Honoring the Creative Process and Claiming Your Birthright

Inviting others in to see the world from your eyes.

By Vivian Nesbitt | Posted 10/1/06 | Updated 5/8/23

I read this quote the other day in Matthew Fox's book Creativity — Where the Divine and the Human Meet:

"To honor creativity is to plant the seeds of peace in human hearts and in culture."

In another piece author Dave Storer says creativity is our birthright.

John and I were talking about this and he said that it seemed to him that engaging in our creative process feels like duty we have as human beings. Duty is a big world for me, having some negative overtones that I had to address.

I began to think about what other duties I have in this world. Besides being a good partner to my husband, a good business person, and a good step mother, daughter, sister, aunt I have a duty to my community to show up for important events, pay my taxes so the schools and roads will be tended and a duty to voice my choices by casting my vote. All these social contracts and duties as a citizen connect me to a greater whole.

But how does my creative process fit into that definition of Duty? We talked about this for a while and I gradually became aware that by participating in my creative process every day in some form also connects me to a greater whole. The greater whole that is my higher self, my spirituality, my divinity, and while I cannot necessarily measure it by tangible outcomes, it is nonetheless as important as voting, paying taxes and tending my family.

By expressing myself in my chosen creative outlets and taking it one step further by sharing them with others, I invite people in to see the world through my eyes for a moment without expectation. I weigh in so to speak by adding my piece to the prismatic puzzle that is our world.

My contribution becomes something that others can enjoy, reject, love, hate or simply add to the mix of the possible ways to experience life. It allows people to know me truly, to bear witness to who I am in the world and in doing so I become known to myself a little better. The better I know myself the better I am able to join together the greater whole and emerge as a fully realized human being.

So cast your vote today and claim your birthright. Plant some seeds of peace by honoring the creative process. Create something uniquely yours and share it with a friend!

©2006 Vivian Nesbitt. All rights reserved.

Vivian Nesbitt is co-host and co-producer of Art of the Song Coffeehouse with her husband John Dillon. more