Fickle, Fearful, or Faithful?

The flow of creativity is a constant. We are the ones who are fickle or fearful.
 
                                              —Julia Cameron, The Artist's Way
 
  
               The editors of Toward the Light, a Canadian-based literary journal, share the following thoughts about flow:
 
               "Have you ever had a unique concept for a work of art, music or piece of writing which you followed with deep enthusiasm, but then suddenly you became too busy to complete it? You know: your car broke down. Your kid got the mumps. Your boss dumped some overtime on you. Days or weeks or years later, looking back, you identify that it wasn’t busyness at all that prevented you from forging forward. Though the busyness made the avoidance look very legitimate to everyone but your inner knowing. You know that if you had the courage, the time would have found you. Nothing would have stopped you. Rather it was an unconscious intuitive knowing that following that creative thrust to its conclusion would take you to your inner “scary places.” Perhaps having to give up someone’s approval. Or noticing that it’s time to change jobs.
               An interesting question. What fears do you avoid by not completing your creative process in whatever form it takes?
               Still, when we are ready to begin again, we discover that the stream of creativity, unjudgmentally, is willing to carry us again. And, somehow, our floundering has been incorporated into our work and we are stronger as creatives.
               I have these wobbles. Every time I navigate one of them, I tell myself, “never again.” Yet, it happens again. I wonder, is our fickleness and fear actually a part of the creative process? Something that makes us stand still for a while to integrate our fears and strengthen our courage into a new creative expression? If we were never afraid would we have reached deeply enough to produce something new rather than our safe, same old, same old?"
               I once heard Bible teacher Kay Arthur say, “If Satan can’t make you bad, he’ll make you busy.” In truth, our busyness usually covers up fear, just as the editors wrote above.
               In my own life as a writer, I often feel like a salmon swimming upstream. In order to be refreshed and to “write from a good place,” (which is my daily prayer), I must consistently go against the trends of our culture. I must be a counter-cultural Christian in every sense of the word. When others say I have to fill my life with noise and stress and busyness, I must embrace silence and solitude. When others say I have to overextend myself financially to “keep up with the Joneses,” I have to make a concerted effort to let the Joneses just go their merry way. So I'm asking you today - are you fickle, fearful, or faithful?