Pruning and Purging … It’s Not Just For Gardeners Anymore.
A week ago I received an email from a very successful children’s book illustrator, whom I hired some twenty years when I worked as an art director at Disney, by the name of Ethan Long. The email announced the sale of origami stars made by his eight year-old son.
I checked out the pictures of sample stars. They were cute and looked well-made. Besides, I couldn’t resist supporting an enterprising young artist.
Bam!
I was onboard and emailed Ethan an order for two stars to be delivered in two to three weeks. Since Ethan and his son live here in Orlando, I figured Ethan and I could get caught up over our favorite caffeinated drinks and I could pick up my handmade stars from him at that time.
Less than a week later, the stars were ready and Ethan and I set up a lunch date for today.
Yesterday was not a good day. For reasons I will not go into, I felt drained of any creative energy and got little, if anything, accomplished. The feeling pretty much bled over into this morning and left me with a sense of dread about my lunch appointment.
Mind you, over the years Ethan and I have gotten together and plumbed the deep waters of each other’s psyches a number of times, so I had no cause to expect anything other than another enriching experience time for both of us. But for some reason (probably my state of mind at the time), I anticipated Ethan prattling on with vainglory about the publishing of his umpteenth book, the cadre of publishers waiting run to the presses with his latest creation, his new animated series, and/or the stresses of having a series nominated for an Emmy. (No, really. One of his series has been nominated for an Emmy.) Let me be clear, this is not to imply Ethan’s ever done that in the past. Any time he’s talked about his career, the conversation has been generously tempered with a sense of modesty. Besides, he’s worked hard for every success that has come his way.
Okay, so…
I seriously thought of canceling the appointment, but didn’t. And I’m glad I didn’t.
Today’s lunch turned out to be one of those serendipitous appointments — for both of us.
The first words out of his Ethan’s mouth were, “How are you? What have you been up to?” I trotted out my intentionally non-committal “nothing.” But it wasn’t until he poked a little further for a more transparent answer that I realized his inquiry was in earnest.
Confession: Yes, I have a tendency to withdraw and not engage people on occasion. Sue me.
Today’s lunch gave me three major take-aways —
1. The practice of writing morning pages is a must. That’s not to say that I didn’t see the value in doing them before today, I did. But it was nice to hear the benefits of someone else clearing their mind of cobwebs and creating a bit more freely in the here and now.
2. Pruning is an essential part of the creative process. The concept is as old as man. Jesus spoke of the benefits of trimming off dead branches to make way for new growth on more than one occasion. Ask any farmer, home gardener, or horticulturist about pruning, and they’ll all tell you that if you want to see new growth, pruning is the way to go. Granted, we’re not talking about ripping up stuff by the roots, but trimming off the parts that done produce.
3. Purging is equally as important as pruning. The dead branches, the old stuff that doesn’t work, the baggage, the creative clutter, everything that’s not productive has got to go. What’s the purpose in holding onto a bunch of useless stuff? In Jesus parables, the dead branches weren’t tucked into a box and stored for another day. The fruitless limbs were tossed into the fire, irretrievably discarded, because they served no purpose.
Frankly, I found today’s lunch — and the take-aways — freeing. Who knew that kind of inspiration came with a two origami stars?
For more info on the origami stars, contact ethan at ethanlong dot com.
