We seem to be experiencing a surge in messages to create, no matter what it is, just create something. Allow Life to reveal Itself through you and your creations is the message delivered in many forms lately and there is an urgency to it which I haven’t really understood until today.

I drive over 2 hours each way twice a week to care for my twin granddaughters.  On that drive I frequently find the pieces of puzzles falling together in my head. I’ve been wondering about the increase in destruction and the seeming hell bent drive toward said destruction through the insanity that is our current Presidential race. The rise of Trump has been beyond baffling, hurtful and highly confusing until I considered it in this light:Trump is the exposer of the poison in our system. His spittle spewing red faced rhetoric and the resounding cheers of approval from the masses after whatever hatred has spilled from his duplicitous mouth has exposed the hidden pain from so many unhealed wounds.

I get that part. As an artist I understand that destruction is necessary in the cycle of creation and that sometimes the best you can do is allow a diseased and corrupt system to burn to ash so that something new may be, will be, reborn.

Trump is that fire of destruction and yet he is so dangerous that he may destroy us to the point that we can’t rebuild if we don’t heed the message he represents. Creation is the antidote to the poisonous pain he has exposed which is alive in our collective hearts. Our unowned Shadow selves, our rejected bits and pieces will kill us if not accepted into the metaphorical fold. Trump tells us where the pain is and Creation offers a cure.

Life is the opposite of Death. Too much death and destruction in the air? Create. Too much repression and chaos and feeling trapped? Create. Too much addiction, suicide and alienation? Create.

Creation is the answer, the antidote, the only way out that I can see available to us. It is the Water to the Fire that we desperately need.

Could it be that this sudden urgency to begin honoring and acting on our creative impulses is what is meant to save our lives?  By not making the time to be creative, by not making the time to practice self-care are we further contributing to the destruction of our world?

Could it be that the ever present guilt we have about taking time for ourselves is the voice of Resistance (Steven Pressfield) that would prefer to keep those forces of destruction in power? Is it possible that this misplaced guilt is the Devil and that by allowing guilt to win, by refusing to overcome it and fully committing to take time for ourselves we are refusing to apply the exact medicine we need to survive?

I believe we need to clearly find an understanding that guilt is the real problem, not the time we’re taking.  The time that we’re taking, or should be taking and aren’t, is the precursor to Creation, the cure for the ills that we feel. The cure for ills that keep us lost in addiction, victim thinking and all manner of pain that becomes mirrored back to us by the rabid animals populating recent rallies.

I feel that indulging guilt with regard to refusing to schedule time for self-care and creative expression is to dance with the Devil. It creates more destruction and contributes mightily to the war within. You can, as in you are capable of, scheduling time to meditate, to sit and do nothing, to take a nap or go for a walk in nature but you are letting inappropriate guilt trip you up.

You can stop now and put yourself on the calendar. If you choose not to, at least own your refusal and don’t blame your family, your job, your illness, etc.  If the guilt feels overwhelming then address it directly. Guilt is the real issue here and in my opinion it’s the most logical place to begin battling those Internalized Other voices holding you back by telling you it’s ok to schedule an oil change or hair appointment but not to take 5 minutes for meditation.

Guilt is only appropriate when we do something wrong that needs addressing. You address guilt by asking yourself why you think what you’re doing is wrong in the first place? Why does it matter that you take 30 minutes to make a card, to write a letter, to draw, to crochet a piece of a blanket or to eat some healthy food sitting down with a friend?  Who told you that putting yourself first was wrong? Pick apart that story and recognize it for the nonsense it is.

To stop destruction begin by stopping the internal destruction of your creative impulses. Stop the murder going on in your mind through crushing your needs under the tank of needing other people’s approval. Of course this process takes work, I’m not saying it’s easy. I’m saying it’s critical.

War wants to stay active, devouring all things beautiful and confusing our minds and yet once it ends, flowers can grow in those same bloody fields.

We are those flowers and to grow we must recognize that the power to change isn’t out there. The power is inside of us right now. Every time we honor the impulse to write, to declutter, garden, meditate or whatever feels creative to us individually we take another weapon out of the hands of those Shadow selves and bring them in closer to acceptance and being re-membered into Wholeness.

The more we practice loving the unlovable in ourselves projected as the tyrants outside of us we stop the dogs of War and become the instruments of Peace. The fear mongers become loudly visible for us to recognize ourselves and take internal action accordingly. If external action is then needed we will know what to do.  It’s as if the act of creating something, any little thing, drops the “scales” from our eyes and we suddenly see so clearly, love so fully and Life moves through us even more.

Put down the poison up of Kool-aid flavored excuses and pick up the antidote to this madness. Drink deeply from the cup of your own Creative abilities and offer healing to yourself and then by extension: all of us.