When this universe was born, it was born of the void. The Ultimate Nothing was all there was, or technically was not. The Source willed the manifestation of the ball of energy from which everything else burst into existence and still bursts this moment…and this moment…and on and on. Or at least this is how I perceive it.

We children of the Source are ourselves creators. I’m a believer in free will, but I have to say we really don’t have a choice about this characteristic. It’s part of who we are as spiritual beings. Those of us involved in the arts might be tempted to think we are part of some elite that has a corner on the market of creation, but this is just one small part of the divine act of creation. We’re all doing it, probably all the time. The inventor brings an object into the world from the seed of imagination by combining elements and design. A chef can bring about a dish never before conceived. An entrepreneur can take an idea and put an organization on the Internal Revenue Service radar faster than than he can take a day of rest. I want to examine, though, the basics of the process to see what can be discovered. Maybe we can discover together.

I checked a website called I Need Motivation for a breakdown. I paraphrase when I say they state there are three basic steps of the creation process. First, there is desire. The idea is that we create nothing without the desire for it to exist. I don’t know how that accounts for unwanted conditions and events in our lives, but that is another topic. For now, it is reasonable to say we need to have the desire to create something before we can willingly manifest it.

The second step is thinking. We don’t want to get stuck in thought, but indeed it is obviously important to use our magnificent minds to imagine, envision and reason out how the creation can be accomplished. They also mention the use of brainstorming and communicating one’s ideas to help the vision grow and generate desire in other minds. That part of it can be counter-productive if we get stopped by the naysayers and contrarians, so I recommend discretion when conveying our grand ideas.

The writer at I Need Motivation gives the third step as action, carrying out the plan to bring about our vision in the real world. This is obviously practical advice. How many creations wilt in the dream phase?

These steps are very basic, maybe simplistic, but I am not criticizing. These steps ring true as far as they go. Also, the writer concludes by acknowledging this was a very brief look at the subject and there would be later posts that would be in greater depth on the topic and the steps. But this is where I would like to zoom in for the macro view if I can.

I started this article yesterday and let it brew in my brain overnight. I have found in writing that creative concepts can develop during the sleeping hours. It is said that Robert Louis Stevenson used naps to tap into his subconscious where story ideas would boil up and he could grab them upon awakening. Early this morning, as I was still in a light dream state, I found myself pondering this article on a basic level. It occurred to me that when I am creating, whether it’s a sentence or a plot twist or a major revelation for the reader or myself for that matter, I am experiencing a short or long moment not unlike labor for a woman about to give birth. I hasten to add I don’t pretend to compare this to the intense pain the prospective mother is suffering as the child is making its way through the birth canal and the overtaxed vaginal opening. The only similarities would probably be the intention to bring the process to conclusion, the underlying feeling of blessedness and the feeling that something special is about to come into the world.

When creating, we have times when the process is moving along rather smoothly. At key moments, we have to make a decision or a change to keep the project on course or to bring it to final fruition. We are on the verge of something, as in those moments when our original idea came to be. It’s these instants when we reach a virtual summit and catch a glimpse of a panorama before us that make the process almost mystical. From nothing, we have given rise to a spectacle for others to behold. In that, perhaps we know the satisfaction of the Divine.