Creativity, Venting, and Change

Do you ever vent?

Blow off steam?

Griping to your spouse about your boss or your child's school situation. Complaining to your best friend about your mother in law or your wayward cousin. Moaning and groaning to anyone who will listen about your inability to create because of your time commitments outside your studio.

Me, too.

The thing is, venting is non-productive. Yes, it makes you feel better in the short term. You get to have your say and someone who loves you makes murmuring noises in support of you.

But nothing's changed.

Let's consider history for a moment. These terms, 'venting' and 'letting off steam', come from one of history's significant inventions--the steam engine. For the first time, a person didn't have to depend on the variables of the wind or tide. Nor did a person have to harness an animal's muscle or his own to move a load from one point to another. A hot fire under a vat of water turned the water into steam vapor.The resulting vapor built up pressure and was eventually forced into an engine where the pressure powered pistons and turned gears. A steam engine could move comparably huge loads of men and cargo with little effort. Across a bay or up and down a river using a steamboat or across a sprawling continent with the railroad. Steam was the most powerful fuel of it's day.

To be effective, steam has to be captured and directed. An uncovered pot of water boiling on the stove is not going to move anything. Heat applied to a closed container of water will build pressure. If that pressure is piped correctly, that pressure will move a piston which moves a gear which moves a wheel which moves boat, train engine, or steam shovel. As long as that pressure remains, things move.

When we 'vent' we are like the pot busily boiling on the stove...there's a lot of heat, a lot of bubbles, a lot of steam. But nothing moves. All that energy wasted.

Whatever is causing a hot spot under your pot...don't boil and bubble to your buddies. Use that energy to power a change in your life. In other words, don't complain without doing something to fix the situation.

Break the venting habit. No 'letting off steam' this week. Use that energy to find a way to modify the situation or your attitude about it. Even doing one small thing can make a difference.

If you dare, leave a comment about what you vent about most frequently. And what small or large thing you will do at the first available opportunity to make a change in the situation.

Me? I'm going to quit griping about not having as much time as I want or need to create and MAKE some time in my life.

I'm going to write a few letters and make a couple of phone calls to some folks about important issues.

It's a start.

“Steam is no stronger now than it was a hundred years ago but it is put to better use” -Ralph Waldo Emerson (American poet)

"No steam or gas ever drives anything until it is confined. No Niagara is ever turned into light and power until it is tunneled. No life ever grows until it is focused, dedicated, disciplined.” -Joan Rivers

Unflocking...

Birds of a feather flock together.

I'm a joiner.

One of the great pleasures in my life is to find like-minded folks to hang out with. Whatever I'm interested in, I like to find other people with whom to learn and share. Photography, writing, dog showing, quilting, homeschooling, and, most significantly, church, are all examples of groups I've had a kinship with. There are so many wonderful benefits from rubbing elbows with other individuals passionate about the same things you are.

In the last few months, it seems I've become 'unflocked.'

Like a pair of pants that are too loose or too tight, three specific groups I've been a part of for years no longer seem to fit me anymore. In some cases, I've changed. In others, the group has morphed.

The result is the same, however. I'm flying solo more often than not...and that's okay. I'm old enough (sigh) and experienced enough to realize God sometimes moves us from our cozy comfort spots into new areas. It's feeling a little like that for me. Each of these groups has been inspiring, encouraging, educational, motivating, uplifting, and just plain fun. This is simply a phase and a transition. This too shall pass. Some day soon I'll be volunteering to take on a roll that will consume me and be a benefit to others and I'll be right back in the middle of the flock. But, not today.

Kinda reminds me of root pruning. When a gardener decides to transplant a shrub, she often root prunes...that is, taking a shovel and cutting a circle around the plant along the line where she will eventually dig. The idea is to sever the plant from roots outside the circle and force the shrub to grow some new roots within the circle. A few months later, when the gardener actually digs up the plant, there will be more roots to make the move, insuring a better chance for survival.

While I don't feel lonely, exactly, I am intrigued by how other people are handling this. Some people that I thought were geninue friends, aren't. It seems I was a friend only while conveniently close or flying in formation. I gotta tell ya, I've bled a bit over this. The real, true friends have made themselves abundantly clear, too, and that's a comfort.

All this unflocking frees me up. Instead of pouring my efforts and energy into church programs (wonderful though they may be) or being an officer on the board of my writing group or evaluating curriculum with other homeschool moms, I'm going to spend time getting back to the basics. A direct relationship with God. A chance to write. An opportunity to work on my projects without committments to other people taking over my time.

It sounds selfish.

And it is to a certain extent.

So be it. I simply don't have the energy to change it at the moment. In fact, it may be that I'm supposed to be spending this time growing more roots inside the circle in preparation for something new on the horizon.

Kinda exciting, huh?

Changes

Change is hard.

Two homeschooling message boards where I frequent changed formats this month, within a couple of weeks of each other. Homeschoolers may be avant gard in many respects, but wow oh wow, do we get set in our ways, too. The changes were drastic on those boards and so was the reaction. Many posters took to the new formats like returning fish long separated from the sea. Others were more like fish yanked from their comfortable waters. There was a whole lot of wailing, weeping, and gnashing of teeth. Some women posted that they were too *old* to learn something new. Shocking, I know. Mostly because most of them are younger than I am. LOL

All the turmoil, plus a Bible study I'm leading, got to me thinking about change.

The first kind of change is the simplest, like loose change in your pocket. All those dimes, quarters, nickels, and pennies don't seem important, but they can add up significantly. Early in our marriage, I worked a year in a bank. One fella brought in bags of coins to run through our coin sorter/counter. At the end of the process, he had over a thousand dollars to deposit in his account. He had tossed his loose change into a container every day for several years. Not only had it added up, it had made a serious impact on his bank account.

Little changes add up in our lives, too. Parking at the other end of the parking lot, so we get a few more steps into our day. Cutting out one negative thing from our diets may help us loose a few pounds over time. Dropping an encouraging card to a friend boosts both of you and requires little time. Spending fifteen minutes a day studying a topic can make you an expert in twenty years.

An example of a second type of change is a pickle. You know how pickles start out, don't you? As a cucumber. I spent one summer a few years ago, pickling everything from our huge garden. Cucumbers, squash, okra...all got dumped into various chemical concoctions to transform them into spicy, savory bites of flavor with outstanding results.

But the cucumber doesn't get to choose this kind of change. Outside change is hard for us...this is the cancer diagnosis, the pink slip, the divorce, the car accident, a move, a death. All those forces work on you and change you whether you like it or not, but what is the alternative? You have to cope. Hopefully, you learn, grow, and conquer, too. None of it is easy, but the result, hopefully, is becoming a person of compassion, depth, courage, character, and strength.

The last type of change is the internal transformation. In my women's Bible study, we are studying allowing God to change us from the inside out. As our symbol of this change, we are using a butterfly. From ugly human caterpillar, to graceful, beautiful butterfly, we hope to emulate the same type of metamorphosis in our spirit. This change often takes some cocoon time, some effort, and a serious re-prioritizing our actions, thoughts, and goals. I also believe it takes the Creator's touch to fully achieve.


We don't like change. That is unless *we* are in control of the change. Control, however, is an elusive thing. Often grasped at, but seldom grasped. We chuckle ruefully over maxims like 'nothing is constant, except change' but know in our hearts that there is truth there. It often seems that we are one heartbeat away from falling into the pickle vat. Have courage. Whether you are weighted down by lots of nagging changes, whether you find yourself in a 'pickle' of some sort or whether you already have unfurled your butterfly wings, remember this bit of wisdom...Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Change is growth. Just like a plant is stimulated to grow after being pruned, we realize we can grow in new directions after significant changes, too. Never give up growing and learning. Never become too old to change. This world needs more people of compassion, wisdom, joy, and strength.