Creative Fulfillment and Loneliness

We need the womb of winter to incubate and grow new life inside us. We cultivate seeds of intention for what we are creating in the world. Sometimes that means introspection and solitude, sometimes it means connecting only with friends who totally get you. Mostly it means being a little slower, quieter, and more spacious.

A friend is making a book, fulfilling a dream in words and images. It seems like the perfect winter project.  Yet she is in heaven and hell. She could choose heaven and immerse herself in the joys of the creative work before her, doing what she loves, and bringing her vision into vibrant, living form. Or she could choose hell and bemoan the isolation, her recent heartache, and be looking elsewhere for salvation. I hope she can find more space for all of those feelings. 

I realize this has been a common theme around me. Another friend is devoting a lot of time and energy to her creative life and trying new things to grow and heal. Yet in this self-care mode, she's coming up against a core loneliness.

When in a creative groove, do we always meet our loneliness? Does fear of loneliness keep us from going deeply with our creative work? I wonder about my novel/s, languishing for my lack of disciplined, consistent attention. Perhaps that's just a judgment. I do suspect my characters just go on living and changing and have infinite patience with me to catch up.


There's that old belief that writers live a lonely life. But tonight is a time for company, to be with my characters and to write in the company of others. In the rainstorms of winter, a safe haven.

Thank goodness for the writing workshop. That is one way I balance creative time and mutual support.  How do you?

(Collage: Friend And Flow Detail 1, by Carol Harada 2010)