All lives are unique. Each of us creates a story that will never be told the same way again. Each of us sees the world in a slightly different way, and each of us brings something unique and special to the other people and other living things we encounter on our journey through life.

Being creative then encompasses each and every thing we manipulate in our lives; our thoughts even are creative as the images in dreams and imagination fill our nights and every moment of our day. The artist, dancer, actor, and musician are creative but so is the mother that creates life, the accountant that creates order from chaos, and the dreamer that creates images and ideas. We each have a unique life, and we each have a creative experience in that life, and what we offer to the world is our unique gift.

What do we then want to give? What story do we want to create that is our own to be offered to this period of time in which the material world unfolds and presents itself to us and all creatures and things around us? How can we lose our way and stumble on the path of our intention? How do we become confused, and uncertain, and afraid of the life we create and the lives of others that we experience?

Joseph Campbell, a great philosopher and author of our time, said, “where you stumble, there lies your treasure.” Even our stumbling is creative, as within that fall we can find the gold that adorns our experience.

Pain and suffering is something we often try very hard to avoid. But within those wounds of life a profound awareness can be gleaned. We can nurture our hurt and the hurt of others and come to understand so much more about ourselves and the workings of this dynamic and creative universe. Within our psyche is the power to transform, grow, and evolve. This is the essence of creativity—to manipulate form into something that transcends what has been before.

Often we cannot see immediately the truth in this transformation—we may never see it and never quite understand it. As we perceive our life and the life of the world to move backward in understanding and the expression of love, maybe it is possible to believe instead that nothing can become anything new without in some way moving toward a sort of perfect symmetry.

So within this dance toward wholeness and awareness we can choose to be fully conscious of our creative ability and create what we see in our lives that is to be sought after and desired. What we then desire and seek becomes our creative journey. We can seek joy and happiness, we can desire a good and happy life for others, and we can seek to express love as fully as possible.

Do any of us seek and desire pain and suffering? Possibly not, but all in life is a part of life and as we learn to integrate and have at our command every color of the artist’s palette, we then find that we can create a more varied and ultimately a more rewarding landscape. Be conscious of your creativity—create a unique life.