I was talking with a friend recently, and, somewhat inevitably, the conversation turned to what’s happening in the world right now. How overwhelming, frightening, and unbelievable it feels.

As another friend of mine would say, it’s easy to wonder if  the world is, in fact, ‘going to hell in a hand basket’. {I love when she says that because it always makes me laugh, and laughter breaks the spell.}

We’re all feeling it, wherever we are.

There’s a kind of madness in the air, and a bewildered sense of unreality.

And I know from my own experience and from listening to you guys over the years that when we feel upside down and inside out, whatever the reason, that’s usually the exact time our art goes out the window.

And you know what I’m going to say. 😉

This is the absolute best and most important time to be focusing on what we love, what has most meaning and value to us.

If you’re reading this, it’s likely that making your art, whatever that is, is what makes most sense to you, and by extension is a way of making sense of your experience of living.

I don’t have any answers about what’s going on in the world right now.

And when I think about it, this really isn’t new; there’s always some kind of madness going on somewhere, it’s just that for many of us it’s extremely close to home right now.

It’s all up in our faces in a way it hasn’t been for some time, since most of us are fortunate not to live in war zones or places of extreme poverty.

But I don’t think it’s necessarily about having ‘the answers’.

It’s more subtle than that. We live in a world of duality and that means that for all the joy and love and peace there will always be an opposite, somewhere.

The deeper truth

And while it feels like there’s so very little I can do to make any kind of positive change, there is another truth here.

And that is that I can focus on doing what I do best, and bringing as much love and positivity into the world through that as I can.

It doesn’t feel like enough, but that doesn’t mean it has no value.

During our conversation, my friend expressed something I think we can all relate to.

We know, deep down, that it’s in times like this that beauty and art, music and writing, and all the creative arts are more important, not less, but we find our minds arguing with our hearts.

And generally speaking in our society, minds often win. {I suspect that’s how we got to where we are now.}

So instead of making that extra bit of effort to go and make something with our hands, we allow the arguments of the mind to dictate our actions.

Nothing is created.

We don’t feel better.

We don’t have anything but fear and despair to send out to the world, and doesn’t it have enough of that already?

For me it’s not about resisting {that’s just more fear based energy}, and it’s not about fighting, although I understand why those are popular words.

And it’s not that I somehow find it easy to live this belief all the time!

The immediate reaction to perceived threat is fight or flight. But for me it’s about whole people, because fragmented, frightened, ego driven people cannot improve the world.

And as counterintuitive as that is, that means turning inward.

It means getting past the feelings that to do so is selfish or putting your head in the sand or not doing enough or ultimately ineffective and pointless.

We’re artists; we know all about demons.

We all know about fear and doubt because our art reveals them to us all the time.

We know the kind of energy resistance carries, and we know that you don’t fight demons with more demons.

We’re old hands at this! We know how to get past the demons and do what feels most true and right to each of us.

And if at least a part of what feels true and right is creating, then that is absolutely our best and most powerful course of action in a world that’s showing its demons for all to see.

My work is about encouraging people towards wholeness, because we are so much stronger and more powerful from there than when we rant and despair and feel broken, when we talk about ‘this is wrong and we must fight it’, however well meaning that might be.

I feel fear just like we all do.

I have moments when I absolutely despair of the human race and what we do to each other and the planet.

I feel overwhelmed by the hugeness of it all and worry that it’s going to get even worse before it gets better.

I worry about the personal implications as well as the global ones.

And.

I cannot stop there, as tempting as it is sometimes.

When we stop there, we are adding to the mess. It’s not about pretending we don’t feel all this; pushing it down and ignoring it comes to the same thing as pouring our panic onto anyone who’ll listen just to get some immediate relief {hello social media}.

We have power here, and an ability to respond to the madness with its opposite.

Not by fighting, but by doing what makes most ‘sense’ to us at the deepest level, what makes us feel more whole, what brings us to that place in each of us where we are tapped into the love that’s always available.

I know it feels weak and ineffective and much too small to respond to the madness of the world by making art.

But I still choose it because where I am whole is where my power lies.

I’d rather be radiating the most uplifting energy I can in each moment, and acting from there, because if every single of one of us was doing that, we might just tip the balance without having to fight at all.