Mining Oneself

I am reading Jan Phillips’ book, The Art of Original Thinking.

The middle section is called Embracing the Present.  I am reading Chapter Nine, “The Creative Enterprise”.

I am struck by Phillips’ energy and intensity, her sincerity and her never-ending sources of facts and examples, both personal and through her research.

There are many quotes in the sidebars, among the following, which caught my eye.

“Those who do original work in any field do so because they mine themselves deeply and bring up what is personal.” --Rudolf Steiner

In seeking out my purpose and resources, I have been “mining myself”.  I have been listening to what is within and seeking for ways to release it.

It is incredibly refreshing to read that one must “mine” oneself.  I had always heard that one should follow directions, follow leaders, stay safe, stick to one job.

But mining oneself is something I know something about.

It is what happens when I look for solutions where no one else seems bothered or aware of the problem.

It happens when I see a relationship where no one else does.

It happens when I want to use a combination of resources that I have not seen anyone else use, or I want to use the resources I see in a different way.

The place I feel most comfortable in this state of mind (which is pretty nearly constant) is at my fiber artists, knitters, and art quilter groups.

Our poor world is so tired of the same solutions over and over again.  It is running out of those resources.

It is ready for originality, for mining oneself, deeply, and bringing up what is original and personal.  It is ready for imagination.

As we continue to rush toward the end of what we already know and how we do it, more and more of us will find that we can “mine” ourselves deeply and come up with non-competitive, individual, original, cooperative solutions.

© 2014 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com