It takes a strong I to create

Finding your voice

The ego doesn’t have a good rep in our world, and we all know why. Yet, there is a place for ego to navigate through this world. It is, so to speak, the captain who runs the ship and takes care so we do reach our destination. Any destination. When used properly it is a great servant to help us realize what’s important to us and what we want to realize.

In no field is this more important than in art. The creative act is such a deeply personal act, as in its truest form it comes from deep within me. As an artist, I make myself vulnerable when I present my art. So the temptation is great to smooth things into a palpable, nice way. But to be true to your art can require you to be without compromise, to be daring, to be extreme. A strong ego, a strong I, is needed, to stay the course.

Chapters:

• 00:00:00  Intro
• 00:00:26 It Takes A Strong I To Create – Solo
• 00:02:40 Trust your creativity
• 00:10:54 It Takes A Strong I To Create (Remix)
• 00:15:28 Outro

You can find Make Art Not Content – a cool podcast about how to get into your creative powers – here.

Transcript

It takes a strong I to create

Strong I

It takes a strong I to create
It takes a strong eye 👁 to create
Clear light
Clear eye
Bright
To create

Shine
To hold the shine
Be light
To hold the light

A strong helping
Of fuck you
To stay the way
To keep it sharp
To keep it pointed

A healthy distance
To the well intended
A mistrust
To the praise

And even stronger trust
To let it in
A humble knowing
What is mine
To have
To give
To love
To live

It takes a strong I to create
So finally
I can let it all
Go again

©️ Laughing Brook/Peter Müller 2024

Trust your creativity

One of the people who inspires me for this podcast ist Prince. Prince?!, you might say, this Prince? Yeah, I mean the artist formerly known as Prince and then trading as garble garble TAFKAP and then Prince again. And this is not, because I like his music. Which most certainly I do, it has been with me pretty much from my teenage years on all through my life to where I am now, some four decades later. 

My name is Laughing Brook and I love to sit by rivers and brooks. When I sit there, all the flowing, the splashing, the water jumping, feels or is, as I watch and observe – in all its multitude, the flow follows a certain pattern that is being created by the water and the riverbed. So, what looks very chaotic and arbitrary at first sight eventually reveals itself as following certain patterns. Yet in those relatively stable patterns, every once in a while – you cannot predict it, it’s pretty much impossible, statistically completely unlikely. But as it so happens, at some mysteriously random moment a drop of water rises high into the air. This one unique spark, this once in an improbability, this very unique thing happening happens – happens against all statistics, patterns and probabilties.

And this is what Prince is for me. He was an incredible artist. You know, the word incredible literally means ”something that cannot be believed.” And the credible in incredible has the same root as out words credo, which is what we use to describe strong convictions like a religious belief, or the term credit,which from its root – and its practical application – means for example: I trust you so much that I hand over my money to you. So, a very strong term. When something is incredible, it is unbelievable, not possible, it cannot exist. 

I mean, what if I told you there was a person who is one of the greatest guitar players of all times? Cool, you would say. But if I added, that person is also one of the greatest singers of all time, songwriters of all time who wrote powerful lyrics and set them to beautiful music, being one of the greatest arrangers of all times, a powerful and strong bandleader, a multitalented musician who could play the drums and keyboards, a guy who for many years wrote, arranged and recorded one song per day, who could come up with a song idea in the evening and send a chart hit to his record company in the morning, and – not the least of his feats – managed to marry sex and spirituality in the context of a prudish society like no one before and, as far as I know, after him? Does that sound completely incredibl? Yeah. And yet, there he was.

Prnce incorporated sense and sensuality in the things he did, in the way he furnished his home, in the way he dressed, in the way he made his music, in what he intended to do. And from all I know, which is hearsay, he was a great lover. And, I mean, how could you possibly play the guitar the way he did and not be a great lover? So he was a great lover, even though he could not make it last. Just like that drop that falls back into the stream. 

All of that is great, and I wanted to sing his praises here, as a thank you for being part of the soundtrack of my life. But its not why he inspired me and why I am mentioning him. What inspires me about him is his boldness in trusting his gift and just doing it. You can’t be a perfectionist and record one song per day – and he had a quite perfectionist trait about him, which felt toxic at times. And yet, there is something about being that spark, that one incredible drop, where you dare to go out and just do it. You dare to fail. 

In this way he inspired me in making this podcast and bringing my song into the world, and trusting my creativity, and trusting intuition and inspiration, and creating and shaping beauty in making sense, and in letting go of doubt, hesitation, procrastination and the desire to control what will happen once I bring this into the world. And this is what Laughing Brook is all about. Thank you, Prince.

Today’s poem was written some years ago on my way home from an Ayahuasca journey in Brazil out in the gorgeous nature of the Serra do Cippo national park. I had one of my favorite Prince albums in my earphones, Art Offical Age, and was so taken by pondering about what it must be like to create such music and such a life; but then I also started thinking about my own creativity and of people I knew, and there is a gutsy something needed to make your art happen and bring your gift into the world. To not be afraid of rejection and criticism, whether real nor imagined, to not sell out and be nice, but really try to keep yourself naked and vulnerable as an artist, to allow yourself to fail, in order to go for it with all you’ve got. To sacrifice a lot of nice and comfy things in order to make this dream and passion inside a reality. As I walked a dancy walk, the lines began dripping into my awareness. I knew well enough that it’s good to pay attention to inspiration, and so I wrote them down.

If you would like to dive further into this topic of nourishing the artist in you, there is a great podcast called Make Art Not Content, which you find wherever you listen to podcast. I highly recommend it, its offers daring and to-the-point inspiration and advice on how to get off your butt and into your creativity. 

So this episode is lovingly dedicated in great awe, respect and inspiration to Prince. „(There’ll Never B Another Like Me“. And to the artist in you. What is your dream to bring into this world?

And you, dear listener, what is your dream to bring into this world?

Outro:

Thank you for listening. As I’ve already mentioned, there is another podcast I would like to recommend. I’m not affiliated, I’m simply a fan – it’s called Make Art, Not Content, and I’ll put the links into the show notes of this episode. You’ll find them on my website laughingbrook.net. It also inspired me with its kick-ass attitude about not bullshitting yourself about being an artist. Hey, and if I inspired you, leave me a comment on my website or wherever you are listing to this.

Our next episode traverses a darker aspect of life, but a very current one – how to navigate through crisis. This year has been tough for so many of us, so as it draws to and end, maybe this episode can give you a fresh perspective. It’s called New Moon.

As I already mentioned, it’s always a good idea to subscribe to this podcast, you’ll get all the episodes delivered as soon as they come out. And I’m grateful for comments, positive ratings and for recommending me to your friends. Thank you!

My name is Laughing Brook, I am a poet, dancer, mystic, nature coach and man whisperer. 

Thanks for listening, and – keep on flowing, bumping and jumping with the stream of life.