Seeds Of Creativity

I have been happily surprised by the book American record executive and producer, Rick Rubin, recently published about Creativity, The Creative Act: A Way of Being. Mr. Rubin is the co-founder of Def Jam Recordings, founder of American Recordings and former co-president of Columbia Records. 

Why am I so surprised by his book? It is a beautiful high-level view of the magic of creativity. It’s more of a philosophical take on making creative art than his experience of making music. I’ve read that this is not the book that Rick Rubin thought he was going to write. He said that this book almost feels like it came through him, describing it as being channeled from a higher power. In the first chapter, you get that feeling as he calls out all humans as creators of their own experience in the world. 

My copy of The Creative Act: A Way of Being is marked with highlighter, post-it notes, and my personal pen notes in the margins. My hearts, stars, and exclamation points are scattered throughout the book. I often don’t want to mark up a physical copies of my books, but I couldn’t help myself. My enthusiasm for his insight, and my own similar understanding of creativity was a match. My highlights are a resounding, “Yes! I agree! Thank you for describing it!”

I love how on page 143, he begins the Seeds chapter, “In the first phase of the creative process, we are to be completely open, collecting anything we find of interest. We call this the seed phase.” He talks about being non-judgmental, just like we would of any seed we are planting. There’s hope and care that goes into the gathering of seeds and the planting, but we never look at a seed and say, “this one looks awful – I’m embarrassed by that seed.” 

We don’t judge seeds. We just do the work of keeping the seeds cool and dry, and then plant them with care in a sunny spot. We visit them with water each day and see which ones grow and develop.  Do we know which seed will grow the most beautiful flower? We don’t know! We are open and hopeful, but unknowing. We are non-judgemental of the seed.

Let’s practice being open and accepting of our own seeds. What seeds are scattered through your day? Which seeds have you been tossing out instead of gathering for later cultivation?