The Long Winter of Our Creativity

Notes on Resting, Waiting, and Trusting in the Thaw

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There's a car up the street from my house that hasn't moved in weeks. Each day as I pass it, I notice the snow that’s built up around it – a thickening blanket of white that's slowly transforming it into a winter sculpture. I like to think it's hibernating, wrapped in its protective shell, waiting patiently for spring to come.

I’m writing this from Toronto, a city that has been completely covered by an intense blast of winter over the past week. Just moving around the city has become a challenge. Many of the sidewalks have yet to be cleared. Driving has become a true exercise in patience. And the subways seem to be operating with even more delays than usual.

But there is something about that car at the top of my street that my mind keeps returning to. It clearly doesn't feel the need to go anywhere, and even if it wanted to, good luck. It feels like it’s made the choice to stay put and wait it out.

This is how my creative drive feels these days. Slow and sleepy. I have books I want to write, art I want to make, screenplays yearning to be finished, but at this moment I can’t seem to motivate myself to actually do any of those things. The only thing my body seems to crave right now are hot baths. There's a voice in my head that tells me this is laziness, but then I look outside at the seemingly endless Toronto winter and I remember, I too am a creature of nature.

I am firmly in my season of rest. My creative energies aren't gone; they're just bundled up tight, protected from the cold, waiting for their moment to re-emerge.

The winter days still feel impossibly long. The sun sets before I'm done with my day of work, and the cold makes even short walks to the store feel like arctic expeditions.

I can't feel spring in my body yet, but I know it's coming. If I close my eyes I can almost feel the sunlight streaming in through my bedroom window, waking me up with an energy that has me leaping out of bed. I yearn for that feeling to come again.

And it will.

My creativity isn't lost, it's just resting, gathering strength for its triumphant return. Each winter, it’s something I seem to forget. And then each spring, I remember. My body remembers. I wake up with an energy that I had forgotten I had. A feeling of aliveness in every cell in my being. It's a cycle of contracting and expanding that each year seems to catch me off guard.

Rather than feel bad about my seasonal creative hibernation, this year I’ll reframe it. Instead of producing, I’ll absorb. Instead of expressing, I’ll observe. Instead of growing outward, I’ll grow inward. I’m giving myself a gift of kindness and understanding. After all, winter is hard on us animals.

In this final stretch of winter my intention is to be very gentle with myself. To trust that my creative spirit will eventually shake off its blanket of snow when the time is right. Until then, there's absolutely nothing wrong with another hot bath. Spring is coming, it always does. Even that snow-covered car up the street knows that eventually, inevitably, the thaw will come.

Creative Prompts:

• Find a quiet spot and observe the winter world around you. What subtle signs of life and movement can you detect beneath the stillness? How might this relate to your own creative energy during these quiet periods?

• What does your personal "creative spring" feel like in your body? Take a moment to remember any of your own creative energy awakenings that you may have experienced.

• Consider an unfinished creative project that's currently "hibernating." Instead of feeling guilty about its pause, write it a loving letter explaining why this rest period might be exactly what it needs right now.

Pedro Mendes’ Art Gallery Debut!

A couple of months Pedro Mendes wrote about his bonkers amazing toy photography for The Creativity Guild. Now his work is getting its first public showing with two of his pieces included in a group show at Toronto’s Gallery 1313. The show runs from Feb 20th - March 2nd, with the opening reception happening tonight (Feb 20th between 6:30 - 9:30 pm.) So far we’ve only been able to experience these photos on his Instagram feed, so we’re extra excited to get to see some of these suckers in real life!

Happy (almost) spring, folks!

- Geoff