Good morning friends!
Today in Pittsburgh is a ridiculously grey, rainy day. Or in other words, it's Pittsburgh. I heard once that during the Cold War, Pittsburgh was considered as a place for the US to hide our nuclear weapons because the cloud cover was so good that spy planes wouldn't be able to see in to the city. I can see that as being true (and if it is, please don't arrest me Feds)!
I had plans to ride my bike every day this week, but the rain combined with the headache I woke up with combined with the long trip out to the eye doctors planned for later in the day led me to wuss out and drive the car. Upon arrival at the office, I realize that after the insanity of last week, there is little to do this week. I am the worship leader at the Bridge, but the songs are already picked out. I am teaching confirmation, but it's Q and A so I don't have much to prepare. I am preaching next weekend for Easter, but that's so far away that I will severely wreck my reputation as a procrastinator if I start now.
This is where creativity and motivation need to find each other. There are some pretty big projects that are on the horizon that could use some attention. The book still finds itself needing to be edited. There are videos that need to be edited. Really there's a lot of editing to do, and the last thing I'm in the mood for today is editing.
But these are the times that we dig deep, find motivation, and keep plugging away. To be sure things will get busy again, so anything I can do to clear the path and make that season a little more easy will be helpful. And I'm reasonably sure once I settle in to the work of editing, I'll start to get my groove on.
I think all of this speaks to my personality, and one of my bigger personality flaws (This very public internet site seems a safe space to discuss such things). I love to create! I love the process of starting with a blank piece of paper and filling it with words, or music, or a script for a video. I love shooting film. I love recording music. But all of those projects come with a season of editing, of finalizing, of touching up. I hate that season. I have so many projects that get started, thrive through the creative season, and then die on arrival because I don't shepherd them across the finish line. That's probably why I like blogging as much as I do. 100% creativity. 0% (at least in my case) editing. I write. I push publish. I write again.
So today I'm going to push through the rainclouds. I'm going to clear the fog in my head, drink another round of coffee, and work on the book. And the videos. And the sermon. Because what I love even more than being creative is sharing what I've created with all of you. And there's some good stuff to share in the pipeline!