In the creative industries people talk a lot about minimising disruptions and getting into the state of flow where creative momentum is heightened. Shut the world out. Focus your energies. Batten down the hatches. Imagine deeper. Graft harder. Perspiration turns to inspiration. In life though disruptions happen. And I’m finding its in the disruptions that we see the beauty of life. Glimpses of love breaking in. Wisdom revealed that could not be uncovered through any amount of hard toil.
Generally I practise guitar every day. By practice I mean just playing. I don’t run scales, I try and make music. Familiar patterns fall under my fingers. New progressions meander their way across my fretboard. Mostly I try to grapple with something familiar and mash it into something meaningful. Nearly every day I have a little friend that runs in and gets in between me and my noise. I have to say though that its a beautiful interruption. I used to be frustrated by the interruption but now I realise that its one of the joys of my life. Her desire to leap into my world with a smile and make sure I know she’s there. I honour the interruption and the interrupter with my attention. The notes will be there when I return. And they will benefit from moments taken for love.
Just before Christmas my life was interrupted by a nasty injury. I threw a cricket ball and somehow dislocated my shoulder and broke my arm just above the elbow. Prior to it everything was going ok. Working. Paying bills. Uninspired. Frustrated. Stuck. Sucking it up because I felt I had too. The injury hurt a lot (go figure) and I spent the best part of 3 months on the couch. That gave me a lot of time for thinking. The basic conclusion I came to was that I was letting things slip away from me. Working but not living. Running to stand still. But the break gave me the beautiful gift of time. Time to think. Time to act. Time to take control and steer things in a different direction. Sometimes in life something painful comes to make us stop and take stock. The interruption cuts through the grind of day to day life. Rehabilitation. Contemplation. Re-imagination. Days turn into weeks and months. Hurting. Healing. Requiring love. Accepting help. Feeling loved. Dreaming again.
My arm is still wonky but it will come good. And I’ll take the interruption as an opportunity to sort some things out and grab life (with one arm) by the throat again. Stop being imprisoned by the status quo. Seek less affirmation for crazy plans. Just run after them.