Sunday Thoughts: Take Up Your Space

Heard this phrase over the weekend…

…And I got a glimmer of light on something that has bagged me for a large part of my creative life.

Yes, I know it’s not a Sunday.

But, technically, I started writing this on a Sunday, so joke’s on you. 😉

Last year, I had chosen the word, ‘Purpose’ as my directional theme for 2022. I found that I was strongly attached to work that came from the heart and I wanted to do more like that. Once upon a time, I even changed the whole direction of my entire career because of that.

But, there’s this parable that has always troubled me. It’s the Parable of the Talents. It stayed in the back of my mind like there was something I had left on the table.

In the parable, an employer gave two of his employees multiple talents to use and one of his employees a single talent to use. Their employer came back to collect on their talents after a long trip. The employees who had been given multiple talents had increased them and returned their talents with interest. But, the employee who had only received one talent gave his employer back the original talent with a lame excuse. His employer called him ‘wicked’ and ‘lazy’ before throwing him out and giving his talent to another.

It’s pretty clear that the talents are not owned, but managed. They can be managed in varying degrees of success. But, if they are sat on…Well, let’s just say, the owner becomes displeased.

I’ve also heard it like this:

What you don’t use, you will lose.

As creatives, many of us have trouble understanding the place of creativity in life. Life will tell us that our enjoyment of creating is frivolous…that it will never fit anywhere in the real world.

I’m sure I’m not the only one that has ever felt that way.

But, to me, the idea of taking up space has nothing in common with trying to fit into one.

And it dawned on me…

Perhaps, your gift is not supposed to fit in the world in any conventional way.

Maybe it‘s supposed to be asserted.

Whatever talents you have been given, develop them. Be productive with them.

Take up your space.