The Great Undo
In the land of producers, the God of All creative ideas is the Great Undo--smile. Working on my newest album the past couple of weeks, the Great Undo has been my greatest ally and friend. You have an idea but you're not quite sure it will fly in the overall context of the song but you want to hear it before you decide. . . so you call upon the Great Undo to go back to the original and start over if it doesn't work out. Most of the time they do, but it's always nice to know the Great Undo is there, ready to let you start all over again.Is this a metaphor for life? In golf there's the mulligan, in writing there's the backspace, in so much of our lives we give ourselves an opportunity to do-over, and yet at the same time we're so hard on ourselves if we don't do it right the first time? Why? We want perfection. We long for it because it's already a part of our nature. We are pure, unbroken, whole--from the very beginning--and instead of recognizing that within ourselves all along, we place it outside ourselves and spend our lives longing for the perfection that we are. It's a strange duality; but it's also that separation that allows us to long for God--even if it's simply longing for ourselves.
That longing is what defines the path of Sikh Dharma. We don't want or need it to be fulfilled for it is the longing itself that stirs the heart and creates the passion for God, for infinity, for merger. Once it's fulfilled, it is the end--and there is no beginning or end to longing. It is infinite as God is infinite. And the creativity that lies in the mistakes is the juice of life; they go hand-in-hand with longing. It's what keeps us going back into the studio, going back to the drawing board, going back to the practice field--the passion, the longing for perfection. If we found it, what then would we do?
Life continues on because of the mistakes, because of the longing. Don't shortchange yourself. Enjoy the mistakes and lean on the Great Undo--because sometimes you just might get it right the first time.
posted by Sat Purkh Kaur Khalsa @ 11:23 AM
2 Comments:
"And the creativity that lies in the mistakes is the juice of life." Yeah, I had to hear that today. :-)
Karam Prem Kaur
The idea of framing longing as a positive experience rather than as a lack of acceptance for life being perfect as it is right now is sooooo liberating! To be able to turn off the judgment machine and to live in compassion -- priceless!
Maria G.
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