Creativity 102: The Inescapable Pain of Vulnerability

Your journey into creativity will go a certain distance. You will feel happy and fulfilled for a time, simply creating, running along a smooth path, plucking the easy-to-reach fruit. But then you will bump up against an invisible barrier, and there’s only one way through it.

Become vulnerable.

Vulnerability requires walking the twisted paths, the ones that leave you bent over, gasping for breath, legs aching. Vulnerability requires digging into the dirt, tearing your fingernails against unforeseen rocks. Vulnerability requires climbing to the top of the tallest trees, the bark rough against your new skin. Oh, and you will fall. Yes, you will plummet, grasping at branches, scraping and thudding.

But vulnerability is not only the rough path – it is also the rock to rest on. It is not only the digging, but the coolness found only in the depths. It is not only the falling – it is also the aloe that soothes the skin.

I started thinking about vulnerability after looking through these photos that a husband took of his wife as she battled breast cancer.

Feeling stuck creatively? Become vulnerable.