Creativity and Trust
My husband and I have begun to write songs together. It is moving slowly, but steadily we are beginning to trust each other with our creativity. We have been married for almost seven years, and we have both always had musical skills and creative urges, but we never collaborated. This always perplexed me- it didn’t make sense that we weren’t creating together all along.
I would write little poems and short stories, or blog and dream about screenplay ideas while he plugged away at his songs and recorded them, mixed, them, and let me sing background vocals. I felt lucky to be asked to do that much! But last month, I helped him with the lyrics to his latest song, and it was such an amazing feeling. We were finally there! Joining forces! Later that week, I called him and left a melody on his voicemail that I couldn’t get out of my head. He played it back the other night, and reminded me that he thought it had great potential. He is pretty picky, so I was beaming with excitement. He sat down at the piano and played his interpretation of it, and we hummed along to the melody (no lyrics yet). There is something so sweet in those moments, and I can’t get enough of it.
I always felt that there had to be a reason we weren’t creating together yet- we just weren’t ready. We hadn’t reached that level of trust and intimacy with each other, where we were willing to be completely vulnerable with the deepest cries of our heart. You would think just walking down the aisle would make that a given, but it takes much more work. Sharing in a creative process with the person you love most in the world is like embarking on strange and tedious journey- you must be careful to protect and guard what is shared, and nurture it like you would a small seed. Anytime you release something that God has given you and placed in your heart, you make yourself vulnerable to the hearer/viewer/reader, and it is both terrifying and exhilarating.
I am so grateful for where the Lord has brought us in or marriage, and that we are finally in a place where we can begin this creative journey together. I pray that we will never let that die, and continue to hear those divine whispers in each other for the rest of our lives.
