Ability flows; personal power is wielded.
Please discuss. How does this play out in life?
I’ll start us out. We all have gifts and strengths inside ourselves. They are unique to each of us, helping to add interest and variety to the whole of creation. Sometimes they are learned, sometimes innate, and sometimes we choose to enhance our natural skills.
In creative mode, it can seem inspiration emanates from us, a willing and dominant partner in the end results. The mojo oozes and erupts from us into the chosen medium of expression—words, sound, comestibles, fabric or yarn, landscapes, visual and tactile constructions and representations. Our natural and also possibly also trained ability flows from us freely to birth something surprising and fresh. The process seems to have a vision and life of its own and may defy direction.
Other times we choose to exercise our talents, having an end result in mind and shepherding the process to a desired completion. Our personal gifts are subject to our will, servants to the outcome we want to attain. We may still achieve something wonderful, but it is the product of using our personal power over our gifts rather than a free outpouring of inspiration.
Sometimes—as may from time-to-time be the case with this blog—it is a blended approach. An application of will is needed to prime the creative pump until inspiration takes over. Personal power chooses to initiate and natural ability wrests the opportunity to flow as it wishes.
Today’s message invites me to muse on the value and roles of both natural talents and gifts and personal power and will in creating my life. Sheer inspiration alone may be unfocused, which can be a liability and also its greatest benefit. It obeys no rules and make take me places I might not be able to envision.
Personal power is fueled by my inner strength. It is determined, ensuring a planned outcome. This is its greatest strength and also a weakness. Plans can be brittle and unyielding, intolerant of or possibly even subject to failure in the face of deviation or change.
To be happy and effective, I need to find a cooperative balance between ability and personal power. I must learn when to follow the muse and when to forge a chosen path. Will and inspiration can coexist nicely when each has the opportunity to lead in the dance of my life.
How about you? How do you balance the creative and logical sides of yourself?