At a very young age, I made creativity one of my life’s central needs and practices. The child in me needed freedom to act in the world, and I did everything I could to allow that freedom to myself. Such a way of life is made of everyday habits and practices where imagination plays an important role, together with the expression of thoughts and emotions in unique ways. I would create situations and stories in which I was the “hero” who decided on the outcome. Once I decided to walk around the neighborhood as a cat. I picked up the qualities and movements of a cat to feel what it means to be one.
I used to go to the sandy dunes on the beach, lie down, and for hours watching the clouds changing shapes and imagine the characters created by the wind and cloudy masses. At those moments, I felt like a cloud myself. I felt like the painter of those characters. Those days were filled with humor and foolish behavior. Each situation was an opportunity to identify something interesting or funny and see how I could express myself in new ways.
When I was twelve, I wrote my first biography. It was called “Berlin-Israel, My Life as a Human”. It was a sixty-page description of my everyday life until that time, through memories and events I lived, explaining to the reader what it meant to be a human in this world. I imagined I wasn’t human but an alien of some sort, reporting on life on Earth as a man, explaining what’s is it that’s beautiful, hard, interesting, or strange in this life. Because of all the wandering and constantly moving from one country to another, I had many moments of alone time filled with creativity and imaginary worlds. I loved and still do love to invent stories and tell them to others, invent or take old objects I find in my closet, take them apart, and put them together differently.
As I write these words, I understand I am still doing the same things, only on a larger “playground” as a professional with influence and responsibility. I stayed with the exact needs, expressed in the same powerful ways that become stronger with each passing day. Instead of writing my biography as an “alien,” I write about my life here so others can understand or learn what it means to be a creative creature.
I always tell my students about my choice to teach. I decided to teach because I want to have more friends to play with in the playground of creativity. I teach them what I know so that we develop a common language and enjoy the playfulness of creative planning as if we were just children. I guess I am tired of being alone and I am looking for partners on my journey, the ones who come from the similar world as mine, and speak the same language of creativity. As someone who lives creativity as a way of life, it doesn’t only manifest itself in my profession but as the purpose and meaning of my whole life. It is an integral part of my everyday routines without any separation. I create; therefore, I exist!
Creativity is a free expression of the childish soul in me. Once I live and work through this source, synchronized in harmony, security, and peace, I feel that this is my true calling and purpose in life. It is then that I feel at home. Creativity is the expression of everything that wishes to get out into the world, and life is where it happens; and manifests in the most precise way, similar to my inner source. In my life, I came across many people who tried to convince me otherwise, to limit me or make me change directions or attitude. Each time it happened, I became more convinced that creativity was the only way to go. It’s the inner voice, the intuition, which constantly directs me toward the right path.
The creator’s path is filled with tensions, changing motions, changes in harmony, casting doubts, entering into imaginary worlds, and returning to reality. It takes him out of the ordinary and safe into the original. In his journey, he collects signs and insights expressed in his life through everyday practice. These exercises teach him to observe things from a different perspective, from a more extreme point of view. They make him experience these moments with extra sensitivity and connect to the child in him, where reality is just a recommendation while searching for the hidden beauty behind all things.
These exercises are just a part of each creator’s life’s habits. Everyone who seeks to develop their creativity uses these attention exercises and becomes more focused. In this path of a creative journey, there are moments of solitude, moments of insecurity and uncertainty, moments of the void, and moments of chaos. In all of them, the more firmly your inner security is rooted, the more you trust your intuition. These moments, which are an integral part of each journey, are then experienced with more enthusiasm and happiness and overpower the fears. Even though fear is part of the story, the power to overcome it is integral to the process and growth. This is where we discover the courage within us. That is your personal and creative development. Creativity, in reference to your way of life, is the process that moves from fear to love, from uncertainty to knowledge. There is a small battle between daydreaming and reality in the creator’s life (same as a child’s). Both worlds fight for time and attention within him. Each side wants to be expressed more than the other and achieve more influence. As we grow up and reality knocks on our door with the request for a change, it makes a living in daydreaming more challenging. The key lies in spending as much time as possible inside the daydream. Make it more complex and allow it to flow as much as we can each time, with little breaks we have from reality’s problems. Unless we make a brave decision by creating a life that is free and that lacks as many commitments as possible, we cannot dedicate our every day to the life of a skilled creator.
Until today, while writing these words, I have been living without a family or children, without commitments to mortgages or loans. The longest contract I have is with the cellular company for the next six months, with the option to leave in 30 days. Maintaining flexibility and freedom is a part of my process. At a certain age, tension arises between the need for security and stability and the need for creativity and freedom. How do you combine both?
Such life of a creator is very dynamic. The secret lies in synchronizing your life so accurately that you have stability and existential safety (economic or emotional, etc.) and, on the other hand, freedom and a limitless life. The creative person, even as an adult, is constantly connected to the child in him with an intimate experience and dialogue. He is required to give it its maximum expression. He draws from the child, its connection to his source, to the universe, to the well of creativity and uses its help to detach or break from the known in his reality to enter an imaginary world where everything is possible and where the original materials required for his work are to be sourced from.
The child in us is an active partner in the process and life. A partner, a friend, or a counselor who gives advice, observes, and excites us. It has the purity and ability to recognize the truth, the innocence that knows to trust our intuition, the courage and playfulness to try new things or paths, the infinite curiosity, and the phenomenal ability to learn new things. The child is the perfect creation, but there is only one thing more powerful — the adult who is connected to the child in himself and can influence the world using that awareness and the tools, the resources he has as a grown man to affect and change the world for the better and positively impacts the wellbeing of masses.
Even today, I still wear unmatched socks and look at things from different directions. I still love surprise eggs and can’t help the need for the amazement effect of revealing a secret. I keep creating alone moments for myself to “play” with my imagination. Today it’s also a professional habit. I drive to the beach daily and look at the clouds, trying to figure out the characters by their shapes made by wind and air.
Still, I don’t know what home is. I still look for new friends with whom I can play and enjoy the time instead of fearing the complexities of life. I want the freedom to envision, invent and witness what comes out of me. I think it’s the same with every creator. “I wish they would just let the child in me play and at the end of the day receive a loving hug that says, ‘Everything is alright. You are safe. You are always wanted and loved!’
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