The Turning of the Tide

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It’s Election Day here in these United States, and since I don’t really have any exciting new work to write about at the moment, I’ll write about that period of transition between projects, when your hands are without warning left looking for something to do and your brain is patiently trying to tell them there’s nothing to do at this time.

I call this the “turning of the tide,” that moment when the ocean reaches its high point, gives a sigh of satisfaction, and heads back down the shore. (I may have anthropomorphized a bit here.)

Here’s the deal: This state of inaction, the feeling that you’re stranded, that you don’t have an idea of what next to work on1, is part of the process. Even if — especially if — your most recent project was spectacular, creative, emotionally engaging, the best ever, then your brain, your hands, your very soul (if I may anthropomorphize a bit here) needs that period of calm.

Maybe it’s a matter of putting away the tools you used, clearing the space. Maybe it takes time to rid yourself of the idea that you’ve done it, you’ve produced a work of such staggering beauty that you WILL NEVER MATCH IT AGAIN. Maybe the last project crashed and burned, utter garbage — now you have to patch together your image of yourself as an “artist,” laughable though that may be.

It’s all a part of that ABANDONMENT process, isn’t it? One way or another — success, failure, suspended effort — we have to move on.

Of course, when the tide turns, it will re-turn, won’t it? We just have to be patient. There are some strategies at our disposal that might help us seed the process, but on the whole we have to wait until our brains and the universe have reached an agreement on what to do next.

Relax. Enjoy the sound of the waves. Watch them as they build, splash, dissolve, retreat. Remind yourself of our friend Heraclitus and his mantra: All is flux. Your next step is out there, part of that flux. Here’s my advice: Don’t add to the flux. Watch, be patient, become the stillpoint.

Then get back to work.

ALSO: GO VOTE IF YOU HAVEN’T ALREADY.

1 Obviously, you have bunches2 to work on, but that's not the point here, is it?

2 "Bunches" is a new Lichtenbergian technical term. You're welcome.