Crying for Creativity

Today, eleven days after the aftershock/earthquake that hit Christchurch on the 22nd of February, 2011, I finally sit and grieve. It took awhile, but it hit me today. I cried in what felt like a healthy way, understanding my part in all this, what it is and what it isn’t, and how deeply affected each Cantabrian is, and all the others who just happened to be in Christchurch to come and play with us, or do business with us in this part of New Zealand. And I should mention as well, the impact for those who could merely watch from a distance, hands gripping whatever medium they could find for certain information.


Collectively we have experienced something that few people experience in their lifetimes, a devastating earthquake on September 4th that left not one person dead and then, less than five months later, another earthquake that defied all the reserves we each had left within us while robbing us of our loved ones and the spaces we loved to occupy.

Today, I was very sad for us, but in a healthy way, because I know that what can come from this, can and should be better than what came before these events if all of us just pay close attention to how we collectively create our progress and how considerate we are for our individual, as well as our collective, need to grieve and regroup without making decisions (or resolutions) too quickly.

It is important that we consciously slow things down and remember that recovery means making decisions that cannot be prudently made on the backside of a collective experience that left no one unchanged, no one unaffected. In our own unique ways, we all changed immediately, without growing into it, suddenly, staring our own mortalities in the face for those of us who survived, and negotiating the void of missing relatives, friends, and spaces to occupy, that will never be again. This is a collective devastation which rearranges all of our priorities while realizing the maxim, ‘nobody and nothing is perfect’ in the perfectly controlled chaos we all now live in. So, how should I approach my recovery?

Creatively, I am sure. If nothing else, I am sure of the need for creativity in the space of utter uniqueness.

In the immediate phase of recovery I shall take enough time off to consciously watch my thoughts before making too many grand and over-arching decisions. This is not the time for certain resolutions just yet, that time is coming, but first, I must reflect fully...and that, takes more time than rescue could allow. Those who performed the rites of rescue have been what they always live for...heroic in their capacity to perform immediate and affective relief. That time is now over for Christchurch, now, comes the hard slog that needs much contemplation by everyone left affected. Let’s not be too quick to cast in concrete that which could surely fall upon our heads once again. Let’s allow ourselves to grieve, regroup and then, cry out with creative ways to rebuild each of our lives.

I cannot remember where I first heard this...but, it has been something my creative side has always understood...

”Do not worry when you see me doing nothing, for that is when I am doing everything at once”...