By Deb Montgomery
John Curry could climb trees like no one I’ve ever known. He and I would ride our bikes around Kanata, Ontario and I would pick the trees and John would climb them. He loved climbing them and I loved watching him climb. There was something about the ease of how his hands, arms and feet found the branches and swung upward as high as the tree would allow him. I loved watching him like I love watching a whale breach the surface of the sea or an Osprey sweep down to pick a fish from the surf. You and I live in turbulent times and it’s all too easy to feel helpless.
There is something of Grace that occurs in the space of creating. All us creatures come with our own particular gifts and ways. We are so deeply different from each other but what makes us similar is how we have particular ways of being and doing.
Living here on the coast, I meet amazing cooks who aren’t chefs, master gardeners, photographers, fisher people, knitters, woodworkers, creative folks who start and maintain businesses that offer so many colors to themselves and the world. Creativity is a given I believe.
Sometimes, you just need to take your longing seriously and make shit. Make bad art. Whittle a little piece of wood into a cloud shape and call it what you want. Recognize a whale in a piece of driftwood and place it in the art gallery that is your garage. Place three little stones in an intentional pile on your table in your apartment. Art is what you create. You can make stuff.
It’s true that I can write songs, but I can’t paint, but I paint. I get acrylic paints and make little paintings that look like your five year old made them. But the process of making, the experience of playing, the strange satisfaction of completely something that emerged from your spirit aligns you with wonder. Being able to wonder is liberating. You can wonder about your life. You can wonder about God. You can wonder about the Sea and Wind. You can wonder about your family and community. Wonder creates space and creating stirs wonder.
Make stuff and love yourself in the process of creating, and if you have space for it share it with others. Sharing what you make is a form of love. Give us some time/Give us a way to find a rhyme/Give us the grace to find a space where we will love/and turn back time (Little Ship, Album Ask for Angels)
Deb Montgomery is a Songwriter and Certified Life Coach.