Creative Power - What propels us to create?

I wonder about the Creative Power.  What is it that propels us to create? To create Art.  Art in the form of dance, paint, sculpture, song, music. There are countless forms in which we choose to express ourselves.

I mean, here I am writing to you. Is it that we want to connect to one another, up and outside of ourselves? Not just to another, but to have one common experience amongst many others, a thread that embroiders us together on a single fabric of existence.  For instance, when we all observe a dance or a play perhaps we walk away with a different interpretation of the work, but we still share some universal moments within the piece.

I find it intriguing that God has often been referred to as 'The Creative Power'. While I don't understand the 'why' of the creation process, I am aware of the power and magic of it.  As an artist you become nothing but a tool possessed, needing to express what it is that you have to give to the world.  It is not yours to give, or even to create, you are just a messenger, the pen, the voice, the feet and the hand even in the case of the surgeon.

I've been feeling that way as of late.  Possessed with creative power ready to unleash itself. It is such a raw and potent power, like fire. You become both the actor and audience to this happening within the self.  If you are a writer, painter, dancer or any other form of artist you know the "glimmer" I am speaking of here.  If you are a lover you too know the madness and passion that flows through you.

This potent energy flows from each of us through each of us, like the ocean, something that connects us all...

I had a conversation with a man today about how his novel in progress. Being a heavyset married smoker, father of two, and employed in somewhat mundane industry, he never struck me as a man who may be working on a novel, and a scifi thriller at that.  It just goes to show you just how far our prejudgements take us - into a brick wall.  With a smile that spanned from rosy cheek to rosy cheek, he explained"I just had a dream one night, it was so vivid and real. So at 6 in the morning my wife walked in on me typing away thinking what the hell is he up to.  I had to get all down before I forgot it.  And I work on it every now and then. It's nothing I would ever intentionally write about, or am even interested in, it just sort of manifested itself." His story reminded me of Stephanie Meyer's story of how she stumbled upon her novel.  She too had seen a vivid dream of a couple in love one of which was a vampire, and now here she is 4 books and 2 movies later.

The same has happened to me, a story has manifested itself after a year of just simmering silence. Not in the form of a dream but just on paper, nothing that I would have thought or even the courage to write about.

As I head into the tunnel of creation, I am heeding the following advice:  

The Alcazar, Sevilla Spain May 2010

Trying to make progress when the time is not right would be like trying to cook noodles in cold water.  

(I Ching - Book of Changes, http://daoloatse.wordpress.com/01-creative-power/)