If you feel the pull toward creative interests … embrace it.

A quote from a well-known poet reminded me of a critical time in my past.

This came across my social media feed yesterday. I apologize to whoever posted it as I can’t find the original tweet, but whoever you are, thanks for send this message out to the world.

When I read that quote from poet Mary Oliver, I was reminded that this was EXACTLY how I felt during my last year of grad school.

I was on a path to get a doctorate in theological studies and become an academic. That was my goal from the time I majored in religious studies at the University of Virginia. But every day when I entered the campus at Yale Divinity School, I had a feeling in my gut. A literal sensation.

My body was communicating what my soul was saying: “If I don’t pursue my creative interests, I will regret it.”

My creative aspiration at the time was to become a professional musician / singer-songwriter.

So, I took a year off from academia.

That year became the rest of my life, eventually leading me to screenwriting and — ironically — circling back to the world of academia, albeit teaching screenwriting, not theology.

Levon Helm of The Band said, “Music don’t owe anybody a living.” No creative arts do. It’s a risk to pursue creative interests as the only guarantee you have is there will be plenty of rejection.

But the quote below from Mary Oliver is so true.

If you feel the pull of creativity, you simply MUST embrace it. Vocation. Avocation. Hobby. Whatever.

If that is your bliss, follow it. For that is the surest path to lead an authentic life … and to avoid the fate of looking back at your life with regret.

Here is a Mary Oliver poem.

Peonies
By Mary Oliver

This morning the green fists of the peonies are getting ready
 to break my heart
 as the sun rises, 
 as the sun strokes them with his old, buttery fingers

and they open — 
 pools of lace, 
 white and pink — 
 and all day the black ants climb over them,

boring their deep and mysterious holes
 into the curls, 
 craving the sweet sap, 
 taking it away

to their dark, underground cities — 
 and all day
 under the shifty wind, 
 as in a dance to the great wedding,

the flowers bend their bright bodies, 
 and tip their fragrance to the air, 
 and rise, 
 their red stems holding

all that dampness and recklessness 
 gladly and lightly, 
 and there it is again — 
 beauty the brave, the exemplary,

blazing open. 
 Do you love this world? 
 Do you cherish your humble and silky life? 
 Do you adore the green grass, with its terror beneath?

Do you also hurry, half-dressed and barefoot, into the garden, 
 and softly, 
 and exclaiming of their dearness, 
 fill your arms with the white and pink flowers,

with their honeyed heaviness, their lush trembling, 
 their eagerness
 to be wild and perfect for a moment, before they are
 nothing, forever?

Onward!

UPDATE: I found the person who tweeted the Mary Oliver tweet:

Danny O’Sullivan (@DylanoA4)

Thanks, Danny!