For the last nine months or so I’ve hosted a weekly creativity session on Zoom for folks who are supporters on Patreon. Every week at our designated time I open up a Zoom room.
Every week we check in, share what we’re planning to work on in our time together, turn off our cameras, work, and then at the end we turn our cameras back on and share how we did.
Every week. (We’ve had to cancel maybe once or twice in nine months).
Sometimes it’s me and one other person. Sometimes there are several of us. But we work either way.
It’s not about how much you get done in those 90 minutes. It’s not about completing something. It’s about showing up. It’s about community. It’s about making time for your creative practice (whatever that practice looks like).
For some folks in the group this is just one of the many times throughout the week they are engaging with their practice, for others this might be the only time they have. It doesn’t matter.
Some people come every week. Others drop in and out. It doesn’t matter.
What does matter is committing to creativity. Even in tiny pockets. Even on an occasional basis. Even once a week or once a month.
What does matter is making progress, however small, however stop and start.
At the end of the time together they’ve created SOMETHING where before there was NOTHING. And that’s pretty incredible. Maybe it’s just a couple of sentences. Maybe it’s another few brushstrokes on a painting. Maybe it’s a line of poetry. It all counts.
It’s about showing up. It’s about making something.
And sometimes? Having a Zoom room open in the background helps you to show up. Sometimes knowing someone will be on the other end working, too, helps you to make something when otherwise it’d be easier not to. Sometimes being able to say “Hey, a group of people is doing this thing and I committed to being there” allows you to protect that time on your calendar when it would normally get scheduled over.
We take what works.
More than anything I’m grateful for anyone who makes anything. I think it’s incredible. And so I’m so grateful to make something with these folks week in and week out.
How might you show up for your creativity? Who might you create with? How might you protect the time to make something?
It’s a beautiful thing.