wonder what could have been, reflecting on the perfectness of the union or the beauty of the remembered sunset. Yet, powerful memories stir the imagination and bring a vividness and spontaneity to our process of creating. These remembered experiences enrich art-making and expand us in ways where we feel the melancholy, wistfulness or joy from the past. A creative edge crystallizes and we dizzily fall into a deep pool of possibility and imagination.

Following the love trail offers writers and artists opportunities to grow in their craft. It opens the door to a larger existence, offers a creative edge–a more authentic one. More life, more love and we begin to recognize how layered and textured our lives truly are. And how deep and wide precious memories.– Becky Breed

Writing/Creative Exercise

1. Jeffrey Kugler wrote “…and the genius of sleep is that it allows you to explore other, untried avenues.” Dreams are often fragmented and unclear. Yet, they can often lead to new creative horizons. Leave a notebook by your bed at night and after awakening take a few notes. What were the details of the dream? Who was in them? Where was the love? Choose one or parts of several dreams and create a love poem or an art piece emanating love.
2. Read Shoulders by Naomi Shihab Nye. Most of us have experienced familial love, a kind of natural love experienced in a family. Select an experience with one who showered you with unconditional love. Put a frame around the memories. Now create a creative love trail using your hands to convey the message.
3. Reflect on a time when romantic love possessed you. Read It is Here by Harold Pinter. Who are you remembering? Perhaps, the heady, rousing feelings of a dramatic crush remain unforgotten. The sweetness of a long time love. Consider these words as the first line in your written piece “In this room…” or sketch a face, start with the lips.
4. Finally, the words of E.M. Forster: “You can transmute love, ignore it, muddle it, but you can never pull it out of you. I know by experience that the poets are right: love is eternal.” Create what you know about love.