I Went To The Movies Today
Feed Your Inner Child
"Everybody can play, but not everybody does. It's something you have to choose." - Grandma Gigi.
Feeding your inner child is a decision you have to make over and over. You have to create spaces where your inner child can come out and play, spaces where they can work with you. Creating spaces for your inner child requires a lifelong commitment to feeding yourself creatively, providing the safety they need, erasing the rules, breaking molds (the shoulds, cannots and don'ts), and inviting them into your "grown" spaces, such as work.
Allow your inner child to ask questions about what the adult is doing and why they are doing it a certain way. Take moments to restore that boundless imagination that made your inner child who they were and who they are. Keep them busy, show them that you remember how to play. Make appointments with your paintbrush and canvas, crayons and art pad, your pen and notebooks, or your preferred mediums and materials of creativity. Just make the appointments.
Shout out to Nneka Julia for providing creative food and confirmation on this.
Some of life's hardest seasons require a little child-like optimism, a side of our hearts that doesn't lose hope, the vision, or the other side. My inner child has often provided the tools I needed to breathe and keep going.
Admire The Art & Ponder
Haven't you learned your lesson yet? This isn't a competition. We're learning from each other.
I admire what you do, but it doesn't make my work less important. We stay in our lanes and gift to the world what we have to give from our perspective, angles, stories, and creativity. We provide several narratives that bring color, complexity, thought, relatability, and so much more to the lives of our listeners, viewers, and communities. So, again I ask, haven't you learned your lesson yet? This isn't a competition. We are learning from each other. We are witnessing, celebrating, and appreciating the fruits of each other's creative labor.
I have read so much which points to this. Consider it a combination of thoughts - We must be willing to face those parts of ourselves that limit or stop us from appreciating the work, art, movie, book, or whatever it may be. Only then can we enter these spaces and enjoy the creative labor of others. We eventually understand that the output of others does not negate what we are doing, what we create, what we are working on, or what we are struggling with.
Learn yourself and explore. I don't want to do things like the screenwriters or directors of the movies I watched; I admire what they have done. But I love how I think and how my ideas come together, I like how the toil of some projects reveals something in me that I can learn from, that I can teach.
I want to take 'samples' of those things I admire about the screenwriter or director's work to my writer's office. I want to pause the opinions and translations of others and explore the story and its strings by myself. Once I have gone to that space by myself, I will be open to unmuting those other opinions.
Compassion
Mind your business. It's that simple. And if you're struggling, write down all the other things you could be focusing on right now - that's where you need to be at. You don't even live in this city; drive back to your neighborhood.
People who didn't consider the feelings of others are responsible for some of the darkest moments in those individuals' lives.
Intergenerational, intercultural, and transdisciplinary (that is, transdisciplinary-type dynamics but among regular people like us) relationships and connections are needed. They make the human experience beautiful; they add color and a certain je ne sais quoi to our lives. Some of us can be the answered prayer or ray of light that somebody needs by engaging, by starting a conversation, or lending a helping hand.*
Each relationship and connection should provide the warmth and understanding that we need through the easy and difficult days, the seasons we can make sense of, and those where we feel like we're pulling short straws on finding any meaning or something to hold on to.
If you can't help, don't be destructive. You don't know what people are going through. If you can't bring light to their lives or some relief, leave them alone. Like Aunt Tab says: "Now go on about your business. Have the most amazing day, but even if you can't have a good one. Don't you dare go messing up nobody else's."
*In case you misunderstood the phrasing 'some of us', I wanted to clarify that many of us have our own 'stuff' and don't have the capacity to be there for others. Additionally, two scriptures come to mind which I will allow you to unpack (take as long as you need to):
1. "For many are called, but few are chosen." - Matthew 22:14 [NLT]
2. "The harvest is great, but the workers are few.." - Matthew 9:37-38 or Luke 10:2 [NLT]
I appreciate all my readers, so I'll leave you with these five things:
- Feed your inner child. If it's been a while since you felt their presence, go somewhere. Do something you haven't done in a while that they enjoyed.
- Make the appointments. Select your chosen location, mediums, and materials, and have fun!
- Watch a movie, and give yourself some time to think about what you watched.
- Be the compassionate one today, for whomever you have the capacity to extend that to. (If that person is yourself, that is enough for now.)
- Give yourself the time and space to unpack and make sense of your 'stuff'. There's no specified time limit or deadline, so take as much time as you need to.
