Making Solitude Work For You (The poor man's vacation)

Today we talk about what to do with artistic solitude on both sides of the creative fence (inside and outside the bubble).

TERMS:

Loneliness is the brooding thing that Hamlet does.
Solitude is a useful tool for creativity.

Loneliness is the action of wishing you were somewhere else.
Solitude is often the active process of keeping the universe at bay.

See, we, as a society, do not seem to understand solitude; we confuse it with loneliness.

Not all those who wander are lost.
Not all those alone are lonely.
Because creatives cannot create all of the time around all of the people.
We get situations like the one above.

In my previous post I mentioned carving out a portion of the day for time to be creative.
You may need to defend your space as well.

And when others see you playing or plying your craft alone (not lonely) they will fear for you.
Or they may just care and want to hang out. Play with you. Make a thing. Share a thing. Have dinner. Do chores. Do 'real' work.
Why?
Because the creative process can be incredibly internal.
Because it is personal, explaining process to someone else is meaningless, and so others do not understand.

Don't relent on something as important as one's creativity.
Fight for it.
Explain that what you are doing is important.
That it matters.
Make them believe.

The cruelest thing we ever do is convince children that play time is divorced from work.
It is not.
They are closely interrelated.
Allowing time to play, and I mean really play (Netflix and video games do not count), allows for avenues to explore.

So when we see someone at a writing desk, tumbling in a park, or staring at a wall, we want to engage them in "useful" activity.
Don't.
Let them be.
Ask if what they are doing is important.
Doodles to some are works of art to others.
We need space and time to create works of art.
And if we don't start somewhere, then we will go nowhere.
Practice.