Field Notes #45: "Everyone is a Creator" — Rick Rubin

Notes and reflections from the new book "The Creative Act: A Way of Being"

Hello, friends! Happy February! This is my weekly compilation of notes — Field Notes — I’ve run across related to wellness and illness: 1 health insight, 2 quotes, 3 links.

It is still an odd winter up here with little snow, just churning through the gray days. One bright spot: I’m thrilled that Winter Camp registration will soon finally be opening! We have four amazing instructors who will each lead a Saturday live virtual session, plus daily reflective prompts, and a private community portal. I’m hoping this will be an energizing, happy community for the last stretch of winter, Feb. 25-March 25, just the nudge you need to turn this unremarkable spell into a jolt of joy. Learn more and sign up here for special Winter Camp updates.

1 health insight

I’m in the middle of reading The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin, which is like The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron meets The Practice by Seth Godin. It’s full of meditative thoughts and eye-opening observations. We all are creative as humans, he contends.

Creating is more expansive that the traditional arts. Yes, art, music, theater, dance, but also sports, cooking, gardening, decorating, planning travel,
Minecraft — anything where we are empowered to make decisions in a way where we can add our own touch, our own personality, our own feelings.

As kids, creating comes so easily. See: Lego bricks! Dollhouses! Coloring books! Sand castles! There’s such an easy, magnetic attraction to seeing what happens, trying this, trying that, feeling your way, enjoying the pulse of delight that comes from noticing what you like.

As grown-ups, we can sometimes get pulled into a more constrained world of tasks and efficiency, TV and social, where we consume or process. When do we get to create just for the fun of it? Wouldn’t that be freeing, delightful, energizing? (Studies do show that creating can boost your mood.)

In his new book, Rick Rubin lays out how we are all creating in simply our everyday experience as humans. I think that’s true — we are continually interpreting all day long. But even more, it seems like there’s a playful area that sometimes gets lost momentarily as we get older. How could we widen it? Do you find the act of creating integral to your happiness and health? Where do you create that brings you joy?

2 quotes

Here are two quotes that struck me from The Creative Act: A Way of Being.

“Through the ordinary state of being, we’re already creators in the most profound way, creating our experience of reality and composing the world we perceive.”
…
”Regardless of whether we’re formally making art, we are all living as artists. We perceive, filter, and collect data, then curate an experience for ourselves and others based on this information set. Whether we do this consciously or unconsciously, by the mere fact of being alive, we are active participants in the ongoing process of creation.” — Rick Rubin

“Creativity is not a rare ability. It is not difficult to access. Creativity is a fundamental aspect of being human. It’s our birthright. And it’s for all of us”
— Rick Rubin

3 links

‘Entire Body Is Shaking’: Why Americans With Chronic Pain Are Dying — (New York Times, gift link) A disturbing look at the impact of policy created from the opioid crisis on patients who depend on painkillers. “Medical guidelines, legislation, law enforcement efforts and other measures have since returned painkiller prescribing to precrisis levels. But because people who lose access to medical opioids are rarely provided with immediate treatment (whether they are experiencing pain or addiction or both), the result has been more overdose and suicide deaths, not fewer.”

The Food Expiration Dates You Should Actually Follow — (New York Times, gift link) “The dates, as we know them, have nothing to do with safety.”

Write the Wind — a poem by Rebecca Sturgeon in her thrice-weekly newsletter Our Daily Breath. I love getting these little gems of poems, first drafts that transport me to another place. If you like poetry (and lovely, approachable poetry, like Mary Oliver’s), you might love her newsletter, too. This one begins:

Write the wind. Write me the sunshine, the smell of the air on the first day of vacation. Write me the feeling of moonlight on your skin, the taste of ripe mangoes,
the way the shore feels when the ocean sinks into its softness.

Read the whole poem here.

To our journeys,

Brianne