Swinging to Freedom, What Being Mildly Creative is Really All About

For me, it’s always been about freedom.  Maybe it’s the same for you.

If you’re like me, for most of your life, someone has been setting your schedule and providing you with a list of tasks to complete, rules to obey, procedures to follow, objectives to meet, and things to believe.

Maybe you were expected to want certain things and to strive for them, but again, if you’re like me, you never really bought into the plan.  Maybe you wanted to buy into it, even tried to buy into it, but repeatedly failed.  And, thus, you thought yourself a failure.

You’ve probably thought how nice it would be to be normal, practical, and sane, to have practical, acceptable goals and take practical steps to reach them.

You’ve seen people who seemed to always know where they were headed and how they were going to get there.  They applied for and got into the right schools, took the right classes, landed the right jobs with the right companies in the right industries, met the right people, and took the right steps to climb further and further up the ladder.  Meanwhile, you felt like you were doing everything wrong and it took every ounce of your energy just to keep your grip on the rungs of the ladder you were on.

But for quite some time now, I’ve been wondering if the problem isn’t less about you and me and more about the ladder.

Surely,  you must have heard that whisper, the one suggesting there were tasks you’d rather complete, rules you’d rather establish, procedures you’d rather invent, objectives you’d rather meet, and beliefs you’d rather admit.

But listening to that whisper can be a scary thing, because it means you might have to loosen your grip on the rungs of that ladder, and the idea of falling, without knowing where you’ll land, leaves you clutching even tighter.

But being mildly creative isn’t about leaping blindly and crashing to the ground.  It’s about letting go slowly.  It’s about stretching one hand into the unknown,  keeping the other on the safe and familiar, and making the leap when the time is right.  It’s about being a monkey.

Have you ever watched a monkey swinging from vine to vine?  Notice how graceful, playful, and free they seem to be.  Calm, focused, and forward moving, they know intuitively when to let go of the thing they’re clinging to, make the leap, and take hold of the next thing.

This might sound wildly creative but it’s really mildly creative, because when the monkeys are in full swing they are not out of control.  Instead, their bodies, minds, and spirits are in sync with the laws of physics and their surrounding environments.  With one hand on the vine supporting them and both eyes on the vine they’re aiming for, they use movement and momentum to set the whole thing in motion, and when the time is right, they leap.

When they’re really swinging, monkeys are some of the most mildly creative creatures I know.

They do something daily.  They’re out there everyday, doing what they do, and nothing is insignificant.  Each move they make sets the vine in motion and keeps them moving forward.

They live their lives.  They don’t keep themselves stuck on the ground, nor do they climb to the highest part of the tree and stay there. They’re out there, moving about, with all the other monkeys.

They’re curious.  They explore one branch and then another, look for new directions, and plot their next move.

They feed the muse.  They watch and they listen.  The see what other monkeys are doing and hear them call from distant vines.

They make things.  They make priorities by deciding which vine to grab next.  They make commitments by setting themselves in motion.  They make attempts by letting go and taking leaps.  They make mistakes and sometimes miss their marks, but then they make adjustments and recover their hold on things.  They make meaning by using the gifts they have to interact with the environment in which they live.

They share and collaborate.  They call out to one another and show each other the way as they swing, swing, swing.

You can learn to be a monkey.  You can swing your way to freedom.

It all begins with doing something daily, turning your ladder into a vine and setting everything in motion.

The thing you do doesn’t have to be a big thing.  No movement is too small.  Nothing is insignificant.  You can meditate, take a walk, write in a journal, draw a picture, spend some time on a business idea that’s been kicking around in your head.  It doesn’t really matter.  One vine leads to another.

In time, you will find yourself swinging further and further out and taking leaps you never thought possible as you shout out to all the other monkeys, “I’m free!  Come join me!  I’m free!  Come join me!”

Are you getting all the Quiet Inspiration you need? Subscribe to Quiet Inspiration, the Mildly Creative Newsletter. You can also subscribe to these blog posts via RSS feed or by Email.

Tagged as: making small changes, Mindfulness