I'm going to state it here in order to render it false. I read it so long ago I honestly can't remember who said it; writer, artist, musician... but here it is, paraphrased:
A woman can only be creative in one aspect at a time. That was why I didn't get anything done while I was pregnant.
Yes, you read that correctly. Reading this simple statement as a young artist affected me so profoundly that I still struggle against it. I have not been pregnant and don't plan on it for awhile, so for me it was applicable in the sense of multiple projects. Multiple interests. Being a girl of all trades. This meant that what I was doing was impossible and ineffective.
And so it became. I knew, after reading that, that I should strip away some interests in order to Focus.
But it's not true.
Creativity begets creativity.
Momentum creates hunger.
Hunger creates desire.
Passion.
Energy.
CREATION.
The more you do, the more you will do.
That might seem obvious, but try, as a teenage girl (or lad, having read some equal sort of nonsense about male creativity and limitation) and break away from a statement like that. I have a feeling that swollen ankles, morning sickness and the utter exhaustion brought on by creating a human being had more to do with not being productive than anything to do with how much creativity a woman can handle.
A few posts ago I wrote about defining your own rules for life. I have, through reading vast amounts of spiritual how-to from Christian, Western, Eastern, Native, African, Science Fiction, Fantasy, myth, folklore and human condition, filtered and refined my own set of values and rules to live by.
And the ultimate rule is this:
I am unlimited.
Don't take another's words into your heart as truth unless it is your truth. Don't obey anyone's words but your own.
If you're going to have limits, at least set your own. With your words. Your words alone.
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