Let's Look Up More Often!

What is creativity? It's a very difficult thing to describe. Some may call it a gift and other will call it divine inspiration. Some say its use of imagination to produce something valuable. It's an idea, work of art, a poem, an essay, a dance movement, a melody or recycling. If you Wikipedia 'creativity' you'll get a page that describes various approaches towards defining this elusive thing.

While standing on the balcony on one evening I let my mind wander away while staring at the dusky sun about to set in a few minutes. I was trying not to think about anything as I was staring at a distance with no purpose or intention or expectation. While staring I decided to look up at the sky, an activity I've rarely done in the past few months. The dim voices of children playing in the park created a background melody that wasn't loud enough to distract my walk in the 'nothing-zone'.

As happens often that a thought creeps into the mind when expectations are at zero level. The question I asked myself was 'what is creativity?' And the answer came lagging a split second behind the question. 'It is looking up'. It was a personal eureka moment that perhaps serves no purpose in the scholarly world but helps in crystallizing something in my mind.

Although we live in a multidimensional world but most of us spend our lifetime limited in a planar world. To think of it we either look straight ahead or down most of the times (give or take a few degrees here and there - let's not be too technical). At work or at home the neck tries to restrict our vision to a plane that we build ourselves. You don't completely agree with me, right?

When was the last time you looked at the sky? I bet it was sometime back! I'm not talking about a quick glance to check out the weather or watch a bird (or it's a plane, no it's Superman, silly). But a thoughtful looks at the sky that’s filled with marvel and reverence for the world around us. It's something about looking up that seems to open a channel from somewhere far far away with our subconscious mind. It opens up the doors and windows of otherwise planar mind to a world of multidimensional opportunities. 

So here's to adding another definition to the long list of definitions. Creativity is about look up and opening yourself to unknown opportunities. As if the bucket is ready to catch any ephemeral thought that pass by like a falling star. So I've decided to look up more often and hope for more such gifts that come barging in, in a moment of revelation and bliss.