Any given creative work is what it’s meant to be in its time. Its value, meaning and purpose will shift over time. Let that be about learning and growth, rather than self-limitation. Let it all be about service, to self and others, rather than ego.

The energy of creativity — in the process, in the outcome, in the receiving of it — is the meaning. Creativity is not about origination of energy in the universe; it is the shifting of it from decay to rebirth, from this to that, from there to here, from that to that-and-this. It is the reshaping of energy with constructive rather than destructive intentions.

Creativity is the karma, or action, that stands to stir ourselves and others. It casts ripples of meaning and message across time and space. It is purpose.

Perfectionism misses the purpose of creating, of existing. To self-paralyze for the perfect is to miss the value of putting form to feeling and sharing it with others. There is a place for reflection on what we create but not interrogation, of the work or oneself.

River Rocks 4 by Adam Williams | Humanitou

Photograph by Adam Williams | Humanitou

The ego is the driver of the idea of perfect. The ego is not our friend. It’s what tells us to be more than we are, to believe we are lacking, to believe we do not have enough worth to share. The ego tells us to please that/those “out there” rather than this/Self “in here.”

The ego tells me to fear being an artist, to be afraid to open my mouth in a crowded room, to be afraid of my own creative energies, to be afraid … to be me.

To believe we are to be perfect is to believe we are imperfect, that we are broken and in need of something we can’t source for ourselves. Creativity stands up to that story. It does not believe the ego. It believes we are whole as we are and have something to offer. Perfectly imperfect.

Humanitou