Lisa Notes: We need you to create – “Creating Space” review

At a certain point in our lives, we were told that creating isn’t practical, efficient, or responsible.

We need to get the laundry done, cook dinner, clean the house, pick up after the kids, work long hours, pay the bills, and tackle a thousand other responsibilities.

Who has the time to be creative? Who would be foolish enough to invest untold hours into making something beautiful and long lasting?
- ED CYZEWSKI, Creating Space

This is a book to remind you that finding, developing, and sharing your creative gifts matter.

Which people like me need to hear. Because I tend to be more about efficiency—getting things done—than about creating. But in order to run most efficiently, I need to take time to nurture creativity. To document beauty. To make art (which means different things to each of us).

Ed Cyzewski understands. He’s a new dad. And he’s feeling the time crunch that comes with new responsibilities. That’s one reason he wrote this short book, Creating Space: The Case for Everyday Creativity:

Coming from the American Christian tradition, I tend to focus on the practical things of life. Whether that’s the overly spiritual “saving souls” becoming the highest goal or the grounded Christian left that makes “fighting poverty” the holiest of callings, I’ve struggled to find a place for my creativity.

How could I justify taking time to write stories when there were so many needs, both physical and spiritual, in our world?

Ed argues that “some kind of creativity has been hard-wired into all of us.” And we need to do what we can to let it out.

Not only for our own souls, but for those around us.

You have gifts to share. When used well, creativity isn’t just about you. It’s about what you have to give.

. . . God isn’t freaking out that he accidentally made you a poet, seamstress, chef, or musician. These are sacred gifts that you dare not neglect.

So in this book we’re reminded we’ve been given permission and safety by our Creator to take time to tap into those gifts he’s designed into us.

And not just for the product, but also for the process—to continue becoming who he’s made us to be.

Blogging is one form of art that Ed encourages in his book. If you’re a blogger, this is reassuring: “Good blogging, like other forms of good creativity, is an art that becomes a gift.” It’s the service of a unique perspective that creates a meaningful gift.

But that doesn’t mean creating is easy. It can be hard work and time-consuming and even seem dangerous, especially when you put your gifts out there at large.

Yet playing it safe is even more dangerous by not “participating in a greater story that has been woven into our world and that links us to one another.”