Whose Timeline Are You On?

Time is a useful concept. It helps us to make appointments, meet people and arrange activities. It is an agreed upon idea that we all collaborate with and on its own it is neutral. It does not come bearing moral judgements and condemnations. We as humans bring that upon it when we decide that we are not on time. 

Generally speaking it is seen as polite and respectful in certain cultures and societies to be on time. If we are late, we offer up our apologies as to why this error occurred and we make sure we avoid it in the future if we can. 

So what happens when we decide there are deadlines and timelines for life events? Because we as humans have created such ideals. We have milestones hung all around our human existence. We expect children to learn at a certain speed and within a specified timeline. We expect our milk teeth to fall out and adult ones to form on time. We want to graduate from schools, colleges and universities on time, to be followed by meeting someone, mortgages, marrying, children and retirement.  And the timeline stretches out over the span of a human life. 

We could argue that this timeline and the human life span seem to fit in very neatly to a capitalist model that feeds the ever turning wheels of industry. That we are merely humans reduced to  numbers of a work force and we enable capitalism to maintain itself and grow exponentially.

And there is also an existential element to adhering to these timelines. We fit in and we feel included and approved of. So what happens to us when we do not meet these timely notions of the majority? We feel like we don’t belong. We become different to the masses and we wonder what we are doing wrong. We begin to inhabit the peripherals of society and constantly feel on the outside. 

Artists by the very nature of what they do will never fit into this timeline. Art does not get created in this way and we as artists are not conduits of creativity on a scheduled timeline. We can show up consistently and make art but that does not mean that it will obey the rules of outside man made concepts that fit the needs of few at the cost of the majority.

That is why artists are revolutionary and rebellious. Whether they want to be or not. We cannot conform because our art does not allow for this. It requires us to trust ourselves and our own timings and live by those. And we will miss out and we will feel bereft as swaths of people move simultaneously in one direction whilst we in smaller numbers go in the opposite. But you can and will find your kinfolk, those that live in your creative worlds where time reveals itself in differing forms. Where it elapses when you are in the flow of deep creativity and then reappears as soon as the paintbrush is put down. You as a creative will know of this experience and you have to learn to trust it and lean into it for this is your world. Not the one of deadlines and timelines set out by others. 

This is not to say that we as artists cannot collaborate with the societal norms that exist. If I am creating a piece of art for a commission that has a date when it needs to be delivered, I will work with that, but firstly I will take into account the ways in which I will create with my own timings before I can agree on deadlines that do not grant sufficient enough time for the creative process to take place. This isn’t about being precious and spoilt, this is about acknowledging and showing reverence to another unseen Force that exists in this world and within us and creatives are paying homage to it when we accept and allow ourselves to be conduits of it. 

It is an agreement between us and the creative Force. We live in a world of time and we also know that we will go against it in many ways when we will live out our creative lives. We will make art and we will show up consistently to honour this process but the outcomes may not fit into the scheduled timelines that we are taught to live by. 

If you are an artist that feels that they are running late on the prescribed milestones of life and wonder if there is something wrong with you. This is for you. This is to signify that you live between two worlds; the timed and the timeless and you create through them both. So make the art you were born to make and concentrate on the creative connection you have and pay it respect with your consistency. Allow yourself the time to grieve for a life that will not be lived on the expected terms and allow yourself the joy to dwell in the creative oceans that you are a channel for. Your timings will be revealed to you and it is absolutely ok if they do not fit into the ones that have been fed to you over your lifetime.